MASINDE MULIRO UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND COMMUNICATIONS ENGINEERING

Dr. Filbert Onkundi Ombongi

ECE 811: MOBILE COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

SEMESTER I 2023/2024 ACADEMIC YEAR
 Chapter 1
PROPAGATION IN WIRELESS CHANNELS
Fading in Wireless Communications
Fading in wireless communication is defined as the fluctuation in the strength of the signal received
at the receiver. These are basically unwanted variations introduced at the time when the signal
propagates from an end to another by taking multiple paths.

Fading is said to be a common characteristic of sky wave signals that propagates utilizing wireless
communication.

The wireless communication system supports multipath propagation. This multipath propagation
is nothing other than the outcome of several atmospheric reflections. So when waves of a signal
from an antenna transmitted at the same time then multipath propagation causes the reception of
waves in different time spans at the receiver.

The waves when propagate through different paths suffers variation in height and ionization
density in the ionospheric region of the atmosphere. We are also aware of the fact that the actually
received signal is the vector sum of the waves received at that instant at the receiver.

These received signals from different paths at the receiver either get added constructively or
destructively.
This causes the variation in the overall strength of the received signal. Thus is known as fading.

It is noteworthy that due to fading the strength of the signal shows variation from a few dBs to
around 10 or 20 dB. This depends on the condition that whether fading is normal or severe.
Fading is a gradual phenomenon and signal can be recovered. However, the fade-out is a
phenomenon which is a condition of sudden ionospheric disturbance or ionospheric storms in
sunspot cycles, etc. that leads to complete fading of the signal.

Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances or SIDs are often experienced on the HF or short wave bands
where they may also be called blackouts, short wave fades (SWF), or they are sometimes referred
to as the Dellinger effect, after the person who first noted them. As the name implies they occur
suddenly, and they cause a blackout of ionospheric radio propagation for a number of hours. This
may cover part, or even all of the HF radio spectrum. Sudden ionospheric disturbances i.e., SID is
an unpredictable event. Thus fade-outs are said to be quick events that occur in the atmosphere.

Fading is a phenomenon that occurs due to varying parameters and conditions of the channel
during wireless propagation. To better understand and eliminate the adverse effects of fading, it is
divided into various types.
The figure above shows the different types of fading and the sub-categories.

(i) Large Scale Fading: This refers to the attenuation of signal power due to obstacles
between the transmitter and receiver. It also covers the attenuation and fluctuations of
signal when the signal is transmitted over a long distance (usually in kilometres).
(ii) Path Loss: It refers to the attenuation when a signal is transmitted over large distances.
Wireless signals spread as they propagate through the medium and as the distance
increases, the energy per unit area starts decreasing. This is a fundamental loss that is
independent of the type of transmitter and medium. Although, we can minimize its
effects by increasing the capture area/dimension of the receiver. The figure below
shows the radiation pattern and spread of the signal transmitted from the antenna.

(iii) Shadowing: This refers to the loss in signal power due to the obstructions in the path
of propagation. There are a few ways in which shadowing effects can minimize signal
loss. One that is most effective, is to have a Line-Of-Sight propagation.
Shadowing losses also depend on the frequency of the EM wave. The EM Waves can
penetrate through various surfaces but at the cost of loss in power i.e signal attenuation.
The losses depend on the type of the surface and frequency of the signal. Generally,
the penetration power of a signal is inversely proportional to the frequency of the signal.
(iv) Small Scale Fading: This refers to the fluctuations in signal strength and phase over
short distance and small duration of time. It is also called Rayleigh Fading. Small Scale
Fading affects almost all forms of wireless communication and overcoming them is a
necessity to increase efficiency and decrease error.
(v) Fast Fading: It occurs mainly due to reflections for surfaces and movement of
transmitter or receiver. High Doppler spread is observed in the fast fading with Doppler
 bandwidth comparable to or greater than the bandwidth of the signal and the channel
variations are as fast or faster than the signal variations. It causes linear distortions in
the shape of the baseband signal and creates Inter-symbol Interference (ISI). One way
to remove ISI is adaptive equalization.
(vi) Slow Fading: It occurs mainly due to shadowing where large buildings or geographical
structures obstruct the LOS. Low doppler spread is observed in Slow Fading with the
doppler bandwidth being smaller compared to the bandwidth of the signal and the
channel variations are slow relative to the signal variations. It results in reduction of
SNR which can be overcome using error correction techniques and receiver diversity
techniques.
(vii) Multipath Fading: It occurs when a signal reaches the receiver from various path i.e.
when multipath propagation takes place. Multipath fading can affect all ranges of
frequencies starting from low frequency to microwave and beyond. It affects both the
amplitude and the phase of the signal causing phase distortions and ISI. Multipath
fading can affect signal transmission in two ways:
(viii) Flat Fading: In flat fading, all frequency components get affected almost equally. Flat
multipath fading causes the amplitude to fluctuate over a period of time.
(ix) Selective Fading: Selective Fading or Selective Frequency Fading refers to multipath
fading when the selected frequency component of the signal is affected. It means
selected frequencies will have increased error and attenuation as compared to other
frequency components of the same signal. This can be overcome by techniques such as
OFDM which spreads the data across the frequency components of the signal to reduce
data loss.
It is also known as frequency selective fading. Basically when waves propagate through
different paths by being reflected from various man-made entities then the different
frequencies get affected to different degrees.
This will lead to cause variation in the amplitude and phase of the signals to a different
extent while propagating in the channel.
It is to be noted that even if the path length through which the signal is propagating is
same, then also the signals will possess different wavelengths. This causes variation in
the phase of the signal across the overall bandwidth.

Selective fading can occur over a quite large range of frequencies. Suppose signals are
utilizing ground wave propagation and sky wave propagation, then in such case the phase of the
signals will change with time as the two are using two different medium of propagation.
Thus combinely when the signals are received at the receiving antenna then there will be changes
in the received signal from the actually transmitted one.

So, as this type of fading is frequency selective, thus at the time of propagation, even adjacent
parts of the signal fade independently even if their frequency of separation is small. Hence, this
causes severe distortion of the modulated signal.
As it severely affects high-frequency signals thus is more dangerous in case of sky wave
propagation. The amplitude modulated signals are generally more prone to such distortions rather
than SSB signals. Thus one can use SSB systems to reduce selective fading.

Interference fading
Interference fading is also a result of the multipath propagation of signals transmitted from the
antenna. It occurs when waves interfere at the channel while propagating from an end to another.
Suppose a signal is propagated through sky wave propagation, then the waves travel by getting
reflected from the upper and lower regions of the ionosphere. Sometimes the waves propagate
through single or multiple hops also, in case of low-frequency signals. Thereby leading to cause
interference of signals in the channel.

The figure below represents interference fading caused due to the propagation of rays through
multiple paths:

Here ray ‘a’ is reflected from E layer, ray ‘b’ is reflected from F layer, ray ‘c’ is multihop
propagation and ray ‘d’ is groundwave.

It is noteworthy here that sometimes it occurs even due to variation in the ionization density.
Basically with the variation in path length, there is random variation in the phase and thus
amplitude changes continually thus cause interference of waves.

Absorption Fading
We know that when the signal propagates from an end to another then there are losses that are
introduced by the transmission medium. Generally, when the signal is propagated through any
medium, then the medium possesses some amount of signal absorption.

However, the amount of signal being absorbed by the medium is not constant as this depends on
various factors. Thus it will be wrong to say that every transmitted signal suffers an equal amount
of absorption while propagating through the same medium.
So, due to the absorption of the signal by the transmission medium, the strength of the signal varies
and this deteriorates the received signal.

Polarization Fading
Polarization fading is the result of variation in the polarization of the waves reaching the surface
of the earth.

In sky wave propagation when wave reflects back to the surface of earth then its polarization
changes. The change in polarization of the reflected wave is the result of the superposition of other
waves (ordinary and extraordinary) with opposite polarization that are having different amplitudes
and phases.

This leads to cause change in polarization of the wave continually with the antenna. Hence the
amplitude of the signal received at the receiver also varies. Thus is known as polarization fading.

