MIMO Systems

An Overview
Amira Hosny Abbas Abouzied
12/6/2010
Table of Contents

Abstract .............................................................................................................................................. 4
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 5
Principles of Space-Time (MIMO) Systems ............................................................................ 6
Spatial Multiplexing ................................................................................................................... 6
Spatial Diversity .......................................................................................................................... 7
MIMO channel modeling ............................................................................................................... 9
Antenna Systems ........................................................................................................................... 10
MIMO and OFDM ............................................................................................................................ 11
MIMO Standards ........................................................................................................................ 11
BENEFITS OF MULTI-ANTENNA SYSTEMS ............................................................................ 12
ARRAY GAIN ................................................................................................................................ 12
INTERFERENCE REDUCTION ................................................................................................. 12
DIVERSITY GAIN ........................................................................................................................ 12
MULTIPLEXING GAIN ............................................................................................................... 13
Appendices ...................................................................................................................................... 14
Appendix A: Standardization ................................................................................................ 14
WLAN IEEE 802.11n .............................................................................................................. 14
WiMAX IEEE 802.16-2004 .................................................................................................. 15
WiMAX IEEE 802.16e............................................................................................................ 16
3GPP Release 7 ....................................................................................................................... 16
3GPP Release 8 (LTE)........................................................................................................... 17
IEEE 802.20 and IEEE 802.22 ............................................................................................ 17
Appendix B: Space Time Codes ............................................................................................. 18
STTCs ......................................................................................................................................... 18
STBCs ......................................................................................................................................... 18
ALAMOUTI CODE ................................................................................................................... 18
SUMMARY......................................................................................................................................... 20
References ....................................................................................................................................... 21

2
Table of Figures
Figure 1 A general block diagram of a MIMO wireless communication system ....... 5
Figure 2 Transmission matrix .................................................................................................... 7
Figure 3 Basic spatial multiplexing scheme .......................................................................... 7
Figure 4 Space time code diagram ............................................................................................ 7
Figure 5 Rx diversity ...................................................................................................................... 8
Figure 6 MIMO channels and communication models ....................................................... 9
Figure 7 Switched Beamformer and Adaptive Beamformer .......................................... 10
Figure 8 Methods to optimize frame overhead .................................................................. 14
Figure 9 Principle of Virtual Antennas .................................................................................. 16
Figure 10 Space-time coding with Alamouti scheme for two transmit and two
receive antennas exploiting maximum diversity gain. .................................................... 19
Figure 11 The Alamouti Space-Time Block Code for 2 Tx antennas ........................... 19
Figure 12 Composite Alamouti Code for more than 2 transmit antennas The index
of the Codes above relates firstly to the number of antennas and secondly to the
number of spatial data streams ............................................................................................... 19

List of Tables
Table 1 MIMO Standards and corresponding technology................................................. 11
Table 2 IEEE WLAN Standards ......................................................................................... 14
Table 3 IEEE WIMAX Standards ....................................................................................... 15

3
Abstract

Multiple-input and multiple-output, or MIMO is the use of multiple antennas

at both the transmitter and receiver to improve communication performance.
Also it is one of several forms of smart antenna technology; they are known to
offer huge advantages over single-antenna systems, both with regard to capacity
and error performance. MIMO techniques have evolved as one of the key
enabling technologies to address the ever-increasing demand for high-speed
wireless data access. Recent information-theoretic results have shown the
enormous capacities that can be realized with such systems. Thus, in the few
years since their inception, they have attracted a great amount of interest.
Although a lot of effort is still needed for research and standardization before
they can become ubiquitous. Since OFDM has been shown to be an effective
technique to combat multipath fading in wireless communications. The capacity
of wireless communication systems can be further improved if it is used with
the emerging MIMO techniques.

4
Introduction

Multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems in wireless communications refer to any
wireless communication system where at both sides of the communication path more than
one antenna is used.

