A Generalized Spatial Correlation Model for 3D MIMO Channels based on the Fourier Coefficients of Power Spectrums

Previous studies have confirmed the adverse impact of fading correlation on the mutual information (MI) of two-dimensional (2D) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. More recently, the trend is to enhance the system performance by exploiting the channel's degrees of freedom in the elevation, which necessitates the derivation and characterization of three-dimensional (3D) channels in the presence of spatial correlation. In this paper, an exact closed-form expression for the Spatial Correlation Function (SCF) is derived for 3D MIMO channels. This novel SCF is developed for a uniform linear array of antennas with nonisotropic antenna patterns. The proposed method resorts to the spherical harmonic expansion (SHE) of plane waves and the trigonometric expansion of Legendre and associated Legendre polynomials. The resulting expression depends on the underlying arbitrary angular distributions and antenna patterns through the Fourier Series (FS) coefficients of power azimuth and elevation spectrums. The novelty of the proposed method lies in the SCF being valid for any 3D propagation environment. The developed SCF determines the covariance matrices at the transmitter and the receiver that form the Kronecker channel model. In order to quantify the effects of correlation on the system performance, the information-theoretic deterministic equivalents of the MI for the Kronecker model are utilized in both mono-user and multi-user cases. Numerical results validate the proposed analytical expressions and elucidate the dependence of the system performance on azimuth and elevation angular spreads and antenna patterns. Some useful insights into the behaviour of MI as a function of downtilt angles are provided. The derived model will help evaluate the performance of correlated 3D MIMO channels in the future.Comment: Accepted in IEEE Transactions on signal processin

Exact ZF Analysis and Computer-Algebra-Aided Evaluation in Rank-1 LoS Rician Fading

We study zero-forcing detection (ZF) for multiple-input/multiple-output (MIMO) spatial multiplexing under transmit-correlated Rician fading for an N_R X N_T channel matrix with rank-1 line-of-sight (LoS) component. By using matrix transformations and multivariate statistics, our exact analysis yields the signal-to-noise ratio moment generating function (m.g.f.) as an infinite series of gamma distribution m.g.f.'s and analogous series for ZF performance measures, e.g., outage probability and ergodic capacity. However, their numerical convergence is inherently problematic with increasing Rician K-factor, N_R , and N_T. We circumvent this limitation as follows. First, we derive differential equations satisfied by the performance measures with a novel automated approach employing a computer-algebra tool which implements Groebner basis computation and creative telescoping. These differential equations are then solved with the holonomic gradient method (HGM) from initial conditions computed with the infinite series. We demonstrate that HGM yields more reliable performance evaluation than by infinite series alone and more expeditious than by simulation, for realistic values of K , and even for N_R and N_T relevant to large MIMO systems. We envision extending the proposed approaches for exact analysis and reliable evaluation to more general Rician fading and other transceiver methods.Comment: Accepted for publication by the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, on April 7th, 2016; this is the final revision before publicatio

Impact of Channel Correlation on Different Performance Metrics of OSSK-Based FSO System

In this paper, we study the impact of correlation on the bit error rate (BER) and the channel capacity of a free-space optical (FSO) multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) system employing optical space shift keying (OSSK) over a fading channel. In order to study a practical correlated channel, we consider the effect of channel correlation due to both small-and large-scale eddies and show that the use of OSSK over correlated FSO channel can lead to an improved system performance with increasing correlation level of upto 0.9. In this work, we first develop an analytical framework for different performance metrics of the OSSK multiple-input single-output system with correlation and then extend our investigation by proposing an asymptotically accurate mathematical framework for MIMO. We also validate all the analytical results using MATLAB simulations. Finally, we develop an experimental setup of FSO with two correlated links to study the throughput and latency of the links at different turbulence levels