HK1082328B - Rate adaptive transmission scheme for mimo systems - Google Patents

Description

Rate adaptive transmission scheme for MIMO systems

The present application claims the precedent right to U.S. provisional application 60/419,319 entitled "MIMOSIGNALING schemas for Rate Adaptive Systems," filed as dated 2002, 10/16, which is assigned to the assignee of the present application and is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to data communications, and more particularly to rate adaptive transmission schemes for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication systems.

Background

MIMO systems employing multiple (N)_T) Transmitting antenna and a plurality of (N)_R) The receive antennas are used for data transmission. From said N_TA transmitting antenna and N_RThe MIMO channel formed by the receiving antennas can be decomposed into N_SA separate channel of which N_S≤min{N_T，N_R}. Said N is_SEach of the individual channels corresponds to a dimension. The MIMO system may provide improved performance (e.g., greater throughput and/or greater reliability) if the additional dimensionalities created by the multiple transmit and receive antennas are utilized.

In a wireless communication system, data to be transmitted is typically processed (e.g., encoded or modulated) to provide data symbols. For a MIMO system, one or more data symbol streams may be transmitted from a transmitter to a receiver. Multiple data symbol streams may be transmitted in parallel from multiple transmit antennas using spatial multiplexing, which utilizes the additional dimensionalities of the MIMO channel. To achieve high throughput, it is desirable to transmit as many data symbol streams as possible in parallel. However, the number of data symbol streams that can be transmitted and the rate that can be used for the data symbol streams is typically dependent on the channel conditions. A variety of transmission schemes are now available for spatial multiplexing, including: (1) an "antenna multiplexing" scheme, which transmits one data symbol stream from each antenna, and (2) an "eigenmode (eigenmode) multiplexing" scheme, which transmits one data symbol stream on each separate channel in a MIMO channel.

Alternatively, a single data symbol stream may be transmitted from multiple transmit antennas using transmit diversity to improve the reliability of the data transmission. Diversity is achieved by using multiple transmit antennas and multiple receive antennas to provide multiple propagation paths for the data symbol stream. Transmit diversity may be used if higher reliability is desired, or if the channel conditions are too poor to use all available transmit power for one data symbol system best. A variety of transmission schemes are currently available for transmit diversity, including: (1) the "space-time Diversity" scheme described by s.m. alamouti in the paper entitled "a Simple transmit Diversity Technique for Wireless Communications" IEEE JSAC, oct.1998, and (2) the "Delay Diversity" scheme described by b.raghotan et al in the paper entitled "Performance of Closed Looptransmit Diversity with Feedback Delay design, s and Computers Systems, 2000.

To achieve high performance, MIMO systems may be designed to support one or more transmission schemes for spatial multiplexing and one or more transmission schemes for transmit diversity. For the MIMO system, at any given transmission gap, a particular transmission scheme may be selected for use depending on the channel conditions and the desired outcome (e.g., greater throughput or greater reliability). However, conventional transmission schemes for spatial multiplexing often differ significantly in design from conventional transmission schemes for transmit diversity. Thus, if the transmitter and receiver in the system need to support multiple (and different) transmission schemes for spatial multiplexing and transmit diversity, its complexity will be greatly increased. Further, in order to obtain high performance, it is desirable that: the total transmit power available to the system is fully utilized, and the full power available to each of the NT transmit antennas is fully utilized for data transmission, regardless of the number of data symbol streams transmitted.

There is therefore a need in the art for transmission schemes that can support spatial multiplexing, provide transmit diversity, and fully utilize the available transmit power in a MIMO system.

Disclosure of Invention

A rate adaptive transmission scheme is provided herein that supports spatial multiplexing and provides transmit diversity for MIMO systems. The rate adaptive transmission scheme has a number of desirable features, including: (1) support transmission of a variable number of data symbol streams to make them suitable for use in a rate adaptive system, (2) provide transmit diversity for each data symbol stream, and (3) allow the full power available to each transmit antenna to be used for data transmission regardless of the number of data symbol streams being transmitted, making them power efficient. The rate adaptive transmission scheme is well suited for use in single carrier MIMO systems, and may also be used in multi-carrier MIMO systems.

In an embodiment, a method for processing data for transmission in a MIMO system is provided. According to the method, at least one data symbol stream is received for transmission from a plurality of transmit antennas. Each data symbol stream is adjusted (scale) with a respective weight corresponding to an amount of transmit power allocated to the data symbol stream. The total amount of transmit power allocated to the at least one data symbol stream is less than or equal to the total transmit power available to the system. The adjusted data symbol stream(s) are then multiplied by a transmit basis matrix to provide a plurality of transmit symbol streams, one for each transmit antenna.

