Multi-cell Multiple-input Multiple-output Research Articles

Intelligent Reflecting Surface Backscatter Enabled Downlink Multi-Cell MIMO Networks

This paper proposes to leverage intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) backscatter to implement downlink communications for a multi-cell multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) network, which represents a brand-new communication framework. In such a network, one active macro cell base station (MBS) is deployed for radiating energy signal, while each IRS acts as a small cell base station to realize its own information transmission by modulating and reflecting the signal from the MBS. Under this paradigm, we investigate two optimization problems, namely weighted sum rate maximization problem and max-min fairness problem, aiming at satisfying different communication requirements. To seek their optimal solutions, Lagrangian dual transform and alternate methods are employed to optimize the active beamforming vector at the MBS and the passive beamforming vectors at all the IRSs. Additionally, an element clustering scheme is developed to reduce computation and control complexity, in which each element cluster works like a unit and all clusters can collaborate to communicate with users. Extensive simulations are conducted to evaluate the achievable communication performance and to verify the feasibility of the proposed IRS backscatter enabled downlink multi-cell MIMO network.

Joint Learning and Optimization-Based Resource Management in Hybrid Network of Cooperative and Non-Cooperative Massive MIMO Systems

Multi-cell multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems have the potential to significantly improve wireless network throughput. However, the cooperative MIMO network experiences the limited backhaul capacity, while the non-cooperative MIMO network requires high fronthaul bandwidth. To overcome these issues, we consider the hybrid MIMO networks to take advantages of both non-cooperative and cooperative MIMO network. In such hybrid system, the decision of whether cells operate in non-cooperative or cooperative mode, as well as the allocated bandwidth for cells are challenging due to the unavailability of channel state information (CSI). Furthermore, cells operating in the cooperative mode should optimize the quantized level selection and power allocation when the backhaul capacity is limited. To address this problem, we propose a joint learning-based and optimization-based framework. Particularly, we employ both large-scale and small-scale fading models to formulate the optimization problems, and then use the obtained solutions of these problems to determine fixed-size features in dynamic networks for the learner. Our numerical results show when the placement decision and the bandwidth assignment for cells are determined, the proposed algorithm can compute the quantized level and allocate power to significantly improve the system performance. Moreover, the proposed hybrid network model controlled by our algorithms outperforms both the non-cooperative and the cooperative MIMO systems in term of net throughput.

Rate Splitting in MIMO RIS-Assisted Systems With Hardware Impairments and Improper Signaling

In this paper, we propose an optimization framework for rate splitting (RS) techniques in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted systems, possibly with I/Q imbalance (IQI). This framework can be applied to any optimization problem in which the objective and/or constraints are linear functions of the rates and/or transmit covariance matrices. Such problems include minimum-weighted and weighted-sum rate maximization, total power minimization for a target rate, minimum-weighted energy efficiency (EE) and global EE maximization. The framework may be applied to any interference-limited system with hardware impairments. For the sake of illustration, we consider a multicell MIMO RIS-assisted broadcast channel (BC) in which the base stations (BSs) and/or the users may suffer from IQI. Since IQI generates improper noise, we consider improper Gaussian signaling (IGS) as an interference-management technique that can additionally compensate for IQI. We show that RS when combined with IGS can substantially improve the spectral and energy efficiency of overloaded networks (i.e., when the number of users per cell is larger than the number of transmit/receive antennas).

Online Multicell Coordinated MIMO Wireless Network Virtualization With Imperfect CSI

We consider online coordinated precoding design for downlink wireless network virtualization (WNV) in a multi-cell multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) network with imperfect channel state information (CSI). In our WNV framework, an infrastructure provider (InP) owns each base station that is shared by several service providers (SPs) oblivious of each other. The SPs design their precoders as virtualization demands for user services, while the InP designs the actual precoding solution to meet the service demands from the SPs. Our aim is to minimize the long-term time-averaged expected precoding deviation over MIMO fading channels, subject to both per-cell long-term and short-term transmit power limits. We propose an online coordinated precoding algorithm for virtualization, which provides a fully distributed semi-closed-form precoding solution at each cell, based only on the current imperfect CSI without any CSI exchange across cells. Taking into account the two-fold impact of imperfect CSI on both the InP and the SPs, we show that our proposed algorithm is within an <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$O(\delta)$ </tex-math></inline-formula> gap from the optimum over any time horizon, where <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\delta $ </tex-math></inline-formula> is a CSI inaccuracy indicator. Simulation results validate the performance of our proposed algorithm under two commonly used precoding techniques in a typical urban micro-cell network environment.

