On Media-based Modulation using RF Mirrors

Abstract: Media-based modulation (MBM) is a recently proposed modulation scheme which uses radio frequency (RF) mirrors at the transmit antenna(s) in order to create different channel fade realizations based on their ON/OFF status. These complex fade realizations constitute the modulation alphabet. MBM has the advantage of increased spectral efficiency and performance. In this paper, we investigate the performance of some physical layer techniques when applied to MBM. Particularly, we study the performance of $i)$ MBM with generalized spatial modulation (GSM), $ii)$ MBM with mirror activation pattern (MAP) selection based on an Euclidean distance (ED) based metric, and $iii)$ MBM with feedback based phase compensation and constellation rotation. Our results show that, for the same spectral efficiency, GSM-MBM can achieve better performance compared to MIMO-MBM. Also, it is found that MBM with ED-based MAP selection results in improved bit error performance, and that phase compensation and MBM constellation rotation increases the ED between the MBM constellation points and improves the performance significantly. We also analyze the diversity orders achieved by the ED-based MAP selection scheme and the phase compensation and constellation rotation (PC-CR) scheme. The diversity orders predicted by the analysis are validated through simulations.