Outdoor-to-indoor office MIMO measurements and analysis at 5.2 GHz

The outdoor-to-indoor wireless propagation channel is of interest for cellular and wireless local area network applications. This paper presents the measurement results and analysis based on our multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) measurement campaign, which is one of the first to characterize the outdoor-to-indoor channel. The measurements were performed at 5.2 GHz; the receiver was placed indoors at 53 different locations in an office building, and the transmitter was placed at three ”base stations ” positions on a nearby rooftop. We report on the root-mean-square (RMS) angular spread, building penetration, and other statistical parameters that characterize the channel. Our analysis is focused on three MIMO channel assumptions often used in stochastic models. 1) It is commonly assumed that the channel matrix can be represented as a sum of a line-of-sight (LOS) contribution and a zero-mean complex Gaussian distribution. Our investigation shows that this model does not adequately represent our measurement data. 2) It is often assumed that the Rician K-factor is equal to the power ratio of the LOS component and the other multipath components (MPCs). We show that this is not the case, and we highlight the difference between the Rician K-factor often associated with LOS channels and a similar power ratio for th

Information-theoretic analysis of MIMO channel sounding

The large majority of commercially available multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radio channel measurement devices (sounders) is based on time-division multiplexed switching (TDMS) of a single transmit/receive radio-frequency chain into the elements of a transmit/receive antenna array. While being cost-effective, such a solution can cause significant measurement errors due to phase noise and frequency offset in the local oscillators. In this paper, we systematically analyze the resulting errors and show that, in practice, overestimation of channel capacity by several hundred percent can occur. Overestimation is caused by phase noise (and to a lesser extent frequency offset) leading to an increase of the MIMO channel rank. Our analysis furthermore reveals that the impact of phase errors is, in general, most pronounced if the physical channel has low rank (typical for line-of-sight or poor scattering scenarios). The extreme case of a rank-1 physical channel is analyzed in detail. Finally, we present measurement results obtained from a commercially employed TDMS-based MIMO channel sounder. In the light of the findings of this paper, the results obtained through MIMO channel measurement campaigns using TDMS-based channel sounders should be interpreted with great care.Comment: 99 pages, 14 figures, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Theor

Why Does a Kronecker Model Result in Misleading Capacity Estimates?

Many recent works that study the performance of multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems in practice assume a Kronecker model where the variances of the channel entries, upon decomposition on to the transmit and the receive eigen-bases, admit a separable form. Measurement campaigns, however, show that the Kronecker model results in poor estimates for capacity. Motivated by these observations, a channel model that does not impose a separable structure has been recently proposed and shown to fit the capacity of measured channels better. In this work, we show that this recently proposed modeling framework can be viewed as a natural consequence of channel decomposition on to its canonical coordinates, the transmit and/or the receive eigen-bases. Using tools from random matrix theory, we then establish the theoretical basis behind the Kronecker mismatch at the low- and the high-SNR extremes: 1) Sparsity of the dominant statistical degrees of freedom (DoF) in the true channel at the low-SNR extreme, and 2) Non-regularity of the sparsity structure (disparities in the distribution of the DoF across the rows and the columns) at the high-SNR extreme.Comment: 39 pages, 5 figures, under review with IEEE Trans. Inform. Theor

Evaluation of performance of mobile terminal antennas

Fast development of new mobile communications equipment results in demand for fast and reliable evaluation methods to estimate the performance of mobile terminals because the performance of antennas located on the terminals varies in different multipath propagation environments. Two methods presented in this thesis provide new possibilities in antenna design because, from now on, the performance of new antennas can be tested already before a prototype antenna is constructed by using existing radio channel libraries and simulated radiation patterns of the antennas. The performance can be estimated by calculating the mean effective gain (MEG) of the antenna using the elevation power distribution or by a plane wave -based method using sets of incident plane waves and the radiation pattern of an antenna. In addition to different propagation environments, the effects of the user on performance can be included in the evaluation. In this thesis, estimating the MEG of different antennas using the elevation power distribution and the power patterns of the antennas is shown to be an accurate and fast method by comparing the results with direct radio channel measurements. The mean difference between the methods is −0.18 dB with standard deviation of 0.19 dB. The usefulness of the evaluation method is demonstrated by evaluating the performance of several antennas located on mobile terminals. The antenna evaluation provided important and unique knowledge of the effect of both the environment and the user on performance. Because in calculating the radiation efficiency of the antenna we assume uniform incident field, the efficiency can result in a performance estimation that does not correspond to real usage situations. Therefore, including the environmental effects in the evaluation procedure is important, although the effect of the antenna is more important than the effect of the environment on MEG. It was noticed with calculated Gaussian-shaped beams that tilting or changing the beamwidth of a mobile terminal antenna has an effect of about 2 dB on MEG in multipath environments. Matching the polarization of the antenna to that of the environment can improve the performance more. A novel incident plane wave -based tool has been developed for evaluating the performance of antenna configurations designed for diversity and Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems. In this thesis, the instantaneous joint contribution of incident field consisting of a number of extracted plane waves and the complex three-dimensional radiation pattern of the antenna is shown to be accurate and extremely fast way to estimate the diversity advantages of different antenna configurations in time-variable radio channels. The difference between the diversity gains achieved by the plane wave -based method and by the direct radio channel measurements is on average less than 0.9 dB. Moreover, the radio channel can be exactly the same for all antenna configurations under test. Furthermore, this thesis includes evaluation of the performance of different MIMO antenna configurations. The studied antenna configurations have been selected from the 16×64 MIMO channel measurement data. A novel way of using one omnidirectional reference antenna in a normalization procedure is shown to be reasonable especially in cases of antenna arrays consisting of directive elements. Three different propagation environments are used as evaluation platforms. The azimuth orientation of mobile terminal antennas may influence the performance of a MIMO antenna configuration significantly. In MIMO configurations compact dual-polarized receiving antennas provide capacity performance almost equal to the arrays employing single polarization.reviewe

Methods and criteria for performance analysis of multiantenna systems in mobile communications

