Multiple-Symbol Non-Coherent Detection for Differential QAM Modulation in Uplink Massive MIMO Systems

In this paper, we propose a novel multiple-symbol detector based on maximum likelihood metric for differential quadrature amplitude modulation in massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. While current research on differential modulation in massive MIMO has focused on two consecutive symbols, our proposed detector is based on multiple-symbol, which is larger than or equal to two. Moreover, we derive new distance based on the proposed detector. To encode and decode data, we apply existing look-up table algorithm using the proposed distance, which is known as optimum encoding algorithm for differential modulation. Simulation results show the improvement based on the bit-error-rate performance since the proposed detector and distance vary according to the channel statistic information.