Skip Fading
Here the name itself is indicating that this type of fading is associated with skip distance of radio
wave propagation.

It generally occurs near the skip distance region. This type of fading is an outcome of variation in
the height and ionization density of the ionospheric region.

The skip distance is the region between transmitting and receiving point where the signal is
received after getting reflected from the ionosphere.

So, the variation in the ionization density will undoubtedly alter the skip zone. This variation can
be a point either in or out of the skip zone.
 Chapter 2

MIMO Communication in Wireless Systems

MIMO: Multiple Input Multiple Output technology uses multiple antennas to make use of reflected
signals to provide gains in channel robustness and throughput.
Multiple-input multiple-output, or MIMO, is a radio communications technology or RF
technology that is being mentioned and used in many new technologies these days.
Wi-Fi, LTE; Long Term Evolution, and many other radio, wireless and RF technologies are using
the new MIMO wireless technology to provide increased link capacity and spectral efficiency
combined with improved link reliability using what were previously seen as interference paths.
Even now many there are many MIMO wireless routers on the market, and as this RF technology
is becoming more widespread, more MIMO routers and other items of wireless MIMO equipment
will be seen.
In today’s fast-paced world, speed and efficiency are the foundation of a reliable communications
system and key to any commercially successful network. MIMO (multiple-input-multiple-output)
communication technology is a breakthrough in wireless communication that has provided greater
scalability and the ability to serve more users with lower latency services.
In its infancy, MIMO was an innovative technology that employed multiple antennas at both
transmitting and receiving ends to increase the data transfer capacity. However, with the addition
of multiplexing techniques like OFDM, antenna arrays using MIMO techniques are used for
simultaneously transmitting and receiving multiple data streams over the same radio channel,
which is aided by multipath propagation. In this article, we’ll look at the use of MIMO at the
systems level to provide higher throughput and scalability for wireless communications.
How MIMO Communication Works
MIMO communication takes advantage of multipath propagation in complex radio communication
environments. When this occurs, transmitted information bounces off of walls, ceilings, etc. as it
propagates to the receiving antenna. Consequently, signals carrying the sent information are
received at varying angles in different timeframes. Multipath propagation can create interference
and due to temporal dispersion. For example, a single transmit signal can be received multiple
times at a single receiver due to multipath propagation.
In addition to a single signal being received at a single antenna multiple times, a single antenna
could transmit to multiple antennas in the same time window, as shown below. In an antenna array,
if all antennas were broadcasting simultaneously, then all user antennas within the broadcast range
could receive the transmit signal from all transmitting antennas.
MIMO communications concept with multiple transmit and receive antennas. Each color can
represent a different frequency or time window.
MIMO exploits the situation shown above to increase data throughput and range. Many different
MIMO approaches have been developed for a wide range of networks and available channel states.
Three basic techniques used in MIMO communication are:
i. Spatial diversity
ii. Spatial multiplexing
iii. Beamforming
These techniques are often used in combination to achieve maximum throughput and scalability.

(i) Spatial Diversity

In spatial diversity, multiple antennas separated at the ends of a communication system (by at least
1/2 wavelength) can give the requisite diversity gain. Transmit diversity and receiver diversity are
both categorized under the umbrella of spatial diversity:
Transmit diversity involves sending identical data streams to each Tx antenna. This provides
redundancy in the system that reduces fading and increases signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the
receiver.
Receive diversity applies the reciprocal idea at the receive end of a channel, providing the same
type of redundancy found in transmit diversity.
Spatial diversity used in this narrower sense often refers to transmit and receive diversity. These
two methodologies are used to provide improvements in the signal to noise ratio and they are
characterised by improving the reliability of the system with respect to the various forms of fading.
 (ii) Spatial Multiplexing
Spatial multiplexing involves sending multiple spatial streams through multiple antennas, and
these streams are separated at the receiver through spatial processing. Since the receiver decodes
the transmitted streams individually, data throughput can be increased for a fixed channel
bandwidth. MIMO spatial multiplexing has the ability to boost spectral efficiency without
significantly diminishing the link's robustness. However, diversity gain is lost in this technique.
This form of MIMO is used to provide additional data capacity by utilising the different paths to
carry additional traffic, i.e. increasing the data throughput capability.
As a result of the use multiple antennas, MIMO wireless technology is able to considerably
increase the capacity of a given channel while still obeying Shannon's law. By increasing the
number of receive and transmit antennas it is possible to linearly increase the throughput of the
channel with every pair of antennas added to the system. This makes MIMO wireless technology
one of the most important wireless techniques to be employed in recent years. As spectral
bandwidth is becoming an ever more valuable commodity for radio communications systems,
techniques are needed to use the available bandwidth more effectively. MIMO wireless technology
is one of these techniques.
One of the key advantages of MIMO spatial multiplexing is the fact that it is able to provide
additional data capacity. MIMO spatial multiplexing achieves this by utilising the multiple paths
and effectively using them as additional "channels" to carry data.
The maximum amount of data that can be carried by a radio channel is limited by the physical
boundaries defined under Shannon's Law.
Shannon's Law and MIMO Spatial Multiplexing
As with many areas of science, there a theoretical boundaries, beyond which it is not possible to
proceed. This is true for the amount of data that can be passed along a specific channel in the
presence of noise. The law that governs this is called Shannon's Law, named after the man who
formulated it. This is particularly important because MIMO wireless technology provides a method
not of breaking the law, but increasing data rates beyond those possible on a single channel without
its use.
Shannon's law defines the maximum rate at which error free data can be transmitted over a given
bandwidth in the presence of noise. It is usually expressed in the form:
C = W log2(1 + S/N )
where C is the channel capacity in bits per second, W is the bandwidth in Hertz, and S/N is the
SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio).
From this it can be seen that there is an ultimate limit on the capacity of a channel with a given
bandwidth. However before this point is reached, the capacity is also limited by the signal to noise
ratio of the received signal.
In view of these limits many decisions need to be made about the way in which a transmission is
made. The modulation scheme can play a major part in this. The channel capacity can be increased
by using higher order modulation schemes, but these require a better signal to noise ratio than the
lower order modulation schemes. Thus a balance exists between the data rate and the allowable
error rate, signal to noise ratio and power that can be transmitted.
While some improvements can be made in terms of optimising the modulation scheme and
improving the signal to noise ratio, these improvements are not always easy or cheap and they are
invariably a compromise, balancing the various factors involved. It is therefore necessary to look
at other ways of improving the data throughput for individual channels. MIMO is one way in which
wireless communications can be improved and as a result it is receiving a considerable degree of
interest.
To take advantage of the additional throughput capability, MIMO utilises several sets of antennas.
In many MIMO systems, just two are used, but there is no reason why further antennas cannot be
employed and this increases the throughput. In any case for MIMO spatial multiplexing the number
of receive antennas must be equal to or greater than the number of transmit antennas.
To take advantage of the additional throughput offered, MIMO wireless systems utilise a matrix
mathematical approach. Data streams t1, t2, . . . tn can be transmitted from antennas 1, 2, . . . n.
Then there are a variety of paths that can be used with each path having different channel
properties. To enable the receiver to be able to differentiate between the different data streams it
is necessary to use. These can be represented by the properties h12, travelling from transmit
antenna one to receive antenna 2 and so forth. In this way for a three transmit, three receive antenna
system a matrix can be set up:
r1 = h11 t1 + h21 t2 + h31 t3
r2 = h12 t1 + h22 t2 + h32 t3
r3 = h13 t1 + h23 t2 + h33 t3
Where r1 = signal received at antenna 1, r2 is the signal received at antenna 2 and so forth.
In matrix format this can be represented as:
[R] = [H] x [T]
To recover the transmitted data-stream at the receiver it is necessary to perform a considerable
amount of signal processing. First the MIMO system decoder must estimate the individual channel
transfer characteristic hij to determine the channel transfer matrix. Once all of this has been
estimated, then the matrix [H] has been produced and the transmitted data streams can be
reconstructed by multiplying the received vector with the inverse of the transfer matrix.
[T] = [H] -1 x [R]
This process can be likened to the solving of a set of N linear simultaneous equations to reveal the
values of N variables.
In reality the situation is a little more difficult than this as propagation is never quite this
straightforward, and in addition to this each variable consists of an ongoing data stream, this
nevertheless demonstrates the basic principle behind MIMO wireless systems.
(iii) Beamforming
The use of beamforming in MIMO communications involves focusing a signal in a particular
direction so that the greatest possible gain is achieved at the receiving end. There are three
beamforming techniques:
 Analog, which would be performed with a phased array
 Digital, which uses precoding with modulated data streams to construct a beam pattern
 Hybrid, where analog and digital are combined and multiplexed spatially/temporally
Different beamforming methods used with spatial multiplexing/diversity will require different
signal processing methodologies to precode and decode signals. This would need to be
implemented with a specialty chipset or an FPGA.
For many years antenna technology has been used to improve the performance of systems.
Directive antennas have been used for very many years to improve signal levels and reduce
interference.
Directive antenna systems have, for example, been used to improve the capacity of cellular
telecommunications systems. By splitting a cell site into sector where each antenna illuminates
60° or 120° the capacity can be greatly increased - tripled when using 120° antennas.
With the development of more adaptive systems and greater levels of processing power, it is
possible to utilise antenna beamforming techniques with systems such as MIMO.
Beamforming techniques can be used with any antenna system - not just on MIMO systems. They
are used to create a certain required antenna directive pattern to give the required performance
under the given conditions.
Smart antennas are normally used - these are antennas that can be controlled automatically
according the required performance and the prevailing conditions.
Smart antennas can be divided into two groups:
 Phased array systems: Phased array systems are switched and have a number of pre-
defined patterns - the required one being switched according to the direction required.
 Adaptive array systems (AAS): This type of antenna uses what is termed adaptive
beamforming and it has an infinite number of patterns and can be adjusted to the
requirements in real time.
MIMO beamforming using phased array systems requires the overall system to determine the
direction of arrival of the incoming signal and then switch in the most appropriate beam. This is
something of a compromise because the fixed beam is unlikely to exactly match the required
direction.
Adaptive array systems are able to direct the beam in the exact direction needed, and also move
the beam in real time - this is a particular advantage for moving systems - a factor that often
happens with mobile telecommunications. However the cost is the considerable extra complexity
required.
Single-User (SU) and Multi-User MIMO
SU-MIMO supports a single device at a time by using radio communication layers from multiple
antennas. To achieve the highest possible user spectral efficiency, SU-MIMO transmissions utilize
time-frequency resources that are exclusively allocated to a single user device. MU-MIMO, on the
other hand, allocates multiple users to a single time-frequency resource. This is a significant
advantage as compared to SU-MIMO, particularly in channels with spatial correlation.
Reconfigurable antennas in MIMO
Reconfigurability adds flexibility to a MIMO communication system and significantly improves
transmission throughput. Polarization, frequency, and radiation patterns are fixed in the case of
conventional MIMO antennas. In contrast, reconfigurable antennas can serve as a booster for
MIMO systems because their radiation properties (polarization, radiation pattern, frequency) can
be reconfigured in response to environmental and system changes.
Reconfigurable antennas can help solve many design challenges faced by engineers when
designing an effective MIMO system. For instance, multiple antennas at both receiving and
transmitting ends lead to the problem of mutual coupling i.e. crosstalk. The channel capacity of a
MIMO communication system increases linearly with the number of uncorrelated channels as the
mutual coupling is reduced.
However, reducing mutual coupling is easier said than done and fixed radiation properties and
space between conventional antennas make it very difficult to achieve. Reconfigurability provides
an ideal solution to this problem as these antennas are capable of changing radiation properties as
per requirement.
MIMO -Multiple Input Multiple Output
A channel may be affected by fading and this will impact the signal to noise ratio. In turn this will
impact the error rate, assuming digital data is being transmitted. The principle of diversity is to
provide the receiver with multiple versions of the same signal. If these can be made to be affected
in different ways by the signal path, the probability that they will all be affected at the same time
is considerably reduced. Accordingly, diversity helps to stabilise a link and improves performance,
reducing error rate.
Several different diversity modes are available and provide a number of advantages:
i. Time diversity: Using time diversity, a message may be transmitted at different times, e.g.
using different timeslots and channel coding.
ii. Frequency diversity: This form of diversity uses different frequencies. It may be in the
form of using different channels, or technologies such as spread spectrum / OFDM.
 iii. Space diversity: Space diversity used in the broadest sense of the definition is used as the
basis for MIMO. It uses antennas located in different positions to take advantage of the
different radio paths that exist in a typical terrestrial environment.
MIMO is effectively a radio antenna technology as it uses multiple antennas at the transmitter and
receiver to enable a variety of signal paths to carry the data, choosing separate paths for each
antenna to enable multiple signal paths to be used.

