Measurement and modelling of interference alignment impairments

Interference alignment is a linear precoding technique that eliminates interference in the K-user interference channel. We present measurement results and identify the performance limiting factors that occur under real conditions. In our setup, we found the main causes of impairment to be outdated channel state information in varying channels, thermal noise at the receiver and transmit impairments. We propose a simplistic channel model that is capable of capturing these effects and allows to investigate their impact on the achievable rate.