Performance Evaluation of MIMO-UWB Systems Using Measured Propagation Data and Proposal of Timing Control Scheme in LOS Environments

Masaki TAKANASHI
Toshihiko NISHIMURA
Yasutaka OGAWA
Takeo OHGANE

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications   Vol.E92-B    No.8    pp.2698-2707
Publication Date: 2009/08/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1345
DOI: 10.1587/transcom.E92.B.2698
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: PAPER
Category: Antennas and Propagation
Keyword: 
MIMO-UWB,  LOS (line-of-sight) environment,  frequency-domain equalization,  transmit and receive timing control,  

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Summary: 
Ultrawide-band impulse radio (UWB-IR) technology and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems have attracted interest regarding their use in next-generation high-speed radio communication. We have studied the use of MIMO ultrawide-band (MIMO-UWB) systems to enable higher-speed radio communication. We used frequency-domain equalization based on the minimum mean square error criterion (MMSE-FDE) to reduce intersymbol interference (ISI) and co-channel interference (CCI) in MIMO-UWB systems. Because UWB systems are expected to be used for short-range wireless communication, MIMO-UWB systems will usually operate in line-of-sight (LOS) environments and direct waves will be received at the receiver side. Direct waves have high power and cause high correlations between antennas in such environments. Thus, it is thought that direct waves will adversely affect the performance of spatial filtering and equalization techniques used to enhance signal detection. To examine the feasibility of MIMO-UWB systems, we conducted MIMO-UWB system propagation measurements in LOS environments. From the measurements, we found that the arrival time of direct waves from different transmitting antennas depends on the MIMO configuration. Because we can obtain high power from the direct waves, direct wave reception is critical for maximizing transmission performance. In this paper, we present our measurement results, and propose a way to improve performance using a method of transmit (Tx) and receive (Rx) timing control. We evaluate the bit error rate (BER) performance for this form of timing control using measured channel data.