The idea behind MIMO is that, the signals on the transmit (TX) antennas at one end and
the receive (RX) antennas at the other end are “combined” in such a way that the quality (bit-
error rate or BER) or the data rate (bits/sec) of the communication for each MIMO user will
be improved. Such an advantage can be used to increase both the network’s quality of service
and the operator’s revenues significantly.

A core idea in MIMO systems is space–time signal processing in which time (the natural
dimension of digital communication data) is complemented with the spatial dimension
inherent in the use of multiple spatially distributed antennas. As such MIMO systems can be
viewed as an extension of the so-called smart antennas1, a popular technology using antenna
arrays for improving wireless transmission dating back several decades.
A key feature of MIMO systems is the ability to turn multipath propagation, traditionally a
pitfall of wireless transmission, into a benefit for the user. MIMO effectively takes advantage
of random fading and when available, multipath delay spread for multiplying transfer rates.
The prospect of many orders of magnitude improvement in wireless communication
performance at no cost of extra spectrum (only hardware and complexity are added) is largely
responsible for the success of MIMO as a topic for new research.

Figure 1 A general block diagram of a MIMO wireless communication system

1
Are antenna arrays with a digital signal processing capability to transmit and receive in an adaptive and
spatially sensitive manner.

5
Principles of Space-Time (MIMO) Systems

A MIMO system typically consists of m transmit and n receive antennas. A compressed

digital source in the form of a binary data stream is fed to a simplified transmitting block
encompassing the functions of error control coding and mapping to complex modulation
symbols (QPSK, M-QAM, etc.). The latter produces several separate symbol streams which
range from independent to partially redundant to fully redundant. Each is then mapped onto
one of the multiple TX antennas. After upward frequency conversion, filtering and
amplification, the signals are launched into the wireless channel. At the receiver, the signals
are captured by possibly multiple antennas and demodulation and de-mapping operations are
performed to recover the message. The level of intelligence, complexity, and a priori channel
knowledge used in selecting the coding and antenna mapping algorithms can vary a great deal
depending on the application. This determines the class and performance of the multi-antenna
solution that is implemented.

MIMO systems are defined by Spatial Diversity and Spatial Multiplexing. Spatial
Multiplexing can provide a higher capacity but no better signal quality. Instead of improving
signal quality, Spatial Multiplexing decreases it. Spatial Diversity improves the signal quality
and achieves a higher signal-to noise ratio at the receiver-side.

Spatial Multiplexing

The transmission of multiple data streams over more than one antenna is called Spatial
Multiplexing. There are two types, which have to be taken into account.
- The first type is V-BLAST (Vertical Bell Laboratories Layered Space-Time), which
transmits spatial un-coded data streams without any consideration in equalizing the
signal at the receiver.
- The second one is realized by Space-Time Codes.

In contrast to V-BLAST, Space-Time Codes deliver orthogonal and thereby

independent data streams. The V-BLAST method is not able to separate the streams so that
multi-stream interferences (MSI) can appear. That makes the transmission unsteady and
forward error coding is not always able to resolve this issue. The detection of a space-time-
coded signal is based on a simple linear process and achieves reasonable results. The
advantage of Spatial Multiplexing is linear capacity gain in relation to the number of transmit
antennas.
The advantage of Spatial Multiplexing is linear capacity gain in relation to the number
of transmit antennas.
With Spatial Multiplexing the system is able to carry more than one spatial data stream
over one frequency simultaneously. By using the same channel, every antenna receives not
only the direct components intended for it, but also the indirect components intended for the
other antennas. The direct connection from antenna 1 to 1 is specified with h11, etc., while the
indirect connection from antenna 1 to 2 is identified as cross component h21, etc. From this is
obtained transmission matrix H with the dimensions n x m.