The transmit basis matrix is defined such that (1) each data symbol stream is transmitted from the plurality of transmit antennas and (2) each transmit symbol stream is transmitted at (or near) the full power available for the associated antenna. The transmit basis matrix may be a Walsh-Hadamard (Walsh-Hadamard) matrix, a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) matrix, or some other matrix.

Various aspects and embodiments of the invention are described in more detail below.

Drawings

The features, nature, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the drawings in which like reference characters identify correspondingly throughout and wherein:

FIG. 1 shows a flow chart of a process for using the rate adaptive transmission scheme from N_TOne antenna transmits N_DA stream of data symbols;

fig. 2 shows a block diagram of a transmitter system and a receiver system in a MIMO system;

FIG. 3 illustrates spatial processing at a transmitter system and a receiver system for the rate adaptive transmission scheme; and

fig. 4 shows a block diagram of a Transmit (TX) spatial processor in the transmitter system.

Detailed Description

A rate adaptive transmission scheme for a MIMO system is described herein. For a multi-carrier MIMO system, the transmission scheme may be used for each of a plurality of carriers, which may be used for data transmission. For clarity, the rate adaptive transmission scheme is described below with respect to a single carrier MIMO system.

For single carrier MIMO system, N_TA transmitting antenna and N_RThe MIMO channel formed by the receiving antennas can be decomposed into N_SA separate channel of which N_S≤min{N_T，N_R}. The number of independent channels is determined by the number of eigenmodes used for the MIMO channel, which in turn depends on the channel response matrixHSaid channel response matrixHDescribe said N_TA transmitting antenna and N_RAnd responses among the receiving antennas. For simplicity, the following description assumes: n is a radical of_T≤N_RAnd the channel response matrixHIs of full rank (i.e., N)_S＝N_T≤N_R). Based on these assumptions, for each symbol period, from the N_TMultiple transmit antennas can transmit up to N in parallel_TThe symbol of (2).

The model for a single carrier MIMO system can be expressed as:

y＝Hx+nequation (1)

Wherein the content of the first and second substances,xis { N_TX 1} of a vector of "data", wherein for a vector to be derived from said N_TThe data symbols transmitted by the transmitting antennas have N_TAn item;

yis { N_RX 1} of a vector of "data", wherein for a vector passing said N_RThe symbols received by the receiving antennas have N_RAn item;

His the { N_R×N_TThe channel response matrix of { C }; and is

nIs a vector of Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN).

The data vectorxIt is assumed thatxx ^H]＝IWhere E is the desired operation, "H" is the conjugate transpose, andIis an identity matrix with 1 along the diagonal and 0 elsewhere. The vectornAssume having a mean of zero, and a covariance matrixΛ _n＝σ² IWhere σ is²Is the variance of the noise.

In a typical system, there are constraints on the following values: (1) can be used for all N_TTotal transmission power, P, of individual transmitting antennas_totAnd (2) maximum or total power, P, for each transmit antenna_ant. In general, the power P of each antenna_antGiven as follows: p_ant＝P_tot/N_T. These constraints may arise from the following reasons: (1) limitations of the power amplifier used to drive each transmit antenna, (2) regulatory requirements, and (3) possibly other factors. Then, the model for the MIMO system with the power constraint may be expressed as:

formula (2)

Wherein the content of the first and second substances,is a scaling factor that accounts for the total power constraint and the power constraint of each antenna.

In a conventional transmission scheme, antenna multiplexing, N, is used_DPersonal data symbolNumber stream is simultaneously from said N_TIs transmitted in a transmitting antenna, where N_DMay be from 1 to N_TAny integer of (i.e., N)_T≥N_DNot less than 1). For the conventional transmission scheme, N is the number of signal periods in any given cycle_DThe data symbols being simultaneously from N_DOne antenna is transmitted, and (N)_T-N_D) The remaining antennas are not used. If the total transmit power and the power per antenna are limited as described above, then less than N is used_TIn the case of one antenna for data transmission, i.e. at N_D<N_TThe transmission scheme will exhibit a power penalty. Due to power constraints of each antenna, when N_D<N_TTime, total transmission power P_totCannot be allocated to the N for data transmission_DAn antenna. Furthermore, if said N is_DThe streams of data symbols are redundant (i.e., identical) streams, there is a risk of canceling the streams at the receiver.

