1

Multiple-Antenna Systems
Jan Mietzner (janm@ece.ubc.ca, Room: Kaiser 4110)

1. Introduction

Multipleantenna
techniques

How is it possible to build (digital) wireless communication systems

offering high data rates and small error rates ?

...

Tx

Trade-off between spectral efficiency (high data rates) and power effi-

...

Rx

ciency (small error rates), given fixed bandwidth & transmission power

Example:
Increase cardinality of modulation scheme Data rate , error rate
Decrease rate of channel code Error rate , data rate

Spatial multiplexing
techniques

Smart antennas
(Beamforming)

Conventional transmitter & receiver techniques operate in time domain

and/ or in frequency domain

Spatial diversity techniques

(Spacetime coding &
diversity reception)

Tradeoff

Idea:
Utilize multiple antennas at the transmitter and/ or the receiver

Multiplexing gain

Tradeoff
Diversity gain

Antenna gain

Coding gain

Interference
suppression

Smaller error rates

Higher bit rates/

Smaller error rates

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system

Single-input multiple-output (SIMO) system
Multiple-input single-output (MISO) system

Exploit spatial domain (in addition to time/ frequency domain)

Better trade-off between spectral efficiency and power efficiency

Benefits of multiple antennas:

Increased data rates by means of spatial multiplexing techniques
Decreased error rates by means of spatial diversity techniques
Improved signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs)/ signal-to-interference-plusnoise ratios (SINRs) by means of beamforming techniques

Higher bit rates

2. Basic Principles

Improved SNRs:
Focus antenna patterns on desired angles of reception/ transmission, e.g.,
towards line-of-sight (LoS) or significant scatterers Antenna gain

2.1 Beamforming Techniques

Goal: Improved SNRs or SINRs in multiuser scenarios

Beamforming can be interpreted as linear filtering in the spatial domain

Consider antenna array with N elements and directional antenna pat-

Steer nulls towards co-channel users Interference suppression

frequency-division multiple access (TDMA/ FDMA)

Due to antenna array geometry, impinging RF signal reaches antenna elements at different times (underlying baseband signal does not change)

Adjust phases of RF signals to achieve constructive superposition

SNR/ SINR gains can be utilized to decrease error rates or to

increase data rates (by switching to a higher-order modulation scheme)

Corresponds to steering of antenna pattern towards desired direction

Additional weighting of RF signals can shape antenna pattern

Principle can also be utilized at the transmitter (reciprocity)

In practical systems directions of significant scatterers must be estimated

(e.g., MUSIC or ESPRIT algorithm); SINR can also be optimized without knowing the directions of all co-channel users (Capon beamformer)

(N 1 degrees of freedom for placing maxima or nulls)

Beamforming/ smart antenna techniques thus enable space-division

multiple access (SDMA), as an alternative to time-division or

tern receiving a radio-frequency (RF) signal from a certain direction

Improved SINRs:

Beamforming techniques are well established since the 1960s (origins

are in the field of radar technology); however, intensive research for
wireless communication systems started only in the 1990s

Receiver

...

N
Desired directions of
transmission/reception

Phased array

Phased array

Beamformer

...

Information
bit sequence

Beamformer

Transmitter

Literature: An exhaustive overview on smart antenna techniques for

wireless communications can be found in [Godara97]

to detector

Final remark:
Beamforming can also be performed in baseband domain, if channel is
known at transmitter and receiver (eigen-beamforming)

2.2 Spatial Multiplexing Techniques

2.3 Spatial Diversity Techniques

Goal: Increased data rates compared to single-antenna system

Goal: Decreased error rates compared to single-antenna system

Capacity of MIMO systems grows linearly with min{M, N }

Send/ receive multiple redundant versions of the same data sequence

At the transmitter, the data sequence is split into M sub-sequences that

and perform appropriate combining (in baseband domain)

If the redundant signals undergo statistically independent fading,

are transmitted simultaneously using the same frequency band

it is unlikely that all signals simultaneously experience a deep fade

Data rate increased by factor M (multiplexing gain)

Spatial diversity gain (typically, small antenna spacings sufficient)

At the receiver, the sub-sequences are separated by means of interferencecancellation algorithm, e.g., linear zero-forcing (ZF)/ minimum-mean-

combining of the received signals

squared-error (MMSE) detector, maximum-likelihood (ML) detector, suc-

Various combining strategies, e.g., equal-gain combining (EGC),

cessive interference cancellation (SIC) detector, ...

