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The second-order statistics of indoor directional channels are investigated using millimeter-wave (mmWave) band (30.4–37.1 GHz) ultrawideband (UWB) channel measurements. Considering two main mmWave system assumptions (high bandwidth and high beamforming gain), this paper aims to investigate the validity of the Rayleigh–Rice fading models for the cluster fading envelope. The results from the mmWave band study are compared to an already well-studied lower frequency FCC band (3.4–10.1 GHz). During the measurements, only selective objects (emulated multipath clusters in the propagation channel) are illuminated in a small lecture room. The experiments show that for both UWB channels, the complex received (Rx) signal is a circularly symmetric non-Gaussian random variable with highly correlated inphase (I) and quadrature (Q) components. These properties demonstrate that the intracluster multipath components (MPCs) structure is sparse. Consequently, modeling the cluster fading envelope with Rayleigh–Rice distribution is not realistic. Therefore, the sum-of-cisoids principle is used for intracluster multipath modeling which inherently considers a correlation between I and Q components. It has been established that a reasonably good approximation of the cluster fading envelope can be obtained with $N=3-6$ equal amplitude cisoids. However, we remark that Rayleigh–Rice models may become realistic cluster fading envelopes for narrowband mmWave systems.

Hybrid, mixed analogue/digital beam-forming architectures are a central research topic for the development of mm-wave communication for fifth generation. Most approaches are based on phase shifters in the analogue part, which are inherently narrowband. In this study, the authors evaluate the effects and performance of narrowband beam-steering on wideband signals using two different modelling approaches: spatial-narrowband model, in which the inter-antenna element delays are neglected, and spatial-wideband model, in which the inter-antenna element delays are considered. They show that neglecting the spatial-wideband effects on channel models overestimates the focusing of beam-forming, the expected delay spread reduction, and achievable data-rate with an increasing number of antennas and bandwidth. These effects are quantised by simulations using a realistic ray-tracing scenario at 60 GHz.

In this paper, impact of antenna directivity and bandwidth on the small scale fading statistics have been analyzed for millimeter-wave (mmWave) radio channels. For this purpose, small-scale fading measurements at the mmWave frequency band (58-62 GHz) are carried out using transmit and receive antennas with different antenna directivities (emulated beamforming gains). Measurements emulate a non line-of-sight scenario when the communication between transmit and receive antennas is possible only through a single multipath cluster. In order to compare results, measurements in a line-of-sight scenario with omni-directional antennas are also carried out for reference purpose. Considering two main mmWave system features i.e., high antenna directivity and higher system bandwidth, we report the following results: 1) Randomness/fading in the received signal magnitude vanishes with an increase in bandwidth. 2) The channel impulse response h (t, τ) does not remain a wide-sense stationary (WSS) random process in the slow-time domain i.e., along t, where, the fast-time domain refers to the dimension along τ. 3) Measured channels are WSS in the frequency domain and the coherence bandwidth increases when propagation channels are illuminated with high gain antennas.

Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) channels exhibit unique properties due to the highly dynamic environment and low elevation of the antennas at both ends of the link. Of particular importance for the behavior of V2V channels, and consequent reliability of the communication link, is the severity and dynamics of blockage of both the line-of-sight and other multipath components (MPCs). The characteristics of blockage become more important as the carrier frequency increases, and the ability of the signal to penetrate through objects diminishes. To characterize the effects of vehicle blockage, we performed V2V channel measurements in four different frequency bands (6.75, 30, 60, and 73 GHz) in urban and highway scenarios. We analyzed the impact of the blocker size and position on the received power and fast fading parameters, as well as the frequency dependence of these parameters under blockage. Our results show that there is a strong influence of the size of the blocking vehicle on the blockage loss and the angular/delay spread. The position of the blocker relative to the transmitter and receiver also plays an important role. On the other hand, the frequency dependence is quite limited, with the blockage loss increasing slightly and the number of scattered MPCs reducing slightly as frequency increases. The main conclusion of this paper is that V2V communication will be possible in high (millimeter-wave) frequencies, even in the case of blockage by other vehicles.

Development of a comprehensive channel propagation model for high-fidelity design and deployment of wireless communication networks necessitates an exhaustive measurement campaign in a variety of operating environments and with different configuration settings. As the campaign is time-consuming and expensive, the effort is typically shared by multiple organizations, inevitably with their own channel-sounder architectures and processing methods. Without proper benchmarking, it cannot be discerned whether observed differences in the measurements are actually due to the varying environments or to discrepancies between the channel sounders themselves. The simplest approach for benchmarking is to transport participant channel sounders to a common environment, collect data, and compare results. Because this is rarely feasible, this paper proposes an alternative methodology – which is both practical and reliable – based on a mathematical system model to represent the channel sounder. The model parameters correspond to the hardware features specific to each system, characterized through precision, in situ calibration to ensure accurate representation; to ensure fair comparison, the model is applied to a ground-truth channel response that is identical for all systems. Five worldwide organizations participated in the cross-validation of their systems through the proposed methodology. Channel sounder descriptions, calibration procedures, and processing methods are provided for each organization as well as results and comparisons for 20 ground-truth channel responses.