6
 Figure 2 Transmission matrix
Figure 3 Basic spatial multiplexing scheme

Spatial Diversity

Spatial Diversity is known as Rx- and Tx-Diversity. In Tx-Diversity signal copies are
transferred from another antenna or received at more than one antenna. To generate a
redundant signal, space-time codes2 are used. Space-time codes additionally improve the
performance and make spatial diversity usable. The signal copy is transmitted not only from a
different antenna but also at a different time. This delayed transmission is called delayed
diversity. Space-time codes combine spatial and temporal signal copies as illustrated in
Figure 2. The signals s1 and s2 are multiplexed in two data chains. After that, a signal
replication is added to create the space-time block code.

Figure 4 Space time code diagram

Space-Time Codes can be designed in two different ways.

- Space-Time Block Code or STBC (as in figure 2)
- Space-Time Trellis Code or STTC created by a FSM (Final State Machine)
The coding can also be handled in the frequency domain. This is called Space frequency
coding.

2
More details is given in appendix B
7
 In Rx-Diversity because of the different transmission paths, the receiver sees two
differently faded signals. By using the appropriate method in the receiver, the signal-to-noise
ratio can now be increased. Switched diversity always uses the stronger signal, while
maximum ratio combining uses the sum signal from the two signals

Figure 5 Rx diversity

An advantage of using receive diversity is that it is seamless to the transmitter, so it

does not need to be defined in the standards to be used.

8
MIMO channel modeling

Many different Multiple-input multiple-output channel models have been proposed in

the last years. MIMO channel models can be classified as physical and analytical models as
shown in Figure 6. On the one hand, physical channel models focus on the characteristics of
an environment and the electromagnetic wave propagation between the transmitter and the
receiver, also they consider the antenna configurations at both ends. On the other hand,
analytical models do not provide the site-specific descriptions so that they do not take into
account the wave propagation characteristics. The model impulse response is mathematically
generated and related to the statistical properties of the propagation environment. However,
due to its simplicity, an analytical channel model is very useful for producing MIMO channel
matrix for different kind of communication systems.

Figure 6 MIMO channels and communication models

In literature, physical models can be distinguished into deterministic models and

geometry-based stochastic channel models. Deterministic models (such as ray-tracing and
recording impulse response models) begin by creating an artificial environment. The channel
response can be consequently calculated for simulation purposes. But in this case, the
calculation time is considerable high. Geometry-based stochastic channel models (GSCM)
consider that the channel response is carried out by respecting the characteristic of wave
propagation, both site-specific Tx-Rx environments, and scattering mechanism. All
parameters are statistically defined to closely match the measured channel observation. The
channel response can be rapidly computed for a single-bounce, double-bounce or multi-
bounce scattering mechanism.
Analytical channel models can be further illustrated into correlation-based models,
statistical cluster models, and propagation-based models.
- Correlation-based models contain the Tx and Rx correlations overall channel
matrixes. For example, the kronecker model assumes that the channel correlation is
a product of the correlations at the transmitter and receiver sides.
- Statistical cluster models determine physical parameters in a random manner
without referring to the geometry of a physical medium. For example, Saleh-
Valenzuela model uses two exponentially decaying amplitudes varying in time and
distance of the clusters, while increasing delay time with the assumptions that the
direction of departure (DOD) and the angle of arrival (DOA) are independent and
identically distributed.
- Propagation-based models are such as keyhole channel models, finite scattered
model, maximum entropy model, virtual channel representation . . . etc.

9
Antenna Systems
Antenna technologies are the key in increasing the network capacity. It started with
sectorized antennas. These antennas illuminate 60 or 120 degrees and operate as one cell. In
GSM the capacity can be trebled, by 120 degree antennas. Adaptive antenna arrays intensify
spatial multiplexing using narrow beams. Smart Antennas belong to adaptive antenna arrays
but differ in its smart DoA (Direction of Arrival) estimation. Independent of any supported
feedback and transparent to the user terminal, Smart Antennas can form a user-specific beam.
Optional feedback can reduce complexity of the array system. MIMO Systems normally
require feedback and are not transparent to the user.
Beamforming is the method used to create the radiation pattern of an antenna array. It
can be applied in all antenna array systems as well as MIMO Systems Smart Antennas are
divided into two groups:
- Phased Array Systems (Switched Beamforming) with a finite number of fixed
predefined patterns
- Adaptive Array Systems (AAS) (Adaptive Beamforming) with an infinite number of
patterns adjusted to the scenario in real time