Typically, channel knowledge required solely at the receiver

For a good error performance, typically N M required

Intensive research started at the end of the 1990s

Literature: [Foschini96]

Receive diversity: SIMO system with N receive antennas and linear

selection combining (SC), maximum-ratio combining (MRC), ...

Well-established since the 1950s, see [Brennan59]

Transmit diversity: MISO system with M transmit antennas

Appropriate pre-processing of transmitted redundant signals to enable coherent combining at receiver (space-time encoder/ decoder)
Optionally, N > 1 receive antennas for enhanced performance

(Tutorials can be found in [Gesbert et al.03], [Paulraj et al.04])

Transmitter

Typically, channel knowledge required solely at the receiver

Intensive research started at the end of the 1990s

Receiver

Well-known techniques are Alamoutis scheme for M = 2 transmit

1
2
M

M subsequences

...

...

Information
bit sequence

Demultiplexing

antennas [Alamouti98], space-time trellis codes [Tarokh et al.98],

Detection
Algorithm

and orthogonal space-time block codes [Tarokh et al.99]

Estimated
bit sequence

An abundance of transmitter/ receiver structures has been proposed

(some offer additional coding gain)

Literature: An exhaustive overview of the benefits of spatial diversity

in wireless communication systems can be found in [Diggavi et al.04]

Transmitter

Receiver

Discrete-time channel model (contd):

x [k]: Transmitted symbol of transmit antenna , time index k ,

1
SpaceTime
Decoder

...

Information
bit sequence

SpaceTime
Encoder

E{x [k]} = 0,
Estimated
bit sequence

E{|x[k]|2} =: x2

(Underlying information symbols are denoted as a[k])

h, : Channel gain between th transmit & th receive antenna,

h, CN (0, h2 ) (i.i.d)

Redundant
signals

(Amplitude |h, | is Rayleigh distributed)

n [k]: Additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) sample at receive

3. Mathematical Details

antenna , time index k ,

n [k] CN (0, n2 ) (i.i.d)

3.1 System Model

y [k]: Received symbol at receive antenna , time index k

Consider a MIMO system with M transmit and N receive antennas

Assumptions:
Frequency non-selective fading & square-root Nyquist filters at

Matrix-vector model
Transmitted vector: x[k] := [ x1[k], ..., xM [k] ]T

transmitter and receiver (pulse energy Eg := 1)

Noise vector: n[k] := [ n1[k], ..., nN [k] ]T

No intersymbol interference (ISI)

Received vector: y[k] := [ y1[k], ..., yN [k] ]T

Rayleigh fading (no LoS component), i.e., channel gains are

Channel matrix:

Block fading, i.e., channel gains are invariant over complete data
block and change randomly from one block to the next

Discrete-time channel model:

k : Discrete time index (1 k NB, NB block length)

: Transmit antenna index (1 M )

: Receive antenna index (1 N )

h1,1 h1,M
... . . .
...
H :=
hN,1 hN,M

zero-mean complex Gaussian random variables

System model:
y[k] = H x[k] + n[k]

(1)

3.2 Eigen-Beamforming

10

Transmit power allocation:

In addition, the transmit power allocated to the parallel channels can be

Consider a quadratic MIMO system with M = N > 1 antennas

Assume that the instantaneous realization of the channel matrix is

optimized, based on the instantaneous SNRs

| |2 x2
n2

( = 1, ..., N ) and a

certain optimization criterion

perfectly known both at the transmitter and at the receiver

Eigenvalue decomposition of H:

3.3 Spatial Multiplexing

H

H := UU

(2)

U: Unitary (NN )-matrix, i.e., UHU = IN

Consider a MIMO system with N M > 1 antennas

(For N < M , the system is inherently rank-deficient)

: Diagonal (NN )-matrix containing eigenvalues 1, ..., N of H:

1 0
= diag(1, ..., N ) = ... . . . ...

