Channel estimation for spatial modulation

In single-stream multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) schemes, such as spatial modulation (SM) and space shift keying (SSK), a single transmit antenna is activated at any given time. Therefore, unlike multi-stream MIMO transmitters, simultaneous pilot transmissions are prohibitive because of a single radio-frequency (RF) chain. In state-of-the-art literature, the channels of different transmit antennas are individually estimated. As a result, more time is required to transfer pilots and the effective data rate is compromised. In this paper, we propose a novel channel estimation (CE) technique for single-stream MIMO systems. Given a pilot ratio, the proposed scheme achieves the same estimation period as multi-stream MIMO systems without needing any additional information or feedback. Simulations are implemented under a practical base station environment. Results show that for various speeds of the mobile user, the proposed approach significantly improves the performance of SM in comparison to the conventional CE method.