RF Impairments in Wireless Transceivers: Phase Noise, CFO, and IQ Imbalance – A Survey

Wireless transceivers for mass-market applications must be cost effective. We may achieve this goal by deploying non-ideal low-cost radio frequency (RF) analog components. However, their imperfections may result in RF impairments, including phase noise (PN), carrier frequency offset (CFO), and in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) imbalance. These impairments introduce in-band and out-of-band interference terms and degrade the performance of wireless systems. In this survey, we present RF-impairment signal models and discuss their impacts. Moreover, we review RF-impairment estimation and compensation in single-carrier (SC) and multicarrier systems, especially orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). Furthermore, we discuss the effects of the RF impairments in already-established wireless technologies, e.g., multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), massive MIMO, full-duplex, and millimeter-wave communications and review existing estimation and compensation algorithms. Finally, future research directions investigate the RF impairments in emerging technologies, including cell-free massive MIMO communications, non-orthogonal multicarrier systems, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), ambient backscatter communications, and intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-assisted communications. Furthermore, we discuss artificial intelligence (AI) approaches for developing estimation and compensation algorithms for RF impairments.