Guest editorial: Virtual MIMO

Abstract

The articles in this special issue focus on the technology and applications supported by virtual multiple antennas, or VMIMOs. The impetus for this has been spurred by the strong desire to understand VMIMO, which is a rapidly growing research area. VMIMO is believed to be a key technology for beyond 4th generation mobile communications technologies (B4G). It enables one to make use of all the neighboring terminals and amortize the cost of multiple antennas; hence, a large MIMO channel can be created to increase capacity significantly as well as improve error rate performance. Nevertheless, fundamental roadblocks need to be addressed in order to take full advantage of VMIMO. © 2013 IEEE.