The particular number of data symbol streams transmitted depends on a variety of factors, such as channel conditions, the amount of data transmitted, and so forth. As described above, different independent channels may experience different channel conditions and achieve different signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). For a differential-rank MIMO system, the preferred strategy is to transmit less than N_TWill have a higher total transmit power P_totTo the data symbol stream for which a higher SNR is obtained. However, with the antenna multiplexing transmission scheme described above, by which each data symbol stream is transmitted from one antenna, a preferable allocation of total transmission power cannot be achieved due to the power constraint of each antenna. Thus, some loss of system performance will occur.

The rate adaptive transmission scheme described herein supports spatial multiplexing, provides transmit diversity, and has the following beneficial features:

-using said transmit and receive spatial processing to support variable numbers while maintaining key characteristicsTransmission of a stream of data symbols of a quantity (from 1 to N)_TOne).

By starting from all N_TThe transmission of the single transmit antenna provides better performance than the space-time diversity scheme for a single data symbol stream.

-allowing N_TTotal power P of each of the transmitting antennas_antFor data transmission, regardless of the number of data symbol streams being transmitted, and thus, when less than N_TThe data symbol stream of (a) is transmitted such that it is power efficient in terms of no power loss.

-allowing flexible allocation of the total transmit power P in the transmitted data symbol stream_tot。

The rate adaptive transmission scheme and its advantageous features are described in more detail below.

A general model for a single carrier MIMO system and applicable to the rate adaptive transmission scheme can be expressed as:

formula (3)

WhereinMIs { N_T×N_TThe transmit basis matrix of { which is a normalized matrix;

Λis { N_T×N_TA diagonal matrix of };

is { N_TX 1} of the vector, for the transmission from N_TN transmitted by one transmitting antenna_TEach transmitted symbol has N_TAn item; and is

H _effIs an "effective" channel response matrix, which is defined asH _eff＝HM。

Normalized matrixUIs characterized in thatU ^H U＝IThis means: each column of the normalized matrix is orthogonal to all other columns of the matrix, and each row of the normalized matrix is also orthogonal to the other rows. Diagonal matrixΛIncluding non-negative real values along the diagonal and zeros everywhere else. The diagonal entry indicates the N assigned to the transmission_DThe amount of transmit power for each data symbol stream.

As described in more detail below, the diagonal matrixΛCan be used to allocate different transmit powers to the N_DA stream of data symbols while conforming to P_totThe total transmit power constraint of. Transmission basis matrixMAllowing each data symbol stream to be from N_TMultiple transmit antennas are transmitted and also allow the full power of each transmit antenna to be used for data transmission.

Transmitting the vector according to equation (3)Can be expressed as:

formula (4)

Transmitting symbol for kth transmitting antenna(i.e., transmit vector)The kth element of) may be expressed as:

for K ∈ K, equation (5)

Wherein M is_k，iIs a transmission basis matrixMRow k, column i;

λ_i，iis a matrixΛThe ith diagonal element of (1);

x_iis a data vectorxThe ith element of (1);

is a transmit vectorThe kth element of (1); and

k is the set of all transmit antennas (i.e., K ═ 1, 2_T})。

Equation (3) represents the general model, which covers both equation (1) and equation (2). This is achieved by appropriately defining the transmit basis matrixMAnd diagonal matrixΛAnd then the operation is completed. For example, by (1) defining a transmit basis matrixMIs composed ofWherein, in the step (A),m _iis used forMN of the ith column_TX 1} and is defined as "1" at the ith position and "0" at all other positions, and a diagonal matrix is defined by (2)ΛIs composed ofEquation (3) may be made equal to equation (2). However, as described below, by defining the transmit basis matrix in some other wayMAnd diagonal matrixΛOther beneficial features may be obtained.

For the following analysis, it is assumed that there is an arbitrary transmit basis matrixMAnd arbitrary diagonal matrixΛSaid diagonal matrixΛWith non-negative diagonal terms. For vectorsxIs equal toΛIs the sum of the squares of the diagonal elements of (a). The total transmit power constraint can then be expressed as:

trace(Λ²)≤P_totformula (6)

According to equation (5) for N_TThe transmit power for each of the transmit antennas may be expressed as:

for K ∈ K, equation (7)

Wherein "" denotes a complex conjugate. The power constraint for each antenna can then be expressed as:

for K ∈ K formula (8)

Due to trace (Λ) as shown in equation (6)²)≤P_totThus, the power constraint of each antenna in equation (8) may be passed through a full rank matrixMTo satisfy, the matrixMSatisfies the following conditions:

for i ∈ K and K ∈ K equation (9)

Equation (9) shows the effective matrixMHas an element equal toThe magnitude of (c). Equation (9) gives the sufficient conditions (but not the necessary conditions) needed to satisfy the power constraint of each antenna.

