Impact of Physical Channel Properties on the Capacity of MIMO Communication Systems

Abstract

We provide in this paper, the result of our investigations on the capacity of MIMO communication systems. We employ a realistic channel model to study the influence of several physical channel parameters on the capacity. New results on the capacity of correlated channels are used to evaluate the ergodic capacity in different sets of propagation parameters, accounting for non-isotropic scattering environments, directional antennas and different array configurations. It turns out that antenna spacing and angle spread are key parameters in determining the amount of correlation and hence the capacity. The results show that wise choice of the parameters of the system is essential in order to be able to reap the potential benefits of MIMO communications.