Uplink Contention-Based CSI Feedback with Prioritized Layers for a Multi-Carrier System

Optimized resource allocation of the Downlink (DL) in wireless systems utilizing Multi-Carrier (MC) transmission requires Channel State Information (CSI) feedback for each user/subchannel to the Base Station (BS), consuming a high amount of Uplink (UL) radio resources. To alleviate this problem, several works have considered contention-based CSI feedback in the UL control channel. We propose such a feedback scheme for a generic MC system, based on the idea of variable collision protection, where the probability that a feedback information experiences a collision depends on its importance. By partitioning the CSI into orthogonal layers of priority, and allocating different numbers of feedback slots to each layer, this scheme ensures that the feedback success probability is higher for the CSI with better quality, which is more likely to be used by the scheduler. Furthermore, we present a theoretical performance analysis of the proposed scheme, assuming Maximum CSI (Max CSI) and normalized Proportional Fair Scheduler (PFS), where a tight approximation of the achievable throughput is obtained assuming discrete Adaptive Modulation (AM) and CSI feedback which are relevant for the practical systems. Analytical and simulation results show that our proposed scheme provides an excellent trade-off between system performance and feedback overhead.