A Multiuser Downlink System Combining Limited Feedback and Channel Correlation Information

We address the problem of combining limited feedback information with long-term channel statistical information in the design of downlink SDMA schemes. A novel combining method is developed to improve the quality of channel knowledge at the base station. More specifically, a set of novel feedback parameters is proposed and a related method is developed to estimate a representation of the multiuser channel vectors at the base station. This method utilizes the hybrid information by combining instantaneous channel feedback and long-term channel statistics, and is based on a channel phase codebook designed using the generalized Lloyd algorithm. The estimated channel knowledge at the base station can be used for joint design of multiuser precoding and opportunistic scheduling. The advantage of the proposed scheme over existing CSI quantization based SDMA schemes is further confirmed by computer simulations.