General Outline of MIMO system

One of the core ideas behind MIMO wireless systems space-time signal processing in which time
(the natural dimension of digital communication data) is complemented with the spatial dimension
inherent in the use of multiple spatially distributed antennas, i.e. the use of multiple antennas
located at different points. Accordingly MIMO wireless systems can be viewed as a logical
extension to the smart antennas that have been used for many years to improve wireless.
It is found between a transmitter and a receiver, the signal can take many paths. Additionally by
moving the antennas even a small distance the paths used will change. The variety of paths
available occurs as a result of the number of objects that appear to the side or even in the direct
path between the transmitter and receiver. Previously these multiple paths only served to introduce
interference. By using MIMO, these additional paths can be used to advantage. They can be used
to provide additional robustness to the radio link by improving the signal to noise ratio, or by
increasing the link data capacity.
Diversity and Spatial-Multiplexing
Apart from the antenna configurations, there are two flavors of MIMO with respect to how data is
transmitted across the given channel. Existence of multiple antennas in a system, means existence
of different propagation paths. Aiming at improving the reliability of the system, we may choose
to send same data across the different propagation (spatial) paths.

This is called spatial diversity or simply diversity. Aiming at improving the data rate of the
system, we may choose to place different portions of the data on different propagation paths
(spatial-multiplexing). These two systems are listed below.

i. MIMO – implemented using diversity techniques – provides diversity gain – Aimed

at improving the reliability.
 ii. MIMO – implemented using spatial-multiplexing techniques – provides degrees of
freedom or multiplexing gain – Aimed at improving the data rate of the system.
Diversity
As indicated, two fundamental resources available for a MIMO system are diversity and degrees
of freedom. Let’s see what these terms mean
In diversity techniques, same information is sent across independent fading channels to combat
fading. When multiple copies of the same data are sent across independently fading channels, the
amount of fade suffered by each copy of the data will be different. This guarantees that at-least
one of the copy will suffer less fading compared to rest of the copies. Thus, the chance of properly
receiving the transmitted data increases. In effect, this improves the reliability of the entire system.
This also reduces the co-channel interference significantly. This technique is referred as inducing
a “spatial diversity” in the communication system.

Consider a SISO system where a data stream [1, 0, 1, 1, 1] is transmitted through a channel with
deep fades. Due to the variations in the channel quality, the data stream may get lost or severely
corrupted that the receiver cannot recover.The solution to combat the rapid channel variations is
to add independent fading channel by increasing the number of transmitter antennas or receiver
antennas or the both.
The SISO antenna configuration will not provide any diversity as there is no parallel link. Thus
the diversity is indicated as (0).

Single Input Single Output (SISO) system – no diversity

Instead of transmitting with single antenna and receiving with single antenna (as in SISO), let’s
increase the number of receiving antennas by one more count. In this Single Input Multiple Output
(SIMO) antenna system, two copies of the same data are put on two different channels having
independent fading characteristics. Even if one of the link fails to deliver the data, the chances of
proper delivery of the data across the other link is very high. Thus, additional fading channels
increase the reliability of the overall transmission – this improvement in reliability translates into
performance improvement – measured as diversity gain. For a system with transmitter
antennas and receiver antennas, the maximum number of diversity paths is . In the
following configuration, the total number of diversity path created is .

