In this paper, we firstly derive two approximations of the achievable uplink rate with the perfect/imperfect channel state information (CSI) in cell-free massive multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems, and all these approximations are not only in the simple, but also converge into the classical bounds achieved in conventional massive MIMO systems where the base-station (BS) antennas are co-located. It is worth noting that the obtained two approximations with perfect CSI could be regarded as the special cases of the obtained two approximations with imperfect CSI when the pilot sequence power becomes infinite, respectively. Moreover, the theory analysis shows that all obtained approximations with perfect/imperfect CSI have an asymptotic lower bound α2log2L thanks to the extra distance diversity offered by massively distributed antennas, where L is the number of BS antennas and the path-loss factor α>2, except for the free space environment. Obviously, these results indicate that the cell-free massive MIMO system has huge potential of spectral efficiency than the conventional massive MIMO system with the asymptotically tight bound log2L.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is envisioned to connect everything, spanning from terrestrial to nonterrestrial terminals, where reliable communication is expected to be allowed in both time-invariant and time-variant wireless channels. Since classic orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation, which has been widely used in both the fourth-generation (4G) and the fifth-generation (5G) cellular systems, is sensitive to high Doppler effect, it is challenging to satisfy the ever-growing demands of future IoT. To circumvent this issue, the orthogonal time–frequency space (OTFS) scheme is proposed, which modulates the information bits in both the delay and the Doppler domains, and exhibits beneficial advantages in both static and high-mobility wireless channel scenarios. In this article, we present a comprehensive overview of OTFS for IoT, including the current transceiver design, the potential benefits, the challenge issues, as well as future design guidelines.

Hybrid Transmit Precoding (TPC) is one of the most compelling solutions for millimeter wave (mmWave) multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) systems. However, most attention has been focused on narrow-band scenarios. Hence, we dedicate our efforts to the design of hybrid TPC for wideband mmWave MIMO systems, where the beam squint dramatically affects the system performance. We firstly show that the channel matrices of the different subcarriers possess distinct subspaces in case of high bandwidths, hence traditional hybrid TPC schemes suffer from an eroded performance. Therefore, we propose novel hybrid TPC schemes exploiting the full channel state information (CSI), which project all frequencies to the central frequency and construct the common analog TPC matrix for all subcarriers. Moreover, we propose several low-complexity array-vector based hybrid TPC schemes. The high-complexity manifold optimization based hybrid TPC method and the fully digital TPC operating with and without considering beam squint are provided as benchmarks. Our extensive numerical simulations show that the proposed hybrid TPC schemes are capable of achieving similar performance to the excessive-complexity fully digital TPC, when the bandwidth tends to 0.5 GHz and always outperform the traditional hybrid TPC schemes.

Hybrid precoding is essential for millimeter wave (mmWave) multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) systems due to its inherent advantage of a high gain, whilst alleviating the high cost of hardware. However, most of the existing literature considered either the narrowband or wideband single-user mmWave MIMO scenarios. Hence in this paper we focus our attention on the more challenging design of hybrid Transmit Precoding (TPC) for wideband multiuser mmWave MIMO systems by exploiting the long-term channel’s covariance matrix and the angle of departure (AoD) information. Specifically, in the analog TPC designed, firstly, the analog TPC matrix having an infinite angular resolution is constructed based on the channel’s covariance matrix. Then, we also propose a non-uniformly spaced quantization codebook based analog TPC having finite angular resolution. Furthermore, a phase compensation operation is carried out to alleviate the effect of beam squint. As for the design of the digital TPC, a two-stage scheme is proposed to cancel the inter-user interference and to attain multiplexing gains. We study the effects of various parameters on the achievable sum rate and demonstrate with the aid of our simulation results that the proposed hybrid TPC is capable of achieving a similar performance to the excessive-complexity fully digital TPC.

In this survey paper, we focus on the offset quadrature amplitude modulation based orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OQAM-OFDM) based wireless communications in future Internet of Things (IoT). Firstly, we present the OQAM-OFDM based wireless communication system model for IoT and show its superiority compared with OFDM. Then, we give a survey and analyze key technologies including the prototype filter design, peak to average power ratio (PAPR) reduction, tail reduction, channel estimation, and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) combination in OQAM-OFDM based wireless communication systems for IoT. Extensive simulations are conducted to verify the spectral superiority of OQAM-OFDM and compare the corresponding performances of OQAM-OFDM with OFDM in the above key technology areas.

In this paper, the feasibility of a new downlink transmission mode in massive multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems is investigated with two types of users, i.e., the users with only statistical channel state information (CSI) and the users with imperfect instantaneous CSI. The problem of downlink precoding design with mixed utilization of statistical and imperfect instantaneous CSI is addressed. We first theoretically analyze the impact of the mutual interference between the two types of users on their achievable rate. Then, considering the mutual interference suppression, we propose an extended zero-forcing (eZF) and an extended maximum ratio transmission (eMRT) precoding methods to minimize the total transmit power of base station and to maximize the received signal power of users, respectively. Thanks to the exploitation of statistical CSI, pilot-based channel estimation is avoided enabling more active users, higher system sum rate and shorter transmission delay. Finally, simulations are performed to validate the accuracy of the theoretical analysis and the advantages of the proposed precoding methods.