Brief Introduction to MIMO
MIMO Systems
1GP50_0E Rohde & Schwarz Guidelines for MIMO Test Setups – Part 1 8
Uncorrelated fading channels are, however, only a best-case scenario. Under real
operating conditions, the different fading channels are not fully independent of each
other, due to the geometric arrangement of the antennas. For MIMO tests, it is
therefore essential to simulate variable correlations between the different fading
channels. Only by correlating the individual channels with each other can a realistic
simulation of the entire MIMO system be achieved. This is important, since the benefit
o
f MIMO systems depends on the degree of channel correlation, i.e. the higher the
statistical independence of the different fading channels, the better the achievable data
transfer rate.
3.2 MIMO Systems
When discussing MIMO systems, one must distinguish between spatial diversity
systems and spatial multiplexing systems.
Spatial diversity is a MIMO technique that uses multiple transmit and receive antennas
to increase the robustness of data transmission and thus indirectly the effective data
rates. Spatial diversity means transferring essentially the same data stream
simultaneously on the same frequency, such that the receive antennas obtain replicas
of the signal. Typically, an additional antenna-specific coding is applied to the signals
before transmission to increase the diversity effect. This means that each antenna
transmits the same information stream, but with different coding. Often, Alamouti
space-time coding is used. On the receiver side, the signal of the transmit antennas is
received by the antennas over different, ideally uncorrelated propagation paths. This
mitigates fading effects, because it is unlikely that the signals are affected in the same
way by fading processes along the different propagation paths. Therefore, the signal-
to-noise ratio at the receiver side and thus the robustness of data transmission is
improved. Transmit diversity (multiple input, single output – MISO) and receive
diversity systems (single input, multiple output – SIMO) are both special types of
spatial diversity systems (Fig. 2).
Spatial multiplexing or “true” MIMO is a different MIMO technique that is used to
significantly increase data rates or channel capacity. Spatial multiplexing means
transferring different data streams simultaneously on the same frequency by using
multiple transmit and receive antennas, i.e. fully exploiting the spatial dimension of the
radio channel. In contrast to spatial diversity, no redundant data is transmitted. The
data stream to be transmitted is split up into independent data streams, which are sent
via the different transmit antennas. Spatial multiplexing thus increases the data rate of
a single user, or the overall capacity in the case of multiple users. For single-user (SU)
MIMO, the transmitted data streams belong to one user only, thus increasing the data
rate of this single user. For multi-user (MU) or collaborative MIMO, the transmitted data
streams belong to different users sharing the same radio channel. In this case, the
overall capacity of the radio channel is increased, while the data rate of an individual
user remains unchanged. Also, the user equipment (UE) must be equipped with just
one transmit antenna (Fig. 2).