Analysis of Vector Quantizers Using Transformed Codebooks with Application to Feedback-Based Multiple Antenna Systems

Transformed codebooks are obtained by a transformation of a given codebook to best match the statistical environment at hand. The procedure, though suboptimal, has recently been suggested for feedback of channel state information (CSI) in multiple antenna systems with correlated channels because of their simplicity and effectiveness. In this paper, we first consider the general distortion analysis of vector quantizers with transformed codebooks. Bounds on the average system distortion of this class of quantizers are provided. It exposes the effects of two kinds of suboptimality introduced by the transformed codebook, namely, the loss caused by suboptimal point density and the loss caused by mismatched Voronoi shape. We then focus our attention on the application of the proposed general framework to providing capacity analysis of a feedback-based MISO system over spatially correlated fading channels. In particular, with capacity loss as an objective function, upper and lower bounds on the average distortion of MISO systems with transformed codebooks are provided and compared to that of the optimal channel quantizers. The expressions are examined to provide interesting insights in the high and low SNR regime. Numerical and simulation results are presented which confirm the tightness of the distortion bounds.