Aircraft Free-Space MIMO Wireless Communications (Preprint); Conference paper

摘要

In Airborne Networks, because of the high mobility, a communications link is typically available for only a short period of time. Thus it is desirable to communicate at as high a data rate as possible to complete one's information transfer in the available time. High data rate suggests the use of MIMO communications, multiplexing many messages over the link by using multiple antennas at each end of the link. However, communication between aircraft is usually free of scattered propagation (free space propagation), while MIMO performs best in a highly scattered environment. Nevertheless, MIMO is not necessarily ruled out in such a free space environment, providing the radio frequency is high enough, the link distance is short enough, and the antenna arrays are wide enough. We will show how nearly full data rate advantage characteristic of MIMO links can be achieved in the presence of free space propagation by means of typical examples.