||Jai Sri Gurudev ||

Sri Adichunchanagiri Shikshana Trust®

SJB INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Accredited by NBA & NAAC with ‘A’ Grade
No. 67, BGS Health & Education City, Dr. Vishnuvardhan Road
Kengeri, Bangalore – 560 060

Department of Electronics & Communication

Engineering
Wireless Communication Systems [BEC703]

MODULE – 4: Multiple Input Multiple Output Wireless

Communications Notes (as per Autonomous Syllabus)
7 SEMESTER – B. E

Academic Year: 2025 – 2026 (Odd)

Course Coordinator: Anushree R

Designation: Assistant Professor

Semester: VII Course Type: PCC

Course Title: Wireless Communication Systems

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Wireless Communication Systems Semester 7

Course Code BEC703 CIE Marks 50
Teaching Hours/Week (L:T:P: S) 4:0:0:0 SEE Marks 50
Total Hours of Pedagogy 50 Hours Total Marks 100
Credits 04 Exam Hours 3 Hours
Examination type (SEE) Theory
Course objectives:
 Understand the concepts of signal propagation over wireless channels
 Understand the multiple access techniques used in cellular communications standards.
 Understand the system architecture and layers of LTE based on the use of OFDMA and SC-
FDMA principles.
 Understand the design and coding of MIMO wireless systems .
Teaching-Learning Process (General Instructions)
These are sample Strategies, which teachers can use to accelerate the attainment of the various course
outcomes.
1. Lecture method (L) does not mean only the traditional lecture method, but a different type of teaching
method may be adopted to develop the outcomes.
2. Show Video/animation films to explain the functioning of various modulation techniques, Channel, and
source coding.
3. Encourage collaborative (Group) Learning in the class
4. Ask at least three HOTS (Higher-order Thinking) questions in the class, which promotes critical thinking
5. Adopt Problem Based Learning (PBL), which fosters students’ Analytical skills, develop thinking skills
such as the ability to evaluate, generalize & analyze information rather than simply recall it.
6. Topics will be introduced in multiple representations.
7. Show the different ways to solve the same problem and encourage the students to come up with their own
creative ways to solve them.
8. Discuss how every concept can be applied to the real world - and when that's possible, it helps improve the
students' understanding.
Module-1
Principles of Wireless Communications: The Wireless Communication Environment, Modelling of
wireless systems, System model for narrowband Signals, Rayleigh fading Wireless Channel.
The Wireless Channel: Basics of Wireless Channel Modelling, Average Delay Spread in Outdoor Cellular
Channels, Coherence bandwidth, Relation between ISI and Coherence Bandwidth, Doppler fading, Doppler
Impact on a wireless Channel, Coherence Time.
[Text1: 3.1 to 3.4, 4.1 to 4.7]
Module-2
Code Division for Multiple Access (CDMA): Basic CDMA Mechanism, Fundamentals of CDMA codes,
Spreading Codes based on PN sequences, Correlation Properties of Random CDMA Spreading Sequences,
Advantages of CDMA.
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM): Introduction, Motivation and Multicarrier basics,
OFDM basics, OFDM Example, MIMO OFDM, OFDM Peak to Average Power ratio, SC-FDMA.
[Text1: 5.1 to 5.5, 5.7, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.5, 7.7, 7.8]
Module-3
Evolution of Cellular Technologies: First Generation Cellular Systems, 2G Digital cellular systems – GSM
and its Evolution, 3G Broadband Wireless Systems, Key Enabling Technologies and features of LTE, LTE
Network Architecture.
Frequency Domain Multiple Accesses: Multiple Access for OFDM Systems, Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiple Access, Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access.
[Text2: 1.2.1, [Link], 1.2.2, [Link], 1.2.3 (Only the mentioned sections and subsections), 1.4, 1.5, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3]

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 2

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Module-4
Multiple Input Multiple Output Wireless Communications: Introduction to MIMO Communications,
MIMO system Model, MIMO Zero Forcing Receiver, MIMO MMSE Receiver, Singular Value decomposition of
MIMO Channel, SVD and MIMO capacity, Alamouti and Space-Time Codes, Nonlinear MIMO receiver: V-
Blast, MIMO Beamforming.
[Text1:6.1,6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, 6.8, 6.9, 6.10]
Module-5
Overview and Channel Structure of LTE: Radio Interface Architecture, LTE Design principles, Network
Architecture, Radio Interface Protocols, Hierarchical Structure of LTE: Logical Channels, transport Channels
and Physical Channels, Channel mapping, Downlink OFDMA Radio resources, Physical Resource Blocks for
OFDMA, Uplink SC-FDMA Radio resources.
[Text2: 6.1 to 6.4]
Course outcome (Course Skill Set)

