  The impact of spatial correlation on the performance limits of multielement
antenna (MEA) channels is analyzed in terms of the diversity-multiplexing
tradeoff (DMT) at finite signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) values. A lower bound on
the outage probability is first derived. Using this bound accurate finite-SNR
estimate of the DMT is then derived. This estimate allows to gain insight on
the impact of spatial correlation on the DMT at finite SNR. As expected, the
DMT is severely degraded as the spatial correlation increases. Moreover, using
asymptotic analysis, we show that our framework encompasses well-known results
concerning the asymptotic behavior of the DMT.
