Blind Decoding for a Multi-cell Massive Antenna Array Uplink System

In a multi-cell massive array multiple input multiple output (MIMO) uplink system, the pilot sequences reused in neighboring cells causes pilot contamination and decoding performance to degrade. In this paper, a blind decoding method based on independent component analysis (ICA) is proposed for a multi-cell massive antenna array system. The proposed blind decoding method uses ICA to separate the received signals (from in-cell and neighboring cells) and estimated channels, without using pilot sequence. Thus, pilot contamination is avoided and decoding performance will be optimized. Each user’s angle-of-arrival (AOA) is estimated for recognizing the desired user signals and overcoming the uncertainty of signals separated by ICA. The analytical performance results of the blind decoding method are derived. Numerical results show that the proposed scheme has a better performance compared to MMSE decoding and blind decoding method based on singular value decomposition (SVD).