At the end of the course, the student will be able to :

1. Describe the wireless channel models for slow and fast fading environment.
2. Understand the different multiple access technologies used in wireless communications.
3. Understand the system architecture and the functional standard specified in LTE 4G.
4. Describe the of MIMO transmitter and receiver process using coding examples.

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 3

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Assessment Details (both CIE and SEE)

The weightage of Continuous Internal Evaluation (CIE) is 50% and for Semester End Exam (SEE) is
50%. The minimum passing mark for the CIE is 40% of the maximum marks (20 marks out of 50) and for the
SEE minimum passing mark is 35% of the maximum marks (18 out of 50 marks). The student is declared as
a pass in the course if he/she secures a minimum of 40% (40 marks out of 100) in the sum total of the CIE
(Continuous Internal Evaluation) and SEE (Semester End Examination) taken together.

Continuous Internal Evaluation:

 There are 25 marks for the CIE's Assignment component and 25 for the Internal Assessment Test
component.
 Each test shall be conducted for 25 marks. The first test will be administered after 40-50% of the
coverage of the syllabus, and the second test will be administered after 85-90% of the coverage of the
syllabus. The average of the two tests shall be scaled down to 25 marks
 Any two assignment methods mentioned in the 22OB4.2, if an assignment is project-based then only
one assignment for the course shall be planned. The schedule for assignments shall be planned
properly by the course teacher. The teacher should not conduct two assignments at the end of the
semester if two assignments are planned. Each assignment shall be conducted for 25 marks. (If two
assignments are conducted then the sum of the two assignments shall be scaled down to 25 marks)
 The final CIE marks of the course out of 50 will be the sum of the scale-down marks of tests and
assignment/s marks.
Internal Assessment Test question paper is designed to attain the different levels of Bloom’s taxonomy
as per the outcome defined for the course.

Semester-End Examination:
Theory SEE will be conducted by University as per the scheduled timetable, with common question papers for
the course (duration 03 hours).
1. The question paper will have ten questions. Each question is set for 20 marks.
2. There will be 2 questions from each module. Each of the two questions under a module (with a maximum
of 3 sub-questions), should have a mix of topics under that module.
3. The students have to answer 5 full questions, selecting one full question from each module.
4. Marks scored shall be proportionally reduced to 50 marks.
Suggested Learning Resources:
Text Book
1. Aditya K Jagannatham, “Principles of Modern Wireless Communication systems, Theory and Practice ”,
Mc Graw Hill Education (India) Private Limited, 2017, ISBN 978-81- 265-4231-4.
2. Arunabha Ghosh, Jun Zhang, Jeffrey G. Andrews, Rias Muhamed, “Fundamentals of LTE”, Pearson India
Education Services Private Limited, 2018, ISBN: 978-93-530-6239-2.

Reference Books

1. T L Singal, “Wireless Communications”, Mc Graw Hill Education (India) Private Limited, 2016, ISBN:978-0-
07-068178-1
2. Theodore Rappaport, Wireless Communications: Principles and Practice, 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall
Communications Engineering and Emerging Technologies Series, 2002, ISBN 0-13-042232-0.

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 4

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

3. Gary Mullet, Introduction to Wireless Telecommunications Systems and Networks, First Edition, Cengage
Learning India Pvt Ltd., 2006, ISBN - 13: 978-81-315-0559-5.

Web links and Video Lectures (e-Resources):

1. Advanced 3G and 4G wireless Mobile Communications: [Link]

Activity Based Learning (Suggested Activities in Class)/ Practical Based learning

1. Experiential Learning by using free and open source software’s OCTAVE or Python

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 5

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Module-4

Multiple Input Multiple Output Wireless Communications

Introduction to MIMO Wireless Communications:

Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) wireless communications employ multiple antennas

at the transmitter and the receiver and is as shown in the figure below.