The matrixMMay be defined in various ways to meet the power constraints of each antenna. In one embodiment, the matrixMIs defined as:

formula (10)

Wherein the content of the first and second substances,Wis a walsh-hadamard matrix. As explained, for N_TWalsh-Hadamard matrix 4W _4×4Can be expressed as:

formula (11)

Larger Walsh-Hadamard matricesW _2N×2NCan be defined as:

formula (12)

In other embodiments, the matrixMCan be defined as:

formula (13)

Wherein the content of the first and second substances,Qis a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) matrix. As explained, for N_T4, DFT matrixQ _4×4Can be expressed as:

formula (14)

In general, an N DFT matrixQ _N×NCan be defined such that the (k, i) th itemIs given as:

equation (15) for k ═ 1.. N and i ═ 1.. N

Wherein for the matrixQ _N×NK is a row label and i is a column label. The matrix may also be defined by various other matricesMAnd this is within the scope of the present invention.

By using appropriate transmit basis matricesMAnd appropriate diagonal matrixΛThe total transmit power constraint and the power constraint for each antenna may be satisfied. In particular, by definitionΛSo as to satisfy equation (6), the total transmit power constraint may be satisfied. By definitionMSo as to satisfy equation (9), the power constraint of each antenna may be satisfied.ΛEach diagonal element λ in (1)_i，iIndication for related data symbol stream x_iThe amount of transmit power of. Due to addition ofOuter, toΛThere is no limitation on the value of the single diagonal element, and thus the total transmit power P may be varied in various ways_totIs assigned to the N_DA stream of data symbols while still satisfying a total transmit power constraint and a per-antenna power constraint. Thus, in N_DThis provides great convenience in allocating available transmit power among the data symbol streams.

The rate adaptive transmission scheme may be used to transmit any number of data symbol streams (i.e., N)_DMay be from 1 to N_TAny value of (a). The transmitter performs spatial processing as shown in equation (4) regardless of the number of data symbol streams being transmitted. Data vectorxIncluding for said N_DN of one data symbol stream_DA non-zero term and N_T-N_DAnd zero. Said N is_DEach of the data symbol streams is associated with the matrixΛAre associated with respective non-zero diagonal elements. Also using the transmit basis matrixMProcesses said N by the corresponding line of_DEach of the data symbol streams for transmission over a respective spatial channel defined by the effective channel response matrixH _effDefined by the particular column or eigenvector.

It can be seen that the present rate adaptive transmission scheme can provide improved performance over conventional transmit diversity schemes. Space-time diversity, for example, as described by s.m. alamouti, is commonly used to transmit a single stream of data symbols from a single pair of transmit antennas to achieve transmit diversity. However, it can be seen that the present rate adaptive transmission scheme may provide improved performance for transmission of a single stream of data symbols. Received SNR for a stream of data symbols_raMay be expressed as the following formula, wherein the data symbol stream is transmitted using the present rate adaptive transmission scheme toH _effIs transmitted, the formula is as follows:

SNR_ra∝max_i{(‖h _eff，i‖²)·P_totequation (16)

Wherein ". varies" represents a proportional relationship; and is

‖h _eff，i‖²Is thath _eff，iThe second-order norm of (a) is,h _eff，iis an effective channel response matrixH _effThe ith column or eigenvector of (1).

Equation (16) represents: SNR and of a single best data symbol stream using the present rate adaptive transmission schemeH _effIs proportional to the second order norm of the best eigenvector. To obtain the SNR of equation (16), the receiver needs to return an indicationH _effFor use by the transmitter.

Received SNR, for a single data symbol stream_stMay be represented as the following equation, wherein the single data symbol stream is transmitted using a space-time diversity scheme:

formula (17)

Formula (17) represents: SNR and of a single data symbol stream using the space-time diversity schemeH _effN of (A)_TThe average of the second order norm of the individual eigenvectors is proportional. Both equations (16) and (17) assume transmission at full rate (i.e., without any rate loss). However, since the space-time diversity scheme uses only two antennas for transmitting a single data symbol stream, if N is_T>2, there will be a rate loss.

