Why do you think your paper is highly cited?

An emerging paradigm in wireless communication is multiple-input, multiple output (MIMO) processing.  On paper, after making a few simplifying assumptions, it can be shown that MIMO provides an enhancement in wireless speed unrivaled by any other known techniques to date.  Thus, researchers and developers around the world are working on bringing MIMO to reality.  However, can this overly simplified projection be realized in a real world?  The paper is one of the earliest ones to address this issue.

  Does it describe a new discovery or a new methodology that's useful to others?

It is important to realize how effective MIMO could work in a real world.  Field measurements can be conducted to collect real data.  However, there are obvious drawbacks to field experiments, such as their high costs and their lack of universal applicability.  This paper starts by modeling a wireless communication system using only a small number of parameters.  By varying the parameters, the model can be used to reasonably approximate real-world macro-cell or micro-cell deployments.  The effectiveness of MIMO is analyzed based on the model.  The paper offers intriguing ways to visualize a MIMO channel and identifies key factors that impact upon MIMO performance.

  Could you summarize the significance of your paper in layman's terms?

It leads the readers through a conceptual thought process to theoretically predict how many folds of increase in wireless link speed can be achieved.  It also shows how to analyze the impact due to the geometry of the antenna elements.

  How did you become involved in this research?

During my second year in graduation school I took a course taught by Dr. Jack Salz at UC Berkeley.  He introduced some of the early ideas of MIMO coming out of Bell Labs.  I then spent a summer in Bell Labs working with Dr. Foschini.  I became convinced that MIMO would be the future of wireless communications and continued to study it afterwards.

Da-shan Shiu
Senior Staff Engineer/Manager
Qualcomm Inc.
Campbell, CA,  USA