Diversity–Multiplexing Tradeoff in Multiple-Access Channels

In a point-to-point wireless fading channel, multiple transmit and receive antennas can be used to improve the reliability of reception (diversity gain) or increase the rate of communication for a fixed reliability level (multiplexing gain). In a multiple-access situation, multiple receive antennas can also be used to spatially separate signals from different users (multiple-access gain). Recent work has characterized the fundamental tradeoff between diversity and multiplexing gains in the point-to-point scenario. In this paper, we extend the results to a multiple-access fading channel. Our results characterize the fundamental tradeoff between the three types of gain and provide insights on the capabilities of multiple antennas in a network context.