New compound upper bound on MIMO channel capacity

Abstract

MIMO channel capacity may be severely degraded due to correlation between individual sub-channels of the matrix channel. Several models, which are limited to some specific scenarios, have been developed to date to account for this effect. In this letter, we derive a new upper bound on the mean (ergodic) MIMO capacity, which is not limited to a particular scenario and accounts for both transmit (Tx) and receive (Rx) end correlations in such a way that their impact can be estimated separately and compared. Thus, a conclusion can be made as to which end contributes more to capacity reduction. In general, the higher correlated end has a dominant effect on the capacity.