Low-Complexity User Scheduling Framework for mmWave Hybrid Beam-forming OFDM System under Non-Ideal CSI

Introduction: User scheduling in millimeter-wave (mmWave) multi-user hybrid beam-forming Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems involves the joint optimization of resource block group (RBG) allocation, beam pairing, and user selection. However, choosing the optimal scheduled User Equipment (UE), allocated RBGs, and communicating beams in practical mmWave hybrid beam-forming systems with non-ideal Channel State Information (CSI) remains challenging. Methods: In this paper, we propose a low-complexity user scheduling framework. On one hand, two user classification methods are proposed under non-ideal CSI, assisted by beam search and RBG allocation respectively. On the other hand, in order to ensure both the throughput and fairness performance, a novel user selection scheme, called weighted user selection based on feedback threshold (WUSFT) scheme is proposed, and approximate closed-form expression of fairness index for both full feedback and feedback based on threshold are derived. Our proposed methods consist of three steps. First, RBGs are allocated based on the maximum received signal power (MRSP) of each user on each RBG, utilizing quasi-omnidirectional beams. In the second step, the communicating beams are further searched to achieve the MRSP with the allocated RBG. Results: Finally, the allocated RBG, or the determined beam information obtained through the beam search, is used to represent the correlation of user channels and classify the UEs into groups. Only UEs whose reported factor is not less than the feedback threshold will report received information. This simplifies the operation of user scheduling. Moreover, simulation results demonstrate that our proposed schemes can achieve more than 92.3% of the sum rate performance of exhaustive search methods while maintaining relatively low complexity. Conclusion: In addition, the user feedback overhead (FO) reduces obviously, especially with large UE number.