PhD Seminar (ENCS8051)

New Power Allocation Strategy Among MIMO

Spatial Subchannels - Beam-Nulling

Mabruk Gheryani

Supervisor: Dr. Yousef R. Shayan

November 5, 2008
 Abstract

Since the discovery of multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) channel ca-

pacity, a lot of research efforts have been put into this field. It has been
recognized that adaptive techniques proposed for single-input-single-output
(SISO) channel, can also be applied to improve MIMO channel capacity.
The original MIMO channel can be converted to uncorrelated spatial
subchannels via singular value decomposition. Strategies of power allocation
over these spatial subchannels for various channel state information scenarios
have been studied, such as equal power, water-filling, beamforming. A novel
scheme called “beam-nulling” has been proposed. Using the same feedback
bandwidth as beamforming, the new scheme discards the weakest spatial
subchannel but exploits the other subchannels. Hence, it can achieve signifi-
cant high capacity, which is near the optimal water-filling solution at medium
signal-to-noise ratio.
Additionally, the capacities of equal power, beamforming and beam-
nulling are compared through theoretical analysis. Numerical results of the
three schemes and the optimal water-filling scheme are also compared. It is
shown that at low signal-to-noise ratio, beamforming nears the optimal, at
medium signal-to-noise ratio, beam-nulling nears the optimal, and at high
signal-to-noise ratio, equal power nears the optimal.
As future works, performance and application of beam-nulling and new
adaptation strategies will be further investigated. The remaining tasks have
been scheduled.
Contents

List of Tables 3

List of Tables 4

Notations and Abbreviations 5

1 Introduction 7
1.1 Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.2 Literature Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3 Problem Statement and Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.4 Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

2 Recent Research Results 11

2.1 Channel Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2 Power Allocation Among Spatial Subchannels . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2.1 Equal Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2.2 Water-Filling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2.3 Eigen-Beamforming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.2.4 Beam-Nulling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

1
 2.3 Comparisons Among the Four Schemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.3.1 At low SNR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.3.2 At medium SNR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.3.3 At high SNR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

3 Conclusions and Future Works 33

3.1 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.2 Future Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.2.1 Performance and Application of Beam-Nulling . . . . . 34
3.2.2 New Adaptive Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.3 Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

2
List of Tables

3.1 Schedule for the remaining tasks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

3
List of Figures

2.1 MIMO channel model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2.2 Capacity for equal power allocation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3 Water-filling scheme. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.4 Capacity for water-filling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.5 Eigen-beamforming scheme. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.6 Capacity for eigen-beamforming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.7 Beam-Nulling scheme. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.8 Capacity for beam-nulling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.9 2 × 2 Rayleigh fading channel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.10 3 × 3 Rayleigh fading channel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.11 4 × 4 Rayleigh fading channel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.12 5 × 5 Rayleigh fading channel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

3.1 Gantt chart for the remaining tasks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

4
Notations and Abbreviations

• X: upper bold letter for matrix

• x: lower bold letter for column vector

• XH : hermitian of X

• XT : transpose of X

• diag[x]: a diagonal matrix with x on its main diagonal

• tr(X): trace of X

• det(X): determinant of X

• {x}: a set of x

• E(x): expectation of x

• AWGN: additive white Gaussian noise

• BF: beamforming

• BN: beam-nulling

• CSI: channel state information

• EQ: equal power

• FDFR: Full Diversity Full Rate

• LDC: linear dispersion code

• MIMO: multiple-input-multiple-output

5
• SISO: single-input-single-output

• SNR: signal-to-noise ratio

• ST: space-time

• STBC: space-time block code

• SVD: singular value decomposition

• WF: water-filling

• i.i.d.: independently identically distributed

6
Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 Motivation
Since the discovery of multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) channel ca-
pacity, a lot of research efforts have been put into this field [1] [2]. It has
been recognized that adaptive techniques proposed for single-input-single-
output (SISO) channel [3] [4], can also be applied to improve MIMO channel
capacity.
The ideal scenario is that the transmitter has full knowledge of channel
state information (CSI) fed back from the receiver and the CSI keeps con-
stant before the transmitter sends information to the receiver. With such a
perfect CSI feedback, the original MIMO channel can be converted to multi-
ple uncoupled SISO channels via singular value decomposition (SVD) at the
transmitter and the receiver [1]. In other words, the original MIMO chan-
nel can be decomposed into several orthogonal “spatial subchannels” with
various propagation gains. To achieve better performance, various strategies

