Method for estimating channels in two-hop MIMO AF networks

1. A method for estimating channels in a two-hop multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) amplify-and-forward (AF) relay network including a source station (SS), a relay station (RS), and a destination station (DS), wherein there is a first interim channel between the SS and the RS, a second interim channel between the RS and the DS, and an overall channel between the SS and DS, comprising the steps of:

transmitting, using the first interim channel, a signal from the SS to the RS;

amplifying, in the RS, the signal, while varying a power amplifying matrix during consecutive time intervals;

forwarding, using the second interim channel, the amplified signal from the RS to the DS during the consecutive time intervals;

estimating, in the DS, the overall channel during each time interval;

estimating the first interim channel and the second interim channel based on the estimates of the overall channels obtained during the consecutive time intervals, and wherein each estimate of the overall channel is in a form of a non-linear equation, and further comprising:

transforming the non-linear equations to a single linear equation; and

solving the single linear equation using a low-complexity linear least square estimation process to obtain the estimates of the first and second interim channels.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

selecting antennas for transmitting signal from the SS to the DS according to the estimates of the first interim channel and the second interim channel.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein pilot signals transmitted by the SS to the RS are only amplified by the RS before retransmitting the amplified pilot signals to the DS.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein an overall channel matrix is

H O =H 2 P L H 1 , for 1≦l≦L,

wherein H 1 is a channel matrix for the first interim channel, H 2 is a the channel matrix for the second interim channel, and P L is the power amplifying matrix.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein L=3.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein a first amplification matrix is P 1 =I N r , wherein I is an identity matrix, and N r is a number of antennas at the RS, and further comprising:

generating randomly N r complex numbers, each with unit magnitude to obtain a second power amplification matrix P 2 ; an

shifting cyclically columns of the second matrix P 2 to obtain a the third amplification matrix P 3 .

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein receive and transmit antennas at the RS are partitioned into multiple groups, and the estimating steps are performed for each group.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the number of the receive and transmit antennas in each group equals the smaller one of the number of antennas at the SS and the number of antennas at the DS.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein there are overlapping receive and transmit antenna pairs in the different groups.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein each group of antennas forms a subnetwork, and antennas, and the receive and transmit antennas at the RS that are outside the subnetwork are switched off.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein each group includes a pair of antennas.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein, when estimating steps are performed periodically.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein, a solution for the single linear equation has one degree of freedom.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein during the estimating of the interim channels of each subnetwork, the overall channels of this subnetworks involving different amplifying matrices of the RS are obtained at the DS or the SS.