Distributed MIMO Multicast With Protected Receivers: A Scalable Algorithm for Joint Beamforming and Nullforming

Abstract

We consider the problem of multicasting a common message signal from a distributed array of wireless transceivers by beamforming to a set of beam targets, while simultaneously protecting a set of null targets by nullforming to them. We describe a distributed algorithm in which each transmitter iteratively adapts its complex transmit weight using common aggregate feedback messages broadcast by the targets, and the local knowledge of only its own channel gains to the targets. This knowledge can be obtained using reciprocity without any explicit feedback. The algorithm minimizes the mean square error between the complex signal amplitudes at the targets and their desired values. We prove convergence of the algorithm, present geometric interpretations, characterize initializations that lead to minimum total transmit power, and prescribe designs for such initializations. We show that the convergence speed is nondecreasing in the number of transmitters N if a step size parameter is kept constant. For Rayleigh fading channels, as N goes to infinity: 1) convergence can be made arbitrarily fast and 2) beams and nulls can be achieved with vanishing total transmit power even with noise, both with probability one. These results add up to some remarkable scalability properties: the feedback overhead does not grow with the number of transmitters, and with high probability, the algorithm can be configured to converge arbitrarily fast and use vanishingly small total transmit power.