Faster-than-Nyquist Signaling through Spatio-temporal Symbol-level Precoding for the Multiuser MISO Downlink Channel

This paper deals with the problem of the interference between multiple co-channel transmissions in the downlink of a multi-antenna wireless system. In this framework, symbol-level precoding is a promising technique which is able to constructively exploit the multi-user interference and to transform it into useful power at the receiver side. While previous works on symbol-level precoding were focused on exploiting the multi-user interference, in this paper we extend this concept by jointly handling the interference both in the spatial dimension (multi-user interference) and in the temporal dimension (inter-symbol interference). Accordingly, we propose a novel precoding method, referred to as spatio-temporal symbol-level precoding. In this new precoding paradigm, faster-than-Nyquist signaling can be applied over multi-user MISO systems, and the inter-symbol interference can be tackled at the transmitter side, without additional complexity for the user terminals. While applying faster-than-Nyquist signaling, the proposed optimization strategies perform a sum power minimization with Quality-of-Service constraints. Numerical results are presented in a comparative fashion to show the effectiveness of the proposed techniques, which outperform the state of the art symbol-level precoding schemes in terms of symbol error rate, effective rate, and energy efficiency.