Figure: MIMO system schematic

MIMO systems have multiple antennas; they can be employed to increase the reliability of
the signal through diversity combining. This leads to diversity gain and a net decrease in the
bit-error rate of the wireless communication system. MIMO wireless systems is that they
enable a several-fold increase in the data rate of the wireless communication system by
transmitting several information streams in parallel. This is termed spatial multiplexing.

MIMO System Model

Consider a MIMO wireless system with t transmit antennas and r receive antennas. Such a
MIMO system is also termed an r × t system. Letx1, x2, ..., xt denote the t symbols
transmitted from the t transmit antennas in the MIMO system, i.e., xi denotes the symbol
transmitted from the ith transmit antenna 1 ≤ I ≤t. These transmit symbols can be stacked to
form the t-dimensional vector, also termed the transmit vector

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 6

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Corresponding to this transmission, let y1, y2, ..., yt denote the r received symbols across the
r receive antennas in the MIMO systems, which can be stacked as the r- dimensional receive
symbol vector and is as shown in figure below.

Figure: MIMO system input – output schematic

Let the complex coefficient hij represent the fading channel coefficient between the ith
receive antenna and the jth transmit antenna. Thus, there are a net of rt channel coefficients in
this wireless scenario corresponding to all possible combinations of the r receive antennas
and t transmit antennas. These can be arranged in a matrix form as

Where the r × t dimensional matrix H is termed the MIMO channel matrix. Let the additive
noise at the receive antenna I be denoted by ni, i.e., n1, n2, ..., nr denote the additive noise at
the r receive antennas. Thus, the net MIMO input output system model can be represented in
vector form as

This is succinctly represented using matrix notation as

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 7

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Observe that the receive symbol y1 is given as

From which all the symbols x1, x2, ..., xt interfere at y1 received at the receive antenna1.
Similarly, the receive symbol y2 is given as

From which it can be once again seen that x1, x2, ..., xt interfere at y2 received at the receive
antenna2.

In general, true for all the receive antennas, i.e., at each receive antenna i, the receive symbol
yi is a linear of all the transmit symbols x1, x2, ..., xt from the t transmit antennas, observed
in additive noise ni. For the special case of t=1, i.e., single transmit antenna and multiple
receive antennas, this is termed as Single-Input Multiple -Output (SIMO)

Similarly, for the case of one receive antenna, i.e., r=1 and multiple transmit antennas, it is
termed a Multiple-Input Single- Output (MISO) system model or a transmit diversity system.

Finally, for r=t=1, i.e., a single receive and transmit antenna, it reduces to the single-input
single-output (SISO) system, modelled as

The covariance matrix of the noise Rn of the noise vector n defined as

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 8

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

, To denote the transmission and reception across different time instants, one can add the time
index k to the MIMO system model to frame the net model as

Thus, the vectors y(k), x(k), n(k) define the receive, transmit, and noise vectors of the MIMO
wireless communication system at the time instant k.

The channel coefficients are constant over the block of MIMO vectors that are transmitted.
Assume that any two noise samples across two different time instants are uncorrelated, i.e.,E
{ni(k)n∗ j(l)} =0 if k = l. Hence, the noise covariance matrix is given as

where the delta function δ(k−l) = 1 if k = l and 0 otherwise

This noise process, which is uncorrelated across different antennas and time instants is
termed spatio-temporally uncorrelated noise.

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 9

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

MIMO Zero-Forcing (ZF) Receiver

The process to recover the transmitted signal vector x from the received vector y at the
MIMO receiver can be considered by solving the system of linear equations,

Y = Hx

where x1, x2, ..., xt are the t unknowns and there are r equations corresponding to the r
observations y1, y2, ..., yr. Consider a simplistic scenario, where r=t, i.e., the number of
receive antennas is equal to the number of transmit antennas. In this case, the matrix H is
square. Further, if the matrix H is now invertible, the estimate ˆX of the transmit vector x is
still given as

One has more receive antennas than transmit antennas, i.e., r>t. In this scenario, the system

y = Hx is given as

The matrix H has more rows than columns. Such a matrix is popularly known as a tall matrix
due to its structure. In this situation, one cannot exactly solve for x since there are more
equations r than unknowns t.

The vector x which minimizes the estimation error error f(ˆx),

The above error function is also termed the least-squares error function, and the resulting
estimator is termed the least-squares estimator.

