Dual polarization MIMO in LMS broadcasting systems: Possible benefits and challenges

The benefits of employing dual polarization in wireless multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication systems are only recently becoming apparent due to the continuous measurement and modeling efforts by the terrestrial research community. Land mobile satellite (LMS) broadcasting systems exhibit distinct channel, system and geometrical characteristics and are subjected to stringent spatial limitations compared to terrestrial wireless. Therefore, it remains to be investigated which operating conditions favor the joint instead of the independent encoding/decoding over the two polarizations of satellite beams. After outlining the relevant progress made in wireless dual polarization MIMO systems, the present work carries out a thorough comparison between the joint and independent encoding/decoding approaches in typical single-satellite LMS systems exploiting state-of-the-art building blocks. This comparative analysis investigates both the capacity and error performance under a fair framework between systems occupying the same resources. Since the same analytical tools are used for both terrestrial and satellite dual polarization systems, the present paper may also serve as an analytical bridge between the two. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.