Single Input Multiple Output Channel with diversity

In this way, more diversity paths can be created by adding multiple antennas at transmitter or
receiver or both. The following figure illustrates a MIMO system with number of diversity
paths equal to .

MIMO system with diversity

Spatial Multiplexing
In spatial multiplexing, each spatial channel carries independent information, there by increasing
the data rate of the system. This can be compared to Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM) technique, where, different frequency subchannels carry different parts of the modulated
data. But in spatial multiplexing, if the scattering by the environment is rich enough, several
independent subchannels are created in the same allocated bandwidth. Thus the multiplexing gain
comes at no additional cost on bandwidth or power. The multiplexing gain is also referred as
degrees of freedom with reference to signal space constellation. The number of degrees of freedom
in a multiple antenna configuration is equal to , where is the number of transmit
antennas and is the number of receive antennas. The degrees of freedom in a MIMO
configuration governs the overall capacity of the system.
Following figure illustrates the difference between diversity and spatial multiplexing. In the
transmit diversity technique shown below, same information is sent across different independent
spatial channels by placing them on three different transmit antennas. Here, the diversity gain
is 3 (assuming MISO configuration) and multiplexing gain is 0.
In the spatial multiplexing technique, each bit of the data stream (independent information) is
multiplexed on three different spatial channels thereby increasing the data rate. Here, the diversity
gain is 0 and the multiplexing gain is 3 (assuming MIMO configuration).

MIMO system – Diversity Vs spatial multiplexing

Exploiting diversity and degree of freedom:
As seen above, in a MIMO system with rich scattering environment (independent
uncorrelated spatial paths), space time codes are designed to exploit following two
resources.
MIMO Formats
There is a number of different MIMO configurations or formats that can be used. These are termed
SISO, SIMO, MISO and MIMO. These different MIMO formats offer different advantages and
disadvantages - these can be balanced to provide the optimum solution for any given application.
The different MIMO formats - SISO, SIMO, MISO and MIMO require different numbers of
antennas as well as having different levels of complexity. Also dependent upon the format,
processing may be needed at one end of the link or the other - this can have an impact on any
decisions made.
SISO, SIMO, MISO, MIMO Terminology
The different forms of antenna technology refer to single or multiple inputs and outputs. These are
related to the radio link. In this way the input is the transmitter as it transmits into the link or signal
path, and the output is the receiver. It is at the output of the wireless link.
Therefore the different forms of single / multiple antenna links are defined as below:
 SISO – Single Input Single Output system – 1 Tx antenna , 1 Rx antenna
 SIMO – Single Input Multiple Output system – 1 Tx antenna, Rx antennas ( )
 MISO – Multiple Input Single Output system – Tx antennas, 1 Rx antenna ( )
 MIMO – Multiple Input Multiple Output system – Tx antennas, Rx antennas (
)
The term MU-MIMO is also used for a multiple user version of MIMO as described below.
SISO
The simplest form of radio link can be defined in MIMO terms as SISO - Single Input Single
Output. This is effectively a standard radio channel - this transmitter operates with one antenna as
does the receiver. There is no diversity and no additional processing required.

The advantage of a SISO system is its simplicity. SISO requires no processing in terms of the
various forms of diversity that may be used. However the SISO channel is limited in its
performance. Interference and fading will impact the system more than a MIMO system using
some form of diversity, and the channel bandwidth is limited by Shannon's law - the throughput
being dependent upon the channel bandwidth and the signal to noise ratio.
SIMO
The SIMO or Single Input Multiple Output version of MIMO occurs where the transmitter has a
single antenna and the receiver has multiple antennas. This is also known as receive diversity. It
is often used to enable a receiver system that receives signals from a number of independent
sources to combat the effects of fading. It has been used for many years with short wave listening
/ receiving stations to combat the effects of ionospheric fading and interference.

SIMO has the advantage that it is relatively easy to implement although it does have some
disadvantages in that the processing is required in the receiver. The use of SIMO may be quite
acceptable in many applications, but where the receiver is located in a mobile device such as a
cellphone handset, the levels of processing may be limited by size, cost and battery drain.
There are two forms of SIMO that can be used:
(i) Switched diversity SIMO: This form of SIMO looks for the strongest signal and
switches to that antenna.
(ii) Maximum ratio combining SIMO: This form of SIMO takes both signals and sums
them to give them a combination. In this way, the signals from both antennas contribute
to the overall signal.
MISO
MISO is also termed transmit diversity. In this case, the same data is transmitted redundantly from
the two transmitter antennas. The receiver is then able to receive the optimum signal which it can
then use to receive extract the required data.

The advantage of using MISO is that the multiple antennas and the redundancy coding / processing
is moved from the receiver to the transmitter. In instances such as cellphone UEs, this can be a
significant advantage in terms of space for the antennas and reducing the level of processing
required in the receiver for the redundancy coding. This has a positive impact on size, cost and
battery life as the lower level of processing requires less battery consumption.
MIMO
Where there are more than one antenna at either end of the radio link, this is termed MIMO -
Multiple Input Multiple Output. MIMO can be used to provide improvements in both channel
robustness as well as channel throughput.
In order to be able to benefit from MIMO fully it is necessary to be able to utilise coding on the
channels to separate the data from the different paths. This requires processing, but provides
additional channel robustness / data throughput capacity.
There are many formats of MIMO that can be used from SISO, through SIMO and MISO to the
full MIMO systems. These are all able to provide significant improvements of performance, but
generally at the cost of additional processing and the number of antennas used. Balances of
performance against costs, size, processing available and the resulting battery life need to be made
when choosing the correct option.
MIMO Space Time Block Coding and Alamouti Codes
In order that MIMO spatial multiplexing can be utilised, it is necessary to add coding to the
different channels so that the receiver can detect the correct data.
There are various forms of terminology used including Space-Time Block Code - STBC, MIMO
precoding, MIMO coding, and Alamouti codes.
Space Time Block Codes
Space-time block codes are used for MIMO systems to enable the transmission of multiple copies
of a data stream across a number of antennas and to exploit the various received versions of the
data to improve the reliability of data-transfer. Space-time coding combines all the copies of the
received signal in an optimal way to extract as much information from each of them as possible.
Space time block coding uses both spatial and temporal diversity and in this way enables
significant gains to be made.
Space-time coding involves the transmission of multiple copies of the data. This helps to
compensate for the channel problems such as fading and thermal noise. Although there is
redundancy in the data some copies may arrive less corrupted at the receiver.
When using space-time block coding, the data stream is encoded in blocks prior to transmission.
These data blocks are then distributed among the multiple antennas (which are spaced apart to
decorrelate the transmission paths) and the data is also spaced across time.
A space time block code is usually represented by a matrix. Each row represents a time slot and
each column represents one antenna's transmissions over time.
Within this matrix, Sij is the modulated symbol to be transmitted in time slot i from antenna j.
There are to be T time slots and nT transmit antennas as well as nR receive antennas. This block
is usually considered to be of 'length' T.
MIMO Alamouti Coding
A particularly elegant scheme for MIMO coding was developed by Alamouti. The associated
codes are often called MIMO Alamouti codes or just Alamouti codes.
The MIMO Alamouti scheme is an ingenious transmit diversity scheme for two transmit antennas
that does not require transmit channel knowledge. The MIMO Alamouti code is a simple space
time block code that he developed in 1998.
Differential Space Time Block Code
Differential space time block coding is a form of space time block coding that does not need to
know the channel impairments in order for the signal to be decoded. The differential space time
block codes are normally based upon the more standard space-time block codes. One block-code
is transmitted from a set in response to a change in the input signal. This enables the system to
work because the differences among the blocks in the set are designed to allow the receiver to
extract the data with good reliability.
.Massive MIMO, Large MIMO Systems