7
to allocate constrained power to these subchannels can be implemented de-
pending on the availability of CSI at the transmitter [6]- [8]. In this study,
we propose to develop new scheme with limited CSI feedback.

1.2 Literature Survey

If the transmitter has full knowledge about channel matrix, i.e., full CSI,
the so-called “water-filling” (WF) principle is performed on each spatial sub-
channel to maximize the channel capacity. This scheme is optimal in this
case. Note that in practice, water-filling power allocation has to cooper-
ate with the other adaptive parameters to improve performance or/and data
rate, such as constellation and coding rate. For example, over time-invariant
MIMO channels, it is known that the optimal performance (ergodic capac-
ity) is attained by power water-filling across channel eigenvalues with the
total power constraint [1]. Also, for time-varying MIMO channels, the op-
timal performance is obtained through power water-filling over both space
and time domains with the average power constraint [11]. The space-time
WF-based scheme and the spatial WF-based scheme for MIMO fading chan-
nels were compared in [12]. The comparison shows that for Rayleigh channels
without shadowing, space-time WF-based scheme gains little in capacity over
spatial WF-based scheme. However, for Rayleigh channels with shadowing,
space-time WF-based scheme achieves higher spectral efficiency per antenna
over spatial WF-based scheme. A WF-based scheme using imperfect CSI in
MIMO systems was studied in [13].
For the WF-based scheme, the feedback bandwidth for the full CSI grows

8
with respect to the number of transmit and receive antennas and the perfor-
mance is often very sensitive to channel estimation errors. To overcome these
disadvantages, various beamforming techniques for MIMO channels are also
investigated intensively. Beamforming is a linear signal processing technique
that control the complex weights of the transmit and receive antennas jointly
to optimize the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in one direction [10]. In other
words, beamforming can increase the sensitivity in the direction of wanted
signals but decrease the sensitivity in the direction of interfering signals.
In an adaptive beamforming scheme, complex weights of the transmit
antennas are fed back from the receiver. If only partial CSI is available at
the transmitter such as the eigenvector associated with the strongest spa-
tial subchannel, eigen-beamforming [7] is optimal in this case. The eigen-
beamforming scheme only allocates power to the strongest spatial subchan-
nel but can achieve full diversity and high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Also,
in practice, the eigen-beamforming scheme has to cooperate with the other
adaptive parameters to improve performance or/and data rate, such as con-
stellation and coding rate.
There are also other beamforming schemes based on various criteria.
For example, an optimal eigen-beamforming space-time block code (STBC)
scheme based on channel mean feedback was proposed in [7]. A MIMO sys-
tem based on transmit beamforming and adaptive modulation was proposed
in [8], where the transmit power, the signal constellation, the beamforming
direction, and the feedback strategy were considered jointly. The analysis of
MIMO beamforming systems with quantized CSI for uncorrelated Rayleigh
fading channels was provided in [9].

9
1.3 Problem Statement and Objective
Note that the conventional beamforming is optimal in terms of maximizing
the SNR at the receiver. However, it is sub-optimal from a MIMO capac-
ity point of view, since only one data stream, instead of parallel streams,
is transmitted through the MIMO channel [15]. Inspired by existing beam-
forming schemes, we will propose a new beamforming-like technique called
minimum eigenvector “beam-nulling” (BN). This scheme uses the same feed-
back bandwidth as beamforming. That is, only one eigenvector is fed back
to the transmitter. Unlike the eigen-beamforming scheme in which only the
best spatial subchannel is considered, in the beam-nulling scheme, only the
worst spatial subchannel is discarded. Hence, the loss of channel capacity as
compared to the optimal water-filling scheme can be reduced. In this scheme,
power is only allocated to the other good spatial subchannels. As compared
to the beamforming scheme, this scheme outperforms significantly in terms
of channel capacity.

