Design of Multiuser Downlink Linear MIMO Precoding Systems With Quantized Feedback

We treat the problem of sum-rate maximization via scheduling and linear precoding in multiuser (MU) multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) systems with quantized feedback. We formulate the optimal quantized linear precoder design problem and provide the numerical procedure for finding the solution. We also provide a simple scheduling scheme that exploits the MU diversity gain. With the aim of sum-rate maximization, we further address the quantization codebook design based on the capacity measure by introducing a new distance metric. It is demonstrated that, with or without scheduling, the proposed optimal linear precoding scheme achieves significant gain over the conventional linear precoder designs with similar feedback overhead, such as the zero-forcing precoder. Moreover, although the proposed quantization codebook design improves the performance of other existing MU-MIMO precoding schemes, the performance gain offered by it is typically much higher when it is coupled with the proposed linear precoding design.