Capacity analysis and bit allocation design for variable-resolution ADCs in Massive MIMO

Abstract: We derive an expression for the capacity of massive multiple-input multiple-output Millimeter wave (mmWave) channel where the receiver is equipped with a variable-resolution Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) and a hybrid combiner. The capacity is shown to be a function of Cramer-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB) for a given bit-allocation matrix and hybrid combiner. The condition for optimal ADC bit-allocation under a receiver power constraint is derived. This is derived based on the maximization of capacity with respect to bit-allocation matrix for a given channel, hybrid precoder, and hybrid combiner. It is shown that this condition coincides with that obtained using the CRLB minimization proposed by Ahmed et al. Monte-carlo simulations show that the capacity calculated using the proposed condition matches very closely with the capacity obtained using the Exhaustive Search bit allocation.