Robust transmit beamforming design for multi‐cell multiuser MIMO NOMA

This paper focuses on the robust beamforming design for downlink multi-cell multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) systems without having any restrictions on the number of users and cells. The beamforming matrices are designed by solving a sum rate maximization problem under imperfect channel state information (CSI) while satisfying transmission power constraints. In order to solve the proposed non-convex optimization problem with infinite-dimensional robust constraints, an iterative algorithm is provided to transform this problem into a convex form by utilizing diagonalization theory and introducing some auxiliary variables. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm converges quickly, and the proposed robust NOMA design achieves strong robustness and acceptable performance.

Coordinated beamforming, interference-aware power control, and scheduling framework for 6G wireless networks

In this study, we propose a novel sum-rate enhancement framework for future 6G multi-cell multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) uplink networks, which exploits the coordinated beamforming, power control, and user scheduling (CBPS) technique. The proposed CBPS technique not only significantly mitigates the inter-cell interference in transmit beamforming for users but also eliminates the intra-cell interference among the users in the same cell the receive beamforming at base stations (BSs). Additionally, we propose a user scheduling algorithm that selects the users whose effective channel vectors are mutually orthogonal to each other to increase the spectral efficiency and an interference-aware power control technique for users to further reduce inter-cell interference. It is worth noting that the proposed CBPS framework does not require information exchange among the BSs and operates in a non-iterative and distributed manner based on local channel state information (CSI) at both the BSs and users. Thus, it can be implemented for practical wireless systems with low complexity. Extensive simulation results show that the proposed CBPS framework significantly outperforms conventional techniques in multi-cell environments.

Spatial Multiplexing Superimposed Pilots for Multicell Multiuser MIMO Uplink Systems

For a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system, or a multiuser MIMO system, it is important to acquire the accurate channel state information. In this article, a superimposed-pilot-based channel estimation scheme is proposed for multicell multiuser MIMO uplink systems. In this scheme, the pilot sequences and data sequences are superimposed, but the space generated by the pilot sequences and the space spanned by data sequences are separated far enough in order to reduce interference. Based on this scheme, the minimum mean-square error channel estimation is deduced, and the optimal power allocation between the pilots and the data signals is derived to maximize throughput. These results show that our proposed scheme can overcome the pilot contamination and achieve better performance than the traditional time-multiplexing scheme with mutually orthogonal pilot sequences for different users when the coherent time slot is limited.

Improper Signaling for Multicell MIMO RIS-Assisted Broadcast Channels With I/Q Imbalance

This paper studies the performance of improper Gaussian signaling (IGS) in a multicell broadcast multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) reconfigurable-intelligent-surface (RIS)-assisted channel. The transceivers are non-ideal devices with I/Q imbalance, which further motivates the use of IGS. We propose IGS schemes to improve the spectral and energy efficiency (EE) of the system by solving different optimization problems such as minimum-weighted-rate, weighted-sum-rate, minimum-weighted-EE and global-EE maximization. Two different RIS implementations are considered: in the first one, the phase and amplitude of the RIS components can be optimized independently, which provides an upper-bound for RIS performance. In the second implementation, the amplitude of each RIS component is fixed, and only its phase can be optimized, which is referred to as reflecting surfaces. We show that RIS can significantly increase the spectral and energy efficiency of the system, while the reflecting surfaces perform very close to the upper-bound performance of RISs. Moreover, distributed RIS implementations that use spatially separated RIS with fewer components, can outperform centralized implementations consisting of a single RIS with co-located reflecting elements. Additionally, our results indicate that IGS can provide considerable gains from both spectral and energy-efficiency perspectives, and the benefits of IGS can be even higher in RIS-assisted systems.

