Beneficial impact of channel correlations on MIMO capacity

The potential beneficial impact of channel correlations on the capacity of MIMO systems is investigated. In contrast to most previous work, the present analysis is based on a comprehensive model of the channel correlation structure. It is therefore illustrated that fading cross-correlations may increase the ergodic capacity, sometimes even beyond the supposedly ideal case of independent channels. Starting from considerations on an analytical upper bound of the capacity, the study is then supported by simulation results of the actual ergodic capacity in arbitrary MIMO channels using a simple geometry-based stochastic model.