A Stream Allocation Method for MU-MIMO Communications in WLAN

In the multi-user multiple-in multiple-out (MU-MIMO) communication scenario of wireless local area network (WLAN), it is the basis for ensuring high-speed data transmission that appropriate space-time data streams are allocated to users. In this paper, a method of allocating space-time data streams for multi-user MIMO communications in WLAN is proposed, including initialization and update of streams. The initialization part is used for the initial allocation of streams for each user according to the total number of streams and users at the beginning of communication. The update part is used for determining the minimum and maximum of streams of a user when the streams of the user need to be reallocated due to changes in communication environment and process. As the number of streams changes for that user, the range of streams of other users are calculated synchronously, so as to help the network to reallocate space-time data streams. Numerical results show that the proposed method can effectively accomplish multi-user space-time data stream allocation compared to existing methods aiming at maximizing throughput, satisfying the limitation of the number of streams specified in WLAN protocols, and can support the reallocation of streams for each user in real time.