The Second-Order Coding Rate of the MIMO Quasi-Static Rayleigh Fading Channel

The second-order coding rate of the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) quasi-static Rayleigh fading channel is studied. We tackle this problem via an information-spectrum approach and statistical bounds based on recent random matrix theory techniques. We derive a central limit theorem (CLT) to analyze the information density in the regime where the block length n and the number of transmit and receive antennas K and N, respectively, grow simultaneously large. This result leads to the characterization of closed-form upper and lower bounds on the optimal average error probability when the coding rate is within O(1/√(nK)) of the asymptotic capacity.