1.4 Organization
The rest of the seminar is organized as follows. In Chapter 2, backgrounds
and current results are presented. Finally in Chapter 3, we will conclude the
seminar and present the research schedule for the remaining tasks.

10
Chapter 2

Recent Research Results

In this chapter, the current achievements will be presented as follows.

2.1 Channel Model

In this study, the channel is assumed to be a Rayleigh flat fading channel
with Nt transmit and Nr (Nr ≥ Nt ) receive antennas. Let’s denote the
complex gain from transmit antenna n to receiver antenna m by hmn and
collect them to form an Nr × Nt channel matrix H = [hmn ]. The channel
is known perfectly at the receiver but partially informed to the transmitter.
The entries in H are assumed to be independently identically distributed
(i.i.d.) symmetrical complex Gaussian random variables with zero mean and
unit variance. The MIMO channel is shown in Figure 2.1.
The symbol vector at the Nt transmit antennas is denoted by
x = [x1 , x2 , . . . , xNt ]T . To simplify analysis, we consider a Gaussian chan-
nel. According to information theory [5], the optimal distribution of the

11
 x1 y1

hmn
xn ym

xN t yN r

Figure 2.1: MIMO channel model.

transmitted symbols is also Gaussian. Thus, the elements {xi } of x are as-
sumed to be i.i.d. Gaussian variables with zero mean and unit variance, i.e.,
E(xi ) = 0 and E|xi |2 = 1. By using the linear model, the received signals
can be written as
y = Hx + z (2.1)

z is the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) vector with i.i.d. symmetrical
complex Gaussian elements of zero mean and variance σz2 .
The singular-value decomposition of H can be written as

H = UΛVH (2.2)

where U is an Nr × Nr unitary matrix, Λ is an Nr × Nt matrix with singular

12
values {λi } on the diagonal and zeros off the diagonal, and V is an Nt ×
Nt unitary matrix. For convenience, we assume λ1 ≥ λ2 . . . ≥ λNt , U =
[u1 u2 . . . uNr ] and V = [v1 v2 . . . vNt ]. {ui } and {vi } are column vectors. We
assume that the rank of H is r (r ≤ Nt ). That is, the number of non-zero
singular values is r.
From (2.2), the original channel can be considered as consisting of r
uncoupled parallel subchannels. Each subchannel corresponds to a singular
value of H. In the following context, the subchannel is also referred to as
“spatial subchannel”. For instance, one spatial subchannel corresponds to
λi , ui and {vi }.

2.2 Power Allocation Among Spatial Subchan-

nels
We assume that the total transmitted power is constrained to P . Given the
power constraint, different power allocation among spatial subchannels can
affect the channel capacity tremendously. In the following context, depend-
ing on the power allocation among spatial subchannels, four schemes are
presented.

2.2.1 Equal Power

If the transmitter has no knowledge about the channel, the most judicious
strategy is to allocate the power to each transmit antenna equally. In this

13
case, the received signals can be written as
s
P
y= Hx + z (2.3)
Nt
The associated instantaneous channel capacity with respect to H can be
written as [1] Ã !
Nt
X P 2
Ceq = log 1 + λ (2.4)
i=1 Nt σz2 i
In the follow figure, numerical results of ergodic (average) channel ca-
pacity for 2 × 2,3 × 3 and 4 × 4 Rayleigh flat fading channels are shown in
Figure 2.2.

Equal power
25
2x2
3x3
4x4
20 5x5
Capacity (bit/s/Hz)

15

10

0
0 5 10 15 20 25
SNR (dB)

Figure 2.2: Capacity for equal power allocation.

