Non-linear pre-coding for multiple-antenna multi-user downlink transmissions with different QoS requirements

An efficient non-linear pre-filtering technique based on Tomlinson-Harashima pre-coding (THP) has recently been proposed by Liu and Krzymien in the context of multiple-antenna multi-user systems. The algorithm is based on the Zero-Forcing (ZF) criterion and is derived under the assumption that the number of users is equal to the number of transmit antennas. In contrast to other existing methods, it ensures the same signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) at each mobile terminal so as to guarantee a fair treatment of all active users. In multimedia applications, however, several types of information with different qualityof-service (QoS) requirements must be sent simultaneously on different subchannels. Motivated by the above problem, in the present work we design a THP-based pre-filtering algorithm for multiple-antenna multi-user systems in which the base station allocates the transmit power according to the QoS requirement of each active user. Compared to existing alternatives, the proposed scheme is simpler to implement and suited for practical situations where the number of active users may be less than the number of transmit antennas.