Analytical approach of V-BLAST performance with two transmit antennas

An analytical approach to the performance analysis of the Vertical Bell Laboratories Space-Time (V-BLAST) multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems with two transmit antennas is presented in this paper. We derive the exact SNR distribution in the first and second detection steps when optimal detection ordering is used. A closed-form analytical expression for the bit error rate (BER) is then given. The effect of the optimal ordering with two transmit antennas on the diversity order and SNR is also evaluated. Finally, we study the system performance under unbalanced transmit power.