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technique is one of the most promising solutions for increasing reliability and spectral efficiency of the radio connection in future mobile communication systems. The performance potential of MIMO systems is well established from theoretical point of view. However, much effort is still needed in the experimental verification of those systems using realistic antennas and channels. It is widely accepted that the antenna properties are of significant importance regarding the performance of single-input single-output (SISO) systems. However, the effect of the antennas on MIMO systems has not been thoroughly studied. Due to the complexity of MIMO systems, evaluation of MIMO antennas becomes increasingly cumbersome and time-consuming process in comparison to simpler systems. In the first part of this work an advanced antenna evaluation technique called experimental plane-wave based method (EPWBM) is generalized and validated to cover MIMO systems. This work is the extension of the previous work where the method has been used in the analysis of SISO systems. The EPWBM is based on the measured or simulated complex 3-D radiation patterns of the antennas and measured directional radio channel data. The EPWBM simplifies antenna evaluation process in comparison to traditional means since the same channel library can be utilized in the evaluation of several antenna systems without performing the same measurements for each prototype antennas separately. It is verified that the EPWBM is sufficiently reliable in comparing the performance of prototype antennas. In the second part of the work new quality factors for MIMO system evaluation enclosing traditional systems as special cases have been developed. The MIMO channel correlation matrix is formulated so that it reveals the ability of MIMO antenna systems to transfer signal power from a transmitter to a receiver and to utilize parallel spatial channels. It is also verified that correct normalization of the channel matrices is of significant importance in the MIMO antenna evaluation. This approach gives comprehensive framework for MIMO antenna evaluation, which takes into account both realistic antenna and channel properties. In the last part of the work insight into the performance of different antennas in different signal propagation environments is given. The performance of the antennas depends on the signal-to-noise-ratio and on the outage probability level considered. Although MIMO systems are based on the utilization of parallel spatial channels, the capability of the system to transfer signal power plays a significant role especially with small MIMO systems. In the realistic dynamic channels the capacity variation is larger than in the ideal channels, which are based on the identically and independently distributed (iid) channel assumption. Large performance variations occur in the realistic channels with directive antennas, when antennas are rotated in the usage environment, whereas omnidirectional ones are more robust but are difficult to realize in practice. The largest differences between the antennas are found at the low outage probability levels due to different radiation properties of the antennas. The systems with the cross-polarized antennas have smaller eigenvalue dispersion and are more robust in performance for the variations of the channel than the systems with co-polarized antennas. On the other hand, the co-polarized antennas possess better capability to transfer signal power and are more robust in performance for the antenna array orientation. From practical point of view, the dual-polarized antennas seem to be the most feasible candidates to be used in MIMO antenna systems due to compact structure, and indoor seems to be the most suitable for MIMO applications due to typically scatter-rich channel.Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) tekniika on yksi lupaavimmista ratkaisuista lisätä radioyhteyden luotettavuutta ja spektritehokkuutta tulevaisuuden matkaviestinjärjestelmissä. MIMO järjestelmien suorituskykypotentiaali on teoreettisesti todistettu. Paljon työtä tarvitaan kuitenkin vielä kokeelliseen järjestelmätestaukseen käyttäen realistisia antenneja ja kanavia. On laajasti hyväksyttyä että antennien ominaisuudet ovat merkityksellisiä single-input single-output (SISO) järjestelmien suorituskyvyn kannalta. Antennien vaikutusta MIMO-järjestelmiin ei ole kuitenkaan perusteellisesti tutkittu. MIMO-järjestelmien lisääntyneestä monimutkaisuudesta johtuen, verrattuna yksinkertaisempiin järjestelmiin, MIMO antennien suorituskyvyn arviointi hankaloituu ja vie enemmän aikaa. Työn ensimmäisessä osassa uusi antennien arviointitekniikka nimeltään kokeellinen tasoaaltoihin perustuva menetelmä (EPWBM) on yleistetty käsittämään MIMO järjestelmät ja sen tarkkuus on arvioitu. Tämä työ on laajennus aikaisempaan työhön jossa menetelmää on käytetty SISO-järjestelmien arviointiin. EPWBM perustuu mitattuihin tai simuloituihin antennien kompleksisiin 3-D suuntakuvioihin ja mitattuun suuntatiedon sisältämään kanavadataan. EPWBM yksinkertaistaa antennin suorituskyvyn arviointia perinteisiin menetelmiin verrattuna, koska sama kanavamittausaineisto voidaan hyödyntää usamman antennisysteemin arvioinnissa tekemättä samoja mittauksia jokaiselle antenniprototyypille erikseen. On osoitettu että EPWBM on suhteellisen luotettava prototyyppiantennien suorituskyvyn vertailussa. Työn toisessa osassa on kehitetty uusia hyvyyslukuja MIMO-järjestelmien suorituskyvyn arviointiin sisältäen perinteiset järjestelmät erikoistapauksina. MIMO-kanavamatriisi esitetään siten että se paljastaa MIMO-antennijärjestelmien kyvyn siirtää signaalitehoa lähettimen ja vastaanottimen välillä ja hyödyntää rinnakkaisia kanavia. On myös todistettu että oikeanlainen kanavamatriisien normalisointi on erittäin merkittävää MIMO-antennivertailussa. Tämä lähestymistapa antaa kattavat puitteet MIMO-antennien suorituskyvyn arviointiin ottaen huomioon todelliset antennien ja kanavan ominaisuudet. Työn viimeisessä osassa annetaan käsitys erilaisten antennien suorituskyvystä erilaisissa signaalin etenemisympäristöissä. Antennien suorituskyky riippuu signaalikohinasuhteesta ja tarkasteltavan signaalin luotettavuustasosta. Vaikka MIMO-järjestelmät perustuvat rinnakkaisten kanavien hyödyntämiseen järjestelmän signaalitehon siirto-ominaisuudet ovat merkittäviä erityisesti pienillä MIMO järjestelmillä. Realistisissa dynaamisissa kanavissa kapasiteetinvaihtelu on suurempaa kuin ideaalisissa kanavissa jotka perustuvat oletukseen että signaalit ovat riippumattomasti ja identtisesti jakautuneita (iid). Suurta suorituskykyn vaihtelua esiintyy realistissa kanavissa suuntaavilla antenneilla, kun antenneja pyöritetään käyttöympäristössä, kun taas ympärisäteilevät antennit olisivat jäykempiä suorituskyvyn kannalta mutta käytännössä vaikeampia toteuttaa. Suuremmat erot antennien välillä on löydettävissä matalalta signaalin luotettavuustasolta johtuen antennien erilaisista säteilyominaisuuksista. Kaksipolarisaatioantennijärjestelmillä on pienempi ominaisarvohaje ja niiden suorituskyky on jäykempi kanavan vaihteluille kuin yksipolarisaatioantennijärjestelmä. Toisaalta yksipolarisaatioantenneilla on paremmat signaalitehon siirto-ominaisuudet ja suorituskyky vaihtelee vähemmän antennin katselusuunnan funktiona. Käytännön näkökulmasta katsoen kaksipolarisaatioantennit näyttävät olevan kaikkein toteuttamiskelpoisin vaihtoehto käytettäväksi MIMO-systeemeissä johtuen niiden kompaktista rakenteesta, ja sisätila näyttää olevan sopivin ympäristö MIMO-sovelluksiin johtuen tyypillisesti sirontarikkaasta kanavasta.reviewe