Massive MIMO or large MIMO systems technology is being developed for use in many wireless
links where to provide additional data capacity or signal enhancement.
Large MIMO systems, often referred to as massive MIMO systems, can be defined as those that
use tens or hundreds of antennas in the communication terminals.
Traditional MIMO systems may have two or four, some may even have eight antennas, but this
has been the limit on early systems that have adopted MIMO.
The concept of massive MIMO or large MIMO systems is entering many areas of development as
it is able to offer some distinct advantages.
Massive MIMO benefits
There are many advantages to using large MIMO technology. Using more antennas in a MIMO
system creates more degrees of freedom in the spatial domain and therefore this enables greater
improvement in performance to be achieved:
 (i) Increasing data rate: The increase in the number of antennas allows for a greater number
of paths to be used and hence a much greater level of data to be transferred within a given
time.
(ii) Increasing basic link signal to noise ratio: One of the basic advantages of the use of
MIMO systems is that it can be used to improve the signal to noise ratio of the overall
system. The use of large MIMO or massive MIMO enables this to be taken to a greater
level. There is also an increase in hardening against intentional jamming as a result of the
large diversity.
(iii)Channel hardening: Increasing the number of antennas significantly to make a massive
MIMO system means that the system becomes less sensitive to the actual entries of the
channel matrix. In turn this has further advantages in the area of signal processing. It is
necessary for linear detectors to perform matrix inversions and this can be done more easily
within the processing as this capability increases with technology developments.

Antenna Placement
One of the key issues with any MIMO system is the placement of the antennas. For many systems
using physically small units, the antenna placement can present some issues.
In order that the MIMO system is able to operate satisfactorily, the correlation between antennas
must be small. As a rule of thumb, s spacing of λ/2 (where λ is the wavelength of the signal) is
considered necessary to provide almost no correlation between the antennas.
In order to achieve this a variety of approaches can be taken.
(i) Use high frequencies: In order to be able to accommodate the higher antenna numbers
required for large MIMO systems, the use of higher frequencies shortens the wavelength
of the signals, thereby allowing the antenna spacing in terms of wavelengths to be
accommodated within a given physical space. Many systems are considering the use of
frequencies above 10 GHz, extending even as far as 60GHz and beyond and .
(ii) Use volumetric rather than linear spacing: It is possible to use the three dimensions
within an item to provide spacing within three dimensions rather than just two dimensions
as in a linear fashion. Although many items, including mobile phones are often thin and
therefore this approach may not be applicable, in some instances a cube will be able to
accommodate more antennas by using spacing in three dimensions.
(iii)Use of spatial modulation: The number of RF chains needed for a massive MIMO system
can be reduced without compromising the spectral efficiency by using spatial modulation.
Spatial modulation is a form of modulation that only requires the use of one transit chain
for multiple antennas. Effectively it uses one antenna from an array at a time for
transmission.

Spatial modulation adopts a simple but effective coding mechanism which establishes a
one to one mapping between blocks of transmitted information bits and the spatial positions
of the transmitter antenna in the overall antenna array.
Massive MIMO Paths
One of the key requirements for a large MIMO system is that there is a rich diversity of signal
paths between the transmitter and receiver. This is normally present within a typical indoor and
most urban environments. Other environments where there are less paths will not be able to provide
the same benefits with a MIMO let alone a large MIMO system as fewer paths will be available.
Inadequate spacing between the antennas will mean that they tend to correlate more and the gains
of MIMO systems cannot be realised.
Another situation that can occur, even in a rich scattering environment is where all the paths pass
through a pinch point. This can result in there being fewer independent spatial dimensions and
accordingly the performance will be reduced.
Capacity of MIMO System over Fading Channels
A MIMO system is used to increase the capacity dramatically and also to improve the quality of a
communication link. Increased capacity is obtained by spatial multiplexing and increased quality
is obtained by diversity techniques (Space time coding). Capacity of MIMO system over a variety
of channels (AWGN, fading channels) is of primary importance. It is desirable to know the
capacity improvements offered by a MIMO system over the conventional SISO system. Some few
definitions are given below.
Entropy
The average amount of information per symbol (measured in bits/symbol) is called Entropy. Given
a set of N discrete information symbols – represented as random
variable having probabilities denoted by a Probability Mass
Function , the entropy of X is given by

Entropy is a measure of uncertainty of a random variable , therefore reflects the amount of

information required on an average to describe the random variable. In general, it has the following
bounds

Entropy hits the lower bound of zero (no uncertainty, therefore no information) for a completely
deterministic system (probability of correct transmission ). It reaches the upper bound when
the input symbols are equi-probable.
Capacity and Mutual Information
Following figure represents a discrete memory less (noise term corrupts the input symbols
independently) channel, where the input and output are represented as random
variables and respectively. Statistically, such a channel can be expressed by transition or
conditional probabilities. That is, given a set of inputs to the channel, the probability of observing
the output of the channel is expressed as conditional probability

For such a channel, the mutual information denotes the amount of information that one
random variable contains about the other random variable

is the amount of information in before observing and thus the above quantity can be
seen as the reduction of uncertainty of from the observation of .

The information capacity C is obtained by maximizing this mutual information taken over all
possible input distributions p(x) [1].

MIMO Flat Fading Channel Model

A MIMO system over a flat fading channel can be represented in the complex baseband
notation.

where,
– received response from the channel – dimension
– the complex channel matrix of dimension
– vector representing transmitted signal – dimension . Assuming Gaussian signals
i.e, , where is the covariance matrix of the transmit vector
– the number of transmit antennas
– the number of receive antennas
– complex baseband additive white Gaussian noise vector of dimension . It is assumed
that the noise is spatially white where is the covariance matrix of noise.
Note: The trace of the covariance matrix of the transmit vector gives the average transmit
power, , where is the transmit power constraint applied at the
transmitter.
Signal Covariance Matrices
It was assumed that the input signal vector and the noise vector are uncorrelated. Therefore,
the covariance matrix of the received signal vector is given by
In the above equation, the operator on the matrices denote Hermitian transpose operation. Thus,
there are three covariance matrix involved here

– Covariance matrix of input signal vector

– Covariance matrix of channel response vector
– Covariance matrix of noise vector
Channel State Information
The knowledge of the channel matrix , at the transmitter is called Channel State
Information at the Transmitter (CSIT). If the receiver knows about the present state of
the channel matrix, that knowledge is called Channel State Information at the Receiver
(CSIR).
Multiple data streams can be spatially multiplexed over the M transmit antennas and are received
by the N receiver antennas. Spatially multiplexing increases the capacity of the link, since multiple
data streams are transmitted over the same available frequency band. On the other hand, antenna
diversity systems (dubbed as MIMO using diversity) merely improve the reliability of the link.
But the question of whether the transmission of multiple streams of data over multiple antenna
really works, depends on the actual geometry of the antenna systems. Transmission of independent
data streams over multiple antennas depends on the correlation factor that measures the influence
of the spatially separated signals over each other. One way to eliminate correlation (there by mutual
influence of spatially separated signals) is to use orthogonally polarized antennas (one antenna is
horizontally polarized and the other is vertically polarized) that sufficiently separate the signals in
spatial dimension.

