  This paper considers the Sum-Rate (SR) maximization problem in downlink
MU-MISO systems under imperfect Channel State Information at the Transmitter
(CSIT). Contrary to existing works, we consider a rather unorthodox
transmission scheme. In particular, the message intended to one of the users is
split into two parts: a common part which can be recovered by all users, and a
private part recovered by the corresponding user. On the other hand, the rest
of users receive their information through private messages. This
Rate-Splitting (RS) approach was shown to boost the achievable Degrees of
Freedom (DoF) when CSIT errors decay with increased SNR. In this work, the RS
strategy is married with linear precoder design and optimization techniques to
achieve a maximized Ergodic SR (ESR) performance over the entire range of SNRs.
Precoders are designed based on partial CSIT knowledge by solving a stochastic
rate optimization problem using means of Sample Average Approximation (SAA)
coupled with the Weighted Minimum Mean Square Error (WMMSE) approach. Numerical
results show that in addition to the ESR gains, the benefits of RS also include
relaxed CSIT quality requirements and enhanced achievable rate regions compared
to conventional transmission with NoRS.
