Millimeter Wave Communications with Reconfigurable Antennas

The highly sparse nature of propagation channels and the restricted use of radio frequency (RF) chains at transceivers limit the performance of millimeter wave (mmWave) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. Introducing reconfigurable antennas to mmWave can offer an additional degree of freedom on designing mmWave MIMO systems. This paper provides a theoretical framework for studying the mmWave MIMO with reconfigurable antennas. We present an architecture of reconfigurable mmWave MIMO with beamspace hybrid analog-digital beamformers and reconfigurable antennas at both the transmitter and the receiver. We show that employing reconfigurable antennas can provide throughput gain for the mmWave MIMO. We derive the expression for the average throughput gain of using reconfigurable antennas, and further simplify the expression by considering the case of large number of reconfiguration states. In addition, we propose a low-complexity algorithm for the reconfiguration state and beam selection, which achieves nearly the same throughput performance as the optimal selection of reconfiguration state and beams by exhaustive search.Comment: presented at IEEE ICC 201

Reconfigurable Antennas in mmWave MIMO Systems

The key obstacle to achieving the full potential of the millimeter wave (mmWave) band has been the poor propagation characteristics of wireless signals in this band. One approach to overcome this issue is to use antennas that can support higher gains while providing beam adaptability and diversity, i.e., reconfigurable antennas. In this article, we present a new architecture for mmWave multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications that uses a new class of reconfigurable antennas. More specifically, the proposed lens-based antennas can support multiple radiation patterns while using a single radio frequency chain. Moreover, by using a beam selection network, each antenna beam can be steered in the desired direction. Further, using the proposed reconfigurable antenna in a MIMO architecture, we propose a new signal processing algorithm that uses the additional degrees of freedom provided by the antennas to overcome propagation issues at mmWave frequencies. Our simulation results show that the proposed reconfigurable antenna MIMO architecture significantly enhances the performance of mmWave communication systems

High-Rate Space Coding for Reconfigurable 2x2 Millimeter-Wave MIMO Systems

Millimeter-wave links are of a line-of-sight nature. Hence, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems operating in the millimeter-wave band may not achieve full spatial diversity or multiplexing. In this paper, we utilize reconfigurable antennas and the high antenna directivity in the millimeter-wave band to propose a rate-two space coding design for 2x2 MIMO systems. The proposed scheme can be decoded with a low complexity maximum-likelihood detector at the receiver and yet it can enhance the bit-error-rate performance of millimeter-wave systems compared to traditional spatial multiplexing schemes, such as the Vertical Bell Laboratories Layered Space-Time Architecture (VBLAST). Using numerical simulations, we demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed code and show its superiority compared to existing rate-two space-time block codes

High Rate/Low Complexity Space-Time Block Codes for 2x2 Reconfigurable MIMO Systems

In this paper, we propose a full-rate full-diversity space-time block code (STBC) for 2x2 reconfigurable multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems that require a low complexity maximum likelihood (ML) detector. We consider a transmitter equipped with a linear antenna array where each antenna element can be independently configured to create a directive radiation pattern toward a selected direction. This property of transmit antennas allow us to increase the data rate of the system, while reducing the computational complexity of the receiver. The proposed STBC achieves a coding rate of two in a 2x2 MIMO system and can be decoded via an ML detector with a complexity of order M, where M is the cardinality of the transmitted symbol constellation. Our simulations demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed code compared to existing STBCs in the literature.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1505.0646