A Unified Codebook Structure for Various Antenna
Configurations
Lu Wu, Hao Liu, Dong Li
Bell Labs China, Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell, Shanghai, China
Email: {Lu.Wu, Hao.a.Liu, Dong.Li}@alcatel-sbell.com.cn
Abstract—In downlink frequency division duplex (FDD) sys-
tems, the benefits of multi-user (MU) MIMO highly rely on
the accuracy of channel quantization based on a predefined
codebook. Linear antenna array is widely deployed in realistic
systems, including various configurations such as uniformly-
spaced linear array (ULA) and cross-polarized linear array
(CLA) with closely-spaced or widely-spaced antennas. In this
paper, a unified codebook structure is proposed for all these
antenna arrays, in a form of two-stage feedback. The average
cell spectrum efficiency and cell-edge user spectrum efficiency
of the proposed codebook are evaluated through system level
simulation and compared to the system performance with long
term evolution (LTE) Rel-8 codebook and discrete Fourier trans-
form (DFT) codebook. Simulation results show that the proposed
codebook significantly improves channel feedback efficiency as
well as system performance.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) spatial multiplexing
is famous for dramatically increasing spectral efficiency of
wireless communication [1] and has been adopted by the 3rd
Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) long term evolution
(LTE) and its updated version LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) as one
of the key techniques. High data rates (326 Mbps for LTE
[2], 1 Gbps for LTE-A [3][4]) and high spectral efficiency are
some of the requirements for these standards. These ambitious
targets can be achieved only by the usage of advanced MIMO
techniques. However, multi-user (MU) MIMO is very sensitive
to the accuracy of channel knowledge. Contrary to single user
(SU) MIMO, limited feedback in MU-MIMO considerably
limits the gain of spatial multiplexing.
In downlink frequency division duplex (FDD) systems,
generally user sends several bits representing channel state
information to its served base station (BS), including channel
direction information (CDI) and channel quality, respectively
denoted as precoding matrix indicator (PMI) and channel
quality indicator (CQI) in LTE/LTE-A specifications [5]. How
to design codebook effectively quantizing CDI is key in
downlink FDD systems. When the probability density function
of channel is known a priori, an optimal codebook can be
obtained by the Lloyd algorithm [6]. However, when channel
statistics vary, it is impractical to use Lloyd algorithm due to
latency and complexity. Besides, codebook with constant mod-
ulus elements and clear structure is more welcome in realistic
systems for usage simplicity, such as the LTE Rel-8 codebook
[7] and discrete Fourier transform (DFT) codebook. Linear
antenna array is widely deployed in reality, including various
978-1-4799-8088-8/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE
configurations, such as closely-spaced uniformly-spaced lin-
ear array (ULA), closely-spaced cross-polarized linear array
(CLA), widely-spaced ULA and widely-spaced CLA. Both the
LTE Rel-8 codebook and DFT codebook do not well match the
channel characteristic of CLA. Therefore, a unified codebook
structure is preferred to support all these antenna patterns.
In this paper, a two-stage codebook is proposed for payload
size reduction, including one diagonal-form W1 matrix target-
ing wideband and/or long-term channel property, and another
matrix W2 for finer quantization of frequency-selective and/or
short-term channel. W1 matrix indicates the beam for the
antenna subgroup with the same polarization based on wide-
band and/or long-term channel estimation. The design of W2
matrix considers the support of various antenna configurations,
including features such as finer beam shift of one polariza-
tion with respect to W1 beam feedback, polarization beam
shift with respect to another polarization, differential beam
shift between layers, co-phasing between polarizations, and
differential co-phasing between layers. By selecting some of
these features, the proposed codebook structure can be easily
used for closely-spaced ULA/CLA, widely-spaced ULA/CLA.
System-level simulation is also performed under 4Tx closely-
spaced and widely-spaced CLA, and demonstrates that imple-
menting the proposed codebook achieves obvious performance
gain over the standardized LTE Rel-8 codebook, and still
outperforms DFT codebook with smaller feedback overhead.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section
II introduces the downlink system model. Section III analyzes
the channel characteristics of various antenna configurations
fist. Subsequently, the unified codebook structure is proposed
in Section IV to adapt different antenna patterns. System level
simulation results are presented in Section V. Finally, Section
VI provides some concluding remarks.
Notation: (·)T and (·)H are transpose and Hermitian trans-
pose respectively. I is the identity matrix.
II. T HE D OWNLINK S YSTEM M ODEL
MIMO and orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing
(OFDM) are employed for LTE/LTE-A FDD downlink system.
Suppose that each BS has Nt transmit antennas. At BS, the
transmitted signal on subcarrier k can be expressed as
x(k) = F(k)s(k) (1)
T
where s(k) = [s1 (k), s2 (k), · · · , sr (k)] is a r × 1 vector
containing the encoded MIMO complex data symbols at
subcarrier k, r is the rank of data transmission, and F(k) B. Cross-polarized linear array
is a Nt × r complex precoding matrix. A Nt -element CLA is composed of two subgroups of
Codebook based precoding is adopted in LTE/LTE-A FDD antennas, each corresponding to a polarization. The antennas
system. Each user selects a codeword in a predefined codebook in each subgroup form a Nt /2-element ULA, so the channel
to represent the CDI from the served BS, and sends its index for closely-spaced CLA can be represented by
back, i.e. PMI. There are some criteria to select the optimal
 
PMI, such as maximum capacity and minimum chordal dis- hULA (θ, N2t )
hCLA (θ, Nt ) = (4)
tance. Together with PMI, user reports a recommended rank e hULA (θ, N2t )
jω
and CQI as well to indicate the channel quality. Then BS
retrieves the downlink CSI according to the reported PMI from where ejω is the co-phasing factor between two polarizations.
each user, and performs proportional fairness scheduling by Accordingly, codebook for closely-spaced CLA can be well
greedy search based on maximum weighted sum capacity. It designed as
depends on BS to determine the scheduled user number and
rank number. If SU mode is scheduled, the precoding matrix  
WULA (n, N2t )
F(k) is set as the codeword reported from the corresponding WCLA (n, Nt ) = ,
ejω WULA (n, N2t )
user. Otherwise, if MU mode is determined, F(k) is usually
calculated by zero-forcing (ZF) method based on the downlink n = 0, 1, ..., NDFT − 1 (5)
CSI of each co-scheduled user.
Obviously, by selecting ω = ejπnNt /NDFT , the CLA codebook
above is exactly the ULA codebook in equation (3). This is a
III. C HANNEL C HARACTERISTIC OF VARIOUS A NTENNA useful property for a unified codebook design to support both
C ONFIGURATIONS ULA and CLA configurations.
For widely-spaced CLA, beam mismatch of one polarization
How to design codebook effectively representing CDI is a
occurs with respect to another polarization, which should be
key issue for FDD downlink system. First, channel properties
considered in codebook design. So the codebook can be design
of some typical antenna patterns are characterized in this
with following structure.
section, such as ULA, CLA. Since antenna spacing influences
channel spatial correlation significantly, widely-spaced array is  
discussed here as well as closely-spaced case which has been WULA (n1 , N2t )
WCLA (n1 , n2 , Nt ) = ,
well studied in existing literatures. ejω WULA (n2 , N2t )
n1 , n2 = 0, 1, ..., NDFT − 1 (6)
A. Uniformly-spaced linear array
IV. P ROPOSED C ODEBOOK S TRUCTURE
For closely-spaced ULA, the channel corresponding to the
Codebook suitable for ULA or CLA is analyzed respectively
incoming plane wave can be written as
in section III first. In this section, a unified codebook structure
is proposed for various antenna configurations, supporting
 2πd 2π(Nt −1)d
T both closely-spaced and widely-spaced array. Meanwhile, the
hULA (θ, Nt ) = 1, e−j λ sin θ , · · · , e−j λ sin θ
(2) proposed codebook allows a two-stage PMI feedback, which
tremendously reduce feedback overhead.
where θ denotes the angle of departure, d represents the Codebook is designed in the form of
antenna spacing of ULA and λ is the wavelength of the center
frequency of interest. W = W1 W2 (7)
Obviously, hULA can be viewed as a DFT vector. Hence,
DFT codebook as shown below is very suitable for closely- where W is a Nt ×r matrix, W1 is a square Nt ×Nt diagonal
spaced ULA and widely used in realistic systems. matrix corresponding to long term and/or wideband channel
properties, and W2 is a Nt ×r tall matrix targeting short-term
 T and subband channel estimation. The details of W1 and W2
2πn(Nt −1)
j 2πn j are proposed in following subsections. Here a 4Tx antenna
WULA (n, Nt ) = 1, e NDFT , ..., e NDFT ,
array is considered, and extension to other antenna number is
n = 0, 1, ..., NDFT − 1 (3) straightforward.

where NDFT is codebook size. A. W1 codebook design

While for widely-spaced ULA, the specific channel form The matrix W1 represents long-term and/or wideband chan-
in equation (2) may not strictly hold. So the corresponding nel information for antenna elements with the same polariza-
codebook should be designed allowing some phase mismatch tion of a 4Tx antenna array. It is designed in the following
with (3) on each element. diagonal form
 be quantized into at least one bit to adapt to multiple antenna
⎡ ⎤ patterns. Besides, as indicated in section III-B, the adaptation
1
1⎢ ej2πn/N ⎥ of this codebook structure to ULA is straightforward with
W1 (n) = ⎢ ⎥,
2⎣ 1 ⎦ some specific chosen of α.
ej2πn/N This unified codebook structure has many benefits as listed
below.
n = 0, 1, ..., N − 1 (8)
1) This codebook design is compatible with the same
where N denotes the 2Tx DFT beam size as well as W1 diagonal matrix based W1 structure as LTE Rel-8 4Tx
codebook size. codebook.
B. W2 codebook design 2) W1 is a diagonal matrix including identify matrix, so it
may ease the design of rank 3 and rank 4, e.g. W1 is
The design principle of W2 codebook is to support a variety
identity and W2 is legacy LTE Rel-8 4Tx codebook for
of antenna configurations with a single unified codebook struc-
rank 3 and 4.
ture without significantly increasing feedback overhead, such
3) The group of finer beams and beam overlapping is
as closely-spaced ULA/CLA and widely-spaced ULA/CLA.
jointly determined by the design of W1 and the set
1) Rank 1: The structure of rank-1 W2 codebook considers
of φ in W2 . And it has great flexibility to support
beam shift of one polarization with respect to W1 long term
different granularity of beam group and beam over-
and/or wideband DFT beam, polarization beam shift with
lapping. For example, W1 has 16 DFT beams with
respect to another polarization, as well as co-phasing between
2πn/N ∈ {0, 2π/16, ..., 2π × 15/16} .
two polarizations.
⎡  ⎤ a) φ ∈ {0, π/16} means two finer beam shifts for
1 one polarization and no beam overlapping among
⎢ jφ ⎥
W2 = ⎢  e ⎥ (9)
codewords
⎣ jα 1 ⎦ b) φ ∈ {0, 2π/16, 4π/16, 6π/16} means four finer
e
ej(φ+β) beam shifts for one polarization and three beam
overlapping
where
jφ
• e : Finer beam shift of one polarization with respect to
4) This codebook structure can easily support various
W1 long term and/or wideband DFT beam feedback antenna patterns, such as closely-spaced ULA/CLA,
jβ
• e : Polarization beam shift with respect to another
widely-spaced ULA/CLA. The codebook granularity for
polarization, e.g. independent beam shifts between two each type of antenna array is determined by the value
polarizations for widely-spaced antenna array selection of N and the five angles φ, β, α, φ and α.
jα
• e : Co-phasing factor between two polarizations Assume that the whole band is divided into NSB subbands.
2) Rank 2: In rank-2 W2 codebook, layer 1 is the same as The sizes of W1 and W2 codebook are denoted by N1 and
rank 1 to maintain nested property, which is a good feature in N2 bits respectively. At first, user selects a W1 codeword
realistic codebook design such as LTE Rel-8 codebook. For to represent the wideband CDI. Then on each subband, user
layer 2 design, differential beam shift is taken into account selects a W2 codeword based on predetermined W1 codeword
with respect to layer 1. to quantize the subband CDI. Compared to the overhead
of separately quantizing each subband CDI with the same
⎡   ⎤ resolution, i.e., NSB (N1 + N2 ) bits, two-stage feedback only
1 1
⎢ jφ ⎥ needs a smaller bits of N1 + NSB N2 since W1 is the same
 e ej(φ+Δφ)
W2 = ⎢
⎣ jα
⎥
⎦ for each subband. Hence, (NSB − 1)N1 bits could be saved if
1 1
e ej(α+Δα) such a two-stage codebook is employed.
ej(φ+β) ej(φ+β+Δφ)

(10)
where C. Equivalent transformation of the proposed codebook
• Δφ: differential beam shift of layer 2 with respect to layer
Given W1 codeword in (8) and co-phasing factor α in W2 ,
1 the corresponding W codebook is shown as follows when
• Δα: differential co-phasing of layer 2 with respect to
β = 0.
layer 1
Unitary property is usually recommended for high-rank W = W1 W2
codebook design in realistic system, which means that all ⎡ ⎤
1
layers in the codebook are orthogonal to each other. To 1⎢ ej2πn/N ⎥
maintain this property for rank-2 W2 codebook, set Δα = π. = ⎢ ⎣
⎥
⎦
2 1
According to section III, β and Δφ can be set to zero for
ej2πn/N
closely-spaced CLA. To support widely-spaced CLA, β and/or
Δφ can be chosen as non-zero values. Therefore β or Δφ can (11)
 ⎡  ⎤ TABLE I
1 4T X LTE R EL -8 C ODEBOOK
⎢ jφ ⎥
·⎢ e ⎥ {s}
⎣ 1 ⎦ Un denotes the matrix defined by the columns
ejα jφ given by the set {s} from the Householder transform
e Un = I − 2un uH H
n /(un un )
⎡  ⎤ un
1 Index Rank 1
{1}
Rank 2
{1, 4} √
1⎢ j(2πn/N +φ) ⎥ 1 u1 = [1 − 1 − 1 − 1]T U1 U1 / 2
= ⎢ e ⎥, u2 = [1 − j 1 j]T U2
{1}
U2
{1, 2} √
/ 2
2⎣ ⎦ 2
1 {1, 2} √
ejα 3 u3 = [1 1 − 1 1]T U3
{1}
U3 / 2
ej(2πn/N +φ) {1} {1, 2} √
4 u4 = [1 j 1 − j]T U4 U4 / 2
φ ∈ {0, φ1 , ..., φM −1 } (12)  T
{1} {1, 4} √
5 u5 = 1 −1−j√ − j 1−j
√ U5 U5 / 2
2 2
where {0, φ1 , ..., φM −1 } denote the selected M values of finer  T √
1−j −1−j {1} {1, 4}
beam shift φ. 6 u6 = 1 √ j √ U6 U6 / 2
2 2
 T
Next, we reformulate the same W codebook as follows by 7 u7 = 1 1+j
√ −j −1+j
√ U7
{1}
U7
{1, 3} √
/ 2
listing all M beams due to finer beam shift into W1 and 
2 2
T √
converting the finer beam shift to W2 beam selection. 8 u8 = 1 −1+j
√ j 1+j
√ U8
{1}
U8
{1, 3}
/ 2
2 2
T {1} {1, 2} √
W = W1 W2 9 u9 = [1 − 1 1 1] U9 U9 / 2
    {1} {1, 4} √
10 u10 = [1 − j − 1 − j]T U10 U10 / 2
V ei 3} √
= · , i = 0, 1, ..., M − 1 (13) 11 u11 = [1 1 1 − 1]T
{1}
U11
{1,
U11 / 2
V ejα ei {1} {1, 3} √
12 u12 = [1 j − 1 j]T U12 U12 / 2
2} √
where ei is a M × 1 beam selection vector with all zeros 13 u13 = [1 − 1 − 1 1]T
{1}
U13
{1,
U13 / 2
3} √
except for the (i+1)-th element being 1, and V is a group of 14 u14 = [1 − 1 1 − 1]T
{1}
U14
{1,
U14 / 2
{1} {1, 3} √
the M beams and denoted by 15 u15 = [1 1 − 1 − 1]T U15 U15 / 2
  {1} {1, 2} √
16 u16 = [1 1 1 1]T U16 U16 / 2
1 1 ... 1
V=
ej2πn/N ej(2πn/N +φ1 ) ... ej(2πn/N +φM −1 )
(14)
In this case, W1 is in a block-diagonal form, different from the TABLE II
diagonal form of the proposed W1 codebook in (8). However, S IMULATION A SSUMPTIONS
these two forms are actually equivalent. The beam selection in
Deployment scenario Scenario A
the block-diagonal based codebook can be converted to finer
Cell number 19 cells with 3 sectors per cell
beam shift in diagonal based codebook, e.g. selecting specific Duplex method and bandwidth FDD, 10MHz
φ from a given set of values. Traffic model Full buffer
Outdoor-indoor user ratio 20% outdoor/80% indoor
V. S IMULATIONS User number per sector 10 users per macro cell
with uniform distribution
This section evaluates the proposed codebook in a FDD Network synchronization Synchronized
downlink system over 19 sites/57 pentagon-shaped cells. Sce- BS antenna 4Tx CLA with antenna spacing of
nario A is considered defined in 3GPP LTE Rel-12 [8] [9] with 0.5λ or 4λ, and polarization angles
of ±45◦ (X X)
20% outdoor/80% indoor UE distribution in full buffer model. User antenna 2Rx CLA with polarization angles
Details of simulation parameters and modeling assumptions of 0◦ /90◦ (+)
are summarized in Table II. BS is equipped with a 4Tx antenna Transmission scheme MU-MIMO, ZF precoding method,
rank 1 per user
array, and two kinds of antenna configurations are evaluated Maximal number of
separately, which are closely or widely spaced CLA. The over- co-scheduled users 2
all downlink bandwidth (10 MHz) is divided into 10 subbands, Scheduler Proportional fair and frequency
selective scheduling, scheduling
i.e., NSB = 10. Each user reports the optimal rank, PMI, and granularity of one subframe (1 ms)
CQI based on SU-MIMO assumption and maximum capacity Feedback scheme Subband PMI/CQI feedback, 5ms
criteria. At BS side, MU-MIMO scheduling is employed, and feedback period and 5ms delay
equal transmit power is allocated to each data stream. between feedback and transmission
Channel estimation Non-ideal
In the simulations, two codebook candidates with the Feedback error 0.1% bit error rate
proposed structure in section IV are evaluated for closely HARQ Synchronous HARQ, chase
and widely spaced CLA respectively and are given in the combining, max 4 retransmissions
Receiver type MMSE-IRC at user side
following. And they are compared with two other well-known Control channel and
codebooks widely used in realistic systems. One is the 4-bit reference signal overhead Fixed 0.3063
LTE Rel-8 codebook [7] given in Table I, and the other one Link adaptation Non-ideal, with outer-loop control
Simulation time 280 subframes (1 ms/subframe)
is the DFT codebook. The higher rank of both codebooks are
constructed by Householder transform.
 TABLE III
S YSTEM P ERFORMANCE WITH C LOSELY- SPACED CLA (A NTENNA R EFERENCES
S PACING 0.5λ) [1] A. Paulraj, R. Nabar and D. Gore, Introduction to Space-Time Wireless
Communications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Codebook Average SE (bps/Hz) Edge SE (bps/Hz/user) [2] Agilent Technologies, Agilent 3GPP Long Term Evolution: Sys-
LTE Rel-8 codebook 2.50 (Baseline) 0.052 (Baseline) tem Overview Developement and Test Challanges, May 2008.
Proposed codebook I 2.62 (+ 5%) 0.055 (+ 6%) http://cp.literature.agilent.com/litweb/pdf/5989-8139EN.pdf.
