Performance analysis of MIMO systems with antenna selection over quasi-static fading channels

In this paper, we analyze the performance of multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems with antenna selection over quasi-static fading channels. The basic idea is that, for a given number of receive antennas M, the receiver uses the best L out of the available M antennas, where, typically, L < M. In selecting the best L antennas, we use a pragmatic selection criterion that is optimal in the sense of achieving the maximum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the receiver. Due to the mathematical difficulty in quantifying the impact of this antenna selection on the diversity order and coding gain, we perform the analysis under the assumption that maximizing the SNR leads to maximizing the squared Euclidean distance. For full-rank space-time codes, we believe that this is a valid assumption, especially for the worst case codeword pairs that dominate the performance at high SNR. Under this assumption, we show that the diversity order of the underlying space-time code is maintained, whereas the coding gain deteriorates by a value upper bounded by 10log₁₀ (M/L) dB. We provide semianalytical and simulation results that support our analysis.