Improved multiuser MIMO unitary precoding using partial channel state information and insights from the riemannian manifold

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems can be leveraged to increase capacity in fading channels. Especially in multiuser downlink communication systems, it has been shown that knowledge of channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT) is critical to leverage the capacity gain available from multiple antennas. When duplexing is performed using time division, CSIT can often be successfully obtained when channel reciprocity is available. CSIT acquisition, however, is much more difficult in frequency division duplexing. Sending feedback on the uplink has been shown to be a powerful technique to improve downlink performance in single user MIMO systems. The basic idea is to restrict the CSIT to a B bit codebook so that the mobiles can easily transmit these bits on the uplink. In this paper, we consider the multiuser downlink model with unitary precoding when there is a codebook consisting of 2^B unitary matrices that the precoder is restricted to lie in. This codebook is designed offline and known to both the base-station and all users. Each user sends back signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR) information along with binary feedback about the unitary precoder. Based on the CSIT received on the uplink, the base-station selects one of the unitary matrices in the codebook to maximize the sum-rate. For this set-up, we first analyze the sum-rate performance of the unitary precoding scheme. We then show that the codebook of unitary pre-coders represents a collection of points in a special kind of manifold and show how the achievable sum-rate performance relates to the minimum distance of the codebook points in this space. Finally, we present a framework for constructing the codebook to maximize this minimum distance. Monte Carlo simulation results are presented to show the sum-rate performance of the proposed codebook design.