As is well known, the following expression is always true:

formula (18a)

In this way,

SNR_ra≥SNR_stformula (18b)

Equations (18a) and (18b) represent: the present rate adaptive transmission scheme may provide the same performance or higher performance than the space-time diversity scheme. Furthermore, since the data symbol stream is from all N_TTransmitted by each antenna, the rate adaptive transmission scheme may provide greater transmit diversity. In contrast, space-time diversity schemes transmit only a single stream of data symbols from a pair of transmit antennas. For space-time diversity schemes, it is possible to transmit a single data symbol stream over multiple pairs of antennas, but this may result in a rate penalty or some other performance penalty.

It is noted that the transmission basis matrix by the present rate adaptive transmission scheme is independent of the number of data symbol streams transmittedMAllows to fully exploit the total transmission power P_totAnd power P of each antenna_antFor data transmission. If the transmit basis matrix is not usedM(i.e., ifM＝I) And a single data symbol stream is transmitted from a single best antenna using antenna multiplexing techniques, the received SNR for the data symbol stream can be expressed as:

formula (19)

It can be seen that the following expression is also always true:

formula (20)

Therefore, the present rate adaptive transmission scheme is also superior to the antenna multiplexing transmission scheme.

FIG. 1 shows a flow diagram of an embodiment of a process 100 for using the present rate adaptive transmission scheme from N_TOne antenna transmits N_DA stream of data symbols. As described above, N_DMay be from 1 to N_TAny value of (i.e., N)_T≥N_D≥1)。

First, the total transmission power P_totIs assigned to the N_DA stream of data symbols (composed ofxIndicated) (step 112). The particular number of data symbol streams to transmit and the amount of power allocated to each data symbol stream may be determined based on the channel conditions. For example, a "water-filling" process may be used to determine the number of data symbol streams to transmit and the amount of power used for each data symbol stream such that the overall throughput is maximized. Such water flooding is described in detail in commonly assigned U.S. patent application 10/056,275, entitled "reaction of Excess Power for Full Channel-State information formation (CSI), Multiple-Input, Multiple-output (MIMO) Systems", filed 2002, 23/1, and by Robert G.Gallager, "information theory and Reliable Communication," John Wiley and Sons, 1968, both of which are incorporated herein by reference.

The amount of transmit power allocated to each data symbol stream xi is represented as a corresponding weight λ_i，i. Matrix arrayΛN of (A)_TA diagonal element including for said N_DN of one data symbol stream_DA weight and (N)_T-N_D) A zero value. Is assigned to the N_DThe total amount of transmit power for the individual data symbol streams is less than or equal to the total transmit power of the system (i.e.,)。

transmission basis matrixMThen is covered withSelected for use (step 114). Transmission basis matrixMCan be defined such that each data symbol stream is from all N_TTransmitted by the antennas and the full power of each antenna is used for data transmission. The transmission basis matrixMCan be defined as: (1) Walsh-Hadamard matrices described in equations (10) to (12)W(2) the DFT matrix described in equations (13) to (15), or (3) some other matrix.

Then, each data symbol stream x_iBy diagonal matrixΛOf (2) and its associated weight λ_i，iTo adjust (step 116). The adjustment results in each data symbol stream being transmitted at its allocated power. Said N is_DThe adjusted data symbol stream is then multiplied by a transmit basis matrixMTo obtain N_TA stream of transmit symbols (composed ofIs represented) for the N_TA transmit antenna (step 118). The diagonal matrix is shown in equation (4)ΛTo the N_DAdjustment of a stream of data symbols and transmission basis matrixMMultiplication of (1). Each transmitting symbol streamIs further processed and then transmitted from the associated antenna (step 120).

Fig. 2 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of a transmitter system 210 and a receiver system 250 in a MIMO system 200. At transmitter system 210, for N_DThe data for each stream is provided from a data source 212 and is coded and modulated by a Transmit (TX) data processor 214 to provide modulation symbols, which are also referred to as data symbols. The data rate, coding, and modulation for each stream are determined by controls provided by controller 230. Also passed through a diagonal matrix by TX spatial processor 220ΛAdjusting the data symbols and by transmitting a basis matrixMWhich is spatially processed to provide transmit symbols. Pilot (pilot) symbol that can be used for channel estimationMultiplexing with the transmit symbols. One stream of multiplexed transmit symbols and pilot symbols is provided to and processed by a transmitter (TMTR)222 to provide a corresponding RF modulated signal. N from transmitters 222a through 222t_TThe modulated signal is then from N_TThe antennas 224a through 224t are transmitted.

