Codebook-Based Effective CSI Feedback for Precoding Design in MIMO Systems

Abstract

Downlink multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) precoding with limited channel state information (CSI) feedback in multi-cell systems is studied. Conventional codebook-based CSI feedback compresses the UE-specific physical channels, which leaves an inherent mismatch between the base-station (BS) precoders and the interference-aware UE combiners. To address this limitation, an effective CSI (ECSI) feedback framework is proposed in which UEs compute their linear combiners from precoded downlink pilots, construct corresponding post-combining effective channels, and report compact quantized representations using the same payload structure as in conventional schemes. The BS reconstructs the effective CSI and iteratively refines its precoders through over-the-air signaling without incurring additional downlink overhead. Analytical expressions are derived to characterize the effective-channel estimation error under both conventional CSI and ECSI feedback, explicitly capturing the impact of beam selection and rank truncation. Simulations demonstrate fast convergence within a few iterations and up to 30\% average sum-rate improvement over conventional CSI-based precoding, with gains reaching 100\% at the 10th percentile of per-stream rates in interference-limited conditions.