Efficient Channel AoD/AoA Estimation Using Widebeams for Millimeter Wave MIMO Systems

Using millimeter-wave (mmWave) bands is expected to provide high data rates through large licensed and unlicensed spectrum. Due to large path loss and sparse scattering propagation properties, proper beam alignment is important in mmWave systems. Small carrier wavelengths at mmWave bands let wireless communication systems use large antenna arrays to provide sufficient beamforming gain with highly directional beams. Hence, high resolution channel angle-of-departure (AoD) and angle-of-arrival (AoA) estimation is crucial for beam alignment to get the advantages of large beamforming gain. Using large antenna arrays, however, can lead to high system complexity and channel estimation overhead. This paper proposes a channel AoD/AoA estimation technique using widebeams to lower estimation overhead and auxiliary-beam-pair (ABP) to get high resolution channel AoD/AoA estimates considering hybrid transceiver structures. To fully use the hybrid transceiver structures, the linear combination of discrete Fourier transform (DFT) vectors is considered to construct widebeams. Numerical results show that the proposed estimator can get high resolution channel AoD/AoA estimates with lower overhead compared to previous estimators.