Study of Spatial Diversity Schemes in Multiple Antenna Systems

One of the most common problems faced by designers of wireless communication systems is the spatiotemporal variations in the wireless channel which arise mainly due to the phenomenon of multipath fading which is inevitable in scattering environments that are subject to changes over time. A wide variety of pre/post processing techniques have been used to mitigate the degrading effects of such channels, but with limited improvements in performance. This paper provides an evaluation of the concept of Spatial Diversity (SD), applied to multi-antenna systems that demand modifications at the physical level the use of multiple antennas at the transmitter and/or the receiver. The performance of SISO, SIMO, MISO and MIMO systems have been evaluated and compared in AWGN and fading channels.