No Arabic abstract
In this paper, we consider user selection and downlink precoding for an over-loaded single-cell massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system in frequency division duplexing (FDD) mode, where the base station is equipped with a dual-polarized uniform planar array (DP-UPA) and serves a large number of single-antenna users. Due to the absence of uplink-downlink channel reciprocity and the high-dimensionality of channel matrices, it is extremely challenging to design downlink precoders using closed-loop channel probing and feedback with limited spectrum resource. To address these issues, a novel methodology -- active channel sparsification (ACS) -- has been proposed recently in the literature for uniform linear array (ULA) to design sparsifying precoders, which boosts spectral efficiency for multi-user downlink transmission with substantially reduced channel feedback overhead. Pushing forward this line of research, we aim to facilitate the potential deployment of ACS in practical FDD massive MIMO systems, by extending it from ULA to DP-UPA with explicit user selection and making the current ACS implementation simplified. To this end, by leveraging Toeplitz structure of channel covariance matrices, we extend the original ACS using scale-weight bipartite graph representation to the matrix-weight counterpart. Building upon this, we propose a multi-dimensional ACS (MD-ACS) method, which is a generalization of original ACS formulation and is more suitable for DP-UPA antenna configurations. The nonlinear integer program formulation of MD-ACS can be classified as a generalized multi-assignment problem (GMAP), for which we propose a simple yet efficient greedy algorithm to solve it. Simulation results demonstrate the performance improvement of the proposed MD-ACS with greedy algorithm over the state-of-the-art methods based on the QuaDRiGa channel models.
In this paper, we propose a novel method for efficient implementation of a massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (massive MIMO) system with Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) operation. Our main objective is to reduce the large overhead incurred by Downlink (DL) common training and Uplink (UL) feedback needed to obtain channel state information (CSI) at the base station. Our proposed scheme relies on the fact that the underlying angular distribution of a channel vector, also known as the angular scattering function, is a frequency-invariant entity yielding a UL-DL reciprocity and has a limited angular support. We estimate this support from UL CSI and interpolate it to obtain the corresponding angular support of the DL channel. Finally we exploit the estimated support of the DL channel of all the users to design an efficient channel probing and feedback scheme that maximizes the total spectral efficiency of the system. Our method is different from the existing compressed-sensing (CS) based techniques in the literature. Using support information helps reduce the feedback overhead from O(s*log M) in CS techniques to O(s) in our proposed method, with $s$ and $M$ being sparsity order of the channel vectors and the number of base station antennas, respectively. Furthermore, in order to control the channel sparsity and therefore the DL common training and UL feedback overhead, we introduce the novel concept of active channel sparsification. In brief, when the fixed pilot dimension is less than the required amount for reliable channel estimation, we introduce a pre-beamforming matrix that artificially reduces the effective channel dimension of each user to be not larger than the DL pilot dimension, while maximizing both the number of served users and the number of probed angles. We provide numerical experiments to compare our method with the state-of-the-art CS technique.
We propose a novel method for massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (massive MIMO) in Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) systems. Due to the large frequency separation between Uplink (UL) and Downlink (DL), in FDD systems channel reciprocity does not hold. Hence, in order to provide DL channel state information to the Base Station (BS), closed-loop DL channel probing and Channel State Information (CSI) feedback is needed. In massive MIMO this incurs typically a large training overhead. For example, in a typical configuration with M = 200 BS antennas and fading coherence block of T = 200 symbols, the resulting rate penalty factor due to the DL training overhead, given by max{0, 1 - M/T}, is close to 0. To reduce this overhead, we build upon the well-known fact that the Angular Scattering Function (ASF) of the user channels is invariant over frequency intervals whose size is small with respect to the carrier frequency (as in current FDD cellular standards). This allows to estimate the users DL channel covariance matrix from UL pilots without additional overhead. Based on this covariance information, we propose a novel sparsifying precoder in order to maximize the rank of the effective sparsified channel matrix subject to the condition that each effective user channel has sparsity not larger than some desired DL pilot dimension T_{dl}, resulting in the DL training overhead factor max{0, 1 - T_{dl} / T} and CSI feedback cost of T_{dl} pilot measurements. The optimization of the sparsifying precoder is formulated as a Mixed Integer Linear Program, that can be efficiently solved. Extensive simulation results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed approach with respect to concurrent state-of-the-art schemes based on compressed sensing or UL/DL dictionary learning.
