Mutual Information and Error Probability of Dual-Polarized Systems

In this communication, we address the potential benefits of dual-polarized arrays in 2 times 2 MIMO systems. We start with a new and simple analytical model of dual-polarized Rayleigh and Ricean fading channels, which relies on a limited number of physical parameters, such as the spatial correlations, the co-polar gain imbalance and the cross-polar discrimination. Then, we investigate the multiplexing advantage of dual-polarized transmissions through the evaluation of the ergodic mutual information. Finally, the performance of two space-time coding schemes (Alamouti O-STBC and uncoded spatial multiplexing) is evaluated via a detailed analysis of the pairwise error probability.