Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Energy-efficient Butler-matrix-based hybrid beamforming for multiuser mmWave MIMO system

  • Research Paper
  • Special Focus on Millimeter Wave Communications Techniques and Devices for 5G
  • Published:
Science China Information Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In order to reduce the cost and power consumption of radio frequency (RF) chains in a millimeterwave (mmWave) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system, hybrid analog/digital beamforming (HBF) can be utilized to reduce the number of RF chains. The HBF consists of an analog beamforming (ABF) stage and a digital beamforming (DBF) stage. The ABF is always realized by using phase shifters and the DBF is done in a low-dimensional digital domain. However, phase shifters have several drawbacks, such as high power consumption and inconsistency of insertion loss. In this paper, we propose an energy-efficient HBF structure to handle these problems, which utilizes the Butler phase shifting matrix in the ABF stage. With the Butlermatrix- based ABF, several fixed beam directions can be obtained, and the best beam directions of different Butler matrices can be chosen by using exhaustive search. To reduce the high complexity of exhaustive search, we further provide a low complexity HBF algorithm. Simulations under the conditions of perfect channel state information (CSI) and estimated CSI verify the effectiveness of our proposed Butler-matrix-based HBF structure and related algorithms.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Pi Z, Khan F. An introduction to millimeter-wave mobile broadband systems. IEEE Commun Mag, 2011, 49: 101–107

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Rappaport T S, Sun S, Mayzus R, et al. Millimeter wave mobile communications for 5G cellular: it will work! IEEE Access, 2013, 1: 335–349

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Rangan S, Rappaport T S, Erkip E, et al. Energy efficient methods for millimeter wave picocellular systems. In: Proceedings of IEEE Communications Theory Workshop, Phuket, 2013. 1–25

    Google Scholar 

  4. Sohrabi F, Yu W. Hybrid digital and analog beamforming design for large-scale antenna arrays. IEEE J Sel Topics Signal Process, 2016, 10: 501–513

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Li J H, Xiao L M, Xu X B, et al. Robust and low complexity hybrid beamforming for uplink multiuser mmWave MIMO systems. IEEE Commun Lett, 2016, 20: 1140–1143

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Zi R, Ge X H, Thompson J, et al. Energy efficiency optimization of 5G radio frequency chain systems. IEEE J Sel Areas Commun, 2016, 34: 758–771

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Gao X Y, Dai L L, Han S F, et al. Energy-efficient hybrid analog and digital precoding for mm Wave MIMO systems with large antenna arrays. IEEE J Sel Areas Commun, 2016, 34: 998–1009

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Alkhateeb A, Leus G, Heath R W. Limited fedback hybrid precoding for multi-user millimeter wave systems. IEEE Trans Wirel Commun, 2015, 14: 6481–6494

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Méndez-Rial R, Rusu C, González-Prelcic N, et al. Hybrid MIMO architectures for millimeter wave communications: phase shifters or switches? IEEE Access, 2016, 4: 247–267

  10. Chin T Y, Chang S F, Wu J C, et al. A 25-GHz compact low-power phased-array receiver with continuous beam steering in CMOS technology. IEEE J Solid-State Circ, 2010, 45: 2273–2282

    Google Scholar 

  11. Forenza A, Love D, Heath R W. Simplified spatial correlation models for clustered MIMO channels with different array configurations. IEEE Trans Veh Tech, 2007, 56: 1924–1934

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. El Ayach O, Heath R W, Rajagopal S, et al. Multimode precoding in millimeter wave MIMO transmitters with multiple antenna sub-arrays. In: Proceedings of IEEE Global Communication Conference (GLOBECOM), Atlanta, 2013. 3476–3480

    Google Scholar 

  13. Alkhateeb A, Heath R W. Frequency selective hybrid precoding for limited feedback millimeter wave systems. IEEE Trans Commun, 2016, 64: 1801–1818

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Han S, Chih-Lin I, Xu Z K, et al. Large-scale antenna systems with hybrid analog and digital beamforming for millimeter wave 5G. IEEE Commun Mag, 2015, 53: 186–194

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Stankovic V, Haardt M. Generalized design of multi-user MIMO precoding matrices. IEEE Trans Wirel Commun, 2008, 7: 953–961

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (Grant No. 2012CB316002), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61201192), National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program) (Grant No. 2015AA01A701), Science Fund for Creative Research Groups of NSFC (Grant No. 61321061), International Science and Technology Cooperation Program (Grant No. 2012DFG12010), National S&T Major Project (Grant No. 2015ZX03002002), Key Grant Project of Chinese Ministry of Education (Grant No. 313005), Tsinghua University Initiative Scientific Research (Grant No. 2015Z02-3), Open Research Fund of National Mobile Communications Research Laboratory, Southeast University (Grant No. 2012D02), and Tsinghua-Qualcomm Joint Research Program.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory on Microwave and Digital Communications, Tsinghua National Laboratory for Information Science and Technology, Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Jiahui Li, Limin Xiao, Xibin Xu, Xin Su & Shidong Zhou

Authors
  1. Jiahui Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Limin Xiao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Xibin Xu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Xin Su
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Shidong Zhou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shidong Zhou.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Li, J., Xiao, L., Xu, X. et al. Energy-efficient Butler-matrix-based hybrid beamforming for multiuser mmWave MIMO system. Sci. China Inf. Sci. 60, 080304 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-016-0640-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-016-0640-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation