Analysis of antenna diversity performance dependence on multi-antenna channel delay spread in reverberation chamber

Reverberation chambers (RC) are cost-effective tools for evaluating Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) Over-The-Air (OTA) communication systems performance. In order to assess their performance, several figures-of-merit (FOM) are made use of, such as diversity gain, which is typically used to present the effectiveness of a diversity antenna system. Nevertheless, scarce publications related to the effect of root mean square (RMS) delay spread on these figures-of-merits can be found in the literature. In this contribution, we present an analysis of the dependence of the effective antenna diversity gain on the RMS delay spread of a wireless channel by means of a multi-antenna OTA communication system using a QPSK modulation inside an RC. For that purpose, several channel RMS delay spread profiles have been achieved inside the RC by varying the amount of absorbing material placed within its cavity.