MIMO performance optimisation of car antennas

This paper deals with the design and optimization of MIMO antenna systems for cars. In order to optimize the antennas' performance, it is necessary to investigate the whole communication system chain including the antenna configurations, the propagation channel as well as the baseband MIMO algorithms. A system simulator has been set up including all those elements. This simulator is able to perform “virtual test drives” within predetermined scenarios. It can be used to optimize the MIMO antenna configuration in the car with respect to the whole communication system. Significant performance improvements can be obtained.