OTA measurements of wireless stations in reverberation chamber versus anechoic chamber: from accuracy models to testing of MIMO systems

The paper will describe the fundamental characteristics of different wave propagation environments (such as Rayleigh fading, Rice fading, and polarization balance; coherence bandwidth and time delay spread; and fading speed, coherence time and Doppler spread), and relate these characteristics to the Line-Of-Sight (LOS) emulated by good anechoic chambers, and the rich isotropic multipath environment emulated by good reverberation chambers. The conclusion is that the reverberation chambers mean the same to Over-The-Air (OTA) testing of antennas for use in multipath environments as anechoic chambers do to antennas for free-space-like environments. They enable a unique, objective and repeatable antenna characterization that cannot be achieved in other environments. Thereby, the reverberation chambers and anechoic chambers complement each other perfectly.