Performance analysis of transmit antenna selection with maximal-ratio combining in MIMO nakagami fading channels

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with multiple antennas at both the transmitter and receiver have drawn considerable attention, since they can improve the channel capacity and reliability of wireless communication systems. However, the deployment of multiple antennas requires the implementation of multiple RF chains that are generally expensive. A promising approach for reducing the implementation complexity, while retaining a reasonably good performance, is to employ some form of antenna selection. To this end, a MIMO scheme combining single transmit antenna selection (TAS) and receiver maximal-ratio combining (MRC), referred to as the TAS/MRC scheme, has been proposed.