Optimality of zero-forcing beamforming with multiuser diversity

In MIMO downlink channels, the capacity is achieved by dirty paper coding (DPC). However, DPC is difficult to implement in practical systems. This work investigates if, for a large number of users, simpler schemes can achieve the same performance. Specifically, we show that a zero-forcing beamforming (ZFBF) strategy, while generally suboptimal, can achieve the same asymptotic sum-rate capacity as that of DPC, as the number of users goes to infinity. In proving this asymptotic result, we propose an algorithm for determining which users should be active in ZFBF transmission. These users are semi-orthogonal to one another, and when fairness among users is required, can be grouped for simultaneous transmissions to enhance the throughput of fair schedulers. We provide numerical results to confirm the optimality of ZFBF and to compare its performance with that of various MIMO downlink strategies.