0 N

Assume that the instantaneous realization of the channel matrix is

known solely at the receiver

Linear ZF detection: Received vector y[k] is post-processed as

zZF[k] := (HHH)1 HHy[k] =: H+y[k]

Since H is perfectly known, transmitter and receiver can calculate the

(4)

matrix U (e.g., using the Jacobian algorithm [Golub et al.96, Ch. 8.4])

(H+: Left-hand pseudo-inverse of H; for M = N and full rank use H1 )

Eigen-beamforming:

Instead of x[k], transmitter sends pre-processed vector x [k] := Ux[k]

i.e., spatial interference completely removed; however, variance of the

The received vector y [k] is post-processed as U y [k] =: y[k]

H
y[k] = UHy [k] = UH(Hx [k] + n[k]) = UHHUx[k] + U
n[k]}
{z
|

[k] = x[k] + n
[k]
= UHUUH Ux[k] + n

y [k] = x [k] + n
[k] for all , = 1, ..., N

[k]
=: n

resulting noise samples may be significantly enhanced

Linear MMSE detection: (assume x21 = ... = x2M =: x2 )

Received vector y[k] is post-processed as

zMMSE [k] := (HH H + n2 /x2 IM )1 HHy[k]

(3)

(5)

Usually better performance than ZF detection, since better trade-off

Thus, assuming full rank (1 6= 0, ..., N 6= 0) we have N parallel

between spatial interference mitigation & noise enhancement

scalar channels without spatial interference (i.e., data rate enhanced

For high SNR values (n2 0), both detectors become equivalent

by factor N compared to single-antenna system)

Noise samples n
[k] are still i.i.d. CN (0, n2 ), due to unitarity of U

zZF[k] = H+y[k] = H+ (Hx[k] + n[k]) = x[k] + H+n[k],

Performance of ZF/ MMSE detection often quite poor, unless N M

11

ML detection:

3.4 Receive Diversity

ML [k] := argminx [k] ||y[k] H

x[k]||
x

(6)

[k]
For example, brute-force search over all possible hypotheses x
for the transmitted vector x[k]

For Q-ary modulation scheme, there are QM possibilities

Optimal detection strategy (w.r.t. ML criterion), but very complex

12

Consider a SIMO system with N receive antennas

Assume that the instantaneous realization of the (N1)-channel matrix

is perfectly known at the receiver

Received sample at receive antenna , time index k :

y [k] = h,1 x1[k] + n [k]

SIC detection:

h,1 CN (0, h2 ) Amplitude |h,1| =: Rayleigh distributed

Good trade-off between complexity and performance

Originally proposed in [Foschini96] for the well-known BLAST

p( ) =

scheme (Bell-Labs Layered Space-Time Architecture)

QR decomposition of H: (assume N = M )

H := QR

Instantaneous SNR

(7)

p( ) =

Q: Unitary (NN )-matrix, i.e., QHQ = IN

R: Upper triangular (NN )-matrix:

r1,1 r1,N
R = ... . . . ...

where :=

0 rN,N
(There are various algorithms for calculating the QR decomposition)

be detected
Assuming that the detection of xN [k] was correct, the influence of

xN [k] can be subtracted from the (N 1)th row of (8); then symbol

(9)

=: Chi-square (2) distributed

exp

( 0),

(10)

Large probability of small instantaneous SNRs

favorable SNR distribution at combiner output (comb )

Equal-gain combining (EGC): Add up all samples

zcomb [k] :=

N
X

=1

y [k] =

(8)

Symbol xN [k] is not affected by spatial interference and can directly

xN1 [k] can directly be detected, and so on ...

|h,1 |2 x21
n2

( 0),

Idea: Combine received samples y1[k], ..., yN [k] to obtain more

Received vector y[k] is first post-processed as zSIC [k] := QH y[k]

[k]
zSIC [k] := QHy[k] = QH (Hx[k]+n[k]) = Rx[k]+ n

h2 x21
n2

2
2

exp
2
h
h2

hcomb CN (0, N h2 ),

N
X

=1{z

=: hcomb

N
X

=1

N
X

n [k]
=1 {z
}
=: ncomb [k]

ncomb [k] CN (0, N n2 ), i.e., no gain!

