Ray Tracing Based Channel Analysis Involving Compact MIMO Antenna Arrays With Decoupling Networks

The channel characteristics of the compact Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna arrays with decoupling networks are studied. Two 2 x 2 systems with monopole antennas are chosen as test cases. The analysis is performed by means of a ray tracing technique. Using such an asymptotic method allows to analyze large problems rather efficiently. This is especially critical for the outdoor propagation scenarios. The performances of different decoupling schemes under various propagation cases are investigated. After the channel coefficients have been obtained by the ray tracing simulation for a given scenario, the channel capacity can be calculated very easily using these coefficients. In order to have realistic channel representations, the losses arising from the decoupling networks are also considered during the simulations.