Reduced Feedback and Random Beamforming for OFDM MIMO Broadcast Channels

It has been shown that random beamforming using partial channel state information (CSI) achieves the same throughput scaling as obtained from dirty paper coding for a broadcast (downlink) channel with M transmit antennas and K users where K is large [1]. In this paper, we apply this scheme to wideband MIMO broadcast channels. By using OFDM, an L-tap wideband channel can be decomposed to N parallel narrowband channels (subcarriers), where N > L. Neighboring subcarriers are highly correlated. Therefore, we consider neighboring subcarriers as a cluster and find the closed form solution for the joint characteristic function of SINR values at two subcarriers in a cluster. We show numerically how the knowledge of the quality of the center subcarrier sheds light about the quality of other subcarriers in the same cluster, and address the issue of cluster size. In addition, through complex and asymptotic analysis, we show that for cluster size of order N/L root logK (for large K), users need only feedback the best SINR at the center subcarrier of each cluster in order for the transmitter to perform opportunistic beamforming and maintain the same throughput scaling as when full CSI is available. Using simulation results, we verify our analytical result and show that even fewer feedback can be tolerated, and larger clusters (N/2L) can be implemented for a small throughput hit.