Compressive Estimation of Wideband mmW Channel using Analog True-Time-Delay Array

Abstract

High-rate directional communication in millimeterwave (mmW) systems requires a fast and accurate channel estimation. Novel array architectures and signal processing techniques are needed to avoid prohibitive estimation overhead associated with large antenna arrays. Recent advancements in hardware design helped the re-emergence of true-time-delay (TTD) arrays whose frequency-dependent beams can be leveraged for low-overhead channel probing and estimation. In this work, we consider an analog TTD array and develop a low-overhead compressive sensing based algorithm for channel estimation in frequency-domain. The algorithm is compared with related state-of-the-art approaches designed for analog phased antenna arrays. Our results reveal the advantages of the proposed TTD-based algorithm in terms of the required number of training symbols, estimation accuracy, and computational complexity.