Do it coherently (h,1 := ej )

zcomb
[k] :=

h,1 x1[k] +

ej y [k] =

N
X

x1[k] +

=1{z
|
}
=: hcomb

Combiner-output SNR: comb =

N
X

=1
|

ej n [k]
{z

=: ncomb [k]
P
( )2x21 /(N n2 )

13

Selection combining (SC): Select branch with largest instant. SNR

Combiner-output SNR: comb =

max {2 }x21 /n2

14

Example: BPSK, N = 1, ..., 4 receive branches

= max { }

10

N=1 receive branches

N=2 receive branches
N=3 receive branches
N=4 receive branches
Alamoutis scheme (M=2, N=1)

Maximum-ratio combining (MRC):

=1

h,1 y [k]

N
X

Combiner-output SNR:

N
X

10

h,1 n [k]

|h,1| x1[k] +
=1 {z
=1 {z
}
}
|
=: hcomb
=: ncomb [k]
P
P
comb = ( |h,1|2)x21 /n2 =
=

10
SER

zcomb [k] :=

N
X

10

Maximizes combiner-output SNR; optimal w.r.t. ML criterion

Symbol error rates (SERs) with MRC: (without derivation ;-) )

10

: Average SNR per receive branch

Binary Phase-Shift Keying (BPSK)

SER(
) =

v
u
u
u
t

1

1

2N
1+

N1
X
i=0

[Proakis01, Ch. 14]

N 1 + i 1

1 +

2i
1+
i

Q-ary Phase-Shift Keying (Q-PSK)

1
SER(
) =

(Q1)
ZQ

Q-ary Amplitude-Shift Keying (Q-ASK)

[Simon et al.00]

2(Q1) Z2 (Q2 1) sin2

d

SER(
) =
Q 0 (Q2 1) sin2 + 3

Z4

16

18

20

Consider a MISO system with M transmit antennas

Assume that the instantaneous realization of the (1M )-channel matrix

is perfectly known at the receiver, but not at the transmitter

1 Z2 2(Q1) sin2
4

1
d
SER(
) =

Q 0 2(Q1) sin2 + 3

4
1
1

6
8
10
12
14
Average SNR per branch (in dB)

Asymptotic slope (i.e., ) of the curves is N (diversity order N )

(13)

Q-ary Quadrature-Amplitude Modulation (Q-QAM) [Simon et al.00]

3.5 Transmit Diversity

(12)

(11)

[Simon et al.00]

sin2

d
sin2 + sin2(/Q)

v
u
u
u
t

2(Q1) sin2
d
2(Q1) sin2 + 3

Transmit Diversity: Suitable pre-processing of transmitted data

sequence required to allow for coherent combining at the receiver
Example: Send identical signals over all transmit antennas

(14)

No diversity gain! (corresponds to EGC without co-phasing)

Instead: Perform appropriate two-dimensional mapping/ encoding

in time and space (i.e., over the transmit antennas)

15

Example: Alamoutis scheme for M = 2 transmit antennas

(N = 1 receive antennas considered; can be extended to N > 1)
Space-time mapping: Information symbols to be transmitted are
processed in pairs [ a[k], a[k + 1] ]; at time index k , symbol a[k] is

16

Two parallel scalar channels for the symbols a[k] and a[k+1]
(no spatial interference)

Corresponds to MRC with M = 1 transmit and N = 2 receive antennas;

however, using the same average transmit power, Alamoutis scheme

transmitted via the first antenna and symbol a[k + 1] via the second

exhibits a 3 dB loss compared to MRC

antenna; at time index k+1, symbol a[k+1] is transmitted via the

first antenna and symbol a[k] via the second antenna

A =

4. Literature

a[k]
a[k+1] time index k

a [k+1] a[k]
time index k+1

antenna 1

4.1 Cited References

antenna 2

L. C. Godara, Application of antenna arrays to mobile communications Part I: Performance improvement, feasibility, and system consid-

(15)

erations; Part II: Beam-forming and direction-of-arrival considerations,

(In terms of prior system model: A =: [ xT[k], xT [k+1] ]T )

Proc. IEEE, vol. 85, no. 7/8, pp. 10311060, 11951245, July/Aug. 1997.

