Investigation of the Effect of Fading Correlation on Performance of MIMO Systems Using an RCS Channel Model

In this paper, the effect of receive and transmit antenna correlation on the performance (BER vs. SNR) of MIMO (multiple input multiple output) systems is determined by using an RCS (radar cross section) channel model. In this physical model, the scatterers existing in the propagation environment are modeled by their RCS so that the correlation of the receive signal complex amplitudes, i.e., both magnitude and phase, can be estimated. The proposed RCS channel model is then compared with classical models.