Characterizations of Narrowband MIMO Channels

Computational electromagnetics are useful for examining communication link performance in complex propagation environments. In this paper we illustrate how different characterizations of narrowband multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels, including the mutual information, received power, and effective rank, behave as a function of location. Large-scale simulation results are presented for a 7x7 MIMO system operating in an outdoor urban area. We find that the differences between MIMO channels are more visible when the effects of path loss are removed from the calculations.