Linear Precoding for High-K-Factor Channels Exploiting Channel Mean and Covariance Information

In this paper, we consider the high-K-factor Ricean channel, where the channel mean is of arbitrary rank, and the fading channel components are correlated. We propose two suboptimal linear precoding schemes based on the knowledge of the channel mean and covariance at the transmitter. The first precoder is derived from an approximate ergodic capacity expression for the high-K-factor Ricean channels, whereas the second is derived from Jensen´s inequality. We compare the capacity obtained to the true ergodic capacity found by using a numerical convex optimization algorithm. We further investigate the impact of the fading channel covariance, the rank of the channel mean, and the K-factor on the precoding schemes and the achievable ergodic capacity limit.