Environmental issues for MIMO capacity

Wireless communication using multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems enables increased spectral efficiency for a given total transmit power. Increased capacity is achieved by introducing additional spatial channels that are exploited using space-time coding. In this paper, the environmental factors that affect MIMO capacity are surveyed. These factors include channel complexity, external interference, and channel estimation error. The maximum spectral efficiency of MIMO systems in which both transmitter and receiver know the channel (using channel estimate feedback) is compared with MIMO systems in which only the receiver knows the channel. Channel complexity is studied using both simple stochastic physical scattering and asymptotic large random matrix models. Both uncooperative (worst-case) and cooperative (amenable to multiuser detection) interference are considered. An analysis for capacity loss associated with channel estimation error at the transmitter is introduced.