At the receiver system 250, the N_TA transmission signal is composed of N_RReceived by antennas 252a through 252 r. Each receiver (RCVR)254 processes a received signal from an associated antenna 252 to provide a corresponding received symbol stream. Next, a Receive (RX) spatial processor 260 processes the data from N_RA stream of received symbols for receivers 254a through 254r to provide N_DA stream of 'recovered' symbols, said N_DThe "recovered" symbol streams are N transmitted by the transmitter system_DAn estimate of each data symbol stream. Said N is_DThe recovered symbol streams are further processed by an RX data processor 270 to obtain decoded data, which is an estimate of the data transmitted by the transmitter system.

RX spatial processor 260 may also derive the signal at N_TA transmitting antenna and N_RThe channel response between the receive antennas (e.g., based on the pilot symbols). Channel estimation is described in detail in provisional U.S. patent application 60/438,601, entitled "Pilot Transmission Schemes for Wireless Multi-Carrier communication Systems" filed as 1, 7, 2003, which is assigned to the assignee of the present application and is incorporated herein by reference. Channel response estimationMay be used to perform spatial processing or equalization at the receiver. The RX spatial processor 260 may further estimate the SNRs for the recovered symbol streams and/or the received pilot symbols. Controller 280 receives the channel response estimateAnd received SNR, and provides information about MIMO channelsAnd/or feedback of the stream. For example, the feedback may represent the number of data symbol streams to be transmitted, the spatial channels or eigenvectors used for data transmission, and the received SNR or rate for each stream. The feedback is processed by a TX data processor 288, further processed by a TX spatial processor 290, conditioned by transmitters 254a through 254r, and transmitted back to transmitter system 210.

At transmitter system 210, the transmit modulated signals from receiver system 250 are received by antennas 224, conditioned by receivers 222a through 222t, demodulated by a RX spatial processor 240, and processed by a RX data processor 242 to recover the feedback sent by the receiver system. The feedback information is then provided to the controller 230 and may be used to: (1) determine the number of transmitted data symbol streams, (2) determine the rate and coding and modulation schemes to be used for each data symbol stream, and (3) generate various controls for TX data processor 214 and TX spatial processor 220.

Controllers 230 and 280 govern operation in the transmitter system and the receiver system, respectively. Memory units 232 and 282 provide storage for program codes and data used by controllers 230 and 280, respectively.

Fig. 3 shows a block diagram of spatial processing at a transmitter system and a receiver system for the present rate adaptive transmission scheme. Within the TX spatial processor 220 of transmitter system 210, the data vectorxFirst through cell 310 and diagonal matrixΛMultiplied and then further multiplied by unit 312 with the transmit basis matrixMMultiplying to obtain a transmit vectorThen, the vectorProcessed by transmitter 314 and transmitted over a MIMO channel to receiver system 250. Unit 312 performs spatial processing for the transmitter system.

At the receiver system 250, the transmitted signal is localized by the receiver 354To obtain a received vectory. In RX spatial processor 260, the vectors are receivedyFirst multiplied by the matrix by unit 356Effective channel response estimation matrixCan be used asIs obtained and the matrix is obtainedIs thatThe conjugate transpose of (c). Matrix arrayIt may also be referred to as a matched filter matrix for the present rate adaptive transmission scheme. The resulting vector from unit 356 is also passed by unit 358 through the inverse diagonal matrixIs adjusted to obtain a vectorThe vectorIs a data vectorxIs estimated. Units 356 and 358 perform spatial processing (i.e., matched filtering) for the receiver system.

