On the Reliability of Space Modulation Techniques

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems leverage channel fading properties to enhance system reliability, among other properties. As such, emerging standards demand that systems provide a minimum error performance at a minimum latency. Channel reliability on its own however is not sufficient to achieve overall system reliability (and availability) where the hardware involved needs to be analyzed as well. To address this, recent literature has analyzed the reliability and availability of existing MIMO implementations like space modulation techniques (SMTs). Moreover, recent literature has introduced new implementations like hybrid SMTs (HSMTs) that are known to offer better system availability than existing SMTs. However, what remains unclear, is how the reliability of SMTs and HSMTs compare to each other. In this paper, a comparative study between the reliability of HSMTs and SMTs is performed. It is revealed that although HSMTs offer better availability by design, HSMT reliability is not always better than its SMT counterparts.