Imperfect block diagonalization for multiuser MIMO downlink

Recently, a multiuser MIMO system has attracted much attention. In the downlink of the multiuser MIMO system, since the base station simultaneously transmits signals to terminals, there is inter-user interference (IUI) at each terminal. Block diagonalization, which can achieve perfect IUI suppression, has been extensively studied to solve the issue. However, with the scheme we cannot obtain extra diversity gain due to the null steering at the base station. In this paper, we propose imperfect block diagonalization based on maximum eigenvectors of users and Gram-Schmidt orthonormalization, and its error rate performance is evaluated using computer simulations. The result shows that, despite its low complexity, the proposed scheme provides excellent performance, especially in many-user environments.