A Spatial Delay Domain-Based Prony Channel Prediction Method for Massive MIMO LEO Communications

Massive multiple-input–multiple-output (massive MIMO)-based low Earth orbit (LEO) intersatellite link communications is a promising research topic for the fifth generation (5G) and forthcoming sixth generation (6G) wireless networks. However, due to the fast relative movement between the transmitter and receiver in LEO satellites, intersatellite link communication is facing serious Doppler shifts and delays, which makes it difficult to obtain the accurate channel state information (CSI). Therefore, this article proposes an improved channel prediction method, that is, spatial-delay domain-based Prony (SDD-Prony) prediction, which not only realizes the accurate CSI acquisition for massive MIMO-based LEO intersatellite link systems but also substantially reduces the computational complexity. In particular, it is shown that the prediction error of the proposed method can converge to zero with the increase in antenna number and bandwidth. In addition, we combine the SDD-Prony prediction method with the total least squares method to reduce the influence of the noise and error components on the prediction accuracy, which further improves the prediction performance. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by a theoretical proof and simulation results.