The use of Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems has renovated wireless communications systems offering significant capacity increases over traditional wireless systems, by exploiting the phenomenon of multipath when using multiple antennas at both transmitter and receiver ends of a communications system. MIMO has been incorporated in several wireless systems, including Wi-Fi, WiMAX, Long Term Evolution (LTE), and is recommended for many next generation communication standards such as LTE-Advanced and International Mobile Telecommunications-Advanced (IMT-Advanced), promising high data rates and good reliability in multipath environments.
For this reason, NewFasant is working to improve the design flow for MIMO systems and make it easier for engineers to optimize their MIMO designs. The MIMO module in the electromagnetic simulation tool NewFasant can be used to design and characterize MIMO antenna systems and to analyze real environments by means of two different simulators. The first one is a 3D ray tracing propagation model which is based on the Geometrical Theory of Diffraction and Uniform Theory of Diffraction, and the second one is based on the Method of Moments. The MIMO module allows the computation of multiple propagation paths and field levels over a number of receiving antennas due to different order effects configured by the user. Realistic indoor and outdoor scenarios can be modelled (generated or imported by the user) and simulated considering multiple layers with different material properties for each surface.
The working frequency range, signal to noise ratio, transmitting and receiving antennas and type of the effects to be considered (transmission, reflection, diffraction, creeping waves) can be easily configured in the graphical interactive interface. The main parameters that are calculated in a MIMO simulation are the ray-tracing diagram, the channel capacity in bps/Hz, the channel matrix, the correlation matrix and dynamic results (translation and/or rotation of transmitting or receiving antennas). MIMO results can be used to extract general statistical characteristics and parameterize statistical models for different types of environments, without the need to carry out large and costly measurement campaigns.
MIMO techniques can be applied in different areas, such as Automotive industry, Aerospatiale industry, Telecommunications, Military applications, etc.