Fig. 4 shows a block diagram of TX spatial processor 220x, which TX spatial processor 220x is an embodiment of TX spatial processor 220 in fig. 2. TX spatial processor 220x includes a plurality of data symbol stream spatial processors 410a through 410t, one for eachAt N to be transmitted_DOne of the data symbol streams. Each processor 410 receives an assigned data symbol stream x_iWeight λ for assigned stream_i，iAnd from the transmit basis matrixMCorresponding vector ofm _i。

In each processor 410, the assigned stream x_iThe data symbols in (1) are first multiplied by a multiplier 412 with a weight λ_i，iAnd (6) carrying out adjustment. The adjusted data symbols are also passed through multipliers 414a through 414t, respectively, and from the vectorm _iN of (A)_TAn element M_1，iToMultiplication. Each data symbol stream x_iThus from all N_TThe antennas are transmitted and the vectorIs represented by the vectorCan be expressed as:

formula (21)

The output symbols from multipliers 414a through 414t are then provided to summers 420a through 420t, respectively, one for each transmit antenna. Each summer 420 receives the output symbols from its assigned antenna, which are derived from N_DN of processors 410_DA multiplier 414, the N_DA processor 410 is assigned to process the N_DA stream of data symbols. Each summer 420 then sums the output symbols and provides transmit symbols for its assigned antenna. The summation operation performed by each adder 420 may be represented as:

formula (22)

Wherein the content of the first and second substances,is a vector for the ith data symbol streamThe kth element in (1); whileIs the transmit symbol stream for the kth transmit antenna.

The transmit symbols from each summer 420 are provided to a respective multiplexer 430 and multiplexed with pilot symbols to provide a stream of multiplexed transmit symbols and pilot symbols for the associated antenna.

The rate adaptive transmission schemes described herein may be used for single carrier MIMO systems, as well as multi-carrier MIMO systems. For a multi-carrier MIMO system, each of the multiple carriers available for data transmission may be considered a single carrier MIMO system. General assemblyTransmission power P_totAnd power P of each antenna_antCan be in N_FDivided equally among the carriers, such that P_{tot_car}＝P_tot/N_FAnd P is_{ant_car}＝P_ant/N_F. Thus, the present rate adaptive transmission scheme may be applied to the N_FEach of the individual carriers having a total power constraint P per carrier_{tot_car}And power constraint P per antenna/carrier_{ant_car}。

The rate adaptive transmission scheme described herein may be implemented in various ways at the transmitter system and the receiver system. For example, the processing for the present rate adaptive transmission scheme may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination thereof. For a hardware implementation, the elements used to implement the processing at the transmitter and receiver systems may be implemented within one or more Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), Digital Signal Processing Devices (DSPDs), Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers, microcontrollers, microprocessors, other electronic units designed to perform the functions described herein, or a combination thereof.

For a software implementation, the processes for the present rate adaptive transmission scheme may be implemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) that perform the functions described herein. The software codes may be stored in memory units (e.g., memory units 232 and 282 in fig. 2) and executed by processors (e.g., controllers 230 and 280). Each memory unit may be implemented within the processor or external to the processor, in which case it can be communicatively coupled to the processor via various means as is known in the art.

The previous description of the disclosed embodiments is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present invention. Various modifications to the described embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

Claims (21)

1. A method of processing data for transmission in a multiple-input multiple-output communication system, the method comprising:

receiving at least one data symbol stream for transmission from a plurality of antennas;

adjusting each of the at least one data symbol stream with a respective weight corresponding to an amount of transmit power allocated to the data symbol stream, wherein a total amount of transmit power allocated to the at least one data symbol stream is less than or equal to a total transmit power available to the system; and is

Processing the at least one data symbol stream by a transmit basis matrix to provide a plurality of transmit symbol streams, one for each of the plurality of antennas, wherein the transmit basis matrix is defined such that each of the at least one data symbol streams is transmitted from the plurality of antennas and each transmit symbol stream is transmitted at or near the full power of the antennas available for transmission of each transmit symbol stream.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmit basis matrix is a walsh-hadamard matrix.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmit basis matrix is a discrete fourier transform matrix.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: allocating the total transmit power to the at least one data symbol stream.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the amount of transmit power allocated to each of the at least one data symbol stream is determined based on channel conditions.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the single data symbol stream is transmitted on a spatial channel associated with a highest received signal quality.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of the plurality of antennas is N_TTo be used for N_TFull power of each of the antennas, or nearly so for N_TPower of total power of each of the antennas from the N_TOne antenna transmits N_TA stream of data symbols, N_TIs an integer greater than 1.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of the plurality of antennas is N_TThe number of the data symbol streams is N_DTo be used for N_TFull power of each of the antennas, or nearly so for N_TPower of total power of each of the antennas from the N_TOne antenna transmits N_DA stream of data symbols, wherein N_TIs an integer greater than 1, and N_DIs less than or equal to N_TIs an integer of (1).

