Apparatus and method for eliminating multi-user interference

• US 20070155336A1
• Filed: 11/17/2006
• Published: 07/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation Yonsei University, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Samsung Group)
• Original Assignee: Industry Academic Cooperation Foundation, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Samsung Group)
• Inventors: Nam, Seung-Hoon, Kim, Kyeong-Yeon, Shim, Sei-Joon, Kim, Yung-Soo, Lee, Chung-Yong, Cho, Myeon-Kyun
• Granted Patent: US 7,907,912 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/69
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0408 using two or more beams, i.e. beam diversity
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0417 Feedback systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0452 Multi-user MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0634 Antenna weights or vector/matrix coefficients
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0639 Using selective indices, e.g. of a codebook, e.g. pre-distortion matrix index [PMI] or for beam selection

Abstract

Provided are an apparatus and method for eliminating multi-user interference in a codebook-based beamforming system. A transmitter for providing a service to multi-users in the codebook-based beamforming system includes a beamformer for generating beamformed user signals by multiplying transmit data of users, to whom the service is to be provided, by corresponding weighting factor vectors using feedback information; a null space generator for generating a null space matrix orthogonal to weighting factor vectors of other users; and a projector for projecting the beamformed user signals on the corresponding null space matrix and transmitting the resulting signals through a plurality of antennas. Because the multi-user signals can maintain orthogonality, the performance degradation caused by the multi-user interference can be prevented.

Claims

1. A transmitter for providing a service to multi-users, comprising:

a beamformer for generating beamformed user signals by multiplying transmit data of users, to whom the service is to be provided, by corresponding weighting factor vectors using feedback information;

a null space generator for generating a null space matrix orthogonal to weighting factor vectors of other users; and

a projector for projecting the beamformed user signals on the corresponding null space matrix.

2. The transmitter of claim 1, wherein the beamformer comprises:

a user selector for selecting a predetermined number of users to whom the service is to be provided by using the feedback information;

a weighting factor generator for generating weighting factor vectors with respect to the selected users by using the feedback information; and

a weighting factor multiplier for generating the beamformed user signals by multiplying the transmit data of the selected users by the corresponding weighting factor vector output from the weighting factor generator.

3. The transmitter of claim 1, wherein the projector comprises:

a null space projector for multiplying the beamformed user signals output from the beamformer by the corresponding null space matrix output from the null space generator; and

an adder for adding the user signals output from the null space projector according to antennas, and providing the added antenna signals to corresponding antennas.

4. The transmitter of claim 1, wherein the feedback information comprises codebook index and user selection information.

5. The transmitter of claim 4, wherein the user selection information contain one of a distance between a weighting factor vector actually calculated by a receiver and a codebook vector, a channel status, and a product of the distance and the channel status.

6. The transmitter of claim 2, wherein the user selector uses the feedback information to select a predetermined user whose channel status is good and in which distance between a real channel and a codebook is short.

7. The transmitter of claim 1, wherein the null space generator generates the null space matrix with respect to the users by using Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization.

8. The transmitter of claim 1, wherein the null space generator generates a projection matrix from an interference matrix consisting of weighting factor vectors of other users with respect to a k^th user, and generates a null space matrix with respect to the k^th user by subtracting the projection matrix from an identity matrix.

9. A transmitter for providing a service to multi-users, comprising:

a user combination selector for selecting a predetermined number of weighting factor vectors orthogonal to one another among weighting factor vectors according to codebook indexes fed back from a receiver, and determining a user combination based on the selected weighting factor vectors; and

a beamformer for beamforming transmit data of users based on user combination into weighting factor vectors based on the corresponding fed-back codebook indexes.

10. The transmitter of claim 9, wherein the user combination selector comprises:

a weighting factor vector selector for selecting a predetermined number of weighting factor vectors among weighting factor vectors according to the fed-back codebook indexes, and constructing a weighting factor matrix A^(j) (where j=1, 2, . . . , number of user combinations) according to the user combination;

a minimum eigenvalue calculator for calculating the minimum eigenvalues A^(j)HA^(j) with respect to the weighting factor matrixes output from the weighting factor vector selector and

a user combination selector for selecting the smallest value of the minimum eigenvalues and for selecting a user combination corresponding to the selected minimum eigenvalue.

11. The transmitter of claim 9, wherein the beamformer comprises:

a weighting factor multiplier for generating beamformed user signals by multiplying the transmit data of the users by the weighting factor vector according to the corresponding codebook index; and

an adder for adding the beamformed user signals according to antennas, and providing the added antenna signals to the corresponding antennas.

12. A method for transmitting a service to multi-users in a codebook-based beamforming system, comprising the steps of:

generating beamformed user signals by multiplying transmit data of users to which the service is to be provided using feedback information by corresponding weighting factor vectors;

generating a null space matrix orthogonal to weighting factor vectors of other users; and

projecting the beamformed user signals on the corresponding null space matrix.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of generating the beamformed user signals comprises:

selecting a predetermined number of users to whom the service is to be provided using the feedback information;

generating weighting factor vectors with respect to the selected users by using the feedback information; and

generating the beamformed user signals by multiplying the transmit data of the selected users by the corresponding weighting factor vector.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the transmitting step comprises:

projecting the beamformed user signals on the corresponding null space matrix; and

adding the user signals projected on the null space matrix according to the antennas, and transmitting the added antenna signals through the corresponding antennas.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the feedback information comprises codebook index and user selection information.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the user selection information contain one of a distance between a weighting factor vector actually calculated by a receiver and a codebook vector, a channel status, and a product of the distance and the channel status.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the step of selecting the users comprises:

using the feedback information to select a predetermined users whose channel status is good and in which distance between a real channel and a codebook is short.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the null space matrix with respect to the users is generated using Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of generating the null space matrix comprises:

generating a projection matrix from an interference matrix consisting of weighting factor vectors of other users with respect to a k^th user; and

generating a null space matrix with respect to the k^th user by subtracting the projection matrix from an identity matrix.

20. A method for transmitting a service to multi-users in a codebook-based beamforming system, comprising the steps of:

selecting a predetermined number of weighting factor vectors orthogonal to one another among weighting factor vectors according to codebook indexes fed back from a receiver, and determining a user combination based on the selected weighting factor vectors; and

beamforming transmit data of users based on user combination into weighting factor vectors based on the corresponding fed-back codebook indexes.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the step of determining the user combination comprises:

selecting a predetermined number of weighting factor vectors among weighting factor vectors according to the fed-back codebook indexes, and constructing a weighting factor matrix A^(j) (where j=1, 2, . . . , number of user combinations) according to the user combination;

calculating A^(j)HA^(j) with respect to the weighting factor matrixes, and calculating minimum eigenvalues of A^(j)HA^(j); and

selecting the smallest value of the minimum eigenvalues and selecting a user combination corresponding to the selected minimum eigenvalue.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the transmitting step comprises:

generating beamformed user signals by multiplying the transmit data of the users by the weighting factor vector according to the corresponding codebook index; and

adding the beamformed user signals according to the antennas, and providing the added antenna signals to the corresponding antennas.