Optimal Signaling Schemes and Capacity of Non-Coherent Rician Fading Channels with Low-Resolution Output Quantization

Low-resolution analog-to-digital converter (ADC) has been considered as a promising solution to save power and cost in communication systems using high bandwidth and/or multiple RF chains. The goal of this work is to address the design of optimal signaling schemes and establish the capacity limit of Rician fading channels with low-resolution output quantization. This fading channel can be used to accurately model a wide range of wireless channels with the line-of-sight (LOS) components, including emerging mm-wave communications. The focus is on non-coherent fast fading channels where neither the transmitter nor the receiver knows the channel state information (CSI). By examining the continuity of the input-output mutual information, the existence of the optimal input signal is first validated. Then, considering the case of 1-bit ADC, we show that the optimal input is $\pi /2$ circularly symmetric. A necessary and sufficient condition for an input signal to be optimal, which is referred to as the Kuhn-Tucker condition (KTC), and Lagrangian optimization problem are then established. By exploiting the novel log-quadratic bounds on the Gaussian $Q$ -function, it is then demonstrated that for a given mass point’s amplitude, the corresponding rotated mass points through the phase of LOS component must form a square grid centered at zero. Furthermore, the amplitude of the mass points in the optimal distribution can take on only one value. As a result, the capacity-achieving input with 1-bit ADC is a rotated quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) constellation, and the rotation angle depends on the Rician factor. The characterization of the optimal input has also been extended to the case of multi-bit ADCs. Specifically, it is shown that for a $K$ -bit ADC, the optimal input is discrete having atmost $2^{2K}$ mass points. In both the cases of 1-bit and $K$ -bit ADCs, the channel capacities are established in closed-form.