Effects of Channel Estimation Error and Interference on BER in the MIMO Zero-Forcing Receiver

Abstract

The Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) Zero-Forcing (ZF) receiver requires accurate Channel State Information (CSI), which is impacted by channel estimation error, to perform properly. Moreover, interference occurs due to the change of channel coefficients between the channel estimation events in fading channels. Thus, in practice, both channel estimation error and interference greatly influence Bit Error Rate (BER) performance. In this letter, we derive an Signal-to-Interference-and-Noise Ratio (SINR) expression considering both channel estimation error and interference and develop approximate closed-form BER expressions of M-PSK and M-QAM for the MIMO ZF receiver in Nakagami-m fading channels. We then analyze the effects of channel estimation error, interference, and the numbers of transmit and receive antennas.