Achievable Rate Analysis and Feedback Design for Multiuser MIMO Relay with Imperfect CSI

This paper investigates a multiuser MIMO relay downlink system with imperfect channel estimation and limited feedback. We analyze the achievable rate loss due to channel state information (CSI) mismatch arising from both channel estimation and quantization feedback. We first derive an upper bound to characterize the effect of imperfect CSI, and then present a limited feedback strategy for both the two-hop channels in the relay system. This newly presented feedback strategy reveals the relationship among the CSI quantization levels, the transmit power, and the pilots for channel estimation. An optimized pilot design at the base station and the relay is also presented by applying the derived bounds for the two-hop system.