The above error function can be expanded as

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 10

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Consider a multidimensional function g(x). The vector derivative of g(x) with respect to x is
defined as

Consider any vector c = [c1,c2, ...,ct]T. Let the function (x) be defined as

Consider the quantity yT y = ||y 2||. We have Consider the component 2xTHTy. This
is in the form of xTc, where c=2HTy. Hence, the derivative of this component with respect to

x is given as

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 11

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

consider the last component xTHTHx. This can be differentiated employing the product rule as

The derivative for the error function f(x) can be simplified as

At the optimal estimate of the transmit vector ˆx where the above error is minimized, we must
have the derivative equal to 0. Using this condition,

Finally, for the case of complex vectors/matrices x, y, H, the transpose in the above
expression can be replaced by the Hermitian operator to yield

The above decoder for the MIMO wireless system to decode the transmitted symbol vector x
from the received symbol vector y is termed the zero-forcing receiver or simply the ZF
receiver. Hence, the zero-forcing decoder can be expressed as

Properties of the Zero-Forcing Receiver Matrix FZF

Consider the matrix product FZFH,

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 12

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Where It denotes the identity matrix of dimension t.

If FZF to be the inverse of H, it must also satisfy the property that HFZF=I. However, we have,

However, if r=t and the matrix H is invertible then the pseudo-inverse is actually equal to the
inverse. This can be seen as follows.

Thus, the pseudo-inverse reduces to the matrix inverse and is unique.

Principle of Orthogonality Interpretation of ZF Receiver

Consider once again the system of equations at the receiver for r>t.

Denoting the column we denote the ith column of the channel

matrix H, the system of equations above can be succinctly represented as

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 13

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Where ˆy is the approximation of y. there are t columns of the channel matrix H, which are
h1, h2, ..., ht.

As shown in figure below the vector y can lie anywhere in the r – dimensional space, and is
unlikely to lie exclusively in the t-dimensional subspace represented by the columns of the
channel.

Figure: Zero - forcing: principle of orthogonality

The error vector e is orthogonal to hi if hH i e=0. Therefore, since e is orthogonal to the

subspace spanned by the columns of H

From which it follows naturally that

The above principle of orthogonality to derive the expression for the zero forcing estimate
ˆxZF of the transmitted symbol vector x. This can be derived by substituting the expressione=
y−HˆxZF

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 14

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Thus, the principle of orthogonality can be conveniently employed to deduce the expression
for the optimal ZF MIMO decoder

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 15

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 16

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

MIMO MMSE Receiver:

The Minimum Mean – Squared Error (MMSE) receiver for the MIMO wireless
communication system is based on Bayesian approach.

If ˆx MMSE denotes the estimated symbol vector, the MMSE receiver minimizes the average
or mean of the squared error

Consider a single – input multiple – output (SIMO) wireless system, i.e., t=1, and generalize
the result to the case of a MIMO system.
Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 17
WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Consider the SIMO system model given as

Where x is a scalar transmitted symbol.

The basic problem can be interpreted as estimating the symbol x given the vector y = [y1,
y2, ..., yr]T.

Let c = [c1, c2, ..., cr] T. One can now define a linear estimator of x as

Such an estimator is termed as a linear estimator, the average mean squared error is defined
as

where the covariance matrix Ryy is defined as Ryy = E {yyH}. Similarly, Ryx= E{yx} = RT xy
and Rxx= E {x2}. The average MSE as a function of the receive beamformer c, denoted by
MSE(c )is given as

The optimal beam former c which minimizes the average or mean squared error can be
obtained by differentiating MSE(c) with respect to c and setting equal to zero as

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 18

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Thus, the optimal LMMSE beam forming vector c is given as c= R−1yyRyx. This is also termed
as optimal Wiener filter. The above can be generalized in the case of complex vectors by
replacing the transpose by the Hermitian operation.

