Spatial Multiplexing for MIMO/Massive MIMO

In this chapter, we will discuss how to achieve spatial multiplexing in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications through precoding design, for both traditional small-scale MIMO systems and massive MIMO systems. The mathematical description for MIMO communications will first be introduced, based on which we discuss both block-level precoding and the emerging symbol-level precoding techniques. We begin with simple and closed-form block-level precoders such as maximum ratio transmission (MRT), zero-forcing (ZF), and regularized ZF (RZF), followed by the classic symbol-level precoding schemes such as Tomlinson-Harashima precoder (THP) and vector perturbation (VP) precoder. Subsequently, we introduce optimization-based precoding solutions, including power minimization, SINR balancing, symbol-level interference exploitation, etc. We extend our discussion to massive MIMO systems and particularly focus on precoding designs for hardware-efficient massive MIMO systems, such as hybrid analog-digital precoding, low-bit precoding, nonlinearity-aware precoding, etc.