Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN) technologies play a central role in large-scale wireless sensor network (WSN) deployments, where energy efficiency, coverage and reliability dominate over throughput. Among them, Long Range (LoRa) technology has emerged as a widely adopted physical-layer solution due to its ability to operate at extremely low signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). While multi-antenna techniques can potentially enhance link performance, their applicability in LoRa-type systems is constrained by low-SNR operation, strict energy budgets and the quality of channel state information (CSI). This paper presents a systematic and progressively structured evaluation of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques in LoRa-type systems under representative operating conditions. A multi-stage simulation framework, implemented using the Vienna SLS v2.0 (Q3) simulator and adapted to LoRa-like waveforms, is employed to isolate the impact of large-scale propagation, small-scale fading, antenna configuration and CSI quality. The analysis starts from a system-level coverage baseline and advances to link-level evaluations of diversity-oriented MIMO schemes and spatial multiplexing configurations under both ideal and imperfect CSI. The results demonstrate that spatial diversity techniques are well aligned with the operational characteristics of LoRa links, offering robust performance in low-SNR regimes and under limited CSI accuracy. In contrast, spatial multiplexing exhibits higher sensitivity to channel estimation errors, with its practical benefits becoming apparent primarily when evaluated using throughput-oriented metrics such as packet error rate and normalized goodput. Overall, the study highlights the fundamental trade-off between reliability and capacity in LoRa MIMO systems and provides design-oriented insights for wireless sensor network deployments.

In recent years, the scientific community has increasingly focused on state-of-the-art techniques, such as MIMO and mmWave transmission, aimed at enhancing the performance of telecommunication channels both quantitatively and qualitatively through various approaches. These efforts often rely on channel models designed to more accurately represent real-world conditions, thereby ensuring that the results are objective and practically applicable. In the present study, we employ one of the most scientifically reliable system- level simulators, Vienna SLS Simulator, to evaluate the performance of a wireless channel that we configure based on the latest standards (3GPP TR 36.873). We take into account the well-known non-symmetrical behavior of mMIMOs, where m stands for microwave MIMOs, in wireless communication systems and analyze the resulting changes in key performance metrics including average cell throughput, average user spectral efficiency and signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). We vary specific parameters such as transmission power, antenna polarization, ratio of indoor to outdoor users, and others with the aim of validating or challenging existing scientific assumptions. Particular attention is given to studying how variations in the aforementioned factors affect channel geometry and spatial uniformity, emphasizing the role of antenna geometry, polarization and user distribution in shaping channel asymmetries in mmWave MU-MIMO systems. Overall, this study provides insights into designing more balanced and efficient wireless systems in realistic urban environments.

This paper investigates the performance of cooperative multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems under practical operating impairments, with particular emphasis on imperfect channel state information (CSI) and relay decoding errors. Although Decode-and-Forward (DF) relaying can provide diversity gains under ideal assumptions, these gains may significantly degrade in practical wireless environments affected by channel uncertainty. The analysis demonstrates that imperfect CSI introduces residual interference, leading to SINR saturation and BER error floors in the high-SNR regime. In cooperative systems, this degradation becomes more severe due to relay error propagation, where erroneously detected relay symbols introduce additional structured interference at the destination. Consequently, cooperative transmission may underperform direct MIMO communication within specific SNR operating regimes. To characterize this behavior, the concept of a harmful cooperation region is introduced, describing the operating regime in which the combined effects of CSI uncertainty and relay decoding errors render cooperation detrimental. To mitigate these limitations, a reliability-aware relay activation mechanism is proposed, enabling selective relay participation according to channel quality. By suppressing unreliable relay transmissions, the proposed approach significantly reduces error propagation and improves BER performance, particularly in the medium-to-high SNR regime. In addition, the impact of antenna scaling is investigated. The results reveal a robustness transition in which larger MIMO configurations exhibit improved resilience to CSI imperfections due to increased spatial diversity and improved channel conditioning. Overall, the findings demonstrate that cooperative transmission under imperfect CSI is inherently SNR-dependent and that robust system design requires the joint consideration of channel uncertainty, relay reliability, and system dimension.

Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) diversity techniques are widely employed to improve communication reliability in wireless systems; however, their energy-efficiency benefits under realistic propagation and hardware constraints remain insufficiently understood. This paper investigates the energy–reliability trade-off in MIMO diversity systems by jointly considering distance-dependent path loss, spatial correlation, retransmission effects and implementation-related energy costs. Representative diversity configurations, including Single-Input Single-Output (SISO) (1 × 1), Single-Input Multiple-Output (SIMO) (1 × 2) and Alamouti-based schemes (2 × 1 and 2 × 2), are evaluated across varying transmission distances and operating Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) conditions. The results reveal a strongly operating-regime-dependent and non-monotonic relationship between diversity order and energy efficiency. Higher-order diversity is beneficial mainly in intermediate regimes, where reducing retransmissions can outweigh the additional implementation energy cost. Under favorable propagation conditions, however, implementation overhead dominates and lower-complexity configurations are more energy efficient. Conversely, under severely degraded conditions, all schemes enter a reliability-limited regime in which additional diversity provides diminishing energy returns. Furthermore, comparison with conventional Independent and Identically Distributed (i.i.d.) Rayleigh fading shows that simplified channel models systematically overestimate the achievable energy benefits of diversity techniques. The analysis identifies distinct operating regimes governing diversity-related energy efficiency and highlights the combined influence of propagation characteristics, reliability requirements, and hardware constraints. Overall, the results demonstrate that diversity is advantageous only under specific operating conditions, emphasizing the importance of operating-point-aware antenna configuration in practical wireless systems.