Federated Online Deep Learning for CSIT and CSIR Estimation of FDD Multi-User Massive MIMO Systems

In this paper, we propose a federated online training framework for deep neural network (DNN)-based channel estimation (CE) in frequency-division duplexing (FDD) multi-user massive multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) systems. The proposed DNN consists of two stages, where Stage-I explores the partial common sparsity structure among the users, while Stage-II estimates the channel state information (CSI) with reduced pilot overhead leveraging the common support information provided by Stage-I. To realize online training, we first propose three axioms for a legitimate online loss function, based on which we develop the federated online training algorithm with convergence analysis. The proposed two-tier DNN is trained online at the base station (BS) based on real-time pilot measurements distributively fed back from the users without the need of true channel labels, and the estimates for the CSI at the transmitter (CSIT) can be simultaneously generated in real-time. Meanwhile, the weights of Stage-II can be broadcasted to the users for real-time estimation of the CSI at the receiver (CSIR) at each user. Simulation shows that the proposed solution achieves higher CE performance than traditional compressive sensing (CS)-based algorithms while enjoying much faster computation. The solution is also robust to the channel model mismatches induced by the change of propagation environment, and is able to track the time-varying channel model.