A survey on hybrid beamforming techniques in 5G : architecture and system model perspectives

The increasing wireless data traffic demands have driven the need to explore suitable spectrum regions for meeting the projected requirements. In the light of this, millimeter wave (mmWave) communication has received considerable attention from the research community. Typically, in fifth generation (5G) wireless networks, mmWave massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications is realized by the hybrid transceivers which combine high dimensional analog phase shifters and power amplifiers with lower-dimensional digital signal processing units. This hybrid beamforming design reduces the cost and power consumption which is aligned with an energy-efficient design vision of 5G. In this paper, we track the progress in hybrid beamforming for massive MIMO communications in the context of system models of the hybrid transceivers' structures, the digital and analog beamforming matrices with the possible antenna configuration scenarios and the hybrid beamforming in heterogeneous wireless networks. We extend the scope of the discussion by including resource management issues in hybrid beamforming. We explore the suitability of hybrid beamforming methods, both, existing and proposed till first quarter of 2017, and identify the exciting future challenges in this domain

Efficient DSP and Circuit Architectures for Massive MIMO: State-of-the-Art and Future Directions

Massive MIMO is a compelling wireless access concept that relies on the use of an excess number of base-station antennas, relative to the number of active terminals. This technology is a main component of 5G New Radio (NR) and addresses all important requirements of future wireless standards: a great capacity increase, the support of many simultaneous users, and improvement in energy efficiency. Massive MIMO requires the simultaneous processing of signals from many antenna chains, and computational operations on large matrices. The complexity of the digital processing has been viewed as a fundamental obstacle to the feasibility of Massive MIMO in the past. Recent advances on system-algorithm-hardware co-design have led to extremely energy-efficient implementations. These exploit opportunities in deeply-scaled silicon technologies and perform partly distributed processing to cope with the bottlenecks encountered in the interconnection of many signals. For example, prototype ASIC implementations have demonstrated zero-forcing precoding in real time at a 55 mW power consumption (20 MHz bandwidth, 128 antennas, multiplexing of 8 terminals). Coarse and even error-prone digital processing in the antenna paths permits a reduction of consumption with a factor of 2 to 5. This article summarizes the fundamental technical contributions to efficient digital signal processing for Massive MIMO. The opportunities and constraints on operating on low-complexity RF and analog hardware chains are clarified. It illustrates how terminals can benefit from improved energy efficiency. The status of technology and real-life prototypes discussed. Open challenges and directions for future research are suggested.Comment: submitted to IEEE transactions on signal processin

Design of terahertz transceiver schemes for ultrahigh-speed wireless communications