Figure 7 Switched Beamformer and Adaptive Beamformer

Switched Beamformers electrically calculate the DoA and switch on the fixed beam. If
the user is moving across these fixed beams, signal jitter can cause interruption. In other
words, the user only has the optimal signal strength along the centre of the beam.
The Adaptive Beamformer deals with that problem and adjusts the beam in real-time
to the moving terminal. The complexity and the cost of such a system is higher than the first
type. The adaptive array algorithms are broadly classified as: trained algorithms and blind
algorithms. Trained algorithms use a finite set of training symbols to adapt the weights of the
array and maximize the signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR). Blind algorithms do
not require training signals to adapt their weights. As a result, these algorithms save
bandwidth efficiency since all time slots can be used for transmission of useful data.

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MIMO and OFDM
MIMO is applicable to all kinds of wireless communication technologies. However, the
combination of MIMO and OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) has the
following advantages. OFDM is adapted for multi-path propagation in wireless systems. The
length of the OFDM-frames is determined by the Guard Interval (GI). This Gurad Interval
restricts the maximum path delay and therefore the expansion of the network area. MIMO
also uses the multi-path propagation.

OFDM is a wideband system with many narrowband sub-carriers. The mathematical

MIMO channel model is based on a narrow band non-frequency selective channel. The latter
is supported by OFDM as well. Fading effects in wideband systems normally occur only at
particular frequencies and interfere with few sub-carriers. The data is spread over all carriers,
so that only a small amount of bits get lost, and these can be repaired by a forward error
correction (FEC). OFDM provides a robust multi-path system suitable for MIMO. At the
same time OFDM provides high spectral efficiency and a degree of freedom in spreading the
time dimension of Space-Time Block Codes over several sub-carriers. This results in a
stronger system based on the principle described previously.

MIMO Standards3
Table 1 gives an overview of all current MIMO standards and their technologies. It is
clear to see, that with the exception of 3GPP Release 7, all standards work with OFDM. The
advantages of OFDM can obviously be linked to MIMO.

Standard Technology
WLAN 802.11n OFDM
WiMAX 802.16-2004 OFDM/OFDMA
WiMAX 802.16e OFDMA
3GPP Release 7 WCDMA
3GPP Release 8 (LTE) OFDMA
802.20 OFDM
802.22 OFDM

Table 1 MIMO Standards and corresponding technology

3
Check appendix A for a review on standards
11
BENEFITS OF MULTI-ANTENNA SYSTEMS
The most important advantages of multiple antenna systems are array gain, interference
reduction, and diversity gain. MIMO systems can exploit not only the transmit and receive
multi-antenna benefits simultaneously but they also offer something new compared to the
traditional antenna array systems, i.e., multiplexing gain. However, a compromise between
diversity and multiplexing has to be made since it is not possible to exploit both maximum
diversity gain and maximum multiplexing gain at the same time. Ideally, adaptive systems
would adapt the exploitation of multiple antennas to current conditions and thus
simultaneously increase both the throughput and the reliability of communication system.

ARRAY GAIN

Array gain indicates improvement of SNR at the receiver compared to traditional

systems with one transmit and one receive antenna. The said improvement can be achieved
with correct processing of the signals at the transmit or at the receive side, so the transmitted
signals are coherently combined at the receiver. To achieve array gain at the transmitter
antenna array, the channel state information (CSI) has to be known at the transmit side
whereas for the exploitation of antenna array gain at the receiver, the channel has to be
known at the receive side. Receive array gain is achieved regardless of the correlation
between the antennas.

