Environment-Aware Diffusion Model for Massive MIMO-OFDM Channel Estimation

Abstract

This paper proposes an environment-aware diffusion based channel estimation in massive multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) systems. The high dimensionality of massive MIMO channels combined with limited pilot resources makes accurate estimation challenging. To address this issue, we exploit the spatial variability of wireless channels by training a diffusion model to learn the location-conditioned distribution of channel state information, which provides an environment-aware prior for channel estimation. Based on this learned prior, a posterior inference algorithm is developed to incorporate pilot observations into the reverse diffusion process, enabling Bayesian channel estimation by combining the received-signal likelihood with the learned channel prior. By jointly leveraging location information and measurement data, the proposed approach improves estimation accuracy under limited pilot resources. Simulation results based on ray-tracing channel datasets demonstrate that the proposed method consistently outperforms conventional estimators and existing learning-based approaches across various signal-to-noise ratios and pilot configurations.