Analysis of multiuser MIMO downlink networks using linear transmitter and receivers

In contrast to dirty-paper coding (DPC) which is largely information theoretic, this paper proposes a linear codec that can spatially multiplex the multiuser signals to realize the rich capacity of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) downlink broadcast (point-to-multipoint) channels when channel state information (CSI) is available at the transmitter. Assuming single-stream (or single-mode) communication for each user, we develop an iterative algorithm, which is stepwise optimal, to obtain the multiuser antenna weights accomplishing orthogonal space-division multiplexing (OSDM). The steady state solution has a straightforward interpretation and requires only maximal-ratio combiners (MRC) at the mobile stations to capture the optimized spatial modes. Our main contribution is that the proposed scheme can greatly reduce the processing complexity (at least by a factor of the number of base station antennas) while maintaining the same error performance when compared to a recently published OSDM method. Intensive computer simulations show that the proposed scheme promises to provide multiuser diversity in addition to user separation in the spatial domain so that both diversity and multiplexing can be obtained at the same time for multiuser scenario. © 2004 Hindawi Publishing Corporation.published_or_final_versio