MIMO precoding in 802.16e WiMAX

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmit precoding/beamforming can significantly improve system spectral efficiency. However, several obstacles prevent precoding from wide deployment in early wireless networks: The significant feedback overhead, performance degradation due to feedback delay, and the large storage requirement at the mobile devices. In this paper, we propose a precoding method that addresses these issues. In this approach, only 3 or 6 bits feedback is needed to select a precoding matrix from a codebook. There are fifteen codebooks, each corresponding to a unique combination of antenna configuration (up to 4 antennas) and codebook size. Small codebooks are prestored and large codebooks are efficiently computed from the prestored codebook, modified Hochwald method and Householder reflection. Finally, the feedback delay is compensated by channel prediction. The scheme is validated by simulations and we have observed significant gains comparing to space-time coding and antenna selection. This solution was adopted as a part of the IEEE 802.16e specification in 2005.