5-bit DFT codebook 2.58 (+ 3%) 0.051 (- 2%) [3] E. Seidel, Progress on ”LTE-Advanced” - the new 4G standard, Jul. 2008.
http://www.nomor.de/uploads.
TABLE IV [4] 3GPP TR 36.913 v8.0.1, Requirements for further advancements for
S YSTEM P ERFORMANCE WITH W IDELY- SPACED CLA (A NTENNA EUTRA (LTE-Advanced), Mar. 2009.
S PACING 4λ) [5] 3GPP TS 36.213 V10.5.0, 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical
Specification Group Radio Access Network; Evolved Universal Terrestrial
Radio Access (E-UTRA);Physical layer procedures (Release 10), Mar.
Codebook Average SE (bps/Hz) Edge SE (bps/Hz/user) 2012.
LTE Rel-8 codebook 2.34 (Baseline) 0.041 (Baseline) [6] A. Gersho and R. M. Gray, Vector Quantization and Signal Compression.
Proposed codebook II 2.50 (+ 7%) 0.042 (+ 2%) Norwell, MA: Kluwer Academics, 1992.
7-bit DFT codebook 2.46 (+ 5%) 0.042 (+ 2%) [7] 3GPP TS 36.211 V8.5.0, 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical
Specification Group Radio Access Network; Evolved Universal Terrestrial
Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical Channels and Modulation (Release 8),
Dec. 2008.
• Proposed codebook I: Consider a 5-bit W1 codebook, [8] 3GPP, R1-130457, Summary of Evaluation Assumptions on Further
and 2-bit finer beam shift and 2-bit co-phasing in W2 by Downlink MIMO Enhancement, Alcatel-Lucent, Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai
Bell, RAN1-72 meeting.
selecting N = 32, φ = {0, 2π/16, 4π/16, 6π/16}, α = [9] 3GPP TS 36.871 V11.0.0, 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical
{0, π/2, π, 3π/2}, β = 0, Δφ = 0 and Δα = π. In this Specification Group Radio Access Network; Evolved Universal Terres-
codebook, polarization beam shift and differential beam trial Radio Access (E-UTRA);Downlink Multiple Input Multiple Output
(MIMO) enhancement for LTE-Advanced (Release 11), Dec. 2011.
shift are not considered. This codebook is well suited for
closely-spaced CLA.
• Proposed codebook II: By selecting N = 32,
φ = {0, 2π/16}, α = {0, π/2, π, 3π/2}, β =
{0, π/2, π, 3π/2}, Δφ = {0, π} and Δα = π, a code-
book is obtained with a 5-bit W1 codebook and a 6-
bit W2 codebook including 1-bit finer beam shift, 2-
bit co-phasing, 2-bit polarization beam shift, and 1-bit
differential beam shift. This codebook is designed for
widely-spaced CLA.
Table III shows the system performance utilizing the pro-
posed codebook I in terms of average cell spectral efficiency
(SE) and cell-edge user SE under closely-spaced CLA. The
proposed codebook I significantly outperforms the LTE Rel-
8 codebook by 5% on average cell SE and 6% on cell-edge
user SE, and shows 8% gain on cell-edge user SE compared
to the 5-bit DFT codebook while with 5 less bits per feedback
period. For widely-spaced CLA, the system performance with
the proposed codebook II is presented in Table IV, achieving
7% gain on average cell SE compared with the LTE Rel-8
codebook, and still outperforming the 7-bit DFT codebook
with 5 bits saved per feedback period.

VI. C ONCLUSIONS
In this paper, a unified codebook structure is proposed
with a two-stage form of W1 W2 , which effectively matches
the channel characteristic of various antenna configurations
such as closely-spaced ULA/CLA, widely-spaced ULA/CLA.
System level simulation is performed to evaluate the perfor-
mance of the proposed codebook and compare it with two
other codebooks, i.e. LTE Rel-8 codebook and DFT codebook.
Simulation results show that the proposed codebook achieves
obvious performance gain over the LTE Rel-8 codebook and
also outperforms DFT codebook with a smaller feedback
overhead.