General Rank Multiuser Downlink Beamforming With Shaping Constraints Using Real-valued OSTBC

In this paper we consider optimal multiuser downlink beamforming in the presence of a massive number of arbitrary quadratic shaping constraints. We combine beamforming with full-rate high dimensional real-valued orthogonal space time block coding (OSTBC) to increase the number of beamforming weight vectors and associated degrees of freedom in the beamformer design. The original multi-constraint beamforming problem is converted into a convex optimization problem using semidefinite relaxation (SDR) which can be solved efficiently. In contrast to conventional (rank-one) beamforming approaches in which an optimal beamforming solution can be obtained only when the SDR solution (after rank reduction) exhibits the rank-one property, in our approach optimality is guaranteed when a rank of eight is not exceeded. We show that our approach can incorporate up to 79 additional shaping constraints for which an optimal beamforming solution is guaranteed as compared to a maximum of two additional constraints that bound the conventional rank-one downlink beamforming designs. Simulation results demonstrate the flexibility of our proposed beamformer design

Physical Layer Service Integration in 5G: Potentials and Challenges

High transmission rate and secure communication have been identified as the key targets that need to be effectively addressed by fifth generation (5G) wireless systems. In this context, the concept of physical-layer security becomes attractive, as it can establish perfect security using only the characteristics of wireless medium. Nonetheless, to further increase the spectral efficiency, an emerging concept, termed physical-layer service integration (PHY-SI), has been recognized as an effective means. Its basic idea is to combine multiple coexisting services, i.e., multicast/broadcast service and confidential service, into one integral service for one-time transmission at the transmitter side. This article first provides a tutorial on typical PHY-SI models. Furthermore, we propose some state-of-the-art solutions to improve the overall performance of PHY-SI in certain important communication scenarios. In particular, we highlight the extension of several concepts borrowed from conventional single-service communications, such as artificial noise (AN), eigenmode transmission etc., to the scenario of PHY-SI. These techniques are shown to be effective in the design of reliable and robust PHY-SI schemes. Finally, several potential research directions are identified for future work.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure

Coordinated Multicast Beamforming in Multicell Networks

We study physical layer multicasting in multicell networks where each base station, equipped with multiple antennas, transmits a common message using a single beamformer to multiple users in the same cell. We investigate two coordinated beamforming designs: the quality-of-service (QoS) beamforming and the max-min SINR (signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio) beamforming. The goal of the QoS beamforming is to minimize the total power consumption while guaranteeing that received SINR at each user is above a predetermined threshold. We present a necessary condition for the optimization problem to be feasible. Then, based on the decomposition theory, we propose a novel decentralized algorithm to implement the coordinated beamforming with limited information sharing among different base stations. The algorithm is guaranteed to converge and in most cases it converges to the optimal solution. The max-min SINR (MMS) beamforming is to maximize the minimum received SINR among all users under per-base station power constraints. We show that the MMS problem and a weighted peak-power minimization (WPPM) problem are inverse problems. Based on this inversion relationship, we then propose an efficient algorithm to solve the MMS problem in an approximate manner. Simulation results demonstrate significant advantages of the proposed multicast beamforming algorithms over conventional multicasting schemes.Comment: 10pages, 9 figure