Massive multiple-input multiple-output can obtain more performance gain by exploiting the downlink channel state information (CSI) at the base station (BS). Therefore, studying CSI feedback with limited communication resources in frequency-division duplexing systems is of great importance. Recently, deep learning (DL)-based CSI feedback has shown considerable potential. However, the existing DL-based explicit feedback schemes are difficult to deploy because current fifth-generation mobile communication protocols and systems are designed based on an implicit feedback mechanism. In this paper, we propose a DL-based implicit feedback architecture to inherit the low-overhead characteristic, which uses neural networks (NNs) to replace the precoding matrix indicator (PMI) encoding and decoding modules. By using environment information, the NNs can achieve a more refined mapping between the precoding matrix and the PMI compared with codebooks. The correlation between subbands is also used to further improve the feedback performance. Simulation results show that, for a single resource block (RB), the proposed architecture can save 25.0% – 40.0% of overhead compared with the Type I codebook under different antenna configurations. For a wideband system with 52 RBs, overhead can be saved by 30.7% and 48.0% compared with the Type II codebook when ignoring and considering extracting subband correlation, respectively.

The autoencoder empowered by artificial intelligence has shown considerable potential in solving channel state information (CSI) feedback problems in frequency-division duplexing systems. However, this method needs to completely change the existing feedback schemes, which is difficult to deploy in the next few years. This paper proposes an environment knowledge-aided codebook-based CSI feedback framework, which retains the existent codebook-based scheme while introducing environment knowledge to feedback process through neural networks (NNs) at the base station. Only an NN-based refining operation is added after the common standardized feedback approach. The NNs learn to automatically extract environment features and utilize the channel statistics through large volumes of recorded data. The NNs also use the partial correlation between bidirectional channels to further improve feedback performance. In addition, to deal with downlink channel estimation errors, we propose two strategies to reduce their effects using an NN-based denoise module. The proposed framework can be easily embedded in most existing codebook-based feedback methods, such as random vector quantization. Two channel datasets generated by QuaDRiGa and measured in practical systems are adopted to evaluate the proposed methods. Results show that the proposed method offers over 100% increase in the throughput compared with the baseline codebook because of more accurate feedback.

In frequency-division duplexing systems, the downlink channel state information (CSI) should be fed back through an uplink transmission to reap the benefits of the massive multiple-input and multiple-output system, thereby leading to a large feedback overhead. The autoencoder-based architecture empowered by artificial intelligence has shown considerable potential in solving the CSI feedback problem. This method, however, needs to completely change the existing feedback schemes, which is difficult to deploy in the next few years. In this paper, we propose an environment knowledge-aided codebook-based CSI feedback framework, which retains the existent codebook-based scheme while introducing environment knowledge to the feedback process through neural networks (NNs) at the base station. The NNs learn to automatically extract the environment features and utilize the channel statistics through large volumes of recorded data. The channel dataset, which is generated by QuaDRiGa software, is adopted to evaluate the proposed methods. Results show that the proposed method offers over 100% increase in the throughput compared with the baseline feedback codebook because of the more accurate CSI feedback.