Finally, the transmission matrix (also called Channel State Information (CSI) ) determines the
suitability of MIMO techniques and influences the capacity to a great extent. In a SISO channel,
the channel state information is constant and does not change from bit to bit. Thus the knowledge
of CSI in a SISO link is often not needed as it is characterized by steady state SNR. In the case of
rapid fading channels, the channel state information varies rapidly and we may think of employing
MIMO to break the channel variations into spatially separated sub channels. Thus, the knowledge
channel state information (at transmitter or receiver) will open up the possibility of incorporating
this information in intelligent system design.
In a MIMO configuration, a typical CSI matrix is formed by transmitting a symbol (say value
‘1’) from each of the transmitting antenna and its response on the multiple receiving antennas are
noted. For example, in a configuration, at some time instant, we transmit the voltage ‘1’
from the first antenna and record its response on the three receiving antennas. Lets say the three
receiver antennas picks up the following voltage values – [0.8, 0.7, 0.9 ].
At the same time instant, the procedure is repeated for other transmit antennas and the response of
multiple receive antennas are recorded. A complete CSI matrix is shown below;

In this method, the transmitter transmits the data blindly and the receiver constructs the CSI matrix.
This method of transmission is called open loop transmission scheme and are not generally
effective. From the sample CSI matrix above, it can be noted that the transmission through antenna
2 is not effective (note the low voltage values recorded at the receiver antennas (second column
on the right) ) the receiver may feed back the CSI matrix to the transmitter and the transmitter may
decide not to transmit on antenna 2, there by saving power. This is an example for closed loop
diversity scheme. In this way the knowledge of CSI opens up the possibility for intelligent
communication. The CSI matrix shown above contain only real numbers that describe the
amplitude variations. In reality the CSI matrix contains elements that are complex and they
describe both the amplitude and phase variations of the link.
MIMO Channel Model
A channel model is needed to properly assess a MIMO channel. In MIMO, the system
configuration typically contains M antennas at the transmitter and N antennas at the receiver front
end as illustrated in the following figure.
Here, each receiver antenna receives not only the direct signal intended for it, but also receives a
fraction of signal from other propagation paths. Thus, the channel response is expressed as a
transmission matrix H. The direct path formed between antenna 1 at the transmitter and the
antenna 1 at the receiver is represented by the channel response . The channel response of te
path formed between antenna 1 in the transmitter and antenna 2 in the receiver is expressed
as and so on. Thus, the channel matrix is of dimension .
The received vector is expressed in terms of the channel transmission matrix , the input
vector and noise vector as

where the various symbols are

Note that the response of the MIMO link is expressed as a set of linear equations. For a
simple MIMO configuration, the received signal vector is expressed as

The receiver has to solve this set of equations to find out what was transmitted ( ). The stability
of the solution depends on the condition number of the transmission matrix (CSI).
Condition Number
Solving a set of linear equation has its own challenges – rounding effects and how bad a matrix is.
Obviously an on-board computer will be solving those equations. Storage of co-efficients in
computer memory is prone to fixed point effects or rounding. Pivoting is method that address the
problems with rounding effects when Gauss Jordan elimination procedure is used. It makes sure
that the Gaussian elimination procedure proceeds as intended. Problems do occur even without
rounding effects. A small change in input can cause drastic difference in the solution. In the set of
linear equations mentioned above, the variations to the solutions can be effected by the noise term.
The solution should be robust against variations in the noise (at-least to certain extent). The
sensitivity of the solution to small changes in the input data is measured by condition number of
the transmission matrix ( ). It indicates the stability of the solution ( ) to small change in
incoming data ( ).
At the receiver, the received data is known and is often corrupted by noise. Let’s consider the
received vector that is corrupted by noise . Thus the system of linear equations is given as

Also, the channel transmission matrix is usually estimated approximately. The solution is
obtained as

The solution to the above equation may or may not exist and may or may not be unique. Let’s
consider a symmetric transmission matrix . From matrix and linear algebra[1][2], if the
input is arbitrary (as is the case here), an unique solution is possible only if the matrix is non-
singular. The condition number ( ) of a non-singular matrix is given as

where denotes the matrix norm[1]. The condition number measures the relative sensitivity of
the solutions to the changes in the input data ( ). The changes to the solution can be expressed
as

where represents the change in the solution, represent a change in the observed or received
samples and denotes the condition number of the transmission matrix.
In other words, a small change in the input data gets multiplied by the condition number and
produces changes in the output (solution). Thus high condition number is bad and is regarded
as ill-conditioned matrix. An ill-conditioned matrix will behave similar to a singular matrix
which will not render any solution or will give infinite non-unique solutions (see the table below).
Translating to the problem of transmission by MIMO, the ability to transmit multiple data streams
across a MIMO channel – relies on the ability of the receiver to solve the system of linear equations
in an unambiguous and stable way. Thus the condition number of the transmission matrix affects
the suitability of spatial multiplexing in a MIMO link. A well-conditioned matrix (low condition
number) allows reliable transmission of spatially multiplexed signal, whereas an ill-conditioned
matrix makes it difficult to do so.
Additionally, the rank of the transmission matrix – indicates how many data streams can
be spatially multiplexed on a MIMO link. Thus the rank and the condition number of the
transmission matrix play an important role in a MIMO system design.
Some useful prepositions
Existence and uniqueness
Given a system of linear equations , existence and uniqueness of the solution depends on
whether the matrix is singular or non-singular. It also depends on the input vector for the
singular case.

Matrix Norm
Matrix norm (the maximum absolute row sum) is calculated as

Non-Singular Matrix
An matrix is non-singular if it has any of the following properties
 Inverse exists


 For any vector ,
Capacity With Transmit Power Constraint
Now, we would like to evaluate capacity for the most practical scenario, where the average power,
given by , that can be expensed at the transmitter is limited to . Thus,
the channel capacity is now constrained by this average transmit power, given as

For the further derivations, it is assumed that the receiver possesses perfect knowledge
about the channel. Furthermore, we assume that the input random variable X is independent
of the noise N and the noise vector is zero mean Gaussian distributed with covariance
matrix -i.e, .
Note that both the input symbols in the vector and the output symbols in the vector take
continuous values upon transmission and reception and the values are discrete in time
(Continuous input Continuous output discrete Memoryless Channel – CCMC). For such
continuous random variable, differential entropy – is considered. Expressing the
mutual information in terms of differential entropy,

Since it is assumed that the channel is perfectly known at the receiver, the uncertainty of the
channel h conditioned on X is zero, i.e, . Furthermore, it is assumed that the noise is
independent of the input , i.e, . Thus, the mutual information is

The differential entropy is calculated as

Using (6) and the similar procedure for calculating above , The differential
entropy is given by

Substituting equations (10) and (11) in (9), the capacity is given by

For the case, where the noise is uncorrelated (spatially white) between the antenna
branches, , where is the identity matrix of dimension .
Thus the capacity for MIMO flat fading channel can be written as
The capacity equation (13) contains random variables, and therefore the capacity will also be
random. For obtaining meaningful result, for fading channels two different capacities can be
defined.
If the CSIT is unknown at the transmitter, it is optimal to evenly distribute the available transmit
power at the transmit antennas. That is, , where is the identity matrix of
dimension .
Ergodic Capacity
Ergodic capacity is defined as the statistical average of the mutual information, where the
expectation is taken over

Outage Capacity
Defined as the information rate below which the instantaneous mutual information falls
below a prescribed value of probability expressed as percentage – q.