Future ultra-high-speed wireless communication systems face difficult challenges due to the fundamental limitations of current technologies operating at microwave frequencies. Supporting high transmission rates will require the use of more spectral resources that are only available at higher frequencies. Within this context, terahertz (THz) communications have been attracting more and more attention, being considered by the research community as one of the most promising research fields on the topic due to the availability of extensive unused bandwidth segments. However, its widespread use is not yet possible due to some obstacles, such as the high propagation losses that occur in this band and the difficulty in designing devices that can effectively perform both transmission and detection tasks. The purpose of this dissertation is to contribute for the solution of both of the aforementioned problems and to propose novel THz transceiver schemes for ultra-high-speed wireless communications. Three main research areas were addressed: device modelling for the THz; index modulation (IM) based schemes for Beyond 5G (B5G) networks and hybrid precoding designs for THz ultra massive (UM) – multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems. The main contributions of this work include the creation of a new design for a reconfigurable THz filter; the proposal of a precoded generalized spatial modulation scheme for downlink MIMO transmissions in B5G networks; the creation of a low-complexity hybrid design algorithm with a near fully-digital performance for multiuser (MU) mmWave/THz ultra massive MIMO systems that can incorporate different analog architectures; and the system-level assessment of cloud radio access network (C-RAN) deployments based on low-complexity hybrid precoding designs for massive MIMO downlink transmissions in B5G networks. The first contribution is especially suited for the implementation of reconfigurable THz filters and optical modulators, since it is based on a simple design, which transits from situations in which it presents a full transparency to situations where it achieves full opacity. Moreover, this approach can also be used for the implementation of simultaneously transmitting and reflecting (STAR) reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) which are important for enabling flexible system designs in RIS-assisted networks. The second contribution showed that the implementation of precoding schemes based on generalised spatial modulations is a solution with a considerable potential for future B5G systems, since it can provide larger throughputs when compared to conventional MU-MIMO schemes with identical spectral efficiencies.The last two contributions showed that through the proposed hybrid design algorithm it becomes possible to replace a fully digital precoder/combiner by a fully-connected or even by a partially-connected architecture (array of subarrays and dynamic array of subarrays), while achieving good tradeoffs between spectral efficiency, power consumption and implementation complexity. These proposals are particularly relevant for the support of UM-MIMO in severely hardware constrained THz systems. Moreover, the capability of achieving significant improvements in terms of throughput performance and coverage over typical cellular networks, when considering hybrid precoding‐based C-RAN deployments in two indoor office scenarios at the THz band, was demonstrated.Os futuros sistemas de comunicação sem fios de velocidade ultra-elevada enfrentam desafios difíceis devido às limitações fundamentais das tecnologias atuais que funcionam a frequências de microondas. O suporte de taxas de transmissão altas exigirá a utilização de mais recursos espectrais que só estão disponíveis em frequências mais elevadas. A banda Terahertz (THz) é uma das soluções mais promissoras devido às suas enormes larguras de banda disponíveis no espectro eletromagnético. No entanto, a sua utilização generalizada ainda não é possível devido a alguns obstáculos, tais como as elevadas perdas de propagação que se verificam nesta banda e a dificuldade em conceber dispositivos que possam desempenhar eficazmente as tarefas de transmissão e deteção. O objetivo desta tese de doutoramento, é contribuir para ambos os problemas mencionados anteriormente e propor novos esquemas de transcetores THz para comunicações sem fios de velocidade ultra-elevada. Três grandes áreas de investigação foram endereçadas, contribuindo individualmente para um todo: a modelação do dispositivo para o THz; esquemas baseados em modulações de índice (IM) para redes pós-5G (B5G) e desenhos de pré-codificadores híbridos para sistemas THz MIMO ultra-massivos. As principais contribuições deste trabalho incluem a criação de um novo design para um filtro THz reconfigurável; a proposta de uma nova tipologia de modulação espacial generalizada pré-codificada para transmissões MIMO de ligação descendente para redes B5G; a criação de um algoritmo de design híbrido de baixa complexidade com desempenho quase totalmente digital para sistemas MIMO multi-utilizador (MU) mmWave/THz ultra massivos que podem incorporar diferentes arquiteturas analógicas e a avaliação das implementações da rede de acesso de rádio na nuvem (C-RAN) com base em designs de pré-codificação híbridos de baixa complexidade para transmissões MIMO de ligação descendente massivas em redes B5G. A primeira contribuição é especialmente adequada para a implementação de filtros THz reconfiguráveis e moduladores óticos, uma vez que se baseia numa concepção mais simples, que transita de situações em que apresenta uma transparência total para situações em que atinge uma opacidade total. Para além disso, esta abordagem também pode ser utilizada para a implementação de superfícies inteligentes reconfiguráveis (RIS) de transmissão e reflexão simultânea (STAR). A segunda contribuição mostrou que a implementação de esquemas de pré-codificação baseados em modulações espaciais generalizadas é uma solução com um potencial considerável para futuros sistemas B5G, uma vez que permite alcançar maiores ganhos em termos de débito binário quando comparado com esquemas convencionais MU-MIMO com eficiências espectrais idênticas. As duas últimas contribuições mostraram que através do algoritmo proposto torna-se possível substituir a utilização de uma arquitectura totalmente digital por uma arquitetura totalmente conectada ou mesmo por uma arquitetura parcialmente conectada (arrays de subarrays e arrays dinâmicos de subarrays), conseguindo-se bons tradeoffs entre eficiência espectral, consumo de energia e complexidade de implementação. Estas propostas são particularmente relevantes para dar suporte a sistemas THz UM-MIMO com restrições severas ao nível de hardware. Demonstrou-se também a capacidade de se alcançar melhorias significativas em termos de débito binário e cobertura em relação a redes celulares típicas, considerando dois cenários na banda THz

