Achievable Throughput of MIMO Downlink Beamforming with Limited Channel Information

We consider a MIMO fading broadcast channel and study the achievable throughput of zero-forcing downlink beamforming when the channel state information (CSI) available to the transmitter and/or receivers is imperfect. Each receiver (mobile) acquires imperfect CSI via downlink training pilots, and the transmitter acquires CSI through explicit feedback from each mobile. We analyze both analog and digital (i.e., quantized) channel feedback techniques. Our analysis quantifies the throughput degradation due to limited training, limited feedback resources (measured in feedback channel symbols rather than bits), and errors on the feedback channel. Using these results we are able to quantify scenarios in which digital feedback outperforms analog and also provide guidelines for the optimal allocation of resources to training and channel feedback.