MIMO two-way relay channel with superposition coding and imperfect channel estimation

This paper deals with the superposition coding (SPC) scheme in multiple-input multiple-output two-way relay channels subject to imperfect channel estimation. In this scenario, two multiple antenna terminals, which are unable to communicate directly, exchange information with each other via a multiple antenna relay. We determine the impact of the channel estimation error degradation on the achievable rate region for two main SPC techniques: (a) SPC without channel state information (CSI) at the users, (b) SPC with an imperfect CSI at the users where a waterfilling power allocation is employed. We demonstrate that imperfect CSI significantly improves the achievable rate at low signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) while it becomes less critical at high SNRs. In addition, a SPC power allocation technique that incorporates the average channel statistics and does not require any instantaneous CSI is also investigated. We show how the available power is split between the two bi-directional (superimposed) data flows in order to maximize the system performance and to support fairness as well as to maximize the achievable sum-rate. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.