INTERFERENCE REDUCTION

Interference in the wireless channel appears due to frequency reuse. It decreases the
performance of the communication systems. Using multiple antennas, it is possible to
separate the signals with different spatial signature and thus decrease inter-channel
interference. When traveling through wireless medium, each signal is marked with the path
that it has traveled. At the transmit side, the transmitted signal can be directed to the chosen
users. With this, the interferences to the other users are decreased, more efficient frequency
planning is thus possible, which, in turn, increases the capacity of cellular systems using
beamforming. A beamformer can be seen as a spatial filter that separates the desired signal
from interfering signals given that all the signals share the same frequency band and originate
from different spatial locations. It essentially weighs and sums the signals from different
antennas in the antenna array to optimize the quality of the desired signal. In addition to
interference rejection and multi-path fading mitigation, a beamformer also increases the
antenna gain in the direction of the desired user. Common beamforming criteria are minimum
mean square error (MMSE), maximum signal to interference and noise ratio (MSINR),
maximum SNR (MSNR), constant modulus (CMA), and maximum likelihood (ML).
Beamforming is typically implemented using adaptive techniques.

DIVERSITY GAIN

Diversity in wireless communications is used to combat signal fading. Several

techniques exist, but they are all based on the same principle: They transmit the signal
through several independently fading paths. More independently fading channels exist, higher
is the probability that at least one of them is not in deep fade.
Three types of diversity have been known for quite some time in the wireless
communications and have been used widely: time diversity, frequency diversity, and space
diversity. For space diversity, there is no need neither for extra bandwidth nor for extra time;

12
however, the price to be paid is an increased complexity of the system since multiple
antennas with radio frequency chains and some processing are needed. Antennas must be
separated sufficiently; otherwise, the signals are correlated and diversity gain is reduced. The
separation of the antennas needed for independent fading is called coherence distance.
Coherence distance depends mostly on the departure and arrival angles of the signals. If the
multi-path is very rich, meaning that the signals arrive to the receiver from all the directions,
then the separation of approximately half of the wavelength is sufficient. If the angles are
smaller, then the distance needed for independent fading is larger. Measurements have shown
that as regards the base station, the height of the base station and the coherence distance are
strongly correlated: higher are the base station antennas, larger is the coherence distance.

In MIMO systems, there are several antennas at both ends, which offer the potential
of very high diversity gains. Diversity gain is equal to the number of independent channels in
the system, which depends on the position of the antennas and the environment. If we have M
transmit and N receive antennas, then we have M*N sub-channels and the maximum
diversity gain equals M*N. Higher the diversity gain, lower is the probability of erroneous
detection of the received signal. The diversity gain indicates how fast the probability of error
is decreasing with an increase in the signal strength. When multiple antennas are used for the
reception, the received signals can be weighted and summed together. The phase shift of the
received signals has to be taken into account, or the signals from different antennas would not
necessarily be added together coherently at the combiner. The output signal would still have
large fluctuations because of sometimes constructive and sometimes destructive combining.
The method where the weighting coefficients are chosen in such a way that the average
quality of the signal (SNR) is maximized called maximum ratio combining or MRC. Using
this method, the coefficients are equal to the conjugate complex value of the channel
coefficients. This means that all received signals are shifted to the same phase and the signals
with higher strengths are getting proportionately more important role at the signal combiner.
The SNR at the output of the combiner is equal to the sum of the SNRs on all antennas.
Beside the array gain, MRC detection also achieves maximal diversity gain.

MULTIPLEXING GAIN

To exploit multiplexing gain, one needs to have several antennas at both ends of the
communication system. In the MIMO system with rich scattering environment, several
communication channels in the same frequency band can be used. As it was shown, the
capacity of the spatial multiplexing system can be increased with the minimum number of
transmit and receive antennas. Such an increase in spectral efficiency of the system is
particularly attractive since there is no need for additional spectrum or for increasing transmit
power. However, multiple antennas are needed at both ends to employ spatial multiplexing,
while for other multiple antenna benefits just an antenna array at one end is needed.