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a variable number of data symbol streams are transmitted based on channel conditions.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the at least one data symbol stream is associated with a particular rate, the particular rate determined based at least in part on a received signal quality for the data symbol stream.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising: multiplexing the pilot symbols for each of the plurality of transmit symbol streams.

12. A method of processing symbols for transmission in a single carrier multiple input multiple output communication system, the method comprising:

receiving at least one data symbol stream for transmission from a plurality of antennas;

allocating a total transmit power available to the system to the at least one data symbol stream, wherein a total amount of transmit power allocated to the at least one data symbol stream is less than or equal to the total transmit power;

adjusting each of the at least one data symbol stream with a respective weight corresponding to an amount of transmit power allocated to the data symbol stream; and is

Processing the at least one adjusted data symbol stream by a transmit basis matrix to provide a plurality of transmit symbol streams, one for each of the plurality of antennas, wherein the transmit basis matrix is defined such that each of the at least one data symbol streams is transmitted from the plurality of antennas and each transmit symbol stream is transmitted at or near the full power of the antennas available for transmission of each transmit symbol stream.

13. A method of processing symbols received in a multiple-input multiple-output communication system, the method comprising:

obtaining a plurality of received symbol streams from a plurality of receive antennas, wherein the plurality of received symbol streams includes at least one data symbol stream that has been processed through a transmit basis matrix to form a plurality of transmit symbol streams for a plurality of transmit antennas, wherein the transmit basis matrix is defined such that each of the at least one data symbol streams is transmitted from the plurality of transmit antennas and each transmit symbol stream is transmitted at, or at a power approaching, the total power of the antennas available for transmission of each transmit symbol stream; and is

Processing the plurality of received symbol streams to recover the at least one data symbol stream.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein processing the plurality of received symbol streams comprises:

equalizing the plurality of received symbol streams to obtain an estimate of the at least one data symbol stream, and

decoding the estimate of the at least one data symbol stream.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the equalizing is performed based on a matched filter matrix comprising the transmit basis matrix.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

estimating a received signal quality for each of the at least one data symbol stream; and is

A rate is determined for each of the at least one data symbol stream based on the estimated received signal quality.

17. Transmitter apparatus in a multiple-input multiple-output communication system, comprising:

means for receiving at least one data symbol stream for transmission from a plurality of antennas;

means for adjusting each of the at least one data symbol stream with a respective weight corresponding to an amount of transmit power allocated to the data symbol stream, wherein a total amount of transmit power allocated to the at least one data symbol stream is less than or equal to a total transmit power available to the system; and

means for processing the at least one data symbol stream by a transmit basis matrix to provide a plurality of transmit symbol streams, one for each of the plurality of antennas, wherein the transmit basis matrix is defined such that each of the at least one data symbol streams is transmitted from the plurality of antennas and each transmit symbol stream is transmitted at or near the full power of the antennas available for transmission of each transmit symbol stream.

18. The transmitter apparatus of claim 17, wherein the transmission basis matrix is a walsh-hadamard matrix or a discrete fourier transform matrix.

19. A transmitter unit in a multiple-input multiple-output communication system, comprising:

a transmit data processor for processing data to provide at least one data symbol stream for transmission from a plurality of antennas; and

a transmit spatial processor for adjusting each of the at least one data symbol stream with a respective weight corresponding to an amount of transmit power allocated to the data symbol stream and processing the at least one data symbol stream with a transmit basis matrix to provide a plurality of transmit symbol streams, one for each of the plurality of antennas, wherein the transmit basis matrix is defined such that each of the at least one data symbol stream is transmitted from the plurality of antennas and each transmit symbol stream is transmitted at or near the full power of the antennas available for transmission of each transmit symbol stream.

20. The transmitter unit of claim 19, further comprising a plurality of transmitters associated with the plurality of antennas, each transmitter for processing a respective transmit symbol stream for transmission from the associated antenna.

21. Receiver apparatus in a multiple-input multiple-output communication system, comprising:

a receive spatial processor for processing a plurality of received symbol streams to provide estimates of at least one data symbol stream, wherein the at least one data symbol stream is processed through a transmit basis matrix to form a plurality of transmit symbol streams for a plurality of transmit antennas, wherein the transmit basis matrix is defined such that each of the at least one data symbol stream is transmitted from the plurality of transmit antennas and each transmit symbol stream is transmitted at, or at a power near, the total power available for the antennas used to transmit each transmit symbol stream; and

a receive data processor for processing the estimate of at least one data symbol stream to provide decoded data.