A model to calculate the capacity distribution of correlated MIMO channels and interferers

The use of multi-antenna arrays has been predicted to provide substantial throughput gains for wireless communication systems. However, these predictions have to be assessed in realistic situations, such as correlated channels and in the presence of interference. We present a model which provides expressions for the average and the variance of the distribution of the mutual information of multi-antenna systems with arbitrary correlations and interferers. This model, even though it is based on analytic calculations in the limit of large antenna numbers, produces extremely accurate results, even for small arrays. We use this model to optimize over the input signal covariance with channel covariance feedback and thus to calculate closed-loop capacities We analyze in detail two specific examples and also compare simulations to establish its validity. This method provides a simple tool to analyze the statistics of throughput for arrays of any size.