Media

13
Appendices
Appendix A: Standardization

A review of standardization is important to get an overview as to which of the possible

theoretical technologies are actually applied.
WLAN IEEE 802.11n

IEEE is an American organization, which adopted the first WLAN version in 1997.
After that, many extensions and new standards followed. Table 2 is an outline of all WLAN
standards and it classifies the 802.11n.

Table 2 IEEE WLAN Standards

Apart from MIMO, this 802.11n WLAN Standard has several new features, which
provide a higher level of performance. The first feature is a bandwidth extension from 20
MHz to 40 MHz and 4 more data carriers in the 20 MHz mode. This results in difficulties in
the 2.4 GHz band, with only 3 non-overlapping 20 MHz-channels. Within the 5 GHz band
there are 12 non-overlapping channels and consequently a higher degree of freedom. The
next point is the modified FEC (Forward Error Correction) code rate to 5/6, which means up
to 10 percent higher rates in contrast to the legacy code rate of 3/4. It can be adapted by 76
MCS (Modulation and Coding Schemes). To optimize the MAC-Layer efficiency, Packet
Bursting and Frame Aggregation are introduced. This unsocial approach to reduce the frame
over-head leads to some incompatibilities with regard to the old 802.11 gear.

Figure 8 Methods to optimize frame overhead

14
 Furthermore the OFDM frame structure is modified. In 802.11n the Guard Interval (GI)
is reduced from 800 ns to 400 ns. Consequently, the maximum coverage is reduced but the
transfer rate speeds up to approximately 10 percent.
The WLAN standard provides up to four spatial data streams and thus up to a fourfold
bit rate. It should be noted that up to three streams can be transmitted by applying Space-
Time Codes. Four data steams are supported by Spatial Multiplexing.
WiMAX IEEE 802.16-2004

WiMAX was created to deliver Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) in metropolitan

areas. The working group of IEEE finalized the WiMAX standard of fixed access on the 1st
October 2004. It includes all prior standards. Table 3 shows the history of all standards.

Table 3 IEEE WIMAX Standards

The standard for wireless fixed connections is called 802.16-2004 and is seen as an
alternative approach to a wired DSL service. That standard is specified for 2 to 66 GHz
whereby the licensed frequencies around 2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz and the unlicensed
frequencies around 5.2 GHz and 5.8 GHz are actually used.
802.16-2004 includes five sub-standards (named Air Interface) as follows:
- WirelessMAN SC (Single Carrier, without NLOS component)
- WirelessMAN SCa (Single Carrier, with NLOS component)
- WirelessMAN OFDM
- WirelessMAN OFDMA
- WirelessHUMAN (Wireless High-speed Unlicensed MAN)

The Air Interface WirelessMAN OFDM includes Transmit Diversity but no MIMO
functionality. MIMO is established in WirelessMAN OFDMA with up to four antennas.
Whereas just one and two data streams use Space-Time Codes, adapted from the Alamouti
Code, four streams are realized by spatial un-coded Spatial Multiplexing.
The bandwidth within fixed WiMAX can vary between 1.75 to 10 MHz in the OFDM
Air Interface and from 1.25 to 28 MHz in the OFDMA Air Interface. In Single Carrier
operation WiMAX 802.16-2004 defines 256QAM, otherwise 64QAM is used. The FEC code
rate of 7/8 is supported as well and provides an additional gain of 5 percent relating to 5/6 in
WLAN 802.11n. Virtual Antenna is a new WiMAX feature, which enables MIMO in the
uplink. The principle does not require terminals with more than one antenna. Spatial

15
Multiplexing is achieved by two users sending one spatial stream each along the same
frequency.

Figure 9 Principle of Virtual Antennas

WiMAX IEEE 802.16e

WiMAX 802.16e is the latest development, which makes mobile WiMAX access
possible. In December 2005 three Air Interfaces were determined.
- WirelessMAN SCa
- WirelessMAN OFDM
- WirelessMAN OFDMA
Only the OFDMA Air Interface offers MIMO functionality. One and two spatial
streams operate with Space-Time Codes whereas three and four streams are transmitted
spatial un-coded. The Space-Time Codes are based on Alamouti and for more than two
antennas on compositions of it. The bandwidth is similar to the fixed standard and has a range
of 1.25 MHz to 28 MHz. The code rate and the modulation are limited by 5/6 and 64QAM.
802.16e is able to hand over the user connection and offers macro diversity in combination
with that. The maximum radial speed currently lies at approximately 60 km/h.

