Efficient WMMSE beamforming for 5G mmWave cellular networks exploiting the effect of antenna array geometries

• Published in: IET communications Vol. 12; no. 2; pp. 169 - 178
• Main Authors: Abdelhakam, Mostafa M, Elmesalawy, Mahmoud M, Mahmoud, Korany R, Ibrahim, Ibrahim I
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Institution of Engineering and Technology 30.01.2018
• Subjects: 5G mmwave cellular network; 5G mobile communication; array signal processing; bandwidth allocation; base station; beamforming vector determination; block coordinate descent method; cellular radio; CiA; circular array; CoA; concave programming; conformal array; conical array; convex problem; convex programming; downlink multiuser multiple‐input multiple‐output beamforming optimisation; fifth generation mmwave cellular network; high‐dimensional antenna array geometry; least mean squares methods; millimetre wave transmission; MIMO communication; mmwave transmission; mobile data service; nonconvex problem; per‐user quality‐of‐service constraint; planar antenna arrays; planar array; quality of service; Research Article; system power consumption; system utility maximisation; vectors; weighted minimum mean square error; WMMSE directional beamforming; least mean squares methods; 5G mmwave cellular network; beamforming vector determination; weighted minimum mean square error; millimetre wave transmission; downlink multiuser multiple-input multiple-output beamforming optimisation; fifth generation mmwave cellular network; base station; MIMO communication; concave programming; conformal array; array signal processing; block coordinate descent method; 5G mobile communication; system utility maximisation; circular array; conical array; convex programming; quality of service; mmwave transmission; nonconvex problem; WMMSE directional beamforming; planar antenna arrays; bandwidth allocation; vectors; high-dimensional antenna array geometry; convex problem; per-user quality-of-service constraint; CoA; mobile data service; system power consumption; CiA; planar array; cellular radio
• ISSN: 1751-8628; 1751-8636
• DOI: 10.1049/iet-com.2016.1471

Millimetre wave (mmWave) transmission is considered as one of the potential technologies in fifth generation (5G) cellular networks that could allocate more bandwidth to support the rapid growth of mobile data services. However, mmWave signals experience large path loss which can overcome by employing directional beamforming with high-dimensional antenna arrays. In this study, a downlink multiuser multiple-input multiple-output beamforming optimisation problem is considered for maximising the system utility subject to per-user quality-of-service constraint as well as per-antenna and base station transmit power constraints. The difficulty of this problem lies in its non-convex nature. To address this challenge, a weighted minimum mean square error (WMMSE)-based solution is proposed to reformulate the non-convex problem into equivalent convex one. Then, the block coordinate descent method is used to determine beamforming vectors. Moreover, the different antenna array geometries either two-dimensional (2D) such as planar array and circular array (CiA), or 3D such as conformal array and conical array (CoA) are designed at the base station and their effect on the system performance is exploited. Extensive simulations show that the performance of the proposed WMMSE-based solution with CiA and CoA geometries outperforms the comparable algorithms in terms of system throughput, system power consumption and access rate.