Threshold-based CSI feedback reduction for time-varying multiple-input multiple-output broadcast channels

In many modern wireless systems that operate based on availability of channel state information at transmitter (CSIT), one of the main bottlenecks is updating CSIT of the time varying channel. In multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) broadcast channels, CSIT is required for user scheduling and precoding. Most existing CSI feedback reduction techniques reduce the number of feedback terms by allowing only a limited number of users to feedback CSI, or allowing only partial/limited information of user channels to be send back to the transmitter. In this work, CSI is reduced over several time-slots of transmission, and not in a single snapshot at the beginning of each time-slot. A time-varying MIMO broadcast channel with limited-capacity feedback links is considered. An efficient threshold-based feedback technique that maximises net-throughput is proposed. The proposed scheme assigns different CSI feedback rates over several time-slots to different groups of users proportional to their channel strength. Analysis and simulation results for zero-forcing beamforming precoding show net-throughput superiority of the proposed scheme over the case of perfect CSI.