14
2.2.2 Water-Filling

If the transmitter has full knowledge about the channel, the most judicious
strategy is to allocate the power to each spatial subchannel by water-filling
principle [1]. It allocates more power when a spatial subchannel has larger
gain (i.e. {λi }) and less when a subchannel gets worse. With V at the
transmitter and U at the receiver, the original MIMO channel is converted to
r uncoupled parallel SISO channels. The WF scheme is shown in Figure 2.3.
Binary
Info. P1x1 Ant-1
source Binary
Info.
Out
Ant-1
Power Allocation

Constellation
Mapper ~y

Detector
S/P H
V U

Prxr Ant-Nr

Ant-Nt
Nt-r 0's
Channel
Estimation

Feedback

Figure 2.3: Water-filling scheme.

For spatial subchannel i, ∀i = 1, 2, . . . , r, the received signal is

q
ỹi = Pi λi xi + z̃i (2.5)
r
P
where Pi = P as a constraint and z̃i the is AWGN variable with zero mean
i=1

15
and σz2 variance. Following the method of Lagrange multipliers, the optimal
Pi can be found as [1]
à !
1 σ2
Pi = max − z , 0 , ∀i = 1, 2, . . . , r (2.6)
L ln 2 λi
where L is the Lagrange multiplier. The instantaneous channel capacity is
for this spatial subchannel is
à !
Pi
Cwf,i = log 1 + 2 λ2i (2.7)
σz
Then the total channel capacity with respect to H is
r
X
Cwf = Cwf,i (2.8)
i=1
The WF scheme maximizes the channel capacity by power allocation over
spatial subchannels. Since λ1 ≥ λ2 . . . ≥ λr , we have P1 ≥ P2 . . . ≥ Pr and
Cwf,1 ≥ Cwf,2 . . . ≥ Cwf,r . In practice, if each spatial subchannel requires
the same error rate performance, the spatial subchannel with larger gain
√
(i.e. Pi λi ) can have higher rate; while if each spatial subchannel has the
same rate, the spatial with larger gain will have better performance. The
application of these two approaches will depend on the type of service. For
example, the important data needs high quality but the voice can tolerate
low quality.
In the follow figure, numerical results of ergodic (average) channel capac-
ity for 2 × 2, 3 × 3 and 4 × 4 Rayleigh flat fading channels are shown in
Figure 2.4.
In the WF scheme, the feedback bandwidth for the perfect CSI grows
with respect to the number of transmit and receive antennas. In practice,
the bandwidth for CSI feedback is often very limited. The large feedback
bandwidth also affects the transmission efficiency.

16
 Water−filling
25
2x2
3x3
4x4
20 5x5
Capacity (bit/s/Hz)

15

10

0
0 5 10 15 20 25
SNR (dB)

Figure 2.4: Capacity for water-filling.

2.2.3 Eigen-Beamforming

To save feedback bandwidth, beamforming can be considered. Beamform-

ing is a linear signal processing technique that control the complex weights
of the transmit and receive antennas jointly to optimize the signal-to-noise
ratio (SNR) in one direction [7] [10]. For the MIMO model, the optimal
beamforming is called “eigen-beamforming”. In the following context, this
optimal solution is referred to as beamforming.
In this scheme, the eigenvector associated with the maximum singular
value λ1 from the transmitter side, i.e., v1 , is feedback to the transmitter as

17
the transmission beamformer. The Eigen-beamforming scheme is shown in
Figure 2.5.

Ant-1 Binary
Binary Info.
Info. Out
source
Ant-1

Px1
Constellation
Mapper
~
y1
H
v1 u1 Detector

Ant-Nr Channel
Estimation

Ant-Nt

Feedback

Figure 2.5: Eigen-beamforming scheme.

