On the Maximal Diversity Order of Spatial Multiplexing with Transmit Antenna Selection

Zhang et. al. recently derived upper and lower bounds on the achievable diversity of an N_R x N_T i.i.d. Rayleigh fading multiple antenna system using transmit antenna selection, spatial multiplexing and a linear receiver structure. For the case of L = 2 transmitting (out of N_T available) antennas the bounds are tight and therefore specify the maximal diversity order. For the general case with L <= min(N_R,N_T) transmitting antennas it was conjectured that the maximal diversity is (N_T-L+1)(N_R-L+1) which coincides with the lower bound. Herein, we prove this conjecture for the zero forcing and zero forcing decision feedback (with optimal detection ordering) receiver structures.