Modular Hypernetworks for Scalable and Adaptive Deep MIMO Receivers

Deep neural networks (DNNs) were shown to facilitate the operation of uplink multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) receivers, with emerging architectures augmenting modules of classic receiver processing. Current designs employ static DNNs, whose architecture is fixed and weights are pre-trained. This poses a notable challenge, as the resulting MIMO receiver is suitable for a given configuration, i.e., channel distribution and number of users, while in practice these parameters change frequently with network variations and users leaving and joining the network. In this work, we tackle this core challenge of DNN-aided MIMO receivers. We build upon the concept of <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">hypernetworks</i> , augmenting the receiver with a pre-trained deep model whose purpose is to update the weights of the DNN-aided receiver in response to instantaneous channel variations. We design our hypernetwork to augment <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">modular</i> deep receivers, leveraging their modularity to have the hypernetwork adapt not only the weights, but also the architecture. Our modular hypernetwork leads to a DNN-aided receiver whose architecture and resulting complexity adapt to the number of users, as well as to channel variations, without re-training. Our numerical studies demonstrate superior error-rate performance of modular hypernetworks in time-varying channels compared to static pre-trained receivers, while providing rapid adaptivity and scalability to network variations.