A Post-Coder Feedback Approach to Overcome Training Asymmetry in MIMO-TDD

Abstract

Time Division Duplex (TDD) wireless communication systems are inherently bidirectional, which facilitates exploiting channel reciprocity for pilot based channel estimation of both uplink and downlink. However, there exists a gross asymmetry in channel estimation complexity for the uplink and downlink, particularly for Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) TDD systems. Usually, Base Stations (BS) with more antennas need to estimate fewer parameters from each antenna, whereas the estimation requirement is disproportionately higher at the User Equipment (UE). Unlike the UE, the BS has powerful hardware, computational resources and energy to estimate and track channel profiles accurately. To overcome this asymmetry, we propose a solution for MIMO-TDD downlink communication, wherein the post-coder part of the channel matrix is quantized at the BS, and is communicated to the UE via a low-rate channel. Using asymptotically tight lower bounds on the downlink information-theoretic rates achievable, we quantify the performance of the proposed scheme. Simulations reveal that a moderate number of quantization bits are sufficient to achieve rates close to the link capacity. We further show that in the massive MIMO regime, where the BS has many more antennas than the UE, the channel can be effectively compensated by appropriate transmit domain precoding, without any post-coder knowledge at the UE.