Online Distributed Coordinated Precoding for Virtualized MIMO Networks With Delayed CSI

We consider online wireless network virtualization (WNV) in a multi-cell multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) system with delayed feedback of channel state information (CSI). Multiple service providers (SPs) simultaneously share the base station resources of an infrastructure provider (InP). We aim at minimizing the accumulated precoding deviation of the InP's actual precoder from the SPs' virtualization demands via managing both inter-SP and inter-cell interference, subject to both long-term and short-term per-cell transmit power constraints. We develop an online coordinated precoding solution and show that it provides provable performance bounds. Our precoding solution is fully distributed at each cell, based only on delayed local CSI. Furthermore, it has a closed-form expression with low computational complexity. Finally, simulation results demonstrate the substantial performance gain of our precoding solution over the current best alternative.

Distributed Coordinated Precoding for MIMO Cellular Network Virtualization

This paper presents a new virtualization method for the downlink of a multi-cell multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) network, to achieve service isolation among multiple Service Providers (SPs) that share the base station resources of an Infrastructure Provider (InP). Each SP designs a virtual precoder for its users in each cell, as its service demand to the InP, without the need to be aware of the existence of the other SPs or to know the channel state information (CSI) outside the cell. The InP performs network virtualization to meet the SPs&#x2019; service demands while managing both the inter-SP and inter-cell interference. We consider coordinated multi-cell precoding at the InP and formulate an optimization problem to minimize a weighted sum of signal leakage and precoding deviation, with per-cell transmit power constraints. We propose a fully distributed semi-closed-form solution at each cell, without any CSI exchange across cells. We further propose a low-complexity scheme to allocate the virtual transmit power, for the InP to regulate between interference elimination and virtual demand maximization. Simulation results demonstrate that our precoding solution for network virtualization substantially outperforms the traditional spectrum isolation alternative. It can approach the performance of fully cooperative precoding when the number of antennas is large.

Asymptotic Performance Analysis of MMSE Receivers in Multicell MU-MIMO Systems

For large-scale antenna array multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, a typical solution often put forward for uplink detection consists in applying low-complexity linear receivers such as zero-forcing (ZF) and minimum mean-square error (MMSE) combiners. In this paper, the performance of uplink MMSE detection has been analyzed in the context of a multi-cell multiuser MIMO system. An approximate expression for the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) is proposed, which is in simple form and becomes exact in the low SNR regime. This approximate SINR applies to systems where the base station (BS) has the statistical information of the out-of-cell interfering signals, and systems where the BS ignores the presence of such interfering signals. This approximate SINR is tight for arbitrary user powers, arbitrary number of antennas at the base station, and arbitrary channel correlation matrix associated with any particular user. Approximate expressions for capacity and bit-error rate/symbol-error rate have also been derived. Particularly, it can be proven that, when the MMSE receiver ignores the presence of out-of-cell interfering signals, the performance gap between ZF and MMSE vanishes in the high SNR regime.

Energy Efficiency Maximization Under Minimum Rate Constraints in Multi-Cell MIMO Systems With Finite Buffers

Having recognized the dramatic increase in the number of mobile devices and infrastructure nodes, standards organizations and regulatory bodies have adopted energy efficiency (EE) as a key performance metric for fifth-generation networks. Recent works on multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems have suggested that it is important to use finite-buffer models, because they may lead to better transceiver designs and more accurate performance analyses than full-buffer traffic models. Therefore, this article addresses the MIMO transceiver design problem for EE maximization in the downlink of finite-buffer multicell systems. Unlike previous works, our problem formulation takes into account per-user minimum rate requirements. We arrive at a nonconvex fractional optimization problem, which is hard to tackle. By exploiting the properties of fractional programming, and using Dinkelbach's method, the resulting fractional form optimization problem is transformed to an equivalent optimization problem in subtractive form. Next, the nonconvexity of this problem is handled using successive convex approximation, leading to iterative centralized and decentralized resource allocation solutions. Finally, considering a realistic channel model with space, frequency and time correlations, numerical results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms and indicate significant performance gains in terms of achieved EE over existing solutions for full and finite-buffer models.