Shannon Theorem
Shannon theorem dictates the maximum data rate at which the information can be transmitted over
a noisy band-limited channel. The maximum data rate is designated as channel capacity. The
concept of channel capacity is discussed first, followed by an in-depth treatment of Shannon’s
capacity for various channels.
The main goal of a communication system design is to satisfy one or more of the following
objectives.
i. The transmitted signal should occupy smallest bandwidth in the allocated spectrum –
measured in terms of bandwidth efficiency also called as spectral efficiency – .
ii. The designed system should be able to reliably send information at the lowest practical
power level. This is measured in terms of power efficiency – .
iii. Ability to transfer data at higher rates – bits=second.
iv. The designed system should be robust to multipath effects and fading.
v. The system should guard against interference from other sources operating in the same
frequency – low carrier-to-cochannel signal interference ratio (CCI).
vi. Low adjacent channel interference from near by channels – measured in terms of adjacent
channel Power ratio (ACPR).
vii. Easier to implement and lower operational costs.
Shannon’s Noisy Channel Coding Theorem
For any communication over a wireless link, one must ask the following fundamental question:
What is the optimal performance achievable for a given channel?. The performance over a
communication link is measured in terms of capacity, which is defined as the maximum rate at
which the information can be transmitted over the channel with arbitrarily small amount of error.
It was widely believed that the only way for reliable communication over a noisy channel is to
reduce the error probability as small as possible, which in turn is achieved by reducing the data
rate. This belief was changed in 1948 with the advent of Information theory by Claude E. Shannon.
Shannon showed that it is in fact possible to communicate at a positive rate and at the same time
maintain a low error probability as desired. However, the rate is limited by a maximum rate called
the channel capacity. If one attempts to send data at rates above the channel capacity, it will be
impossible to recover it from errors. This is called Shannon’s noisy channel coding theorem and
it can be summarized as follows:
 A given communication system has a maximum rate of information – C, known as
the channel capacity.
 If the transmission information rate R is less than C, then the data transmission in the
presence of noise can be made to happen with arbitrarily small error probabilities by using
intelligent coding techniques.
 To get lower error probabilities, the encoder has to work on longer blocks of signal data.
This entails longer delays and higher computational requirements.
The theorem indicates that with sufficiently advanced coding techniques, transmission that nears
the maximum channel capacity – is possible with arbitrarily small errors. One can intuitively
reason that, for a given communication system, as the information rate increases, the number of
errors per second will also increase.
Shannon’s noisy channel coding theorem is a generic framework that can be applied to specific
scenarios of communication. For example, communication through a band-limited channel in
presence of noise is a basic scenario one wishes to study. Therefore, study of information capacity
over an AWGN (additive white gaussian noise) channel provides vital insights, to the study of
capacity of other types of wireless links, like fading channels.
Unconstrained Capacity for band-limited AWGN channel
Real world channels are essentially continuous in both time as well as in signal space. Real
physical channels have two fundamental limitations: they have limited bandwidth and the
power/energy of the input signal to such channels is also limited. Therefore, the application of
information theory on such continuous channels should take these physical limitations into
account. This will enable us to exploit such continuous channels for transmission of discrete
information.
In this section, the focus is on a band-limited real AWGN channel, where the channel input and
output are real and continuous in time. The capacity of a continuous AWGN channel that is
bandwidth limited to Hz and average received power constrained to Watts, is given by

Here, is the power spectral density of the additive white Gaussian noise and P is the average
power given by

where is the average signal energy per information bit and is the data transmission rate in
bits-per-second. The ratio is the signal to noise ratio (SNR) per degree of freedom.
Hence, the equation can be re-written as

Here, is the maximum capacity of the channel in bits/second. It is also called Shannon’s
capacity limit for the given channel. It is the fundamental maximum transmission capacity that can
be achieved using the basic resources available in the channel, without going into details of coding
scheme or modulation. It is the best performance limit that we hope to achieve for that channel.
The above expression for the channel capacity makes intuitive sense:
 Bandwidth limits how fast the information symbols can be sent over the given channel.
 The SNR ratio limits how much information we can squeeze in each transmitted symbols.
Increasing SNR makes the transmitted symbols more robust against noise. SNR represents
the signal quality at the receiver front end and it depends on input signal power and the
noise characteristics of the channel.
 To increase the information rate, the signal-to-noise ratio and the allocated bandwidth have
to be traded against each other.
 For a channel without noise, the signal to noise ratio becomes infinite and so an infinite
information rate is possible at a very small bandwidth.
 There may be a trade off bandwidth for SNR. However, as the bandwidth B tends to
infinity, the channel capacity does not become infinite – since with an increase in
bandwidth, the noise power also increases.
The Shannon’s equation relies on two important concepts:
 That, in principle, a trade-off between SNR and bandwidth is possible
 That, the information capacity depends on both SNR and bandwidth
Capacity of SISO system over a fading channel
A MIMO system is used to increase the capacity dramatically and also to improve the quality of a
communication link. Increased capacity is obtained by spatial multiplexing and increased quality
is obtained by diversity techniques (Space time coding). Capacity equations of a MIMO system
over a variety of channels (AWGN, fading channels) is of primary importance. It is desirable to
know the capacity improvements offered by a MIMO system over the capacity of SISO system.

To begin with, we will be looking into the capacity equations for a conventional SISO system over
AWGN and fading channels followed by capacity equations for a MIMO systems. To begin with,
clarity over few definitions are needed.

Entropy
The average amount of information per symbol (measured in bits/symbol) is called Entropy. Given
a set of discrete information symbols – represented as random
variable having probabilities denoted by a Probability Mass
Function , the entropy of is given by

Entropy is a measure of uncertainty of a random variable , therefore reflects the amount

of information required on an average to describe the random variable. In general, it has
the following bounds

Entropy hits the lower bound of zero (no uncertainty, therefore no information) for a
completely deterministic system (probability of correct transmission ). It reaches the
upper bound when the input symbols are equi-probable.
Capacity and Mutual Information
Following figure represents a discrete memoryless (noise term corrupts the input symbols
independently) channel, where the input and output are represented as random
variables and respectively. Statistically, such a channel can be expressed by transition or
conditional probabilities. That is, given a set of inputs to the channel, the probability of observing
the output of the channel is expressed as conditional probability
For such a channel, the mutual information denotes the amount of information that one
random variable contains about the other random variable

is the amount of information in before observing and thus the above quantity can be
seen as the reduction of uncertainty of from the observation of latex .
The information capacity is obtained by maximizing this mutual information taken over all
possible input distributions .

SISO fading Channel

A SISO fading channel can be represented as the convolution of the complex channel
impulse response (represented as a random variable ) and the input .

Here, is complex baseband additive white Gaussian noise and the above equation is for a single
realization of complex output . If the channel is assumed to be flat fading or of block fading type
(channel does not vary over a block of symbols), the above equation can be simply written without
the convolution operation

For different communication fading channels, the channel impulse response can be
modeled using various statistical distributions. Some of the common distributions as
Rayleigh, Rician, Nakagami-m, etc.,
Capacity With Transmit Power Constraint
Now, we would like to evaluate capacity for the most practical scenario, where the average power,
given by , that can be expensed at the transmitter is limited to . Thus, the channel
capacity is now constrained by this average transmit power, given as
For the further derivations, we assume that the receiver possesses perfect knowledge about the
channel. Furthermore, we assume that the input random variable is independent of the
noise and the noise is zero mean Gaussian distributed with variance -i.e, .
Note that both the input symbols and the output symbols take continuous values upon
transmission and reception and the values are discrete in time (Continuous input Continuous output
discrete Memoryless Channel – CCMC). For such continuous random variable, differential
entropy – is considered. Expressing the mutual information in-terms of differential entropy,

Mutual Information and differential entropy

Since it is assumed that the channel is perfectly known at the receiver, the uncertainty of the
channel conditioned on is zero, i.e, . Furthermore, it is assumed that the
noise is independent of the input , i.e, . Thus, the mutual information is

For a complex Gaussian noise with non-zero mean and variance , the PDF of
the noise is given by

The differential entropy for the noise is given by

This shows that the differential entropy is not dependent on the mean of . Therefore, it is immune
to translations (shifting of mean value) of the PDF. For the problem of computation of capacity,

and given the differential entropy , the mutual information is

maximized by maximizing the differential entropy . The fact is, the Gaussian random
variables itself are differential entropy maximizers. Therefore, the mutual information is
maximized when the variable is also Gaussian and therefore the differential
entropy . Where, the received average power is given by

Thus the capacity is given by

Representing the entire received signal-to-ratio as , the capacity of a SISO system over
a fading channel is given by

For the fading channel considered above, the term channel is modeled as a random variable.
Thus, the capacity equation above is also a random variable. Thus, for fading channels two
different capacities can be defined.
Ergodic Capacity
Ergodic capacity is defined as the statistical average of the mutual information, where the
expectation is taken over
Outage Capacity
Defined as the information rate at which the instantaneous mutual information falls below a
prescribed value of probability expressed as percentage – .

Receive Diversity Schemes – Channel Models

SIMO channel configuration is characterized by 1 transmit antenna and multiple receiver
antennas. SIMO configuration is used to provide receive diversity, where the same
information is received across independent fading channels to combat fading. When
multiple copies of the same data are received across independently fading channels, the
amount of fade suffered by each copy of the data will be different. This guarantees that at-
least one of the copy will suffer less fading compared to rest of the copies. Thus, the chance
of properly receiving the transmitted data increases. In effect, this improves the reliability
of the entire system.