Transmit and Receive Signal Processing for MIMO Terrestrial Broadcast Systems

[EN] Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) technology in Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) networks has the potential to increase the spectral efficiency and improve network coverage to cope with the competition of limited spectrum use (e.g., assignment of digital dividend and spectrum demands of mobile broadband), the appearance of new high data rate services (e.g., ultra-high definition TV - UHDTV), and the ubiquity of the content (e.g., fixed, portable, and mobile). It is widely recognised that MIMO can provide multiple benefits such as additional receive power due to array gain, higher resilience against signal outages due to spatial diversity, and higher data rates due to the spatial multiplexing gain of the MIMO channel. These benefits can be achieved without additional transmit power nor additional bandwidth, but normally come at the expense of a higher system complexity at the transmitter and receiver ends. The final system performance gains due to the use of MIMO directly depend on physical characteristics of the propagation environment such as spatial correlation, antenna orientation, and/or power imbalances experienced at the transmit aerials. Additionally, due to complexity constraints and finite-precision arithmetic at the receivers, it is crucial for the overall system performance to carefully design specific signal processing algorithms. This dissertation focuses on transmit and received signal processing for DTT systems using MIMO-BICM (Bit-Interleaved Coded Modulation) without feedback channel to the transmitter from the receiver terminals. At the transmitter side, this thesis presents investigations on MIMO precoding in DTT systems to overcome system degradations due to different channel conditions. At the receiver side, the focus is given on design and evaluation of practical MIMO-BICM receivers based on quantized information and its impact in both the in-chip memory size and system performance. These investigations are carried within the standardization process of DVB-NGH (Digital Video Broadcasting - Next Generation Handheld) the handheld evolution of DVB-T2 (Terrestrial - Second Generation), and ATSC 3.0 (Advanced Television Systems Committee - Third Generation), which incorporate MIMO-BICM as key technology to overcome the Shannon limit of single antenna communications. Nonetheless, this dissertation employs a generic approach in the design, analysis and evaluations, hence, the results and ideas can be applied to other wireless broadcast communication systems using MIMO-BICM.[ES] La tecnología de múltiples entradas y múltiples salidas (MIMO) en redes de Televisión Digital Terrestre (TDT) tiene el potencial de incrementar la eficiencia espectral y mejorar la cobertura de red para afrontar las demandas de uso del escaso espectro electromagnético (e.g., designación del dividendo digital y la demanda de espectro por parte de las redes de comunicaciones móviles), la aparición de nuevos contenidos de alta tasa de datos (e.g., ultra-high definition TV - UHDTV) y la ubicuidad del contenido (e.g., fijo, portable y móvil). Es ampliamente reconocido que MIMO puede proporcionar múltiples beneficios como: potencia recibida adicional gracias a las ganancias de array, mayor robustez contra desvanecimientos de la señal gracias a la diversidad espacial y mayores tasas de transmisión gracias a la ganancia por multiplexado del canal MIMO. Estos beneficios se pueden conseguir sin incrementar la potencia transmitida ni el ancho de banda, pero normalmente se obtienen a expensas de una mayor complejidad del sistema tanto en el transmisor como en el receptor. Las ganancias de rendimiento finales debido al uso de MIMO dependen directamente de las características físicas del entorno de propagación como: la correlación entre los canales espaciales, la orientación de las antenas y/o los desbalances de potencia sufridos en las antenas transmisoras. Adicionalmente, debido a restricciones en la complejidad y aritmética de precisión finita en los receptores, es fundamental para el rendimiento global del sistema un diseño cuidadoso de algoritmos específicos de