Adaptive MIMO systems

An adaptive MIMO communications system comprising a MIMO transmitter and a MIMO receiver and having a feedback path from said receiver to said transmitter,

• said MIMO transmitter including a receiver to receive a feedback signal from said receiver sent via said feedback path and a controller responsive to said feedback signal to configure a MIMO transmission from said transmitter to said receiver;
• said MIMO receiver being configured to receive said MIMO transmission;
• and wherein said MIMO receiver includes a channel metric computation module having a channel metric output and a decision module, said decision module having a channel metric input and an output for sending a MIMO configuration signal to said MIMO transmitter, said decision module being configured to determine a MIMO transmission configuration responsive to said channel metric input and to output a MIMO configuration signal for feedback to said transmitter to configure said transmitter in accordance with said determination;
• wherein said receiver is further configured to estimate a MIMO channel response matrix for decoding a received signal and for computing a said channel metric, and to determine a decomposition of said channel response matrix, for computing a said channel metric and/or decoding a received signal, in parallel with said channel response estimation.

An adaptive MIMO communications system comprising a MIMO transmitter and a MIMO receiver and having a feedback path from said receiver to said transmitter,

• said MIMO transmitter including a receiver to receive a feedback signal from said receiver sent via said feedback path and a controller responsive to said feedback signal to configure a MIMO transmission from said transmitter to said receiver;
• said MIMO receiver being configured to receive said MIMO transmission;
• and wherein said MIMO receiver includes channel metric computation module having a channel metric output and a decision module, said decision module having a channel metric input and an output for sending a MIMO configuration signal to said MIMO transmitter, said decision module being configured to determine a MIMO transmission configuration responsive to said channel metric input and to output a MIMO configuration signal for feedback to said transmitter to configure said transmitter in accordance with said determination;
• wherein said receiver is further configured to estimate a MIMO channel response matrix for decoding a received signal and for computing a said channel metric, and to determine a decomposition of said channel response matrix, for computing a said channel metric and for decoding a received signal using shared computational resources.

A MIMO receiver for receiving a MIMO transmission, the receiver comprising:

• a MIMO channel matrix estimator to estimate a MIMO channel response matrix for decoding a received signal;
• and
• a matrix decomposition module to determine a decomposition of said channel response matrix for decoding a received signal;
• and
• wherein said receiver is configured to estimate said channel response in parallel with said channel matrix response decomposition determination.

A method of configuring an adaptive MIMO communications system comprising a MIMO transmitter and a MIMO receiver and having a feedback path from said receiver to said transmitter, said MIMO transmitter including a receiver to receive a feedback signal from said receiver sent via said feedback path and a controller responsive to said feedback signal to configure a MIMO transmission from said transmitter to said receiver, said MIMO receiver being configured to receive said MIMO transmission, the method comprising:

• inputting a signal indicating a desired receiver power consumption;
• determining a MIMO transmission configuration responsive to said power indicating input;
• and
• outputting a MIMO configuration signal for feedback to said transmitter to configure said transmitter in accordance with said determination.

A method of configuring an adaptive MIMO communications system comprising a MIMO transmitter and a MIMO receiver and having a feedback path from said receiver to said transmitter, said MIMO transmitter including a receiver to receive a feedback signal from said receiver sent via said feedback path and a controller responsive to said feedback signal to configure a MIMO transmission from said transmitter to said receiver, said MIMO receiver being configured to receive said MIMO transmission, the method comprising:

• inputting a desired communications quality of service (QoS) signal;
• determining a first MIMO transmission configuration responsive to said desired QoS signal;
• outputting said first MIMO configuration signal for feedback to said transmitter to configure said transmitter in accordance with said determination;
• measuring a communications quality of service (QoS);
• determining a second MIMO transmission configuration responsive to said measured QoS;
• and
• outputting a second MIMO configuration signal for feedback to said transmitter to configure said transmitter in accordance with said second determination.