A Survey on MIMO Transmission with Discrete Input Signals: Technical Challenges, Advances, and Future Trends

Multiple antennas have been exploited for spatial multiplexing and diversity transmission in a wide range of communication applications. However, most of the advances in the design of high speed wireless multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) systems are based on information-theoretic principles that demonstrate how to efficiently transmit signals conforming to Gaussian distribution. Although the Gaussian signal is capacity-achieving, signals conforming to discrete constellations are transmitted in practical communication systems. As a result, this paper is motivated to provide a comprehensive overview on MIMO transmission design with discrete input signals. We first summarize the existing fundamental results for MIMO systems with discrete input signals. Then, focusing on the basic point-to-point MIMO systems, we examine transmission schemes based on three most important criteria for communication systems: the mutual information driven designs, the mean square error driven designs, and the diversity driven designs. Particularly, a unified framework which designs low complexity transmission schemes applicable to massive MIMO systems in upcoming 5G wireless networks is provided in the first time. Moreover, adaptive transmission designs which switch among these criteria based on the channel conditions to formulate the best transmission strategy are discussed. Then, we provide a survey of the transmission designs with discrete input signals for multiuser MIMO scenarios, including MIMO uplink transmission, MIMO downlink transmission, MIMO interference channel, and MIMO wiretap channel. Additionally, we discuss the transmission designs with discrete input signals for other systems using MIMO technology. Finally, technical challenges which remain unresolved at the time of writing are summarized and the future trends of transmission designs with discrete input signals are addressed.Comment: 110 pages, 512 references, submit to Proceedings of the IEE

Symbol-level and Multicast Precoding for Multiuser Multiantenna Downlink: A Survey, Classification and Challenges

Precoding has been conventionally considered as an effective means of mitigating the interference and efficiently exploiting the available in the multiantenna downlink channel, where multiple users are simultaneously served with independent information over the same channel resources. The early works in this area were focused on transmitting an individual information stream to each user by constructing weighted linear combinations of symbol blocks (codewords). However, more recent works have moved beyond this traditional view by: i) transmitting distinct data streams to groups of users and ii) applying precoding on a symbol-per-symbol basis. In this context, the current survey presents a unified view and classification of precoding techniques with respect to two main axes: i) the switching rate of the precoding weights, leading to the classes of block- and symbol-level precoding, ii) the number of users that each stream is addressed to, hence unicast-/multicast-/broadcast- precoding. Furthermore, the classified techniques are compared through representative numerical results to demonstrate their relative performance and uncover fundamental insights. Finally, a list of open theoretical problems and practical challenges are presented to inspire further research in this area.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorial

Joint User Selection, Power Allocation, and Precoding Design with Imperfect CSIT for Multi-Cell MU-MIMO Downlink Systems

In this paper, a new optimization framework is presented for the joint design of user selection, power allocation, and precoding in multi-cell multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) systems when imperfect channel state information at transmitter (CSIT) is available. By representing the joint optimization variables in a higher-dimensional space, the weighted sum-spectral efficiency maximization is formulated as the maximization of the product of Rayleigh quotients. Although this is still a non-convex problem, a computationally efficient algorithm, referred to as generalized power iteration precoding (GPIP), is proposed. The algorithm converges to a stationary point (local maximum) of the objective function and therefore it guarantees the first-order optimality of the solution. By adjusting the weights in the weighted sum-spectral efficiency, the GPIP yields a joint solution for user selection, power allocation, and downlink precoding. The GPIP is also extended to a multi-cell scenario, where cooperative base stations perform joint user selection and design their precoding vectors by sharing global yet imperfect CSIT within the cooperative BSs. System-level simulations show the gains of the proposed approach with respect to conventional user selection and linear downlink precoding.Comment: 35 pages, 6 figure

Recent Advances in Cloud Radio Access Networks: System Architectures, Key Techniques, and Open Issues

As a promising paradigm to reduce both capital and operating expenditures, the cloud radio access network (C-RAN) has been shown to provide high spectral efficiency and energy efficiency. Motivated by its significant theoretical performance gains and potential advantages, C-RANs have been advocated by both the industry and research community. This paper comprehensively surveys the recent advances of C-RANs, including system architectures, key techniques, and open issues. The system architectures with different functional splits and the corresponding characteristics are comprehensively summarized and discussed. The state-of-the-art key techniques in C-RANs are classified as: the fronthaul compression, large-scale collaborative processing, and channel estimation in the physical layer; and the radio resource allocation and optimization in the upper layer. Additionally, given the extensiveness of the research area, open issues and challenges are presented to spur future investigations, in which the involvement of edge cache, big data mining, social-aware device-to-device, cognitive radio, software defined network, and physical layer security for C-RANs are discussed, and the progress of testbed development and trial test are introduced as well.Comment: 27 pages, 11 figure

QoS Constrained Power Minimization in the MISO Broadcast Channel with Imperfect CSI

We consider the design of linear precoders and receivers in a Multiple-Input Single-Output (MISO) Broadcast Channel (BC). We aim at minimizing the transmit power while fullfiling a set of per-user Quality-of-Service (QoS) constraints expressed in terms of per-user average rate requirements. The Channel State Information (CSI) is assumed to be perfectly known at the receivers but only partially at the transmitter. To solve the problem we transform the QoS constraints into Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) constraints. We then leverage the MSE duality between the BC and the Multiple Access Channel (MAC), as well as standard interference functions in the dual MAC, to perform power minimization by means of an Alternating Optimization (AO) algorithm. Problem feasibility is also studied to determine whether the QoS constraints can be fulfilled or not. Finally, we present an algorithm to balance the average rates and manage situations that may be unfeasible or lead to an unacceptably high transmit power

