How costly is it to learn fading channels?
Paper in proceeding, 2013

Recent results in communication theory suggest that substantial throughput gains in wireless fading networks can be achieved by exploiting network coordination (e.g., CoMP, network MIMO, interference alignment). However, these results are often based on the simplifying assumption that each node in the network has perfect channel knowledge and ignore the channel-estimation overhead. In this tutorial paper, we take a fresh look at the problem of learning fading channels. By focusing on simple channel models, we will illustrate how to quantify rigorously the throughput loss due to channel-estimation overhead. Specifically, by exploiting that in the absence of a priori channel knowledge at the receiver, the noiseless received signal is a nonlinear function of the transmitted signals and the propagation channel, we will show how to unveil the geometric structure underlying the channel input output relation, and how to use this geometry to characterize capacity at high SNR. We will also demonstrate that this approach is useful to determine the largest rate achievable at finite SNR and finite blocklength.

Author

Erwin Riegler

Vienna University of Technology

Günther Koliander

Vienna University of Technology

Wei Yang

Chalmers, Signals and Systems, Communication, Antennas and Optical Networks

Giuseppe Durisi

Chalmers, Signals and Systems, Communication, Antennas and Optical Networks

2013 1st International Black Sea Conference on Communications and Networking, BlackSeaCom 2013; Batumi; Georgia; 3 July 2013 through 5 July 2013

18-22 6623374
978-147990857-8 (ISBN)

Areas of Advance

Information and Communication Technology

Subject Categories

Telecommunications

Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering

DOI

10.1109/BlackSeaCom.2013.6623374

ISBN

978-147990857-8

More information

Latest update

3/2/2018 7