A random beamforming technique in MIMO systems exploiting multiuser diversity

Abstract

A random beamforming technique for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems that simultaneously obtains downlink multiuser diversity gain, spatial multiplexing gain and array gain by feeding back only effective signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) is described. In addition, power control using waterfilling is employed to improve the throughput of our method in correlated channels. In a slow fading channel, we prove that the throughput of the proposed method converges to that of eigen beamforming when many users are in a cell. The number of users required to achieve capacity bound increases with the number of antennas and SNR was determined. However, the capacity bound is achieved even with a small number of users, e.g., 16 users in a cell, when the SNR is low, e.g., 0 dB, and the number of transmit and receive antenna is small, e.g., two. We also find that the effect of waterfilling is more noticeable in correlated channels.