procesado de señal. Esta tesis doctoral se centra en el procesado de señal, tanto en el transmisor como en el receptor, para sistemas TDT que implementan MIMO-BICM (Bit-Interleaved Coded Modulation) sin canal de retorno hacia el transmisor desde los receptores. En el transmisor esta tesis presenta investigaciones en precoding MIMO en sistemas TDT para superar las degradaciones del sistema debidas a diferentes condiciones del canal. En el receptor se presta especial atención al diseño y evaluación de receptores prácticos MIMO-BICM basados en información cuantificada y a su impacto tanto en la memoria del chip como en el rendimiento del sistema. Estas investigaciones se llevan a cabo en el contexto de estandarización de DVB-NGH (Digital Video Broadcasting - Next Generation Handheld), la evolución portátil de DVB-T2 (Second Generation Terrestrial), y ATSC 3.0 (Advanced Television Systems Commitee - Third Generation) que incorporan MIMO-BICM como clave tecnológica para superar el límite de Shannon para comunicaciones con una única antena. No obstante, esta tesis doctoral emplea un método genérico tanto para el diseño, análisis y evaluación, por lo que los resultados e ideas pueden ser aplicados a otros sistemas de comunicación inalámbricos que empleen MIMO-BICM.[CA] La tecnologia de múltiples entrades i múltiples eixides (MIMO) en xarxes de Televisió Digital Terrestre (TDT) té el potencial d'incrementar l'eficiència espectral i millorar la cobertura de xarxa per a afrontar les demandes d'ús de l'escàs espectre electromagnètic (e.g., designació del dividend digital i la demanda d'espectre per part de les xarxes de comunicacions mòbils), l'aparició de nous continguts d'alta taxa de dades (e.g., ultra-high deffinition TV - UHDTV) i la ubiqüitat del contingut (e.g., fix, portàtil i mòbil). És àmpliament reconegut que MIMO pot proporcionar múltiples beneficis com: potència rebuda addicional gràcies als guanys de array, major robustesa contra esvaïments del senyal gràcies a la diversitat espacial i majors taxes de transmissió gràcies al guany per multiplexat del canal MIMO. Aquests beneficis es poden aconseguir sense incrementar la potència transmesa ni l'ample de banda, però normalment s'obtenen a costa d'una major complexitat del sistema tant en el transmissor com en el receptor. Els guanys de rendiment finals a causa de l'ús de MIMO depenen directament de les característiques físiques de l'entorn de propagació com: la correlació entre els canals espacials, l'orientació de les antenes, i/o els desequilibris de potència patits en les antenes transmissores. Addicionalment, a causa de restriccions en la complexitat i aritmètica de precisió finita en els receptors, és fonamental per al rendiment global del sistema un disseny acurat d'algorismes específics de processament de senyal. Aquesta tesi doctoral se centra en el processament de senyal tant en el transmissor com en el receptor per a sistemes TDT que implementen MIMO-BICM (Bit-Interleaved Coded Modulation) sense canal de tornada cap al transmissor des dels receptors. En el transmissor aquesta tesi presenta recerques en precoding MIMO en sistemes TDT per a superar les degradacions del sistema degudes a diferents condicions del canal. En el receptor es presta especial atenció al disseny i avaluació de receptors pràctics MIMO-BICM basats en informació quantificada i al seu impacte tant en la memòria del xip com en el rendiment del sistema. Aquestes recerques es duen a terme en el context d'estandardització de DVB-NGH (Digital Video Broadcasting - Next Generation Handheld), l'evolució portàtil de DVB-T2 (Second Generation Terrestrial), i ATSC 3.0 (Advanced Television Systems Commitee - Third Generation) que incorporen MIMO-BICM com a clau tecnològica per a superar el límit de Shannon per a comunicacions amb una única antena. No obstant açò, aquesta tesi doctoral empra un mètode genèric tant per al disseny, anàlisi i avaluació, per la qual cosa els resultats i idees poden ser aplicats a altres sistemes de comunicació sense fils que empren MIMO-BICM.Vargas Paredero, DE. (2016). Transmit and Receive Signal Processing for MIMO Terrestrial Broadcast Systems [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/66081TESISPremiad