Hence, the MMSE estimate of x is given as

compute the MMSE receiver for the MIMO wireless system. Consider again the MIMO
system model given as

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 19

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Hence, Ryy, the covariance of the receive vector y can be simplified as

where we have used the fact that E {nxH} =E{xnH} =0, the noise at the receiver and transmit
symbols are uncorrelated, in the above simplification. Further, the cross-covariance matrix
Ryx can be simplified as

Thus, the optimal MMSE receiver is given as

Hence, the MMSE estimate ˆx MMSE of the transmit vector x is given as

We have,

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 20

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Thus, the MIMO MMSE receiver

Robustness of MMSE to Noise Amplification

Consider the SISO case for which H=h. The system model is given as

The MMSE estimate of x is given from

Thus, it can be seen that for |h|≈0, the MMSE receive r become

Since it does not lead to division by a quantity close to 0,unlike the ZF, it does not lead to
noise enhancement.

Low and High SNR Properties of the MMSE Receiver

Consider the expression for the MMSE receiver

Employing this approximation in the MMSE receiver

Which is identical to the MIMO zero-forcing receiver. Thus, at high SNR, the MMSE
receiver reduces to the MIMO zero-forcing receiver.

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 21

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

at low SNR, i.e., as Pd / σ2 n →0, the term PdHHH is negligible compared to σ2 n It. Thus, we
have

Employing the above approximation at low SNR, the MMSE receiver can be simplified as

Which reduces to the matched filter, i.e., proportional to HH. Thus, the optimal MMSE
receiver can be approximated as the zero-forcing receiver at high SNR, while at low SNR, it
behaves similar to the matched filter and is as shown in figure below.

Figure: MIMO MMSE receiver: asymptotic behaviour

Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) of the MIMO Channel

Consider the r×t MIMO wireless system,

Y = Hx+n

Let the SVD of the channel matrix H be given as H=UΣVH. Thus, replacing H with its SVD,
the above MIMO system model is given as

At the receiver, multiplying by UH, we have

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 22

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

let the transmit vector x be generated as x=V˜x, where the vector ˜x contains the transmit
symbols. This operation is termed as transmit precoding. Thus, substituting this expression
for x above, we have

The above equivalent system model of the MIMO system after the receive and transmit
processing operations can be explicitly written as

The covariance of the modified noise ˜n can be derived as

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 23

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

The noise ˜n has a covariance proportional to the identity matrix, indicating equal variance,
uncorrelated noise components. Further, the variance of each noise component ˜ni, 1≤i≤t is
equal to σ2 n. Consider now the ith parallel MIMO channel above. This is given as

Hence, the SNR of the system is given as where Pi is the power of the
i data stream xi. The MIMO system can be viewed as a collection of t parallel channels each
th

with noise power σ2nandpowergainσ2i and is as shown in figure below .

Figure MIMO SVD parallel channels

The MIMO system can be thought of as a collection of t parallel data pipes, with capacities

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 24

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Thus, the net MIMO C capacity is given as the sum of the individual capacities

Optimal MIMO Capacity

The optimal MIMO power allocation problem is given by

Denoting the Lagrange multiplier by λ, the Lagrangian cost function for the
above optimization problem can be formulated as

To find the Lagrange multiplier λ, which can be found from the constraint equation as

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 25

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

The above optimal power allocation is also termed water filling.

Consider a vessel with t bars and the height of the ith bar equal to σ2 n/ σ2 I . If water is poured
into this vessel to the level 1/ λ then the level of water at the ith bar is ( 1/ λ− σ2 n/ σ2 I )+. This
is as shown in Figure below

Figure: MIMO water – filling capacity

 The power allocated is proportional to the singular value, i.e., larger the σi, larger is
the power allocated.
 Due to the nature of water filling, weak channels with low σi are not allocated any
power.

The water filling equation is nonlinear due to the x+ function. It can be solved iteratively as
follows. Set N=t initially. Assume 1/ λ−σ2 n/ σ2 i for 1≤i≤[Link] the equation

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 26

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 27

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

It can be seen that the channel matrix H has 3 non zero singular values. Hence, the rank of the
channel matrix is [Link] channel capacity C in terms of the powers P1, P2, P3 assigned to the
different channel singular modes is given as

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 28

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Asymptotic MIMO Capacity:

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 29

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Let the transmit covariance matrix Rx=E {x(k) xH(k)} The capacity of the MIMO channel, for
a general transmit covariance matrix Rx is given as

Where the notation |A| above denotes the determinant of the matrix A.

Consider now equal power allocation, i.e., transmit covariance given as Rx=Pt/ t I, where the
transmit power Pt is equally allocated to all the t transmit antennas.