Characterisation and Modelling of Indoor and Short-Range MIMO Communications

Over the last decade, we have witnessed the rapid evolution of Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems which promise to break the frontiers of conventional architectures and deliver high throughput by employing more than one element at the transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) in order to exploit the spatial domain. This is achieved by transmitting simultaneous data streams from different elements which impinge on the Rx with ideally unique spatial signatures as a result of the propagation paths’ interactions with the surrounding environment. This thesis is oriented to the statistical characterisation and modelling of MIMO systems and particularly of indoor and short-range channels which lend themselves a plethora of modern applications, such as wireless local networks (WLANs), peer-to-peer and vehicular communications. The contributions of the thesis are detailed below. Firstly, an indoor channel model is proposed which decorrelates the full spatial correlation matrix of a 5.2 GHzmeasuredMIMO channel and thereafter assigns the Nakagami-m distribution on the resulting uncorrelated eigenmodes. The choice of the flexible Nakagami-m density was found to better fit the measured data compared to the commonly used Rayleigh and Ricean distributions. In fact, the proposed scheme captures the spatial variations of the measured channel reasonably well and systematically outperforms two known analytical models in terms of information theory and link-level performance. The second contribution introduces an array processing scheme, namely the three-dimensional (3D) frequency domain Space Alternating Generalised Expectation Maximisation (FD-SAGE) algorithm for jointly extracting the dominant paths’ parameters. The scheme exhibits a satisfactory robustness in a synthetic environment even for closely separated sources and is applicable to any array geometry as long as its manifold is known. The algorithm is further applied to the same set of raw data so that different global spatial parameters of interest are determined; these are the multipath clustering, azimuth spreads and inter-dependency of the spatial domains. The third contribution covers the case of short-range communications which have nowadays emerged as a hot topic in the area of wireless networks. The main focus is on dual-branch MIMO Ricean systems for which a design methodology to achieve maximum capacities in the presence of Line-of-Sight (LoS) components is proposed. Moreover, a statistical eigenanalysis of these configurations is performed and novel closed-formulae for the marginal eigenvalue and condition number statistics are derived. These formulae are further used to develop an adaptive detector (AD) whose aim is to reduce the feasibility cost and complexity of Maximum Likelihood (ML)-based MIMO receivers. Finally, a tractable novel upper bound on the ergodic capacity of the above mentioned MIMO systems is presented which relies on a fundamental power constraint. The bound is sufficiently tight and applicable for arbitrary rank of the mean channel matrix, Signal-to-Noise ratio (SNR) and takes the effects of spatial correlation at both ends into account. More importantly, it includes previously reported capacity bounds as special cases