Robust Scheduling and Resource Allocation in the Downlink of Spatially Correlated MIMO-OFDMA Wireless Systems With Imperfect CSIT

Multiple-input—multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) has been selected as the core physical-layer access scheme for the downlink of state-of-the-art and next-generation wireless communications standards. In these systems, scheduling and resource allocation (SRA) algorithms, jointly assigning transmission data rates, bandwidth, and power, become crucial in optimizing resource utilization while providing support to multimedia applications with heterogeneous quality-of-service (QoS) requirements. To this end, the transmitter is assumed to have channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT) that will typically be imperfect. This paper introduces a unified analytical framework for robust channel- and queue-aware QoS-guaranteed cross-layer SRA algorithms for the downlink of MIMO-OFDMA networks with imperfect CSIT. The framework is based on the statistical characterization of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) under imperfect CSIT and is general enough to encompass spatial correlation effects in the Tx and Rx antenna arrays, different types of traffic, uniform and continuous power allocation, discrete and continuous rate allocation, and protocols with different amounts of channel and queue awareness. Simulation results using parameters drawn from the Third-Generation Partnership Project Long-Term Evolution (3GPP-LTE) standard demonstrate the validity and advantages of the proposed robust cross-layer unified approach.