Zero-Forcing Methods for Downlink Spatial Multiplexing in Multiuser MIMO Channels

The use of space-division multiple access (SDMA) in the downlink of a multiuser multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communications network can provide a substantial gain in system throughput. The challenge in such multiuser systems is designing transmit vectors while considering the co-channel interference of other users. Typical optimization problems of interest include the capacity problem—maximizing the sum information rate subject to a power constraint—or the power control problem—minimizing transmitted power such that a certain quality-of-service metric for each user is met. Neither of these problems possess closed-form solutions for the general multiuser MIMO channel, but the imposition of certain constraints can lead to closed-form solutions. This paper presents two such constrained solutions. The first, referred to as “block-diagonalization,” is a generalization of channel inversion when there are multiple antennas at each receiver. It is easily adapted to optimize for either maximum transmission rate or minimum power and approaches the optimal solution at high SNR. The second, known as “successive optimization,” is an alternative method for solving the power minimization problem one user at a time, and it yields superior results in some (e.g., low SNR) situations. Both of these algorithms are limited to cases where the transmitter has more antennas than all receive antennas combined. In order to accommodate more general scenarios, we also propose a framework for coordinated transmitter-receiver processing that generalizes the two algorithms to cases involving more receive than transmit antennas. While the proposed algorithms are suboptimal, they lead to simpler transmitter and receiver structures and allow for a reasonable tradeoff between performance and complexity.