We assume one symbol, saying x1 , is transmitted. At the receiver, the

received vector can be written as
√
y1 = P Hv1 x1 + z1 (2.9)

where z1 is the additive white Gaussian noise vector with i.i.d. symmetrical
complex Gaussian elements of zero mean and variance σz2 .
The eigenvector associated with the maximum singular value from the

18
receiver side, i.e., u1 , is applied as the receiver beamformer. Then we have
√
ỹ1 = uH
1 y1 = P λ1 x1 + z̃1 (2.10)

where z̃1 is Gaussian with zero mean and variance σz2 . As can be seen from
(2.10), only the spatial subchannel associated with the maximum singular
value λ1 is applied.
The associated instantaneous channel capacity with respect to H can be
written as à !
P
Cbf = log 1 + 2 λ21 (2.11)
σz
In the follow figure, numerical results of ergodic (average) channel capacity
for 2×2, 3×3 and 4×4 Rayleigh flat fading channels are shown in Figure 2.6.
The eigen-beamforming scheme can save feedback bandwidth and is op-
timized in terms of SNR [10]. However, since only one spatial subchannel is
considered, this scheme suffers from loss of channel capacity [15], especially
when the number of antennas grows. Also, as can be seen from the figure,
the gap of capacity between different numbers of antennas is nearly the same
for all the SNR region.

2.2.4 Beam-Nulling

Inspired by the eigen-beamforming scheme, we will propose a new beamforming-

like scheme called “beam-nulling” (BN). This scheme uses the same feedback
bandwidth as beamforming. That is, only one eigenvector is fed back to the
transmitter. Unlike the eigen-beamforming scheme in which only the best
spatial subchannel is considered, in the beam-nulling scheme, only the worst

19
 Beamforming
10
2x2
9 3x3
4x4
8 5x5

7
Capacity (bit/s/Hz)

0
0 5 10 15 20 25
SNR (dB)

Figure 2.6: Capacity for eigen-beamforming.

spatial subchannel is discarded. Hence, the loss of channel capacity as com-

pared to the optimal water-filling scheme can be reduced. The Beam-Nulling
scheme is shown in Figure 2.7.
In this scheme, the eigenvector associated with the minimum singular
value from the transmitter side, i.e., vNt , is feedback to the transmitter.
By a certain rule, a subspace orthogonal to the weakest spatial channel is
constructed. That is, the following condition should be satisfied.

ΦH vNt = 0 (2.12)

20
Binary
Info.
source x1 Ant-1

Ant-1
Binary
Info.
Constellation
~y Out

Detector
Mapper
S/P H
Φ U

xNt-1 Ant-Nr

Ant-Nt

Channel
Estimation

Feedback

Figure 2.7: Beam-Nulling scheme.

21
The Nt × (Nt − 1) matrix Φ = [g1 g2 . . . gNt −1 ] spans the subspace. Note that
the rule to construct the subspace Φ should also be known to the receiver.
An example to construct the orthogonal subspace is presented as follows.
We construct an Nt × Nt matrix

A = [vNt I0 ] (2.13)

where I0 = [I(Nt −1)×(Nt −1) 0(Nt −1)×1 ]T . Applying QR decomposition to A, we

have
A = [vNt Φ] · R (2.14)

where R is an upper triangular matrix with the (1,1)-th entry equal to 1. Φ

is the subspace orthogonal to vNt .
At the transmitter, Nt − 1 symbols denoted as x0 are transmitted only
over the orthogonal subspace Φ. The received signals at the receiver can be
written as s
P
y0 = HΦx0 + z0 (2.15)
Nt − 1
where z0 is additive white Gaussian noise vector with i.i.d. symmetrical
complex Gaussian elements of zero mean and variance σz2 .
Substituting (2.2) into (2.15) and multiplying y0 by UH , we have
s  
P  B  0
y
e = Λ x + z
e (2.16)
Nt − 1 0T

where ze is additive white Gaussian noise vector with i.i.d. symmetrical com-
plex Gaussian elements of zero mean and variance σz2 . With the condition in
(2.12),  
B 
VH Φ = 
  (2.17)
0T

22
where  
H
 v1 g1 v1H g2 . . . v1H gNt −1 
 ... .. 
 
 v2H g1 ... . 
B=
 .. .. ... ..

 (2.18)
 . . . 
 
