DoA estimation and achievable rate analysis for 3D massive MIMO in aeronautical communication systems

With very high carrier frequencies (such as millimeter-wave (mmW) bands), a very large number of antennas can be packed at the base station (BS). For this kind of high dimensional channel, it is desirable to exploit signal directions to estimate the channel directions. In this paper, we analyze the performance of the direction of arrival (DoA) estimation based on unitary ESPRIT algorithm assuming time division duplex (TDD) wideband system. The mean-squared error (MSE) of the 2D DoA estimation of a multipath signal impinging on a planar antenna array is derived. Accordingly, we propose a power allocation strategy that counts for the DoA estimation error. The achievable rate characterization suggests that our power allocation strategy outperforms the traditional water-filling solution.