Multiuser Diversity - Multiplexing Tradeoff in MIMO Broadcast Channels with Limited Feedback

We consider joint scheduling and beamforming in a broadcast channel with multiple antennas at the transmitter and a single antenna at the mobile receiver. Perfect channel knowledge is assumed to be available at the receiver while the transmitter is provided with partial channel state information (CSIT) through a limited rate feedback channel. Each user feeds back quantized information regarding the channel vector direction (from a codebook) and a quantized (scalar) channel quality indicator. We identify the tradeoff between multiuser diversity and spatial multiplexing gain given a limited amount of feedback bits. Scaling laws of the above parameters are derived in order to achieve a target rate performance. Our results reveal useful design guidelines for the split of feedback bits for channel quantization and channel quality.