Exploiting Quantized Channel Norm Feedback Through Conditional Statistics in Arbitrarily Correlated MIMO Systems

In the design of narrowband multi-antenna systems, a limiting factor is the amount of channel state information (CSI) available at the transmitter. This is especially evident in multi-user systems, where the spatial user separability determines the multiplexing gain, but it is also important for transmission-rate adaptation in single-user systems. To limit the feedback load, the unknown and multi-dimensional channel needs to be represented by a limited number of bits. When combined with long-term channel statistics, the norm of the channel matrix has been shown to provide substantial CSI that permits efficient user selection, linear precoder design, and rate adaptation. Herein, we consider quantized feedback of the squared Frobenius norm in a Rayleigh fading environment with arbitrary spatial correlation. The conditional channel statistics are characterized and their moments are derived for both identical, distinct, and sets of repeated eigenvalues. These results are applied for minimum mean square error (MMSE) estimation of signal and interference powers in single- and multi-user systems, for the purpose of reliable rate adaptation and resource allocation. The problem of efficient feedback quantization is discussed and an entropy-maximizing framework is developed where the post-user-selection distribution can be taken into account in the design of the quantization levels. The analytic results of this paper are directly applicable in many widely used communication techniques, such as space-time block codes, linear precoding, space division multiple access (SDMA), and scheduling.