Block Sparse Bayesian Learning Based Joint User Activity Detection and Channel Estimation in Grant-Free MIMO-NOMA

In the massive machine type of communication (mMTC), grant-free non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is receiving more and more attention because it can skip the complex grant process to allocate non-orthogonal resources to serve more users. To address the limited wireless resources and substantial connection challenges, combining grant-free NOMA and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) is crucial to further improve the system’s capacity. In the grant-free MIMO-NOMA system, the base station should obtain the relevant information of the user before data detection. Thus, user activity detection (UAD) and channel estimation (CE) are two problems that should be solved urgently. In this paper, we fully consider the sparse characteristics of signals and the spatial correlation between multiple antennas in the grant-free MIMO-NOMA system. Then, we propose a spatial correlation block sparse Bayesian learning (SC-BSBL) algorithm to address the joint UAD and CE problems. First, by fully mining the block sparsity of signals in the grant-free MIMO-NOMA system, we model the joint UAD and CE problem as a three-dimensional block sparse signal recovery problem. Second, we derive the cost function based on the hierarchical Bayesian theory and spatial correlation. Finally, to estimate the channel and the set of active users, we optimize the cost function with fast marginal likelihood maximization. The simulation results indicate that, compared with the existing algorithms, SC-BSBL can always fully use the signal sparsity and spatial correlation to accurately complete UAD and CE under various user activation probabilities, SNRs, and the number of antennas. The normalized mean square error of CE can be reduced to 0.01, and the UAD error rate can be less than 10−5.