3GPP Release 7

In UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access) Release 7 was established, which will be
functionally frozen in 2006. It is based on WCDMA and provides the typical bandwidth of 5
MHz. Alamouti Space-Time Codes will be used in antenna constellation of 2x1 or 4x2. The
release 7 includes a TDD (Time Division Duplex) mode and a FDD (Frequency Division
Duplex) ,ode.
In the TDD mode the PARC (Per Antenna Rate Control) proposal will be used, which
is similar to MCS (Modulation and Coding Scheme) in WLAN. It is able to adapt the
modulation and the coding rate to the quality of the channel. There are four coding schemes
consisting of QPSK and 16QAM as well as a FEC code rate of 1/2 and 3/4. In total PARC is
able to provide four data streams.
The latter mode uses the D-TxAA (Double Transmit Antenna Array) proposal which is
based on the STTD (Space-Time Transmit Diversity) principle defined in Release 99. It can
be seen as a twofold Transmit Diversity chain. Each chain can be rate-controlled similar to

16
PARC depending on the channel feedback. Additionally D-TxAA provides a weighting
considering the CQI.

3GPP Release 8 (LTE)

This release is also known as “Long Term Evolution” and relate to E-UTRA (Evolved
UTRA). The standardization process has only released high-level principles, such as the
agreement to use OFDMA in the downlink and SCFDMA (Single Carrier FDMA) in the
uplink. The single carrier transmission has the advantage of a small Crest-Factor, whereby
cheaper terminal amplifiers can be used.
The bandwidths shall lie between 1.25 MHz and 20 MHz with 16QAM being applied.
The MIMO antenna constellations will be initially 2x2 and later 4x4. Space-Time Codes will
be used.
IEEE 802.20 and IEEE 802.22

These standards are still under definition. MIMO and some high-level principles have
been decided and only a few details have been published so far.

17
Appendix B: Space Time Codes

Coding the information across transmit antennas and time slots in a way that the
receiver can reliably extract the information and exploit spatial diversity (possibly while
providing coding gain) is called STC. Just one receive antenna and no channel knowledge at
the transmit side is needed. STC coder generates as many symbols as there are transmit
antennas. These symbols are transmitted simultaneously, each one through different antenna.
The goal of STC is to code the symbols at the transmitter in such a way that the highest
diversity gain is achieved after decoding. Two main categories of STC are space time trellis
codes (STTCs) and space time block codes (STBCs).
STTCs

STTC is an extension of trellis coded modulation (TCM) to multiple transmit

antennas. It combines the advantages of transmit diversity and TCM in an ingenious way to
obtain reliable, high data rate transmission in wireless channels without feedback from the
receiver. STTC was first introduced by Tarokh et al. in 1998. They defined design criteria for
STTC over slow flat fading, fast flat fading, and spatially correlated channels assuming high
SNRs. They constructed codes that provided a good tradeoff between data rate, diversity
advantage, and trellis complexity. STTC can be illustrated in trellis diagram, in which
vertexes are defined with diagram of state transitions. Besides maximal diversity gain, coding
gain can also be achieved.
STTC decoding can be done with Viterbi algorithm. First, the branch metrics for each
vertex in the trellis diagram is calculated, then the Viterbi algorithm finds the path through
the trellis diagram for which the cumulative metrics is the smallest. The complexity of this
decoding is quite considerable and that is why STBC are more attractive for the
implementation.
STBCs

