Antenna Correlation Under Geometry-Based Stochastic Channel Models

Antenna correlation is an important measure for designing multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antenna systems. A lower antenna correlation indicates a better MIMO performance that can be achieved with the underlying antenna systems. In the antenna design community, it is very common to evaluate the antenna correlation with isotropic or nonisotropic (e.g., Gaussian-distributed) angular power spectrum (APS) as baselines. On the other hand, antenna correlation can also be evaluated via channel transfer function (CTF) under the given propagation channel, e.g., drawn from the bidirectional geometry-based stochastic channel model. In this letter, the analytic forms for the antenna correlation based on the APS and the CTF are derived, respectively, with their similarities and differences explained. Moreover, a numerical example is also given with a standard channel model to support our findings.

I. Introduction

Antenna correlation (also known as envelope correlation if absolute-squared) is widely used as a measure in both the antenna field and the propagation field for multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) communications. It shows how much the received signals at different antenna ports correlate with each other. A lower antenna correlation indicates that a better performance can be expected for MIMO communications.