Coordinated Beamforming for Secure Transmission in the Downlink Multicell MIMO Systems

In this paper, we consider secure transmission in the downlink of a multicell multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system with M cells; each cell consists of an N-antenna base station (BS) and K single-antenna users. Coordinated beamforming (CBf) is employed for secrecy enhancement. For CBf, the BSs can jointly design their respective beamformers to control intercell interference and information leakage. Based on regularized channel inversion (RCI) precoding structures, we derive the concise formulas for the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) for the legitimate users and the colluding malicious users and the achievable secrecy sum rate for the CBf. Furthermore, we obtain a novel closed-form expression of the secrecy sum in the large-system regime where N and K tend to infinity with a fixed ratio β=K/N. Based on the large-system regime result, the regularization parameter is optimized to maximize the secrecy sum rate. It shows that the optimal regularization parameter decreases with the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and stays constant at high SNR if β&gt;1/M. Compared with single-cell processing (SCP) without BS cooperation, simulation results show that the secrecy performance can be significantly enhanced by exploiting CBf. The analytical results are validated with the finite-size system by simulation.

Coordinated Beamforming and Artificial Noise in the Downlink Secure Multi-cell MIMO Systems under Imperfect CSI

In this letter, we consider the problem of secure communication in the downlink of a multi-cell multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system under imperfect channel state information (CSI) at the base stations (BSs). The passive eavesdroppers are considered, whose CSI are unavailable at the BSs. Coordinated Beamforming (CBf) and artificial noise (AN) are employed for secrecy enhancement. Based on regularized channel inversion (RCI) precoding, we derive a novel closed-form expression of secrecy sum-rate in the large-system regime. Based on the result, the regularization parameter and the power allocation ratio between the information signal and AN are optimized. Compared to the perfect CSI case, it shows that the channel estimation error can drastically reduce the secrecy sum-rate, and more power needs to be allocated for AN when the channel estimation error grows larger. The analytical results are validated with the finite-size system by simulation.

Joint Transmit and Circuit Power Minimization in Massive MIMO With Downlink SINR Constraints: When to Turn on Massive MIMO?

In this work, we consider the downlink of a multi-cell multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system and find the jointly optimal number of base station (BS) antennas and transmission powers that minimize the power consumption while satisfying each user's effective signal-to-interference-and-noise-ratio (SINR) constraint and the BSs' power constraints. Different from prior work, we consider a power consumption model that takes both transmitted and hardware-consumed power into account. We formulate the joint optimization problem for both single-cell and multi-cell systems. Closed-form expressions for the optimal number of BS antennas and transmission powers are derived for the single-cell case. The analysis for the multi-cell case reveals that increasing the number of BS antennas in any cell always improves the performance of the overall system in terms of both feasibility and total radiated power. A key contribution of this work is to show that the joint optimization problem can be relaxed as a geometric programming problem that can be solved efficiently. The solution can be utilized in practice to turn on and off antennas depending on the traffic load variations. Substantial power savings are demonstrated by simulation.

Joint Precoder and Equalizer Design for Multi-User Multi-Cell MIMO VLC Systems

In multi-user multi-cell multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) visible light communication (VLC) systems, inter-cell interference (ICI) and inter-user interference (IUI) are the two key factors that could severely degrade the system performance. In this paper, for the first time, a novel joint precoder and equalizer design based on interference alignment is proposed to mitigate both IUI and ICI in multi-user multi-cell MIMO VLC systems under imperfect channel state information (CSI). The proposed approach aims to choose proper precoder and receiving equalizer to minimize the mean square error (MSE) under the unique optical power constraints in VLC. Furthermore, we consider optical channel estimation error in our formulated joint optimization problem when designing the joint precoder and receiving equalizer in multi-user multi-cell MIMO VLC systems. Numerical results show that the proposed design achieves a better performance under different users locations, channel estimation errors, and transmitter/receiver spacing, compared to the existing minimum mean square error (MMSE) and max-rate designs. Especially, when the transmit optical power is 12 W per light emitting diode (LED) lamp, our proposed design achieves a sum rate improvement of up to 18.2% and 28.7% as compared with the MMSE and max-rate designs, respectively. In addition, the proposed design can save about 1.4 and 4.3 W optical power per LED lamp as compared with the MMSE and max-rate designs, respectively, at a target bit error rate (BER) of 10 $^{-3}$ .

