On Using Channel Prediction in Adaptive Beamforming Systems

Adaptive transmission schemes based on channel state information at the transmitter have the potential to significantly improve the performance of a wireless system by matching the transmitted signal to the time varying wireless channel conditions. However, channel estimation errors and feedback delay can limit the performance gain. In this paper, the performance gain that can be obtained using channel prediction in an adaptive beamforming system with channel estimation error and feedback delay is evaluated. Channel prediction is shown to improve outage performance significantly by reducing the effect of feedback delay. Results also show that, for a given target outage performance, channel prediction allows the system to operate at much larger channel Doppler spread.