Exploiting Constructive Mutual Coupling in P2P MIMO by Analog-Digital Phase Alignment

In this paper, we propose a joint analog-digital (A/D) beamforming scheme for the point-to-point multiple-input-multiple-output system, where we exploit mutual coupling by optimizing the load impedances of the transmit antennas. Contrary to the common conception that mutual coupling strictly harms the system performance, we show that mutual coupling can be beneficial by exploiting the concept of constructive interference. By changing the value of each load impedance for the antenna array based on convex optimization, the mutual coupling effect can be manipulated so that the resulting interference aligns constructively to the useful signal vector. We first prove that the full elimination of mutual coupling effect is not achievable solely by tuning the values of the antenna load impedances. We then introduce the proposed A/D scheme for both PSK and QAM modulations, where performance gains with respect to conventional techniques are obtained. The implementation of the proposed schemes is also discussed, where a lookup table can be built to efficiently apply the calculated load impedances. The numerical results show that the proposed schemes can achieve an improved performance compared to systems with fixed mutual coupling, especially when the antenna spacing is small.