A correlation-based MIMO performance model for the system level analysis on MAC layer

IMT-Advanced systems are currently in their evaluation phase. Due to the complexity of all the integrated algorithms and the multidimensional variability of the wireless channels a system evaluation is not easy and only very few large enterprises have the manpower to construct software to simulate all relevant effects. Traditionally the effects of channel and physical layer algorithms have been studied with bit-level algorithms on a single link. So are most of the results for MIMO processing. System level studies - on the other hand - take cellular layouts, multiple cells and users, real traffic and OSI layers 2 and above into account. They are able to deliver spectral efficiency results. There is a huge gap between these approaches. In order for system level models to give results within reasonable time there must be an abstraction of lower layer details. In this paper a simplified MIMO performance model is presented which can calculate the resource capacity in O(M) and has one parameter which allows to adjust the MIMO capability of a link. The model is then applied to the numeric evaluation of LTE in IMT-Advanced scenarios.