Link-level simulation of TDD-based massive MIMO system

In this paper, we investigate the link-level simulation of the time-division-duplex (TDD) based massive MIMO system employing OFDM technology. Influenced by the hardware mismatch between base station (BS) and mobile stations (MS), and the limitations of hardware implementation, the system model, simulation settings, and simulation procedures for uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) are presented to help develop a practical TDD-based massive MIMO system. The simulation settings and procedures list the details about the simulation platform, including the general parameters, LTE-like frame structure, resource grid of users (UEs), block diagrams of system, MIMO detection/precoding algorithm, and the reciprocity calibration method. We have evaluated the performance of system from the aspects of bit error rate (BER) and throughput. Numerical results show that the significance of the reciprocity calibration at the downlink for multi-user's data transmission, and the methods to improve system's throughput.