Channel Estimation for Large-Scale Multiple-Antenna Systems Using 1-Bit ADCs and Oversampling

Large-scale multiple-antenna systems with large bandwidth are fundamental for future wireless communications, where the base station employs a large antenna array. In this scenario, one problem faced is the large energy consumption as the number of receive antennas scales up. Recently, low-resolution analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) have attracted much attention. Specifically, 1-bit ADCs are suitable for such systems due to their low cost and low energy consumption. This paper considers uplink large-scale multiple-antenna systems with 1-bit ADCs on each receive antenna. We investigate the benefits of using oversampling for channel estimation in terms of the mean square error and symbol error rate performance. In particular, low-resolution aware channel estimators are developed based on the Bussgang decomposition for 1-bit oversampled systems and analytical bounds on the mean square error are also investigated. Numerical results are provided to illustrate the performance of the proposed channel estimation algorithms and the derived theoretical bounds.