Performance of Uplink Multicell Multiuser Massive SM-MIMO Systems With Imperfect CSI and Pilot Contamination

In this article, the performance of uplink multicell multiuser massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with spatial modulation (SM) is investigated over composite Rayleigh fading channels, where a large number of antennas are deployed at the base station and zero-forcing receiver is utilized to retrieve the transmitted data. Based on imperfect channel state information (CSI) available, the bit error rate (BER) performance of the multicell multiuser massive SM-MIMO system with pilot contamination is analyzed. According to the performance analysis, the error probabilities of the transmitted symbol and transmit antenna index are first derived. Then, with these results, an approximate expression of the overall average BER of the system is attained. Based on this, the asymptotic BER performance at large signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) is analyzed, and the BER will approach an error floor with the increase of the SNR due to the effects of intercell interference and pilot contamination. Besides, the asymptotic performance of the system for very large antenna arrays is also presented, and the corresponding asymptotical BER expression is deduced. Under this analytical framework, the BER performance of the multicell multiuser massive SM-MIMO systems with perfect CSI can be derived as a special case. Simulation results illustrate that the theoretical analysis is valid, and can match the corresponding simulation well. Thus, the error performance of the system is effectively assessed.