MIMO Link Modeling for System Level Simulations

MIMO (multiple input - multiple output) systems apply multiple antennas to increase signal to noise ratio (SNR), reduce interference and/or send multiple streams simultaneously over a single channel. Besides increasing the data rate of the physical layer (PHY), benefits can be achieved with cross-layer optimization approach exploiting the layered structure of the channel. In this paper we focus on MIMO schemes with multiplexing and/or diversity gain and present a link model for system level simulations. The model maps total SNR to achievable link level throughput, both per spatial subchannel and cumulative. The model can be combined with an arbitrary coding and modulation scheme and is abstract enough to be applied to any system protocol, fulfilling the given conditions about channel propagation characteristics