Near-Field Magnetic Induction MIMO Communication Using Heterogeneous Multipole Loop Antenna Array for Higher Data Rate Transmission

In this paper, we propose a novel method realizing multi-input–multi-output (MIMO) transmission in near-field magnetic induction (NFMI) communication for increasing channel capacity where limited capacity is a major bottleneck problem in magnetic communication systems. Since conventional magnetic communication systems using the same antenna patterns cannot easily implement MIMO transmission due to strong crosstalk between transmitters, we propose heterogeneous antenna arrays with multipole antennas, enabling crosstalk cancellation. We confirm the crosstalk cancellation of the proposed antenna array through numerical simulations and experiments, and verify the capacity enhancement of the proposed NFMI communication system over conventional NFMI communication schemes.