Abstract: Analog antenna combining architectures have recently received increased interest due to their reduced size and power consumption, in comparison with the conventional multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) approach that operates in the baseband. In this paper, we design algorithms for three new radio-frequency (RF) architectures that are based on different combinations of phase shifters and variable gain amplifiers. From a baseband point of view, each architecture poses a different beamforming design problem in which the transmit/receive beamformers are constrained to have constant-modulus complex, real, or nonnegative real weights, respectively. Assuming perfect channel knowledge, we consider the problem of designing these constrained RF beamformers under orthogonal frequency-division-multiplexing (OFDM) transmissions. For the general MIMO case, the resulting optimization problems are not convex and are, therefore, difficult to solve. However, the single-input-multiple-output (SIMO) and multiple-input-single-output cases either have a closed-form solution or can be reformulated as convex problems. Exploiting this fact, an alternating optimization procedure is used to find a suboptimal solution for the MIMO case. The performance of the different RF-MIMO architectures is compared by means of Monte Carlo simulations, which allows us to conclude that the architecture based solely on phase shifters (RF equal-gain beamforming) provides the best results.

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