Spectral efficiency of massive MIMO networks with pilot contamination and channel covariance matrix estimation

This study addresses spectral efficiencies (SEs) in a massive multiple‐input multiple‐output cellular network with pilot contamination. Both uplink and downlink SEs are investigated with practical channel state information. A downlink precoder minimising signal detection error and power leakage with considerations on spatial correlation has been derived. Also, a low‐complexity covariance matrix estimation method has been proposed and compared with the existing estimation method in terms of normalised mean‐squared error. It has been demonstrated via simulations that both uplink and downlink SEs using the proposed covariance matrix estimation method can grow with the number of antennas even with a relatively small number of pilot symbols.