Optimized Behaviour of MIMO System under Different Equalization Techniques and Modulation Schemes over Rayleigh and Rician Fading Channels

Wireless communications using Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) links has emerged as one of the most significant breakthroughs in modern communications because of the huge capacity and reliability gains promised even in worst fading environment. This paper presents the optimized behaviour of MIMO systems over Rayleigh and Rician Fading channel environments. MIMO transmission systems are investigated in terms of Bit Error Rate (BER) performance. BER performance of MIMO systems is simulated for different transmit-receiver combinations such as 2×2, 2×3 and 2×4 using BPSK and QPSK modulation schemes and various equalization techniques such as Zero Forcing (ZF), Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) and Maximum Likelihood (ML). Results show that the BER performance of a MIMO system using BPSK modulation and ML equalizer over Rician fading channel is optimum compared to the choice of other modulation schemes, equalizers and fading channels. Keywords— MIMO, ZF, MMSE and ML equalizers, Multiple antennas, fading channels, BPSK, QPSK, BER.