How does MIMO operate during wireless transmission?

MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) employs several transmit and receive antennas so that multiple independent spatial streams traverse different RF paths created by multipath reflection. The simultaneous streams boost aggregate throughput (spatial multiplexing) and, when combined or selected, raise link robustness (diversity gain), all without requiring extra channel bandwidth.

B. Frequency hopping (FHSS) is an obsolete spread-spectrum technique and is unrelated to MIMO’s spatial streams.

C. Sharing a single connection among endpoints is media-access sharing, not the multi-antenna parallelism of MIMO.

D. Using one antenna negates the “multiple” aspect of MIMO and would lower, not raise, reliability.

1. Cisco Systems, “802.11n: The Next Generation of Wi-Fi,” p.4-5, section “Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO).”

2. IEEE Std 802.11-2020, cl. 17.3.10.5 “Spatial multiplexing.”