 
H H
vN g
t −1 1
... . . . vN g
t −1 Nt −1

B is an (Nt − 1) × (Nt − 1) unitary matrix. As can be seen from (2.16), the

available spatial channels are Nt − 1. Since the weakest spatial subchannel is
“nulled” in this scheme, power can be allocated equally among the left better
Nt − 1 subchannels. Equation (2.16) can be rewritten as
s
P
e0 =
y Λ0 Bx0 + ze0 (2.19)
Nt − 1

e 0 and z
where y e0 are column vectors with the first (Nr −1) elements of y
e and z
e,

respectively, and Λ0 = diag[λ1 , λ2 , . . . , λ(Nt −1) ]. From (2.19), the associated

instantaneous channel capacity with respect to H can be found as
NX
à !
t −1
P
Cbn = log 1 + λ2 (2.20)
i=1 (Nt − 1)σz2 i

In the follow figure, numerical results of ergodic (average) channel capacity

for 2×2, 3×3 and 4×4 Rayleigh flat fading channels are shown in Figure 2.8.

23
 Beam−nulling
25
2x2
3x3
4x4
20 5x5
Capacity (bit/s/Hz)

15

10

0
0 5 10 15 20 25
SNR (dB)

Figure 2.8: Capacity for beam-nulling.

As can be seen, the beam-nulling scheme only needs one eigenvector to

be fed back. However, since only the worst spatial subchannel is discarded,
this scheme can increase channel capacity significantly as compared to the
conventional beamforming scheme.

2.3 Comparisons Among the Four Schemes

In this section, we compare the new proposed beam-nulling scheme with the
other schemes. Water-filling is the optimal solution among the four schemes

24
for any SNR.
Let C̄eq , C̄bf , and C̄bn denote the ergodic channel capacities of equal
power, beamforming and beam-nulling, respectively. That is,

C̄eq = E(Ceq ) (2.21)

C̄bf = E(Cbf ) (2.22)

C̄bn = E(Cbn ) (2.23)

where E() denotes expectation with respect to H. Let ρ = P/σz2 denote SNR.
Differentiating the above ergodic capacities with respect to ρ respectively, we
have
 
X Nt
∂ C̄eq 1 
= E Nt (2.24)
∂ρ i=1 ρ + λ2
 i
∂ C̄bf 1 
= E (2.25)
∂ρ ρ + λ12
1
 
NX
t −1
∂ C̄bn 1
= E Nt −1
 (2.26)
∂ρ i=1 ρ+ λ2i

The differential will also be referred to as “slope”. The second order differ-
entials are listed as follows.
 

∂ 2 C̄eq X Nt
1 
 
= E  − µ ¶2 (2.27)
∂ρ2  
i=1 ρ+ N t
λ2 i
 
∂ 2 C̄bf  1 
= E − ³ ´2  (2.28)
∂ρ2 ρ+ 1
λ21

25
  

∂ 2 C̄bn NXt −1
1 
 
= E  − µ ¶2  (2.29)
∂ρ2  
i=1 ρ + Nλt −1
2
i

As can be seen, the above ergodic capacities are concave and monotonically
increasing with respect to ρ. With the fact that λ1 ≥ λ2 . . . ≥ λNt , it can
be readily checked that the slopes of ergodic capacities associate with equal
power and beam-nulling are bounded as follows.
   
Nt  ∂ C̄eq Nt 
E Nt ≥ ≥E (2.30)
ρ + λ1 ∂ρ ρ + λNNt
t
   
Nt − 1  ∂ C̄bn Nt − 1 
E Nt −1 ≥ ≥E (2.31)
ρ + λ1 ∂ρ ρ + λN t −1
(N −1) t

For the case of Nt = 2, beamforming and beam-nulling have the same

capacity for any SNR ρ as can be seen from equations of capacity and slope.
If ρ → 0, i.e., at low SNR, it can be easily found that

∂ C̄bf ∂ C̄bn ∂ C̄eq

≥ ≥ ,ρ → 0 (2.32)
∂ρ ∂ρ ∂ρ
If ρ → ∞, i.e., at high SNR, it can be easily found that

∂ C̄eq ∂ C̄bn ∂ C̄bf

≥ ≥ ,ρ → ∞ (2.33)
∂ρ ∂ρ ∂ρ
∂ C̄bn
Hence, at medium SNR, ∂ρ
has the largest value. That is, among equal
power, beamforming and beam-nulling, for low SNR beamforming has largest
capacity, for high SNR equal power has largest capacity, for medium SNR,
beam-nulling has largest capacity. Numerical results will be provided to
demonstrate our analysis.

