Weighted sum rate maximization for MIMO broadcast channels using dirty paper coding and zero-forcing methods

We consider precoder design for maximizing the weighted sum rate (WSR) of successive zero-forcing dirty paper coding (SZF-DPC). For this problem, the existing precoder designs often assume a sum power constraint (SPC) and rely on the singular value decomposition (SVD). The SVD-based designs are known to be optimal but require high complexity. We first propose a low-complexity optimal precoder design for SZF-DPC under SPC, using the QR decomposition. Then, we propose an efficient numerical algorithm to find the optimal precoders subject to per-antenna power constraints (PAPCs). To this end, the precoder design for PAPCs is formulated as an optimization problem with a rank constraint on the covariance matrices. A well-known approach to solve this problem is to relax the rank constraints and solve the relaxed problem. Interestingly, for SZF-DPC, we are able to prove that the rank relaxation is tight. Consequently, the optimal precoder design for PAPCs is computed by solving the relaxed problem, for which we propose a customized interior-point method that exhibits a superlinear convergence rate. Two suboptimal precoder designs are also presented and compared to the optimal ones. We also show that the proposed numerical method is applicable for finding the optimal precoders for block diagonalization scheme.