Trellis-based feedback reduction for multiple input multiple output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) with rate-limited feedback

1. A method for improving communications in a multiple input, multiple output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) system, comprising the steps of:

receiving a plurality of symbols from a plurality of sub-carriers at a receiver;

selecting a plurality of indices of codewords corresponding to a codebook of pre-coding weighting matrices for the sub-carriers based on vector quantization compression of the codewords; and

transmitting the selected indices over a wireless channel to a transmitter, wherein the transmitter is adapted to adjust future transmissions based upon the selected indices to improve communications between the transmitter and the receiver,

wherein the step of selecting a plurality of indices based on vector quantization compression of the codewords further includes the step of selecting a plurality of indices based on trellis-based feedback encoding, including selecting optimal precoding matrices T i along a trellis for all possible paths at the same time for a predetermined number of subcarriers, N c , each subcarrier having a designation p, p=0 to p=N c −1.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein an optimal path through the trellis is chosen to minimize the average bit error rate.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the optimal path through the trellis is found using the Viterbi algorithm.

4. A method for improving communications in a multiple input, multiple output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) system, comprising the steps of:

receiving a plurality of symbols from a plurality of sub-carriers at a receiver;

selecting a plurality of indices of codewords corresponding to a codebook of pre-coding weighting matrices for the sub-carriers based on vector quantization compression of the codewords; and

transmitting the selected indices over a wireless channel to a transmitter, wherein the transmitter is adapted to adjust future transmissions based upon the selected indices to improve communications between the transmitter and the receiver,

wherein the step of selecting a plurality of indices based on vector quantization compression of the codewords further includes the step of selecting a plurality of indices based on trellis-based feedback encoding, including: (a) constructing a trellis by specifying a state transition table where each state is characterized by a precoding matrix T i chosen from a predetermined codebook T having 2 B 1 states represented by B 1 bits.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein said step of selecting a plurality of indices based on trellis-based feedback encoding further includes the step of: (b) defining 2 B 2 neighbor states from a reduced size codebook of 2 B 2 codewords where and B 2 is less than B 1 , said reduced size codebook including codewords that based on descending order of chordal distance relative to T i .

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein said step of selecting a plurality of indices based on trellis-based feedback encoding further includes the step of: (c) determining a branch metric from the previous state to the current state for all subcarriers.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein said step of selecting a plurality of indices based on trellis-based feedback encoding further includes the step of: (d) determining an optimal codeword from the codebook T represented by B 1 bits and the state of the p=0 subcarrier.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the optimal codeword is determined based on finding an optimal precoding matrix T opt [p=0] where T opt [p=0] minimizes bit error rate, BER[p], at the p=0 subcarrier.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein said step of selecting a plurality of indices based on trellis-based feedback encoding further includes the step of: (e) incrementing the value of p to evaluate the next (p-th) subcarrier.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein said step of selecting a plurality of indices based on trellis-based feedback encoding further includes the step of: (f) executing one Viterbi step that only keeps the survivor paths from all possible states on the (p-1)-th subcarrier to all possible states on the p-th subcarrier.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein said step of selecting a plurality of indices based on trellis-based feedback encoding further includes the step of: (g) repeating steps (e)-(f) if the p-th subcarrier is not the last subcarrier (N c −1).

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein said step of selecting a plurality of indices based on trellis-based feedback encoding further includes the step of: (h) finding the optimal path along the trellis among all the survivor paths, the optimal path minimizing average bit error rate.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein said step of transmitting the selected indices over a wireless channel to the transmitter further includes the step of: (i) transmitting B 1 +(N c −1)B 2 bits corresponding to the selected indices over the wireless channel to the transmitter.

14. The method of claim 13 , further including the steps of:

(j) receiving the B 1 +(N c −1)B 2 bits corresponding to the selected indices at the transmitter;

(k) specifying the optimal codewords for all subcarriers based on the selected indices;

(l) weighting a plurality of symbols by a precoding matrix T i based on the optimal codewords; and

(m) transmitting the weighted plurality of symbols to the receiver over the wireless channel.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein step (l) is based on one of per subcarrier beamforming, spatial multiplexing, and precoded orthogonal space-time block codes (STBC) weighting technique.