GNN-Based Global CSI Reconstruction for Fronthaul-Limited Distributed MIMO Systems
Abstract: Global channel state information (CSI) acquisition is essential for cooperative precoding in distributed multiple-input multiple-output (DMIMO) systems, but uploading full instantaneous CSI from all distributed antennas creates heavy fronthaul overhead. This paper proposes a fronthaul-efficient acquisition framework based on graph neural network (GNN) reconstruction and task-driven antenna selection. Each transmission and reception point (TRP) uploads only selected antenna CSI, while the centralized unit (CU) reconstructs the full global CSI from partial observations. A universal mask-conditioned GNN is trained with random upload masks, used to evaluate antenna subsets under a fronthaul budget, and then fine-tuned for the selected deployment mask. Simulation results show improved CSI reconstruction accuracy with lower fronthaul and pilot overhead.