Movable Antenna Optimization for Multi-User MIMO Systems in Realistic Ray-Traced Propagation Environments

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Zhang, Xiaoyi, Irshad, Amna, Björnson, Emil
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
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_version_ 1866910143773409280
author Zhang, Xiaoyi
Irshad, Amna
Björnson, Emil
author_facet Zhang, Xiaoyi
Irshad, Amna
Björnson, Emil
contents To meet the growing data traffic demand in future wireless systems, novel transmission architectures capable of adapting to complex propagation environments are required. Movable antenna (MA) systems have recently emerged as a promising approach, enabling the physical repositioning of antenna elements to exploit spatial degrees of freedom. However, existing studies largely rely on idealized or simplistic channel models, leaving open the question of whether the performance gains of MA systems persist under realistic propagation conditions. This paper investigates the performance of downlink multi-user MIMO systems with movable antennas using deterministic ray-traced channel models. A simulation framework combining three-dimensional ray tracing and field-response channel modeling is developed, and antenna positions are optimized using particle swarm optimization and genetic algorithms. Simulation results reveal that while simplified distance-based channel models predict large performance disparities between competing array configurations, realistic ray-traced channels significantly compress these differences, indicating that propagation effects dominate over pure array geometry optimization. Nevertheless, movable antenna systems retain strong effectiveness over conventional fixed arrays across different user distributions, array sizes, and multipath conditions, even in geometry-constrained propagation environments.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_17099
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Movable Antenna Optimization for Multi-User MIMO Systems in Realistic Ray-Traced Propagation Environments
Zhang, Xiaoyi
Irshad, Amna
Björnson, Emil
Signal Processing
To meet the growing data traffic demand in future wireless systems, novel transmission architectures capable of adapting to complex propagation environments are required. Movable antenna (MA) systems have recently emerged as a promising approach, enabling the physical repositioning of antenna elements to exploit spatial degrees of freedom. However, existing studies largely rely on idealized or simplistic channel models, leaving open the question of whether the performance gains of MA systems persist under realistic propagation conditions. This paper investigates the performance of downlink multi-user MIMO systems with movable antennas using deterministic ray-traced channel models. A simulation framework combining three-dimensional ray tracing and field-response channel modeling is developed, and antenna positions are optimized using particle swarm optimization and genetic algorithms. Simulation results reveal that while simplified distance-based channel models predict large performance disparities between competing array configurations, realistic ray-traced channels significantly compress these differences, indicating that propagation effects dominate over pure array geometry optimization. Nevertheless, movable antenna systems retain strong effectiveness over conventional fixed arrays across different user distributions, array sizes, and multipath conditions, even in geometry-constrained propagation environments.
title Movable Antenna Optimization for Multi-User MIMO Systems in Realistic Ray-Traced Propagation Environments
topic Signal Processing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.17099