Long-Term Rate-Fairness-Aware Beamforming Based Massive MIMO Systems

This is the first treatise on multi-user (MU) beamforming designed for achieving long-term rate-fairness in fulldimensional MU massive multi-input multi-output (m-MIMO) systems. Explicitly, based on the channel covariances, which can be assumed to be known beforehand, we address this problem by optimizing the following objective functions: the users' signal-toleakage-noise ratios (SLNRs) using SLNR max-min optimization, geometric mean of SLNRs (GM-SLNR) based optimization, and SLNR soft max-min optimization. We develop a convex-solver based algorithm, which invokes a convex subproblem of cubic time-complexity at each iteration for solving the SLNR maxmin problem. We then develop closed-form expression based algorithms of scalable complexity for the solution of the GMSLNR and of the SLNR soft max-min problem. The simulations provided confirm the users' improved-fairness ergodic rate distributions.

Max-min Rate Optimization of Low-Complexity Hybrid Multi-User Beamforming Maintaining Rate-Fairness

A wireless network serving multiple users in the millimeter-wave or the sub-terahertz band by a base station is considered. High-throughput multi-user hybrid-transmit beamforming is conceived by maximizing the minimum rate of the users. For the sake of energy-efficient signal transmission, the array-of-subarrays structure is used for analog beamforming relying on low-resolution phase shifters. We develop a convexsolver based algorithm, which iteratively invokes a convex problem of the same beamformer size for its solution. We then introduce the soft max-min rate objective function and develop a scalable algorithm for its optimization. Our simulation results demonstrate the striking fact that soft max-min rate optimization not only approaches the minimum user rate obtained by max-min rate optimization but it also achieves a sum rate similar to that of sum-rate maximization. Thus, the soft max-min rate optimization based beamforming design conceived offers a new technique of simultaneously achieving a high individual quality-of-service for all users and a high total network throughput.

Low-Complexity Pareto-Optimal 3D Beamforming for the Full-Dimensional Multi-User Massive MIMO Downlink

Full-dimensional (FD) multi-user massive multiple input multiple output (m-MIMO) systems employ large two-dimensional (2D) rectangular antenna arrays to control both the azimuth and elevation angles of signal transmission. We introduce the sum of two outer products of the azimuth and elevation beamforming vectors having moderate dimensions as a new class of FD beamforming. We show that this low-complexity class is capable of outperforming 2D beamforming relying on the single outer product of the azimuth and elevation beamforming vectors. It is also capable of performing close to its FD counterpart of massive dimensions in terms of either the users minimum rate or their geometric mean rate (GM-rate), or sum rate (SR). Furthermore, we also show that even FD beamforming may be outperformed by our outer product-based improper Gaussian signaling solution. Explicitly, our design is based on low-complexity algorithms relying on convex problems of moderate dimensions for max-min rate optimization or on closed-form expressions for GM-rate and SR maximization.

RIS-aided Zero-Forcing and Regularized Zero-Forcing Beamforming in Integrated Information and Energy Delivery

This paper considers a network of a multi-antenna array base station (BS) and a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) to deliver both information to information users (IUs) and power to energy users (EUs). The RIS links the connection between the IUs and the BS as there is no direct path between the former and the latter. The EUs are located nearby the BS in order to effectively harvest energy from the high-power signal from the BS, while the much weaker signal reflected from the RIS hardly contributes to the EUs' harvested energy. To provide reliable links for all users over the same time-slot, we adopt the transmit time-switching (transmit-TS) approach, under which information and energy are delivered over different time-slot fractions. This allows us to rely on conjugate beamforming for energy links and zero-forcing/regularized zero-forcing beamforming (ZFB/RZFB) and on the programmable reflecting coefficients (PRCs) of the RIS for information links. We show that ZFB/RZFB and PRCs can be still separately optimized in their joint design, where PRC optimization is based on iterative closed-form expressions. We then develop a path-following algorithm for solving our max-min IU throughput optimization problem subject to a realistic constraint on the quality-of-energy-service in terms of the EUs' harvested energy thresholds. We also propose a new RZFB for substantially improving the IUs' throughput.

A New Class of Structured Beamforming for Content-Centric Fog Radio Access Networks

A multi-user fog radio access network (F-RAN) is designed for supporting content-centric services. The requested contents are partitioned into sub-contents, which are then 'beam- formed' by the remote radio heads (RRHs) for transmission to the users. Since a large number of beamformers must be designed, this poses a computational challenge. We tackle this challenge by proposing a new class of regularized zero forcing beamforming (RZFB) for directly mitigating the inter-content interferences, while the 'intra-content interference' is mitigated by successive interference cancellation at the user end. Thus each beamformer is decided by a single real variable (for proper Gaus- sian signaling) or by a pair of complex variables (for improper Gaussian signaling). Hence the total number of decision variables is substantially reduced to facilitate tractable computation. To address the problem of energy efficiency optimization subject to multiple constraints, such as individual user-rate requirement and the fronthauling constraint of the links between the RRHs and the centralized baseband signal processing unit, as well as the total transmit power budget, we develop low-complexity path- following algorithms. Finally, we actualize their performance by simulations.