MIMO-OFDM performance in relation to wideband channel properties

In this paper, the sensitivity of the error rate performance of MIMO-OFDM-based practical systems (WiMAX and LTE) to wideband channel properties is investigated. The behavior of the wideband channel is characterized in terms of delay spread (DS) and angular spread (AS). The impacts of DS and AS on the system performance are addressed with both qualitative and quantitative analyses. Two channel models are used for the quantitative analysis. The simulation results exemplify that a larger DS can result in lower error rate of OFDM systems, while a larger AS results in a lower error rate of MIMO systems. It is also observed that the DS sensitivity is higher in the region of low DS, which implies a more stringent accuracy requirement of DS prediction for radio planning.