Performance of linear precoding and user selection in IEEE 802.11ac downlink MU-MIMO system

IEEE 802.11ac is a next generation wireless local area network (WLAN) standard employing multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) scheme for the first time. Since precoding and user selection schemes influence the performance of MU-MIMO transmission, accurate channel state information (CSI) is required to select users and obtain precoding matrix. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of linear precoding schemes such as channel inversion (CI) and block diagonalization (BD) with limited CSI by using compressed feedback. We also describe the greedy user selection metrics and linear precoding schemes of low complexity. Our results compare the achievable sum-rate between the user selection metrics and provide the packet error rate (PER) performance under the realistic channel models.