Asymptotic Spectral Efficiency of Multi-antenna Links in Wireless Networks with Limited Tx CSI

Abstract

An asymptotic technique is presented for finding the spectral efficiency of multi-antenna links in wireless networks where transmitters have Channel-State-Information (CSI) corresponding to their target receiver. Transmitters are assumed to transmit independent data streams on a limited number of channel modes which limits the rank of transmit covariance matrices. This technique is applied to spatially distributed networks to derive an approximation for the asymptotic spectral efficiency in the interference-limited regime as a function of link-length, interferer density, number of antennas per receiver and transmitter, number of transmit streams and path-loss exponent. It is found that targeted-receiver CSI, which can be acquired with low overhead in duplex systems with reciprocity, can increase spectral efficiency several fold, particularly when link lengths are large, node density is high or both. Additionally, the per-link spectral efficiency is found to be a function of the ratio of node density to the number of receiver antennas, and that it can often be improved if nodes transmit using fewer streams. These results are validated for finite-sized systems by Monte-Carlo simulation and are asymptotic in the regime where the number of users and antennas per receiver approach infinity.