We introduce a framework for linear precoder design over a massive multiple-input multiple-output downlink system and in presence of nonlinear power amplifiers (PAs). By studying the spatial characteristics of the distortion, we demonstrate that conventional linear precoding techniques steer nonlinear distortions in the direction of the users. We show that, by taking into account PA nonlinearity characteristics, one can design linear precoders that reduce, and in single-user scenarios, even remove completely the distortion transmitted in the direction of the users. This, however, is achieved at the price of a considerably reduced array gain. To address this issue, we present precoder optimization algorithms which simultaneously take into account the effects of array gain, distortion, multiuser interference, and receiver noise. Specifically, we derive an expression for the achievable sum rate and propose an iterative algorithm that attempts to find the precoding matrix maximizing this expression. Moreover, using a model for PA power consumption, we propose an algorithm that attempts to find the precoding matrix minimizing the consumed power for a given minimum achievable sum rate. Our numerical results demonstrate that the proposed distortion-aware precoding techniques yield considerable improvements in terms of spectral and energy efficiency compared to conventional linear precoding techniques.
We address the problem of analyzing and classifying in groups the downlink channel environment in a millimeter-wavelength cell, accounting for path loss, multipath fading, and User Equipment (UE) blocking, by employing a hybrid propagation and multipath fading model, thus using accurate inter-group interference modeling. The base station (BS) employs a large Uniform Planar Array (UPA) to facilitate massive Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output (MIMO) communications with high efficiency. UEs are equipped with a single antenna and are distributed uniformly within the cell. The key problem is analyzing and defining groups toward precoding. Because equitable type of throughput is desired between groups, Combined Frequency and Spatial Division and Multiplexing (CFSDM) prevails as necessary. We show that by employing three subcarrier frequencies, the UEs can be efficiently separated into high throughput groups, with each group employing Virtual Channel Model Beams (VCMB) based inner precoding, followed by efficient Multi-User Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MU-MIMO) outer precoders. For each group, we study three different sub-grouping methods offering different advantages. We show that the improvement offered by Zero-Forcing Per-Group Precoding (ZF-PGP) over Zero-Forcing Precoding (ZFP) is very high.
Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (massive MIMO) is a variant of multi-user MIMO in which the number of antennas at each Base Station (BS) is very large and typically much larger than the number of users simultaneously served. Massive MIMO can be implemented with Time Division Duplexing (TDD) or Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) operation. FDD massive MIMO systems are particularly desirable due to their implementation in current wireless networks and their efficiency in situations with symmetric traffic and delay-sensitive applications. However, implementing FDD massive MIMO systems is known to be challenging since it imposes a large feedback overhead in the Uplink (UL) to obtain channel state information for the Downlink (DL). In recent years, a considerable amount of research is dedicated to developing methods to reduce the feedback overhead in such systems. In this paper, we use the sparse spatial scattering properties of the environment to achieve this goal. The idea is to estimate the support of the continuous, frequency-invariant scattering function from UL channel observations and use this estimate to obtain the support of the DL channel vector via appropriate interpolation. We use the resulting support estimate to design an efficient DL probing and UL feedback scheme in which the feedback dimension scales proportionally with the sparsity order of DL channel vectors. Since the sparsity order is much less than the number of BS antennas in almost all practically relevant scenarios, our method incurs much less feedback overhead compared with the currently proposed methods in the literature, such as those based on compressed-sensing. We use numerical simulations to assess the performance of our probing-feedback algorithm and compare it with these methods.