Boosting MIMO Systems Performance in Urban Cellular Networks.

This work presents solutions to enhance the performance of urban cellular networks based on Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems. First, some adjustments to the Base Stations (BSs) are proposed and evaluated, namely the reorientation of the antennas and two new placements of the BSs, while maintaining or even diminishing the number of required BSs. Afterwards, a cooperative wireless system is combined with a relay selection scheme, also proposed here, and its performance is assessed; this scheme allows to exploit the MIMO spatial multiplexing gain in a distributed and simple manner. This study is performed for a realistic urban environment, i.e., using a simulator that incorporates realistic underlying models (test environment, mobility and radio propagation models), and it is envisioned for market available technology, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) and Bluetooth. The simulation results show that not only all the proposed placements of the BSs present a superior performance with respect to the traditional placement, but also the relay selection scheme, when incorporated in the cooperative system, can be a valid approach to increase the MIMO channel capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]