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Article

An In-Depth Statistical Analysis of the TARC Parameter to Evaluate the Real Impact of Random Phases in MIMO Antennas

by
Angel Perez-Miguel
1,
Hildeberto Jardon-Aguilar
1,
Jose Alfredo Tirado-Mendez
2,*,
Ricardo Gomez-Villanueva
1,
Ruben Flores-Leal
1 and
Erik Fritz-Andrade
3
1
Telecommunications Section, CINVESTAV-IPN, Av IPN 2508, San Pedro Zacatenco, Mexico City 07360, Mexico
2
Electrical Engineering Department, SEPI-ESIME-Zacatenco, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Av IPN S/N, Edif. 5, Mexico City 07360, Mexico
3
Asociación de Normalización y Certificación (ANCE), Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas 869, Nueva Industrial Vallejo, Mexico City 07700, Mexico
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sensors 2025, 25(13), 4171; https://doi.org/10.3390/s25134171 (registering DOI)
Submission received: 2 June 2025 / Revised: 27 June 2025 / Accepted: 2 July 2025 / Published: 4 July 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Intelligent Massive-MIMO Systems and Wireless Communications)

Abstract

A detailed statistical analysis of the total active reflection coefficient (TARC) is carried out in this paper for three 4-port MIMO antennas featuring different levels of isolation across its ports. This analysis is very useful to determine the most likely performance of a MIMO antenna in a real communications scenario. The TARC parameter is commonly evaluated for only several combinations of the random phase with which a signal reaches every input port of a MIMO antenna. By contrast, we have evaluated a million combinations to obtain the probability density function of the TARC, using frequency as its parameter. In this way, an expected value of the TARC is obtained for each frequency, as well as a confidence interval (ΔCITARC) where the TARC values occur with 90% probability. Additionally, we have introduced the term “TARC shadow”, a visual representation of the TARC as a function of the frequency where the probability function is projected into this 2D graphic with different colors to identify the most likely values of the TARC. To demonstrate these concepts, a full TARC evaluation was performed for three 4-port MIMO antennas with increasing isolation of 12.9 dB, 25.4 dB, and 37 dB between elements, and different values of the Snn and Snm parameters, with n and m= 1 to 4. From this study, the importance of the isolation among ports and its comparison with the return losses becomes evident in achieving a MIMO antenna array insensitive to random phase variations occurring in the communication channel.
Keywords: total active reflection coefficient; MIMO antenna array; PIFA antenna; envelope correlation coefficient; capacity loss; MIMO communication; low mutual coupling; random TARC; high MIMO efficiency total active reflection coefficient; MIMO antenna array; PIFA antenna; envelope correlation coefficient; capacity loss; MIMO communication; low mutual coupling; random TARC; high MIMO efficiency

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MDPI and ACS Style

Perez-Miguel, A.; Jardon-Aguilar, H.; Tirado-Mendez, J.A.; Gomez-Villanueva, R.; Flores-Leal, R.; Fritz-Andrade, E. An In-Depth Statistical Analysis of the TARC Parameter to Evaluate the Real Impact of Random Phases in MIMO Antennas. Sensors 2025, 25, 4171. https://doi.org/10.3390/s25134171

AMA Style

Perez-Miguel A, Jardon-Aguilar H, Tirado-Mendez JA, Gomez-Villanueva R, Flores-Leal R, Fritz-Andrade E. An In-Depth Statistical Analysis of the TARC Parameter to Evaluate the Real Impact of Random Phases in MIMO Antennas. Sensors. 2025; 25(13):4171. https://doi.org/10.3390/s25134171

Chicago/Turabian Style

Perez-Miguel, Angel, Hildeberto Jardon-Aguilar, Jose Alfredo Tirado-Mendez, Ricardo Gomez-Villanueva, Ruben Flores-Leal, and Erik Fritz-Andrade. 2025. "An In-Depth Statistical Analysis of the TARC Parameter to Evaluate the Real Impact of Random Phases in MIMO Antennas" Sensors 25, no. 13: 4171. https://doi.org/10.3390/s25134171

APA Style

Perez-Miguel, A., Jardon-Aguilar, H., Tirado-Mendez, J. A., Gomez-Villanueva, R., Flores-Leal, R., & Fritz-Andrade, E. (2025). An In-Depth Statistical Analysis of the TARC Parameter to Evaluate the Real Impact of Random Phases in MIMO Antennas. Sensors, 25(13), 4171. https://doi.org/10.3390/s25134171

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