26
 2x2

EQ
12
WF
BF
BN
10
Capacity (bit/s/Hz)

0
0 5 10 15 20 25
SNR (dB)

Figure 2.9: 2 × 2 Rayleigh fading channel.

From Figure 2.9 to 2.12, capacities of water-filling, beamforming, beam-

nulling and equal power are compared over 2×2, 3×3, 4×4 and 5×5 Rayleigh
fading channels, respectively. Note that since SNR is measured in dB, the
curves become convex. In these figures, “EQ” stands for equal power, “WF”
stands for water-filling, “BF” stands for beamforming and “BN” stands for
beam-nulling. In the figures with subfigures, subfigure (a) is for all region
SNR, subfigure (b) is detailed for SNR region from low to medium, and
subfigure (c) is detailed for SNR region from medium to high. Note that for
2 × 2 channel, beamforming and beam-nulling have the same capacity.

27
 3x3

16 EQ
WF
BF
14 BN

12
Capacity (bit/s/Hz)

10

0
0 5 10 15 20 25
SNR (dB)

(a) 0 − 25 dB

3x3 3x3
6 16
EQ EQ
WF 15 WF
BF BF
5
BN 14 BN

13
4
Capacity (bit/s/Hz)

Capacity (bit/s/Hz)

12

3 11

10
2
9

8
1
7

0 6
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
SNR (dB) SNR (dB)

(b) 0 − 10 dB (c) 12 − 22 dB

Figure 2.10: 3 × 3 Rayleigh fading channel.

28
 4x4
22
EQ
20 WF
BF
18 BN

16
Capacity (bit/s/Hz)

14

12

10

0
0 5 10 15 20 25
SNR (dB)

(a) 0 − 25 dB

4x4 4x4
6 20
EQ EQ
WF 19 WF
BF BF
5
BN 18 BN

17
4
Capacity (bit/s/Hz)

Capacity (bit/s/Hz)

16

3 15

14
2
13

12
1
11

0 10
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
SNR (dB) SNR (dB)

(b) 0 − 8 dB (c) 16 − 24 dB

Figure 2.11: 4 × 4 Rayleigh fading channel.

29
 5x5
25
EQ
WF
BF
20 BN
Capacity (bit/s/Hz)

15

10

0
0 5 10 15 20 25
SNR (dB)

(a) 0 − 25 dB

5x5 5x5
7 25
EQ EQ
WF 24.5 WF
6 BF BF
BN 24 BN

5 23.5
Capacity (bit/s/Hz)

Capacity (bit/s/Hz)

23
4
22.5
3
22

2 21.5

21
1
20.5

0 20
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 22 22.5 23 23.5 24 24.5 25 25.5 26
SNR (dB) SNR (dB)

(b) 0 − 8 dB (c) 22 − 26 dB

Figure 2.12: 5 × 5 Rayleigh fading channel.

30
 As can be seen from all these figures, the water-filling has the best capac-
ity at any SNR region. The other schemes perform differently at different
SNR regions as discussed in the following context.

2.3.1 At low SNR

At low SNR, the beamforming is the closest to the optimal water-filling, e.g.,
the SNR region below 3 dB for 3 × 3 fading channel, the SNR region below
3.2 dB for 4 × 4 fading channel, and the SNR region below 3.5 dB for 5 × 5
fading channel. At low SNR, the water-filling scheme can only allocate power
to one or two spatial subchannels. Especially, if only one spatial subchannel
can be use, the beamforming scheme is just the optimal water-filling, which
can be seen from the capacity of 2 × 2 fading channel in Figure 2.9.

