Smart antenna arrays for correlated and imperfectly-estimated Rayleigh fading channels

Eigenbeamforming, herein referred to as maximal-ratio eigen-combining (MREC), was recently proposed as an alternative to maximum average signal-to-noise ratio beamforming (Max-ASNR BF) and maximal-ratio combining (MRC) in antenna array systems. An analysis of MREC is undertaken and an average error probability (AEP) expression is obtained for BPSK modulation and Rayleigh fading when the channel gains may be imperfectly-known and partially correlated. The analysis is further specialized to pilot-symbol-aided channel estimation, to allow an analytical performance assessment of smart antenna arrays (SAAs) employing MREC in realistic scenarios with angle-of-arrival (AOA) dispersion. Numerical results show that MREC may significantly outperform Max-ASNR BF and MRC in imperfect conditions.