Simulation based comparison of metrics and measurement methodologies for OTA test of MIMO terminals

The definition of Over-The-Air (OTA) measurement methodology and metrics for commercial performance test and certification of MIMO terminals is presently subject of intense discussion. Highly complex test setups with multiple probes in an anchoic chamber but also more conventional single or dual probe test setups have been proposed. But the impact of the selected test setup on performance results that would be obtained for terminals with different types of MIMO antenna systems is widely unknown. This paper reports about about the delopment of a simulation tool for comparing different spatial OTA measurement setups among each other and against established channel models. Focus is on the influence of the number and geometrical arrangement of probes on throughput statistics observed for different MIMO antenna patterns. Initial results for a few simplified measurement setups are reported.