CSI Transfer From Sub-6G to mmWave: Reduced-Overhead Multi-User Hybrid Beamforming

Abstract: Hybrid beamforming is vital in modern wireless systems, especially for massive MIMO and millimeter-wave (mmWave) deployments, offering efficient directional transmission with reduced hardware complexity. However, effective beamforming in multi-user scenarios relies heavily on accurate channel state information, the acquisition of which often requires significant pilot overhead, degrading system performance. To address this and inspired by the spatial congruence between sub-6GHz (sub-6G) and mmWave channels, we propose a Sub-6G information Aided Multi-User Hybrid Beamforming (SA-MUHBF) framework, avoiding excessive use of pilots at mmWave. SA-MUHBF employs a convolutional neural network to predict mmWave beamspace from sub-6G channel estimate, followed by a novel multi-layer graph neural network for analog beam selection and a linear minimum mean-square error algorithm for digital beamforming. Numerical results demonstrate that SA-MUHBF efficiently predicts the mmWave beamspace representation and achieves superior spectrum efficiency over state-of-the-art benchmarks. Moreover, SA-MUHBF demonstrates robust performance across varied sub-6G system configurations and exhibits strong generalization to unseen scenarios.