Multi-Cell Hybrid Millimeter Wave Systems: Pilot Contamination and Interference Mitigation

In this paper, we investigate the system performance of a multi-cell multi-user (MU) hybrid millimeter wave communications in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) network. Due to the reuse of pilot symbols among different cells, the performance of channel estimation is expected to be degraded by pilot contamination, which is considered as a fundamental performance bottleneck of conventional multi-cell MU massive MIMO networks. To analyze the impact of pilot contamination to the system performance, we first derive the closed-form approximation of the normalized mean-squared error of the channel estimation algorithm proposed by Zhao et al. over Rician fading channels. Our analytical and simulation results show that the channel estimation error incurred by the impact of pilot contamination and noise vanishes asymptotically with an increasing number of antennas equipped at each radio frequency chain at the desired BS. Furthermore, by adopting zero-forcing precoding in each cell for downlink transmission, we derive a tight closed-form approximation of the average achievable rate per user. Our results unveil that the intra-cell interference and inter-cell interference caused by pilot contamination over Rician fading channels can be mitigated effectively by simply increasing the number of antennas equipped at the desired BS.

Joint Interference Alignment and Power Allocation for K-User Multicell MIMO Channel through Staggered Antenna Switching.

In this paper, we characterise the joint interference alignment (IA) and power allocation strategies for a K-user multicell multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) Gaussian interference channel. We consider a MIMO interference channel with blind-IA through staggered antenna switching on the receiver. We explore the power allocation and feasibility condition for cooperative cell-edge (CE) mobile users (MUs) by assuming that the channel state information is unknown. The new insight behind the transmission strategy of the proposed scheme is premeditated (randomly generated transmission strategy) and partial cooperative CE MUs, where the transmitter is equipped with a conventional antenna, the receiver is equipped with a reconfigurable multimode antenna (staggered antenna switching pattern), and the receiver switches between preset T modes. Our proposed scheme assists and aligns the desired signals and interference signals to cancel the common interference signals because the received signal must have a corresponding independent signal subspace. The capacity for a K-user multicell MIMO Gaussian interference channel with reconfigurable multimode antennas is completely characterised. Furthermore, we show that the proposed K-user multicell MIMO scheduling and K-user L-cell CEUs partial cooperation algorithms elaborate the generalisation of K-user IA and power allocation strategies. The numerical results demonstrate that the proposed intercell interference scheme with partial-cooperative CE MUs achieves better capacity and signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR) performance compared to noncooperative CE MUs and without intercell interference schemes.

Optimal Multiuser Diversity in Multi-Cell MIMO Uplink Networks: User Scaling Law and Beamforming Design

We introduce a distributed protocol to achieve multiuser diversity in a multicell multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) uplink network, referred to as a MIMO interfering multiple-access channel (IMAC). Assuming both no information exchange among base stations (BS) and local channel state information at the transmitters for the MIMO IMAC, we propose a joint beamforming and user scheduling protocol, and then show that the proposed protocol can achieve the optimal multiuser diversity gain, i.e., KMlog(SNRlog N), as long as the number of mobile stations (MSs) in a cell, N, scales faster than SNR K M − L 1 − ϵ for a small constant ϵ &gt; 0, where M, L, K, and SNR denote the number of receive antennas at each BS, the number of transmit antennas at each MS, the number of cells, and the signal-to-noise ratio, respectively. Our result indicates that multiuser diversity can be achieved in the presence of intra-cell and inter-cell interference even in a distributed fashion. As a result, vital information on how to design distributed algorithms in interference-limited cellular environments is provided.

User clustering and robust beamforming design in multicell MIMO-NOMA system for 5G communications

In this paper, we present a robust beamforming design to tackle the weighted sum-rate maximization (WSRM) problem in a multicell multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) – non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) downlink system for 5G wireless communications. This work consider the imperfect channel state information (CSI) at the base station (BS) by adding uncertainties to channel estimation matrices as the worst-case model i.e., singular value uncertainty model (SVUM). With this observation, the WSRM problem is formulated subject to the transmit power constraints at the BS. The objective problem is known as non-deterministic polynomial (NP) problem which is difficult to solve. We propose an robust beamforming design which establishes on majorization minimization (MM) technique to find the optimal transmit beamforming matrix, as well as efficiently solve the objective problem. In addition, we also propose a joint user clustering and power allocation (JUCPA) algorithm in which the best user pair is selected as a cluster to attain a higher sum-rate. Extensive numerical results are provided to show that the proposed robust beamforming design together with the proposed JUCPA algorithm significantly increases the performance in term of sum-rate as compared with the existing NOMA schemes and the conventional orthogonal multiple access (OMA) scheme.