Closed-Form SER and Capacity Expressions for Receive Antenna Selection Using Orthogonal Space-Time Block Codes

In multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, antenna selection where only a subset of antennas at the transmitter and/or receiver are activated for signal transmission is a practical technique for the realization of diversity benefits. Despite extensive research, closed-form symbol-error-rate (SER) and capacity expressions for MIMO systems employing receive antenna selection (RAS) and orthogonal space-time block codes (OSTBCs) are not available. We thus derive exact closed-form expressions for the SER and capacity of an OSTBC MIMO system when N receive antennas out of total L_r antennas are selected at the receiver. Our expressions are valid for a frequency-flat Rayleigh fading MIMO channel and avoid numerical integration methods.