Semidefinite Relaxation-Based PAPR-Aware Precoding for Massive MIMO-OFDM Systems

Massive MIMO requires a large number of antennas and the same amount of power amplifiers (PAs), one per antenna. As opposed to 4G base stations, which could afford highly linear PAs, next-generation base stations will need to use inexpensive PAs, which have a limited region of linear amplification. One of the research challenges is effectively handling signals which have high peak-to-average power ratios (PAPRs), such as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). This paper introduces a PAPR-aware precoding scheme that exploits the excessive spatial degrees-of-freedom of large scale multiple-input multipleoutput (MIMO) antenna systems. This typically requires finding a solution to a nonconvex optimization problem. Instead of relaxing the problem to minimize the peak power, we introduce a practical semidefinite relaxation (SDR) framework that enables accurately and efficiently approximating the theoretical PAPR-aware precoding performance for OFDM-based massive MIMO systems. The framework allows incorporating channel uncertainties and intercell coordination. Numerical results show that several orders of magnitude improvements can be achieved w.r.t. state of the art techniques, such as instantaneous power consumption reduction and multiuser interference cancellation. The proposed PAPRaware precoding can be effectively handled along with the multicell signal processing by the centralized baseband processing platforms of next-generation radio access networks. Performance can be traded for the computing efficiency for other platform

Learning-Based Adaptive Transmission for Limited Feedback Multiuser MIMO-OFDM

Performing link adaptation in a multiantenna and multiuser system is challenging because of the coupling between precoding, user selection, spatial mode selection and use of limited feedback about the channel. The problem is exacerbated by the difficulty of selecting the proper modulation and coding scheme when using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). This paper presents a data-driven approach to link adaptation for multiuser multiple input mulitple output (MIMO) OFDM systems. A machine learning classifier is used to select the modulation and coding scheme, taking as input the SNR values in the different subcarriers and spatial streams. A new approximation is developed to estimate the unknown interuser interference due to the use of limited feedback. This approximation allows to obtain SNR information at the transmitter with a minimum communication overhead. A greedy algorithm is used to perform spatial mode and user selection with affordable complexity, without resorting to an exhaustive search. The proposed adaptation is studied in the context of the IEEE 802.11ac standard, and is shown to schedule users and adjust the transmission parameters to the channel conditions as well as to the rate of the feedback channel

Generalized Multicast Multibeam Precoding for Satellite Communications

This paper deals with the problem of precoding in multibeam satellite systems. In contrast to general multiuser multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) cellular schemes, multibeam satellite architectures suffer from different challenges. First, satellite communications standards embed more than one user in each frame in order to increase the channel coding gain. This leads to the different so-called multigroup multicast model, whose optimization requires computationally complex operations. Second, when the data traffic is generated by several Earth stations (gateways), the precoding matrix must be distributively computed and attain additional payload restrictions. Third, since the feedback channel is adverse (large delay and quantization errors), the precoding must be able to deal with such uncertainties. In order to solve the aforementioned problems, we propose a two-stage precoding design in order to both limit the multibeam interference and to enhance the intra-beam minimum user signal power (i.e. the one that dictates the rate allocation per beam). A robust version of the proposed precoder based on a first perturbation model is presented. This mechanism behaves well when the channel state information is corrupted. Furthermore, we propose a per beam user grouping mechanism together with its robust version in order to increase the precoding gain. Finally, a method for dealing with the multiple gateway architecture is presented, which offers high throughputs with a low inter-gateway communication. The conceived designs are evaluated in a close-to-real beam pattern and the latest broadband communication standard for satellite communications

Fundamental Green Tradeoffs: Progresses, Challenges, and Impacts on 5G Networks

With years of tremendous traffic and energy consumption growth, green radio has been valued not only for theoretical research interests but also for the operational expenditure reduction and the sustainable development of wireless communications. Fundamental green tradeoffs, served as an important framework for analysis, include four basic relationships: spectrum efficiency (SE) versus energy efficiency (EE), deployment efficiency (DE) versus energy efficiency (EE), delay (DL) versus power (PW), and bandwidth (BW) versus power (PW). In this paper, we first provide a comprehensive overview on the extensive on-going research efforts and categorize them based on the fundamental green tradeoffs. We will then focus on research progresses of 4G and 5G communications, such as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and non-orthogonal aggregation (NOA), multiple input multiple output (MIMO), and heterogeneous networks (HetNets). We will also discuss potential challenges and impacts of fundamental green tradeoffs, to shed some light on the energy efficient research and design for future wireless networks.Comment: revised from IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorial

NOMA Schemes for Multibeam Satellite Communications

Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) schemes are being considered in 5G new radio developments and beyond. Although seminal papers demonstrated that NOMA outperforms orthogonal access in terms of capacity and user fairness, the majority of works have been devoted to the wireless terrestrial arena. Therefore, it is worth to study how NOMA can be implemented in other types of communications, as for instance the satellite ones, which are also part of the 5G infrastructure. Although communications through a satellite present a different architecture than those in the wireless terrestrial links, NOMA can be an important asset to improve their performance. This article introduces a general overview of how NOMA can be applied to this different architecture. A novel taxonomy is presented based on different multibeam transmission schemes and guidelines that open new avenues for research in this topic are provided