Single Input Multiple Output (SIMO) channel model

The channels are independent and identically distributed (i.i.d) and hence the error event across
those independent channels are also independent. The signal to noise ratios (SNR) of the channels
are also i.i.d and the every channel has the same average SNR. The is the fundamental assumption
of the SIMO model incorporating receive diversity.
For the case of receive antennas, independent received signal copies are

Writing in compact form, the received signal

where,

Processing the received samples at the receiver

The receiver, takes in these received copies, applies weights according to the chosen
receive diversity technique (see below) and outputs a single copy (Figure 2). The combined
output signal is given by
where, the weight vector is . The weights are chosen based on the
following receive diversity techniques.
(a) Selection Combining (SC)
In selection combining, the received signal from the antenna that experiences the highest SNR is
chosen for further processing. That is, the path that has the highest is chosen.

This is the simplest of all the receive diversity techniques. It simply chooses one branch that
experiences the highest SNR. It seems to waste the remaining branches in the selection processes.
Also, channel phase information is not needed for this technique. This technique provides SNR
gain in the order of .
(b) Maximum Ratio Combining (MRC)

The selection combining is the simplest algorithm but it wastes receive elements in the
computations. Maximum ratio combining technique uses all the received signals in order
to maximize the output SNR. It represents maximum likelihood estimation. The output signal is
the weighted sum of all the received branches. The weights for MRC technique is chosen as

Therefore, it requires the knowledge of the channel at the receiver and matching of both
magnitude and phase. The output signal, with weight set as , is given by

The SNR gain achieved by this technique is .

(c) Equal Gain Combining (EGC)
The MRC technique requires matching of both magnitude and the phase of the channel. The
magnitudes can fluctuate significantly. In equal gain combining, only the phase of the channel is
cancelled out. The weights are chosen as
where is the channel phase information. The output signal is given by

The technique suffers small SNR loss compared to MRC, but it is a good alternative for
implementation.
Channel Model
Assuming flat slow fading channel, the received signal model is given by

where, is the channel impulse response, is the received signal, is the transmitted signal
and is the additive Gaussian white noise.
Assuming small scale Rayleigh fading, the channel impulse response is modeled as complex
Gaussian random variable with zero mean and variance

Therefore, the instantaneous channel power is exponentially distributed

In the context of AWGN channel, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for a given channel condition, is
a constant. But in the case of fading channels, the signal-to-noise ratio is no longer a constant as
the signal is fluctuating when passed through a fading channel. Therefore, for fading channel, the
SNR has a random variable component built into it. Hence, we just don’t call it SNR, instead it is
called instantaneous SNR which depends on the current conditions of the channel (or
equivalently, the value of the random variable at that instant). Since the SNR is a random variable,
we can also talk about its expected (average) value, which is called average SNR.
Denoting the average SNR as and for convenience, let’s assume that the average power of the
channel is unity, i.e, . The instantaneous SNR is given by

Therefore, like the channel impulse response, the instantaneous SNR is also exponentially
distributed

Tutorial Questions
1. Derive the expression for capacity of MIMO systems.
2. Explain the MIMO system model with neat diagram.
3. Explain the capacity of system when the channel is known at the transmitter.
4. Explain the capacity of system when the channel is unknown at the transmitter.
5. Derive the expression for Capacity of Frequency selective MIMO Channel
6. (a) What is the difference between frequency selective and frequency flat fading in
wireless communication?
(b) Differentiate between multi antenna and MIMO system with an example.
(c) Differentiate ergodic and outage capacity of a MIMO system.
(d) Explain the usefulness of Eigen values and Eigen vectors in analysis of MIMO
system
The channel eigenmodes (or principle components) can be viewed as individual channels
characterized by coefficients (eigenvalues). The number of significant eigenvalues specifies the
maximum degree of diversity. The larger a particular eigenvalue, the more reliable is that
channel. The principle eigenvalue specifies the maximum possible beamforming gain.
(e) Explain maximum ratio combining process with appropriate mathematical
expressions.
7. Assume that the multiplexing gain, (r), and diversity gain, (d), satisfy the diversity-
multiplexing trade-off dopt = (NT – r) (NR – r) for SNR→∞. Assume NT = NR = 7 MIMO
system with an SNR of 10 dB, one needs a spectral efficiency of R = 16 bps per Hertz.
Find the supreme diversity gain such MIMO system can achieve.
Note that Shannon’s channel capacity in bits/sec/Hz for a SISO link is log2 (1 + SNR). For high
SNR case, it is approximately log2 (SNR). Our spatial multiplexing MIMO system here is
equivalent to r parallel SISO channels (r parallel Gaussian channels) and its capacity is r log2
(SNR). With SNR =10 dB, to get R = 16 bps, we require r log2 (SNR) = R which implies that r
log2 (101.0) = 16. Hence, r = 4.8165. Therefore five antennas may be used for multiplexing and
remaining (7-2) two antennas may be used for diversity. The maximum diversity gain can be
calculated as, dopt = (NT – r) (NR – r) = (7 – 5) (7 – 5) = 4. This means we are sending data over
five parallel data streams only and we are utilizing four paths/links for decreasing the probability
of error in detection.

8. Determine the parallel decomposition for the given MIMO channel

Let us find the parallel decomposition for the given MIMO channel

Note that the MATLAB command “[U S V] = svd(H)” could be used for obtaining the above three
matrices. The diagonal entries of S are the square roots of the positive eigenvalues of HHH.
Since there are two non-zero singular values and so RH = 2, hence two parallel channels are there.
The channel gains for the two channels are 1 = 1.6848 and 2 = 0.1068. We can notice that the
second channel has a diminutive gain. Hence, this particular channel will give large detection error
and inferior performance in terms of spectral efficiency. Note that there are two types of
eigenvalues and eigenvectors (left and right) of the matrix H denoted by λL, λR and yL, yR,
respectively. They satisfy the following relations;
 9. Consider a flat-fading channel with i.i.d channel gain 𝑔[𝑖] which can take on three possible
values: g1=0.05 with probability p1=0.1, g2=0.5 with probability p2=0.5, and g3=1 with
probability p3=0.4. The transmit power is 10mW, noise spectral density in No=10-9 W/Hz,
and channel bandwidth is 30KHz. Assume the receiver has knowledge of the instantaneous
value of 𝑔[𝑖] but the transmitter does not. Find the Shannon capacity of this channel and
compare with the capacity of an AWGN channel with the same average SNR.

10. Determine the parallel channel model for a MIMO system, the H matrix of which is given
by

The SVD decomposition obtained using Matlab is given by

The center matrix contains the singular values, i of the H matrix. This is the  matrix. The number
of singular values is equal to the rank of the matrix. This process decomposes the matrix
channel into three independent channels, with gains of 1.4, 0.5359 and 0.3359 respectively.
The input signal in this case would be first multiplied by V matrix, and the output signal would be
multiplied by the inverse of the UH matrix.
The three channels characterized by the three singular values can be treated as SISO channels,
however with different gains. The first channel with the gain of 1.4 will have better performance
than the other two. In the figure, the decomposition is shown as three different channels.
Important thing to note: the only way SVD can be used is if the transmitter knows what precoding
to apply, which of course requires knowledge of the channel by the transmitter.

The most important benefit of the SVD approach is that it allows for enhanced array gain – the
transmitter
can send more power over the better channels, and less (or no) power over the worst ones. The
number of principle components is a measure of the maximum degree of diversity that can be
realized in this way.
11. Given the following (3×3 MIMO) channel, find the capacity of this channel, given CSIR,
no CSIT, SNR = 10 dB and bandwidth equal to 1 kHz. Compare this capacity calculation
to that using SVD.
The singular values i are equal to: 1.3520, 0.5327, 0.0498. The SNR for the channels are equal
to 𝛾𝑖 = 10𝜎𝑖2 . The sum of the capacity of the three independent channels is equal to the same
quantity as above equation.

If third channel is ignored and equally distribute the power to the first two channels, the capacity
increases to 4.616 kbps. Clearly this is a better way to go but as it can be seen it requires that
transmitter know the condition of the channels.