CoNet-Rx: Collaborative Neural Networks for OFDM Receivers

Deep learning (DL) based methods for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) radio receivers demonstrated higher signal detection performance compared to the traditional receivers. However, the existing DL-based models, usually adapted from computer vision, aren't well suited for wireless communications. These models require high computational resources and memory, and have significant inference delays, limiting their use in resource-constrained settings. Additionally, reducing network size to ease resource demands often leads to notable performance degradation. This paper introduces collaborative networks (CoNet), a novel neural network (NN) architecture designed for OFDM receivers. CoNet uses multiple small ResNet or CNN subnetworks to simultaneously process signal features from different perspectives like capturing channel correlations and interference patterns. These subnetworks fuse their outputs through interaction operations (e.g., element-wise multiplication), significantly enhancing detection performance. Simulation results show CoNet significantly outperforms traditional architectures like residual networks (ResNets) in bit error rate (BER) and reduces inference delay when both nets have the same size and the same computational complexity.