Lecture 4

Multiuser Diversity

• The fading Gaussian uplink: 6.3 (parts)

• The fading Gaussian downlink: 6.4 (parts)
• Multiuser diversity: 6.6–7

Mikael Skoglund, Theoretical Foundations of Wireless 1/16

The Fading Gaussian Uplink

• Fast fading, perfect CSIR, perfect CSIT

• Received signal, K users in fading

K
X (k) (k)
ym = hm xm + wm
k=1

(i)
{wm } is i.i.d complex Gaussian CN (0, σ 2 ), and {hm }, i = 1, . . . , K,
are jointly stationary and ergodic
• User i is allowed power Pi

Mikael Skoglund, Theoretical Foundations of Wireless 2/16

 • Capacity region for K = 2:
(i) (1) (2)
• Let Pm = πi (hm , hm ) be the power allocated to user i at
time instant m,
(i)
• Pm depends on both users’ channels
` ´
• Let C π1 , π2 be the (R1 , R2 )’s satisfying
„ » «–
1 (1) 2 (1) (2)
R1 ≤ E log 1 + |hm | π1 (hm , hm )
σ2
» „ «–
1 (2) 2 (1) (2)
R2 ≤ E log 1 + |hm | π2 (hm , hm )
σ2
" 2
!#
1 X (i) 2
R1 + R2 ≤ E log 1+ 2 |hm | πi (h(1) (2)
m , hm )
σ i=1

Mikael Skoglund, Theoretical Foundations of Wireless 3/16

• The capacity region C is

[
C= C(π1 , π2 )
π1 ,π2

over all (π1 , π2 ) such that

E[πi (h(1) (2)

m , hm )] ≤ Pi , i = 1, 2

• Generalizes to K > 2
• Union over all permissible power allocation strategies ⇒
hard to define “optimal” strategy

Mikael Skoglund, Theoretical Foundations of Wireless 4/16

 • Sum capacity, the maximum sum capacity for K users is achieved
by h i+
1 σ2 λi
− , |hi | > λj |hj |

πi (hK
1 ) = λi |hi |2
0 o.w
(i)
at time m, with hi = hm , and with λi , i = 1, . . . , K, such that

E[πi (hK
1 )] = Pi

Only one user transmits

Mikael Skoglund, Theoretical Foundations of Wireless 5/16

• The symmetric case: with the hi ’s i.i.d and Pi = P ,

h i+
 1 σ2
− , |hi | > |hj |
πi (hK
1 )=
λ |hi |2
0 o.w

with λ such that E[πi (hK

1 )] = P
Only the user with the strongest channel transmits
• The resulting sum capacity is
" + !#  2
|hk∗ |
Csum = E log 1 + −1
λσ 2

where
k ∗ = k ∗ (hn1 ) = arg max |hk |
k

Mikael Skoglund, Theoretical Foundations of Wireless 6/16

 • The multiple access problem becomes a scheduling problem,
• at each time-instant, schedule data to the strongest user
• ‘opportunistic communication’
• Multiuser diversity, compared with K = 1 the ‘effective channel
gain’ is strengthened from h1 to hk∗ ,
• a selection diversity gain
• large K ⇒ at least one good user

Mikael Skoglund, Theoretical Foundations of Wireless 7/16

The Fading Gaussian Downlink

• Fast fading, perfect CSIR, perfect CSIT:

• Received signal
(i)
ym = h(i) (i)
m xm + wm
(i)
with the {hm }’s, i = 1, . . . , M , jointly stationary and ergodic, and
(i) (i)
the {wm }’s i.i.d zero-mean Gaussian with E|wm |2 = σi2
• Average transmit power ≤ P

Mikael Skoglund, Theoretical Foundations of Wireless 8/16

 • Capacity region for K = 2:
(i) (1) (2)
• Superposition coding with power Pm = πi (hm , hm ) allocated
to user
` i at time
´ instant m
• Let C π1 , π2 be the (R1 , R2 )’s satisfying
" !#
2 (1)
|h1 | Pm
R1 ≤ E log 1+ (2)
|h2 |2 Pm u |hσ1 | σ2
` ´
1
> |h2 |
+ σ12
" !#
2 (2)
|h2 | Pm
R2 ≤ E log 1+ (1)
|h1 |2 Pm u |hσ2 | σ1
` ´
2
> |h1 |
+ σ22

(1) (2)
with expectation over h1 = hm and h2 = hm , and with
u(x > y) = 1 if x > y and 0 o.w.

Mikael Skoglund, Theoretical Foundations of Wireless 9/16

• The capacity region is

[ ` ´
C= C π1 , π 2
π1 ,π2

over all (π1 , π2 ) such that

E[π1 (h1 , h2 ) + π2 (h1 , h2 )] ≤ P

Mikael Skoglund, Theoretical Foundations of Wireless 10/16

 • Sum capacity, the maximum sum capacity for K users is achieved
by h i+
 1− σi2 |hi |2 |hj |2
K λ |hi |2 , σi2
> σj2
πi (h1 ) =
0 o.w
(i)
at time m, with hi = hm , and with λ such that
K
X
E[πi (hK
1 )] = P
i=1

Transmit only to the strongest user

Mikael Skoglund, Theoretical Foundations of Wireless 11/16

• Resulting sum capacity,

" + !#  2
|hk∗ |
Csum = E log 1 + −1
λσk2∗

where
k ∗ = k ∗ (hn1 ) = arg max{|hk |2 /σk2 }
k

• Scheduling, opportunistic communication, multiuser diversity. . .

Mikael Skoglund, Theoretical Foundations of Wireless 12/16

Multiuser Diversity

• Figure from the textbook

Mikael Skoglund, Theoretical Foundations of Wireless 13/16

• Figure from the textbook

Mikael Skoglund, Theoretical Foundations of Wireless 14/16

Scheduling

• The opportunistic scheduler can be unfair to weak users. . .

• Proportional fair scheduling,
(k)
• requested rate of user k at time m: Rm
(k)
• average throughput of user k: Tm
• at time m, transmit to user
(k)
∗ Rm
k = arg max (k)
k Tm
(k)
• update Tm ,
„ «
(k) 1 (k) δk,k∗ (k)
Tm+1 = 1− Tm + Rm
tc tc

Mikael Skoglund, Theoretical Foundations of Wireless 15/16

Virtual Fast Fading, Dumb Antennas

• Consider the fading downlink

• Multiuser diversity gain requires fast fading, for users to ’ride the
peaks’
• In a slow fading environment, fast fading can be manufactured by
the basestation!
• Assume n transmit antennas
• Generate beamforming vectors at random, to sweep a randomly
pointing downlink beam
• Schedule the (proportionally) strongest user
• Many users ⇒ always a good user

Mikael Skoglund, Theoretical Foundations of Wireless 16/16