Joint antenna selection and link adaptation for MIMO systems

Based on the observation that link adaptation and antenna selection problems are often coupled, this paper studies the problem of joint antenna subset selection and link adaptation for MIMO systems. After the formulation of the multidimensional joint optimization problem, the main contribution of this paper lies in the design of efficient algorithms approaching the optimal solution for both uncorrelated and correlated MIMO channels. Specifically, we propose one simplified antenna selection and link adaptation rule based on the expected optimal number of active antennas for uncorrelated MIMO with Raleigh fading, and one for correlated MIMO channels only based on the slowly varying channel correlation information. Our proposed algorithms are verified through numerical results, demonstrating significant gains over traditional MIMO signaling while feasible for practical implementation.