On the Design of Linear Transceivers for Multiuser Systems with Channel Uncertainty

We consider the design of linear transceivers for multiuser communication systems in the presence of uncertain channel state information (CSI), with an emphasis on downlink systems with a single antenna at each receiver. For systems with uplink-downlink reciprocity, we consider a stochastic model for the channel uncertainty, and we propose an efficient algorithm for the joint design of the linear preceding matrix at the base station and the equalizing gains at the receivers so as to minimize the average mean-square-error (MSE) over the channel uncertainty. The design is based on a generalization, derived herein, of the MSE duality between the broadcast and multiple access channels (MAC) to scenarios with uncertain CSI, and on a convex formulation for the design of robust transceivers for the dual MAC. For systems in which quantized channel feedback is employed, we consider a deterministically-bounded model for the channel uncertainty, and we study the design of robust downlink transceivers that minimize the worst- case MSE over all admissible channels. While we show that the design problem is NP-hard, we also propose an iterative local optimization algorithm that is based on efficiently-solvable convex conic formulations. Our framework is quite flexible, and can incorporate different bounded uncertainty models as well as a variety of power constraints. In particular, we study a "system-wide" uncertainty model, and although the resulting design problem is still NP hard, it does result in a significantly simpler iterative local design algorithm than the "per-user" uncertainty model. Our approaches to the minimax design for the downlink can be extended to the uplink, and we provide explicit formulations for the resulting uplink designs. Simulation results indicate that the proposed approaches to robust linear transceiver design can significantly reduce the sensitivity of the downlink to uncertain CSI, and can provide improved performance over that of existing robust designs.