Esquemas de cooperação entre estações base para o LTE no sentido descendente

The explosive growth in wireless traffic and in the number of connected devices as smart phones or computers, are causing a dramatic increase in the levels of interference, which significantly degrades the capacity gains promised by the point-to-point multi input, multi output (MIMO) based techniques. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly clear that major new improvements in spectral efficiency of wireless networks will have to entail addressing intercell interference. So, there is a need for a new cellular architecture that can take these factors under consideration. It is in this context that LTE-Advanced arises. One of the most promising LTE-Advanced technology is Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP), which allows base stations to cooperate among them, in order to mitigate or eliminate the intercell interference and, by doing so, increase the system’s capacity. This thesis intends to study this concept, implementing some schemes that fall under the CoMP concept. In this thesis we consider a distributed precoded multicell approach, where the precoders are computed locally at each BS to mitigate the intercell interference. Two precoder are considered: distributed zero forcing (DZF) and distributed virtual signal-to-interference noise ratio (DVSINR) recently proposed. Then the system is further optimized by computing a power allocation algorithm over the subcarriers that minimizes the average bit error rate (BER). The considered algorithms are also evaluated under imperfect channel state information. A quantized version of the CSI associated to the different links between the BS and the UT is feedback from the UT to the BS. This information is then employed by the different BSs to perform the precoding design. A new DVSINR precoder explicitly designed under imperfect CSI is proposed. The proposed schemes were implemented considering the LTE specifications, and the results show that the considered precoders are efficiently to remove the interference even under imperfect CSI.O crescimento exponencial no tráfego de comunicações sem-fios e no número de dispositivos utilizados (smart phones, computadores portáteis, etc.) está a causar um aumento significativo nos níveis de interferência, que prejudicam significativamente os ganhos de capacidade assegurados pelas tecnologias baseadas em ligações ponto-a-ponto MIMO. Deste modo, torna-se cada vez mais necessário que os grandes aperfeiçoamentos na eficiência espectral de sistemas de comunicações sem-fios tenham em consideração a interferência entre células. De forma a tomar em consideração estes aspectos, uma nova arquitectura celular terá de ser desenvolvida. É assim, neste contexto, que surge o LTE-Advanced. Uma das tecnologias mais promissoras do LTE-Advanced é a Coordenação Multi-Ponto (CoMP), que permite que as estações base cooperem de modo a mitigar a interferência entre células e, deste modo, aumentar a capacidade do sistema. Esta dissertação pretende estudar este conceito, implementando para isso algumas técnicas que se enquadram no conceito do CoMP. Nesta dissertação iremos considerar a implementação de um sistema de pré-codificação em múltiplas células, em que os pré-codificadores são calculados em cada BS, de modo a mitigar a interferência entre células. São considerados dois pré-codificadores: Distributed Zero Forcing (DZF) e Distributed Virtual Signal-to-Interferance Noise Ratio (DVSINR), recentemente proposto. De seguida o sistema é optimizado com a introdução de algoritmos de alocação de potência entre as sub-portadoras com o objectivo de minimizar a taxa média de erros (BER). Os algoritmos considerados são também avaliados em situações em que a informação do estado do canal é imperfeita. Uma versão quantizada da CSI associada a cada uma das diferentes ligações entre as BS e os UT é assim enviada do UT para a BS. Esta informação é então utilizada para calcular os diferentes pré-codificadores em cada BS. Uma nova versão do pré-codificador DVSINR é proposta de modo a lidar com CSI imperfeito. Os esquemas propostos foram implementados considerandos especificações do LTE, e os resultados obtidos demonstram que os pré-codificadores removem de uma forma eficiente a interferência, mesmo em situações em que a CSI é imperfeita

