Optimality of beamforming in fading MIMO multiple access channels

We consider the sum capacity of a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) multiple access channel (MAC) where the receiver has the perfect channel state information (CSI), while the transmitters have either no or partial CSI. When the transmitters have partial CSI, it is in the form of either the covariance matrix of the channel or the mean matrix of the channel. For the covariance feedback case, we mainly consider physical models that result in single-sided correlation structures. For the mean feedback case, we consider physical models that result in in-phase received signals. Under these assumptions, we analyze the MIMO-MAC from three different viewpoints. First, we consider a finite-sized system. We show that the optimum transmit directions of each user are the eigenvectors of its own channel covariance and mean feedback matrices, in the covariance and mean feedback models, respectively. Also, we find the conditions under which beamforming is optimal for all users. Second, in the covariance feedback case, we prove that the region where beamforming is optimal for all users gets larger with the addition of new users into the system. In the mean feedback case, we show through simulations that this is not necessarily true. Third, we consider the asymptotic case where the number of users is large. We show that in both no and partial CSI cases, beamforming is asymptotically optimal. In particular, in the case of no CSI, we show that a simple form of beamforming, which may be characterized as an arbitrary antenna selection scheme, achieves the sum capacity. In the case of partial CSI, we show that beamforming in the direction of the strongest eigenvector of the channel feedback matrix achieves the sum capacity. Finally, we generalize our covariance feedback results to double-sided correlation structures in the Appendix.