On the performance of iterative receivers for interfering MIMO-OFDM systems in measured channels

This paper investigates the gains harvested through base station cooperation in the up-link for a multi-user (MU) Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) system, operating in a real indoor environment. The base stations perform joint detection using an iterative receiver that carries out multi-user detection and channel estimation via soft information from the single-user decoders. Performance evaluation is carried out using real channels from an indoor dynamic dual MIMO link measurement campaign. The measured scenario represent a real life situation where two users communicate with two base stations, each with two antennas, in an environment resembling a shopping mall or an airport terminal. System performance is evaluated in terms of both Bit-Error Rate (BER) vs. Signal-to-Interference Ratio (SIR) and Cumulative Distribution Functions (CDF) for the instantaneous BER. Also, the impact of using soft information in the channel estimation is analyzed.