2.3.2 At medium SNR

At medium SNR, the proposed beam-nulling is the closest to the optimal

water-filling, e.g., the SNR region from 3 dB to 16 dB for 3×3 fading channel,
the SNR region from 3.2 dB to 20.5 dB for 4×4 fading channel, and the SNR
region from 3.5 dB to 23.5 dB for 5 × 5 fading channel. The beam-nulling
scheme only discards the weakest spatial subchannel and allocates power to
the other spatial subchannels. As can be seen from the numerical results, the
beam-nulling scheme performs better than the other schemes in this case.

31
2.3.3 At high SNR

At high SNR, the equal power scheme is the closest to the optimal water-
filling, e.g., the SNR region over 16 dB for 3 × 3 fading channel, the SNR
region over 20.5 dB for 4 × 4 fading channel, and the SNR region over 23.5
dB for 5 × 5 fading channel. As can be seen from the figures, at high SNR,
the equal power scheme will converge to the water-filling scheme.
In summary, the application of the above four schemes shall depend on the
SNR region and the availability of CSI. At medium SNR, the proposed beam-
nulling scheme can achieve larger capacity than the beamforming scheme with
the same feedback bandwidth.

32
Chapter 3

Conclusions and Future Works

In this chapter, we will conclude the study and present our remaining tasks
together with their schedule.

3.1 Conclusions
Via singular-value decomposition, the original MIMO channel is converted
to uncorrelated spatial subchannels. Based on the concept of spatial sub-
channels, we studied various power allocation strategies for various channel
state information scenarios, such as equal power, water-filling, beamforming.
Inspired by the beamforming scheme, we proposed a novel scheme called
“beam-nulling”. Using the same feedback bandwidth as beamforming, the
new scheme exploits all spatial subchannels except the weakest one and thus
achieves significant high capacity near the optimal water-filling scheme at
medium signal-to-noise ratio. Additionally, the capacities of equal power,
beamforming and beam-nulling were compared through theoretical analysis

33
first and then numerical results of these three schemes are also compared
with the optimal water-filling scheme. The comparison showed that at low
signal-to-noise ratio, beamforming is the closest to the optimal water-filling,
at medium signal-to-noise ratio, beam-nulling is the closest to the optimal
solution, and at high signal-to-noise ratio, equal power is the closest to the
optimal solution.

3.2 Future Works

In the future, based on our current achievement, the remaining works are
identified and will be presented together with their schedule as follows.

3.2.1 Performance and Application of Beam-Nulling

Currently, the capacity of beam-nulling was studied in the seminar. Based

on this knowledge, we will study how to achieve the promised capacity of
beam-nulling in practice. The power allocation strategy of beam-nulling and
beamforming can be extended to improve capacity further. We will study
the performance of the proposed scheme. Additionally, we will study how to
cooperate with the other schemes and thus improve the performance further.
For example, the proposed scheme can concatenate with the linear dispersion
code to achieve better performance with more flexibility.

3.2.2 New Adaptive Strategies

The second remaining task is to propose the strategy for the new adaptive
system. The basic task of any adaptive strategy is how to inform channel

34
state information to the transmitter coordinating the receiver together and
thus adapt to the channel variations. Related to this issue, we will study dif-
ferent strategies that can be used in adaptive MIMO wireless communication
systems.

3.3 Schedule
The remaining tasks are scheduled in Table 3.1 and the associated Gantt
chart is also shown in Figure. 3.1.

Table 3.1: Schedule for the remaining tasks.

ID Task Name Schedule
1. Performance and Application of Beam-Nulling 2007/6 - 2007/11
2. New Adaptation Strategies 2007/7 - 2007/12
3. Wrap-ups 2008/1 - 2008/3
4. Thesis Writing 2008/3 - 2008/5

2007 2008
ID Task Name
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2

Performance and Application of

1
Beam-Nulling
2 Extended Adaptive Frameworks

3 Wrap-ups

4 Thesis Writing

Figure 3.1: Gantt chart for the remaining tasks.

35
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37