On the amount of fading in MIMO diversity systems

In this paper, a closed-form expression is presented for the amount of fading (AF) experienced at the output of a space-time block-coded multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) diversity system operating on identically distributed spatially correlated Nakagami-m fading channels. For the separable correlation model (Kronecker model), the AF is presented for identically distributed Rayleigh fading channels and different types of antenna correlation models. For an MIMO diversity system based on the Kronecker model, it is shown, by capitalizing on recent results in IEEE Transactions on Communications, Vol. 51, No. 8 (August 2003), p. 1389, that the average symbol error rate (SER) at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) may be directly expressed in terms of the AF, when a constant correlation model is assumed.