Capacity and Error Performance of Correlated MIMO Systems Via Virtual Channel Representation

Previous multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) designs optimize either reliability (average error probability) or capacity (average data rate, or ergodic capacity). However, a proper MIMO design ought to consider both of them; Just one of them is not sufficient. In this work, we analyze both capacity and error performance of correlated MIMO system, via a recently proposed channel model, virtual channel representation. We derive the error probability in correlated channels, and establish its relationship with experimental capacity results. The results leads to a good hint that there should be a tradeoff between capacity and error performance in MIMO systems.