Let us look at a special scenario of t>>r, corresponding to a much larger number of transmit
than receive antennas. Substituting the value of Rx=Pt/ t I, the above MIMO capacity C
reduces to

HHH can be simplified as

Considering a rich scattering environment, they consist of uncorrelated random flat-fading

channel coefficients.

The quantities hH i hj, for i ≠ j can be approximated as

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 30

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Since the elements hik and hjk are uncorrelated. Hence, the matrix HHHfor t>>r, can be
approximated as

Therefore, the asymptotic MIMO capacity Ca is given as

Consider Ir+Pt /σ2 n Ir, which can be written as

The asymptotic capacity can, therefore, also be written as

Alamouti and Space-Time Codes

A 1×2 system, i.e., for a system with r=1 receive antenna and t=2 transmit antennas. This is
an example of a MISO system, which is a special case of the MIMO system. Let the 1×2
channel matrix be denoted by [h1, h2], where h1, h2 denote the channel coefficients between

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 31

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

transmit antennas 1,2 and the single receive antenna respectively. Hence, the system model
can be represented as

Where x1, x2 are the symbols transmitted from the two transmit antennas and n denotes the
additive white Gaussian noise at the receiver.

Consider another possible mode of transmission, which is termed beamforming. Consider

now a symbol x which is transmitted as follows.

Let x1 be generated as h∗ 1/|| h|| x and similarly, x2 be generated as x2 = h∗ 2 / ||h|| x. Here, h

denotes the norm of vector h and is defined as

This is termed transmit beam forming,i.e., transmitting the symbol x in the direction given by
the vector

Substituting the above expression for the beam formed symbol

The SNR for the above system is, therefore, given as

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 32

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Alamouti Code: Procedure

The Alamouti code is a space-time code proposed for a 1×2 MISO system. Alamouti-code
achieves a diversity order of 2without CSI at the transmitter.

Consider two symbols x1, x2. In an Alamouti-coded system, in the first transmit instant, the
symbol x1is transmitted from the transmit antenna1, while x2 is transmitted from the transmit
[Link], the transmit symbol vector in the first-time instant is given as

The received symbol y(1) at the receiver corresponding to this transmission is given as

In the second time instant, the symbol −x∗ 2 is transmitted from the first transmit antenna,
while x∗ 1 is transmitted from the second transmit antenna.

Therefore, the transmit symbol vector in the second time instant is given as

The received symbol y(2) can be expressed as

Consider the conjugate of y(2) at the receiver, for the above equation

The combined system model for the first and second time instants in the Alamouti code as

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 33

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Thus, both the symbols have been stacked which effectively converts the Alamouti coded
system into a 2×2 MIMO system, with the channel matrix

Consider the columns c1, c2 of the channel matrix given as

Therefore, columns c1, c2 are orthogonal.

Consider now beam forming using the vector w1 defined in terms of c1as

Employing this as a receive beam former to derive the processed symbol as

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 34

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Further, since w1 is a unit-norm vector, ˜n1=wH1n is Gaussian noise with variance σ2 n.

Therefore, the SNR at the receiver is given as

where ||h||2 = |h1|2+|h2|2. Similarly, to decode x2, the beam former w2 is given as

Thus, the SNR of the decoded streams of the Alamouti code is ||h||2 / σ2 n P1, ||h||2 / σ2 n P2,
where P1, P2 are the power allocated to x1, x2 respectively.

Hence, the net output SNR of each stream is

Thus, the absence of CSI results in a loss of 3 dB in output SNR corresponding to this factor
of 1/2. Also, the orthogonality of the columns c1, c2 of the effective channel matrix is a key
property of the Alamouticode. Hence, the Alamouti code is also termed an Orthogonal Space
Time Block Code (OSTBC). The term space- time refers to the fact that the Alamouti code
involves two symbols x1, x2 which are transmitted over two antennas over two instants of
time. Therefore, the symbols are coded across both the space and time dimensions, leading to
the name "space-time" code. This is as shown in figure below.

