Modeling, Estimation, and Applications of Phase Noise in Wireless Communications: A Survey

Phase noise is inevitably present in wireless communications, arising from both hardware impairments and imperfect channel estimation, and has substantial implications on the integrity and efficiency of communication systems. However, phase noise brings more to wireless systems than just negative effects. For instance, phase noise can be used as a physical layer feature to authenticate received signals and as a source for random number generation. There is a surprising lack of a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art estimation methods and applications of phase noise in wireless communications. In this paper, we conduct the first comprehensive survey on the modeling, estimation, and applications of phase noise in wireless communications. We review the state-of-the-art phase-noise models, phase-noise estimation, and mitigation techniques via joint transmit-receive design, as well as applications of phase noise in wireless communications, while highlighting contributions and critical issues of each reviewed work. Finally, we provide an expansive set of research directions, accompanying challenges, and potential solutions related to phase noise that could shape the future of phase noise research in wireless communications.