Mutual coupling effects on the capacity of multielement antenna systems

A study of the capacity of multiple element antenna systems is presented, with particular emphasis on the effect that mutual coupling between the antenna elements has on the capacity. The results presented here show, contrary to some earlier claims, that correlation between different channel coefficients as a function of antenna spacing, can in fact decrease when the mutual coupling effect is accounted for. As a consequence, capacity also improves. A realistic channel model is used to perform simulations to support these claims.