Wishart-matrix based blind estimation of transmit-antenna number for non-collaborated MIMO systems

An accurate estimation of the transmit-antenna number is a prerequisite for blind signal detection in non-collaborated multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. This paper proposes a Wishart-matrix´s largest eigenvalue (WME) based hypothesis testing algorithm for blind detecting the transmit-antenna number. By introducing the Random Matrix Theory (RMT), we can get a precise distribution of the Wishart matrix´s largest eigenvalue. With this distribution, we can achieve a threshold which leads to a reliable estimation. A series of simulations show that under a wide range of conditions the proposed WME algorithm is superior over the algorithms based on Akaike information criterion (AIC), minimum description length (MDL) and predicted eigen-threshold (PET).