The Capacity Evaluation of WLAN MIMO System With Multi-Element Antennas and Maximal Ratio Combining

The performance of wireless network with multiple antennas in the single office room is evaluated. The ray tracing algorithm is used as a tool for the analysis. The system works in quasi-stationary radio channel, so the full channel side information is assumed. Each of the multiple antennas is the array of dipoles. The antennas with different directivities are compared and the optimal system configurations are shown. In each case, the capacity of the system is calculated. The combination of multiple antennas and maximal ratio combining technique is proposed in order to boost the system performance. The system complexity is kept at the access point of the network. The additional antennas are packed compactly and the size of access point is not enlarged. The proposed architecture of the access point seems to be very flexible and can effectively cooperate with the user terminals equipped with different number of the antennas