Rate-Splitting and Sum-DoF for the $K$-User MISO Broadcast Channel with Mixed CSIT and Order-$(K-1)$ Messages

In this paper, we propose a rate-splitting design and characterize the sum-degrees-of-freedom (DoF) for the $K$-user multiple-input-single-output (MISO) broadcast channel with mixed channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT) and order-$(K-1)$ messages, where mixed CSIT refers to the delayed and imperfect-current CSIT, and order-$(K-1)$ message refers to the message desired by $K-1$ users simultaneously. In particular, for the sum-DoF lower bound, we propose a rate-splitting scheme embedding with retrospective interference alignment. In addition, we propose a matching sum-DoF upper bound via genie signalings and extremal inequality. Opposed to existing works for $K=2$, our results show that the sum-DoF is saturated with CSIT quality when CSIT quality thresholds are satisfied for $K>2$.