System and method for in-phase/quadrature-phase (I/Q) mismatch measurement and compensation

1. A system for determining in-phase and quadrature-phase mismatch in a multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) communication architecture, comprising:

at least one transmitter coupled to at least one receiver;

an in-phase (I) signal, quadrature-phase (Q) signal mismatch element configured to receive i) I and Q signal components over at least one communication channel extending between the at least one transmitter and the at least one receiver, and ii) a signal indicating channel response, the I/Q signal mismatch element also configured to provide a signal representing gain imbalance, a signal representing quadrature error and a signal representing I/Q offset, in which the signal representing gain imbalance and the signal representing quadrature error are generated and used to generate the signal representing I/Q offset; and

a channel estimation element configured to receive the I and Q signal components over the at least one communication channel, the channel estimation element also configured to provide the signal indicating channel response to the I/Q signal mismatch element.

2. The system of claim 1 , in which the at least one transmitter and the at least one receiver are directly coupled together via a physical connection.

3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:

a plurality of transmitters coupled wirelessly to a corresponding plurality of receivers to form a plurality of transmitter-receiver pairs, in which each transmitter-receiver pair undergoes a fading channel condition and the signal representing gain imbalance, the signal representing quadrature error and the signal representing I/Q offset compensates for the fading channel condition.

4. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:

an equalizer configured to receive the signal representing gain imbalance, the signal representing quadrature error and the signal representing I/Q offset, wherein the equalizer alters a receive signal to compensate for gain imbalance, quadrature error and I/Q offset.

5. The system of claim 1 , in which the signal representing gain imbalance and the signal representing quadrature error are generated by computing a complete observation set using an estimated incomplete observation set.

6. The system of claim 5 , in which the signal representing I/Q offset is generated after the complete observation set is generated.

7. A system for determining in-phase and quadrature-phase mismatch in a multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) communication architecture, comprising:

at least one transmitter coupled to at least one receiver over a plurality of wireless channels, in which each transmitter comprises a plurality of antennas and each receiver comprises a plurality of antennas; and

an in-phase (I) signal, quadrature-phase (Q) signal mismatch element configured to receive i) I and Q signal components over a plurality of communication channels extending between the at least one transmitter and the at least one receiver, and ii) a signal indicating channel response, the I/Q signal mismatch element also configured to provide a signal representing gain imbalance, a signal representing quadrature error and a signal representing I/Q offset, in which the signal representing gain imbalance and the signal representing quadrature error are generated and used to generate the signal representing I/Q offset; and

a channel estimation element configured to receive the I and Q signal components over the plurality of communication channels, the channel estimation element also configured to provide the signal indicating channel response to the I/Q signal mismatch element.

8. The system of claim 7 , further comprising:

an equalizer configured to receive the signal representing gain imbalance, the signal representing quadrature error and the signal representing I/Q offset, wherein the equalizer alters a receive signal to compensate for gain imbalance, quadrature error and I/Q offset.

9. The system of claim 7 , in which the signal representing gain imbalance and the signal representing quadrature error are generated by computing a complete observation set using an estimated incomplete observation set.

10. The system of claim 9 , in which the signal representing I/Q offset is generated after the complete observation set is generated.