A Simple Phase Noise Suppression Scheme for Massive MIMO Uplink Systems

In wireless communications, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) uplink systems in which the base station is equipped with a large number of antennas can provide significant spectral and energy efficiency by means of simple signal processing. Therefore, massive MIMO uplink systems are an attractive technology for next-generation wireless systems and for green communications. However, phase noise (PN) introduced by the impairment of oscillators can cause a severe performance loss in wireless communication systems. Solving the PN problem for massive MIMO uplink systems is challenging as it is a multivariate joint PN estimation and data detection problem. The optimal solution is difficult to derive and may lead to high complexity. In this paper, we propose a low-complexity PN suppression scheme based on the zero-forcing detector to solve this problem. By using the ideal PN free output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as a performance upper bound, simulation results show that when the required SNR is satisfied, the output SNR of the proposed scheme can approach the upper bound, except for very large PN variances. Moreover, the complexity of the proposed scheme is low because the proposed scheme can update the current PN estimation and data detection by the previous ones via a simple iterative process.