Figure: Alamouti orthogonal space-time block code

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 35

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 36

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Another OSTBC Example

Consider OSTBC for a 1×3, i.e., a system with 1 receive and 3 transmit antennas. Consider
the channel matrix [ ℎ1 ℎ2 ℎ3 ] corresponding to this 1×3 system. Consider the
transmission of 4 symbols x1, x2, x3, x4 over the wireless channel. The corresponding coded
block for the OSTBC is given as

Each column in the above code block gives the three symbols transmitted over each of the 3
transmit antennas. The four symbols, i.e., x1, x2, x3, x4 are being transmitted over a total of 8
time instants. Consider the first received symbols y(1). This can be expressed as

Further, the second received symbol y(2) is given as

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 37

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Thus, proceeding similarly, the received symbols y(1), y(2), y(3), y(4) and the complex
conjugates of the symbols y(5), y(6), y(7), y(8) can be stacked to obtain the effective system
model

Therefore, the effective channel matrix H represents an equivalent 8×4 MIMO system. The
different columns of H are orthogonal. Consider the cH 1 c2 corresponding to columns c1, c2 .
This can be simplified as

Hence, the columns are orthogonal. Therefore, this is an example of an R=1/ 2 OSTBC, i.e.,
orthogonal space-time block code.

Nonlinear MIMO Receiver: V-BLAST

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 38

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

The zero-forcing (ZF) and minimum mean squared error (MMSE) receivers, which are linear
MIMO receivers. The first nonlinear MIMO receiver, termed V-BLAST, short for Vertical
Bell Labs Layered Space-Time receiver. V-BLAST employs Successive Interference
Cancellation (SIC) in which the impact of each estimated symbol is cancelled prior to the
detection of the next symbol.

Consider the MIMO system model given as

The vectors h1, h2, ..., ht correspond to the t columns of the channel matrix H. Consider the
left-inverse or pseudo-inverse of the channel matrix Q, matrix be denoted by the t×r matrix
Q, i.e., QH = Ir.

Where qH1 ,qH2 , ...,qHt denote the t rows of the matrix Q. Therefore, QH = It can be written as

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 39

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Thus, ˜y1 can now be employed to decode x1. Now, the interference caused by x1 is removed
from y to formˇy2 as

The above system model can now be seen to correspond to a reduced MIMO system with
channel matrix H(2) of r rows and t−[Link], it represents an r × (t−1) MIMO system,
with x2, x3, ..., xt denoting the t−1 transmit symbols. Now, consider Q(2) as the zero-forcing
receiver for H(2)

The advantage of this scheme is that the diversity order and the associated diversity gain
progressively increases as we proceed through the scheme for decoding the different transmit
symbols x1 through xt.
Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 40
WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 41

WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS BEC703

Question bank:

1. Given a r*t MIMO system with the channel matrix H, x and a received noisy output
vector n compute the zero-forcing (ZF) receiver matrix y and subsequently determine
the estimated transmitted symbol vector X ꞈ . Show your calculations for the inverse
operation. (Hint: MIMO Zero-Forcing (ZF) Receiver Calculation) (L3, PO1, CO2)
2. Compute the MIMO zero-forcing receiver for the channel matrix H given as
2 3
H= 1 3
4 2
3. For an r * t MIMO system, given the system model {y} = Hx + n show that MMSE
receiver can be approximated to zero forcing receiver at high SNR and matched filter at low
SNR. (Hint: MIMO MMSE Receiver Derivation) (L3, PO1, CO2)

4. Apply the water-filling algorithm to calculate the optimal power allocation for each spatial
stream and determine the resulting MIMO channel capacity. (Hint: MIMO Capacity and
Optimal Power Allocation (Water-Filling)) (L3, PO1, CO2)

5. For a 1*2 MISO wireless system with channel coefficients h1 and h2 and symbols x1 and x2
to be transmitted, illustrate the complete transmit procedure for the Alamouti code over two
time instants. Then, demonstrate how the receiver processes the two received symbols y(1)
and y(2) to decode x1 and x2, including the effective channel matrix and the orthogonality
property of its columns. (Hint: Alamouti Code Transmit and Receive Processing) (L3, PO1,
CO2)

6. Given a 3* 2 MIMO system with the channel matrix H and a received vector y,
demonstrate the step-by-step procedure of the V-BLAST successive interference cancellation
(SIC) receiver to decode the transmitted symbols. Assume symbols are decoded in the order
x1 then x2 and clearly show how the interference from previously decoded symbols is
removed. (Hint: V-BLAST Receiver Procedure) (L3, PO1, CO2)

Note: Refer to the problems which are solved in class and in notes.

Dept. of ECE, SJBIT Page 42