State-of-the-art assessment of 5G mmWave communications

Deliverable D2.1 del proyecto 5GWirelessMain objective of the European 5Gwireless project, which is part of the H2020 Marie Slodowska- Curie ITN (Innovative Training Networks) program resides in the training and involvement of young researchers in the elaboration of future mobile communication networks, focusing on innovative wireless technologies, heterogeneous network architectures, new topologies (including ultra-dense deployments), and appropriate tools. The present Document D2.1 is the first deliverable of Work- Package 2 (WP2) that is specifically devoted to the modeling of the millimeter-wave (mmWave) propagation channels, and development of appropriate mmWave beamforming and signal processing techniques. Deliver D2.1 gives a state-of-the-art on the mmWave channel measurement, characterization and modeling; existing antenna array technologies, channel estimation and precoding algorithms; proposed deployment and networking techniques; some performance studies; as well as a review on the evaluation and analysis toolsPostprint (published version

Interference Exploitation via Symbol-Level Precoding: Overview, State-of-the-Art and Future Directions

Interference is traditionally viewed as a performance limiting factor in wireless communication systems, which is to be minimized or mitigated. Nevertheless, a recent line of work has shown that by manipulating the interfering signals such that they add up constructively at the receiver side, known interference can be made beneficial and further improve the system performance in a variety of wireless scenarios, achieved by symbol-level precoding (SLP). This paper aims to provide a tutorial on interference exploitation techniques from the perspective of precoding design in a multi-antenna wireless communication system, by beginning with the classification of constructive interference (CI) and destructive interference (DI). The definition for CI is presented and the corresponding mathematical characterization is formulated for popular modulation types, based on which optimization-based precoding techniques are discussed. In addition, the extension of CI precoding to other application scenarios as well as for hardware efficiency is also described. Proof-of-concept testbeds are demonstrated for the potential practical implementation of CI precoding, and finally a list of open problems and practical challenges are presented to inspire and motivate further research directions in this area

A Tutorial on Interference Exploitation via Symbol-Level Precoding: Overview, State-of-the-Art and Future Directions

IEEE Interference is traditionally viewed as a performance limiting factor in wireless communication systems, which is to be minimized or mitigated. Nevertheless, a recent line of work has shown that by manipulating the interfering signals such that they add up constructively at the receiver side, known interference can be made beneficial and further improve the system performance in a variety of wireless scenarios, achieved by symbol-level precoding (SLP). This paper aims to provide a tutorial on interference exploitation techniques from the perspective of precoding design in a multi-antenna wireless communication system, by beginning with the classification of constructive interference (CI) and destructive interference (DI). The definition for CI is presented and the corresponding mathematical characterization is formulated for popular modulation types, based on which optimization-based precoding techniques are discussed. In addition, the extension of CI precoding to other application scenarios as well as for hardware efficiency is also described. Proof-of-concept testbeds are demonstrated for the potential practical implementation of CI precoding, and finally a list of open problems and practical challenges are presented to inspire and motivate further research directions in this area

Feedback of channel state information in multi-antenna systems based on quantization of channel Gram matrices