STBCs map a block of input symbols into space and time sequence. The receiver
usually uses an ML detection. The greatest benefit of block codes over trellis codes is that the
optimal decoding is much simpler. Instead of a joint detection of all the transmitted symbols,
the transmitted symbols can be separated with STBC. The class of codes that allow
separation is called orthogonal STBC and is particularly important for the implementation.
STBC can achieve maximal diversity gain for a given number of transmit and receive
antennas; however, they cannot achieve any coding gain. The first STBC with two transmit
antennas was discovered by Alamouti, and is now widely known as the Alamouti code. Later
it was, with some limitations, generalized to different numbers of transmit antennas.
ALAMOUTI CODE

Alamouti scheme can be compared with MRC scheme for receive diversity
exploitation; the main difference is that Alamouti scheme is used when antenna array is at the
transmitter (MISO and MIMO), which is particularly important for the downlink from the
base stations. With Alamouti scheme, two data symbols are transmitted in two transmission
times, so the transmission rate (data throughput) is the same as with traditional systems with
one transmit antenna. The diagram of the communication systems with the Alamouti scheme
and two receive antennas is presented in Figure 10.

18
 Figure 10 Space-time coding with Alamouti scheme for two transmit and two receive antennas exploiting
maximum diversity gain.

In the first symbol period, symbol one is transmitted from the first transmit antenna
and symbol two is transmitted from the second antenna. In the second symbol period, symbol
two, multiplied by –1 and complexly conjugated, is transmitted from the first antenna, and
the complexly conjugated symbol one is transmitted from the second antenna. Owing to
orthogonality, optimal decoding of each transmitted symbol can be done independently, using
simple linear decoding. In this way, the maximal diversity gain can be achieved for any
number of receive antennas.

Figure 11 The Alamouti Space-Time Block Code for 2 Tx antennas

Figure 12 Composite Alamouti Code for more than 2 transmit antennas The index of the Codes above relates
firstly to the number of antennas and secondly to the number of spatial data streams

As STBC do not give any coding gain, they are usually combined with external
forward error correction (FEC) coding, so the quality of transmission increases even further.
Given that STBC can give soft output information (exact real value and not just decision on
the symbol), it is possible to combine FEC code with advanced iterative decoding, known as
turbo coding.

19
SUMMARY
In the field of wireless communications, MIMO systems have enabled a huge step
forward since they can increase significantly both the coverage and the capacity of cellular
systems. The technology is developing very fast and is already present in several standards.
Standardization difficulties can appear in supporting the compatibility for previous versions
of standards; that is why, it is easier to incorporate MIMO in completely new standards like
WiMax. However, no standardization will resolve all issues. They help improve product
efficiency but the actual design and manufacturing issues alone will decide on the
performance of the final product.
In the future, it is expected that several antennas will be included in many laptop
computers or mobile devices. Massive usage of multiple antennas will decrease the prices of
such devices, which, in turn, can make the technology available to wider range of users. It is
hard to predict which standard or technology will continue the 4G wireless systems, but it
will almost certainly incorporate MIMO systems. Those systems will have to include the
ability to adapt to the time changing nature of the wireless channel using some form of at
least partial feedback to make a fine compromise between rate maximization (spatial
multiplexing) and diversity (STC) solutions.

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References

1. Rohde & Schwarz. Introduction to MIMO Systems, Application Note,

2. Gesbert, D.; Shafi,M.;Da-shan Shiu, Smith, P.J.; Naguib. A. From theory to practice:
an overview of MIMO spacetime coded wireless systems. IEEE J. Sel. Areas
Commun. 2003, 21, 281–302.

3. Sreco Plevel; Jozef Stefan; Saso Tomazic; Tornaz Javornik; Gorazd Kandus. MIMO:
Wireless Communications. Encyclopedia of Wireless and Mobile Communications,
2008

4. K. Raoof , M.A. Khalighi , and N. Prayongpun. MIMO Systems: Principles, iterative

techniques and advanced polarization, 2007

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