Abstract — This paper studies the downlink Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) setup with a single Base Station (BS) serving many users. The BS is assumed to have limited Channel State Information (CSI) obtained by feedback in a Time Division Duplexing (TDD) manner. Given that the feedback rate and the coherence time of the channel are fixed, the question asked in this paper is: how to allocate the feedback resources optimally? Specifically, what is the optimal number of tones grouped as a subchannel, the number of users that feedback for any subchannel and the number of bits used for quantization of CSI? Analytical expressions are derived for the i.i.d. Rayleigh fading case and it is shown that there is a definite hierarchy in the importance of the three design variables. Feedback resources are first allocated to create the maximum number of subchannels possible, then to allow for more users to feedback for any subchannel and lastly to increase the precision of the channel value. Monte-Carlo simulations are performed to verify the accuracy of the derived analytical expressions. I.

We consider a MIMO fading broadcast channel and compute achievable ergodic rates when channel state information is acquired at the receivers via downlink training and it is provided to the transmitter by channel state feedback. Unquantized (analog) and quantized (digital) channel state feedback schemes are analyzed and compared under various assumptions. Digital feedback is shown to be potentially superior when the feedback channel uses per channel state coefficient is larger than 1. Also, we show that by proper design of the digital feedback link, errors in the feedback have a minor effect even if simple uncoded modulation is used on the feedback channel. We discuss first the case of an unfaded AWGN feedback channel with orthogonal access and then the case of fading MIMO multi-access (MIMO-MAC). We show that by exploiting the MIMO-MAC nature of the uplink channel, a much better scaling of the feedback channel resource with the number of base station antennas can be achieved. Finally, for the case of delayed feedback, we show that in the realistic case where the fading process has (normalized) maximum Doppler frequency shift 0 ≤ F < 1/2, a fraction 1 − 2F of the optimal multiplexing gain is achievable. The general conclusion of this work is that very significant downlink throughput is achievable with simple and efficient channel state feedback, provided that the feedback link is properly designed.

We consider a MIMO fading broadcast channel where the fading channel coefficients are constant over time-frequency blocks that span a coherent time × a coherence bandwidth. In closed-loop systems, channel state information at transmitter (CSIT) is acquired by the downlink training sent by the base station and an explicit feedback from each user terminal. In open-loop systems, CSIT is obtained by exploiting uplink training and channel reciprocity. We use a tight closed-form lower bound on the ergodic achievable rate in the presence of CSIT errors in order to optimize the overall system throughput, by taking explicitly into account the overhead due to channel estimation and channel state feedback. Based on three time-frequency block models inspired by actual systems, we provide some useful guidelines for the overall system optimization. In particular, digital (quantized) feedback is found to offer a substantial advantage over analog (unquantized) feedback.

We consider a MIMO fading broadcast channel and compute achievable ergodic rates when channel state information is acquired at the receivers via downlink training and it is provided to the transmitter by channel state feedback. Unquantized (analog) and quantized (digital) channel state feedback schemes are analyzed and compared under various assumptions. Digital feedback is shown to be potentially superior when the feedback channel uses per channel state coefficient is larger than 1. Also, we show that by proper design of the digital feedback link, errors in the feedback have a minor effect even if simple uncoded modulation is used on the feedback channel. We discuss first the case of an unfaded AWGN feedback channel with orthogonal access and then the case of fading MIMO multi-access (MIMO-MAC). We show that by exploiting the MIMO-MAC nature of the uplink channel, a much better scaling of the feedback channel resource with the number of base station antennas can be achieved. Finally, for the case of delayed feedback, we show that in the realistic case where the fading process has (normalized) maximum Doppler frequency shift 0 ≤ F < 1/2, a fraction 1 − 2F of the optimal multiplexing gain is achievable. The general conclusion of this work is that very significant downlink throughput is achievable with simple and efficient channel state feedback, provided that the feedback link is properly designed. I.