Received samples (time index k, k+1):

y1[k] = h1,1 a[k] + h1,2 a[k+1] + n1[k]

cation in a fading environment when using multi-element antennas, Bell

y1[k+1] = h1,1 a[k+1] + h1,2 a[k] + n1[k+1]

Syst. Tech. J., pp. 4159, Autumn 1996.

Equivalent matrix-vector model (by taking the (.) of y1 [k+1])

y1[k]
y1 [k+1]
{z

=: yeq [k]

=
|

h1,1 h1,2
h1,2 h1,1
{z

=: Heq

}|

a[k]
a[k+1]
{z

=: a[k]

n1[k]
n1 [k+1]

{z

=: neq [k]

G. J. Foschini, Layered space-time architecture for wireless communi-

to practice: An overview of MIMO space-time coded wireless systems,

IEEE J. Select. Areas Commun., vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 281302, Apr. 2003.

Detection step at the receiver:

D. Gesbert, M. Shafi, D. Shiu, P. J. Smith, and A. Naguib, From theory

A. J. Paulraj, D. A. Gore, R. U. Nabar, and H. Boelcskei, An overview

of MIMO communications A key to gigabit wireless, Proc. IEEE,

2
2
Heq is always orthogonal (!), while HH
eq Heq = (|h1,1 | + |h1,2 | ) I2
H
H
zcomb [k] := HH
eq yeq [k] = Heq Heq a[k] + Heq neq [k]
|

{z

=: neq [k]

= (|h1,1|2 + |h1,2|2) a[k] + neq[k]

vol. 92, no. 2, pp. 198218, Feb. 2004.

D. G. Brennan, Linear diversity combining techniques, Proc. IRE,

vol. 47, pp. 10751102, June 1959, Reprint: Proc. IEEE, vol. 91, no. 2,
pp. 331-356, Feb. 2003.

17

S. M. Alamouti, A simple transmit diversity technique for wireless communications, IEEE J. Select. Areas Commun., vol. 16, no. 8, pp. 1451
1458, Oct. 1998.

18

4.2 Books on Multiple-Antenna Systems

Hall, 1985.

V. Tarokh, N. Seshadri, and A. R. Calderbank, Space-time codes for

high data rate wireless communication: Performance criterion and code

Mar. 1998.

B. Vucetic and J. Yuan, Space-Time Coding. John Wiley & Sons, 2003.

V. Tarokh, H. Jafarkhani, and A. R. Calderbank, Space-time block codes

E. G. Larsson and P. Stoica, Space-Time Block Coding for Wireless Communications. John Wiley & Sons, 2003.

from orthogonal designs, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, vol. 45, no. 5, pp.
14561467, July 1999.

and W. Utschick, Eds., Smart Antennas State of the Art.

expectations: The value of spatial diversity in wireless networks, Proc.

Hindawi Publishing Corp., 2004.

G. H. Golub and C. F. van Loan, Matrix Computations, 3rd ed.

J. G. Proakis, Digital Communications, 4th ed.

New York: McGraw-

Hill, 2001.

M. K. Simon and M.-S. Alouini, Digital Communication over Fading

Channels: A Unified Approach to Performance Analysis. John Wiley &
Sons, 2000.

New York:

E. Biglieri and G. Taricco, Transmission and Reception with Multiple

Antennas: Theoretical Foundations.

Balti-

Hanover (MA) - Delft: now Pub-

lishers Inc., 2004.

more - London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.

T. Kaiser, A. Bourdoux, H. Boche, J. R. Fonollosa, J. Bach Andersen,

S. N. Diggavi, N. Al-Dhahir, A. Stamoulis, and A. R. Calderbank, Great

IEEE, vol. 92, no. 2, pp. 219270, Feb. 2004.

A. Paulraj, R. Nabar, and D. Gore, Introduction to Space-Time Wireless

Communications. Cambridge University Press, 2003.

construction, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 744765,

S. Haykin, Ed., Array Signal Processing. Englewood Cliffs (NJ): Prentice-

H. Jafarkhani, Space-Time Coding Theory and Practice.

University Press, 2005.

Cambridge