Simplified User Grouping Algorithm For Massive Mimo On Sparse Beam-Space Channels

Massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems are a key promising technology for future broadband cellular networks. The propagation paths within massive MIMO radio channels are often sparse, both in the sub-6 GHz frequency band and at millimeter wave frequencies. Herein, we propose a two-layer beamforming scheme for downlink transmission over massive multiuser MIMO sparse beam-space channels. The first layer employs a bipartite graph to dynamically group users in the beam-space domain; the aim is to minimize inter-user interference while significantly reducing the effective channel dimensionality. The second layer performs baseband linear MIMO precoding to maximize spatial multiplexing gain and system throughput. Simulation results demonstrate the proposed two-layer beamforming scheme outperforms other, more conventional algorithms.