Mixed CSIT DL Channel: Gains with an Additional Receive Antenna

We study a practical version of the broadcast channel (BC) where the channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT) is available only for some of the users, dubbing the system as mixed CSIT. We start with the simplest instance of such a heterogeneous BC where a multi-antenna transmitter base-station (BS) is trying to communicate data to two single-antenna user equipments (UE), having the perfect CSIT about UE1 and no CSIT about UE2. We propose a very simple transmission strategy at the BS for such a system and compare its performance with the interference alignment solution proposed elsewhere which achieves full degrees-of-freedom (DOF) when channel coherence lengths and switching instants abide by certain restrictions. Then with an additional receive antenna granted to UE2 (whose CSIT is not available) and keeping the same CSIT perspective, achievable rates for two users are derived and compared with earlier schemes. Analytical and simulation results show that this additional receive antenna brings significant gains in the system with the same transmission strategy and without any extra requirement of channel training or feedback.