This dissertation deals with the proper design of efficient feedback strategies for Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) communication systems. MIMO systems outperform single antenna systems in terms of achievable throughput and are more resilient to noise and interference, which are becoming the limiting factors in the current and future communications. Apart from the clear performance advantages, MIMO systems introduce an additional complexity factor, since they require knowledge of the propagation channel in order to be able to adapt the transmission to the propagation channel’s characteristics and achieve optimum performance. This channel knowledge, also known as Channel State Information (CSI), is estimated at the receiver and sent to the transmitter through a limited feedback link. In this dissertation, first, the minimum channel information necessary at the transmitter for the optimum precoding design is identified. This minimum information for the optimum design of the system corresponds to the channel Gram matrix. It is essential for the design of optimized systems to avoid the transmission of redundant feedback information. Following this idea, a quantization algorithm that exploits the differential geometry of the set of Gram matrices and the correlation in time present in most propagation channels is developed in order to greatly improve the feedback performance. This scheme is applied first to single-user MIMO communications, then to some particular multiuser scenarios, and finally it is extended to general multiuser broadcast communications. To conclude, the feedback link sizing is studied. An analysis of the tradeoff between size of the forward link and size of the feedback link isformulated and the radio resource allocation problem, in terms of transmission energy, time, and bandwidth of the forward and feedback links is presented.En un mundo cada vez más interconectado, donde hay una clara tendencia hacia un mayor número de comunicaciones inalámbricas simultáneas (comunicaciones M2M: Machine to Machine, redes de sensores, etc.) y en el que las necesidades de capacidad de transmisión de los enlaces de comunicaciones aumentan de manera vertiginosa (audio, video, contenidos multimedia, alta definición, etc.) el problema de la interferencia se convierte en uno de los factores limitadores de los enlaces junto con los desvanecimientos del nivel de señal y las pérdidas de propagación. Por este motivo los sistemas que emplean múltiples antenas tanto en la transmisión como en la recepción (los llamados sistemas MIMO: Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) se presentan como una de las soluciones más interesantes para satisfacer los crecientes requisitos de capacidad y comportamiento relativo a interferencias. Los sistemas MIMO permiten obtener un mejor rendimiento en términos de tasa de transmisión de información y a su vez son más robustos frente a ruido e interferencias en el canal. Esto significa que pueden usarse para aumentar la capacidad de los enlaces de comunicaciones actuales o para reducir drásticamente el consumo energético manteniendo las mismas prestaciones. Por otro lado, además de estas claras ventajas, los sistemas MIMO introducen un punto de complejidad adicional puesto que para aprovechar al máximo las posibilidades de estos sistemas es necesario tener conocimiento de la información de estado del canal (CSI: Channel State Information) tanto en el transmisor como en el receptor. Esta CSI se obtiene mediante estimación de canal en el receptor y posteriormente se envía al transmisor a través de un canal de realimentación. Esta tesis trata sobre el diseño del canal de realimentación para la transmisión de CSI, que es un elemento fundamental de los sistemas de comunicaciones del presente y del futuro. Las técnicas de transmisión que consideran activamente el efecto de la interferencia y el ruido requieren adaptarse al canal y, para ello, la realimentación de CSI es necesaria. En esta tesis se identifica, en primer lugar, la mínima información sobre el estado del canal necesaria para implementar un diseño óptimo en el transmisor, con el fin de evitar transmitir información redundante y obtener así un sistema más eficiente. Esta información es la matriz de Gram del canal MIMO. Seguidamente, se desarrolla un algoritmo de cuantificación adaptado a la geometría diferencial del conjunto que contiene la información a cuantificar y que además aprovecha la correlación temporal existente en los canales de propagación inalámbricos. Este algoritmo se implementa y evalúa primero en comunicaciones MIMO punto a punto entre dos usuarios, después se implementa para algunos casos particulares con múltiples usuarios, y finalmente se amplía para el caso general de sistemas broadcast multi-usuario. Adicionalmente, esta tesis también estudia y optimiza el dimensionamiento del canal de realimentación en función de la cantidad de recursos radio disponibles, en términos de ancho de banda, tiempo y potencia de transmisión. Para ello presenta el problema de la distribución óptima de dichos recursos radio entre el enlace de transmisión de datos y el enlace de realimentación para transmisión de información sobre estado del canal como un problema de optimización