This contribution presents propagation measurements at 60 GHz in indoor non-line of sight scenarios. Besides analysing the measurements, the authors have considered several system aspects, such as bandwidth and directivity in order to investigate the small-scale behaviour of the radio channel after beam-forming. The results show that due to the high resolution in the angular and time domain achievable by large antenna arrays and wideband signals, the fading is significantly reduced and the equivalent transmission channel becomes more sparse and deterministic. These insights represent an essential source of information for future systems design and the ongoing channel modelling activities for systems operating at mm-waves.

This paper presents 70–77 GHz wideband channel characteristics of delay, spatial, and polarimetric domains for small office and entrance hall scenarios. Based on measured multidimensional power spectra of delay, and directions (i.e., azimuth and elevation) of departure and of arrival, multipath clusters were detected using the K-means, threshold-based, and Gaussian-mixture-model clustering algorithms. The spatial positions and directions of clusters, including the first- and last-hop scatterers, are determined using a measurement-based ray tracer method. Our experimental analysis reveals that the composite and cluster-level channel behaviors are considerably dependent on the geometry of environments, the interaction/bouncing order between a wave and objects, the position of transmitter and receiver, the underlying antenna type, and the polarimetric combination. The angular spread of arrival is observed larger than that of departure, and the characteristics for the horizontal polarization are comparable with those for vertical polarization. Our results also manifest the merits of threshold-based clustering algorithm in terms of clusters’ compactness, separation, and exclusiveness. We further find that the identified interaction points exhibit excellent agreement with real physical objects existing in the environment. Based on these results, an indoor stochastic channel model is established not only for the composite parameters and cluster characteristics, but also for the first- and last-hop scatterers’ position, direction, and their dispersive statistics. This model can be used to generate channel realizations of reasonable spatial consistency.

The World Radiocommunication Conference 2015 (WRC-15) identified a number of frequency bands between 24 and 86 GHz as candidate frequencies for future cellular networks. In this article, an extensive review of propagation characteristics and challenges related to the use of millimeter wave (mm-wave) in future wireless systems is presented. Reference to existing path-loss models including atmospheric and material attenuation in recommendations of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland, is given, and the need for new multidimensional models and measurements is identified. A description of state-of-the-art mm-wave channel sounders for single and multiple antenna measurements is followed by a discussion of the most recent deterministic, semideterministic, and stochastic propagation and channel models. Finally, standardization issues are outlined with recommendations for future research.

Our goal is to identify if limited channel-state information is sufficient to mitigate interferences between the stations of a wireless mobile backhaul network, which is especially of great importance if the network employs full-duplex operation or terrestrial and satellite links sharing the same spectrum. We analyze and compare the signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio of plain beam steering and zero-forcing beam steering for a millimeter-wave backhaul network with limited channel-state information where only the positions of the stations are known, while buildings and other possible sources of multipath components are unknown. Numerical analyses based on raytracing in a realistic urban scenario reveal that zero-forcing beam steering outperforms plain beam steering by about 12 dB. Furthermore, we compare the steering approaches to block diagonalization with full channel-state information as a reference. For situations with low signal-to-noise ratio as in wide-band communications, zero-forcing beam steering can achieve a similar signal-to-noise-and-interference ratio to block diagonalization. We conclude that knowing the positions of wireless backhaul stations obviates the need for expensive channel estimation.

The use of large-size antenna arrays to implement pencil-beam forming techniques is becoming a key asset to cope with the very high throughput density requirements and high path-loss of future millimeter-wave (mm-wave) gigabit-wireless applications. Suboptimal beamforming (BF) strategies based on search over discrete set of beams (steering vectors) are proposed and implemented in present standards and applications. The potential of fully adaptive advanced BF strategies that will become possible in the future, thanks to the availability of accurate localization and powerful distributed computing, is evaluated in this paper through system simulation. After validation and calibration against mm-wave directional indoor channel measurements, a 3-D ray tracing model is used as a propagation-prediction engine to evaluate performance in a number of simple, reference cases. Ray tracing itself, however, is proposed and evaluated as a real-time prediction tool to assist future BF techniques.

Frequency bands above 6 GHz are being considered for future 5G wireless systems because of the larger bandwidth availability and of the smaller wavelength, which can ease the implementation of high-throughput massive MIMO schemes. However, great challenges are around the corner at each implementation level, including the achievement of a thorough multi-dimensional characterization of the mm-wave radio channel, which represents the base for the realization of reliable and high-performance radio interfaces and system architectures. The main properties of the indoor radio channel at 70 GHz, including angular and temporal dispersion as well as an assessment of the major interaction mechanisms, are investigated in this study by means of UWB directional measurements and ray tracing simulations in a reference, small-indoor office environment.

According to the current prospect of allocating next generation wireless systems in the underutilized millimeter frequency bands, a thorough characterization of mm-wave propagation represents a pressing necessity. In this work, an “item level” characterization of radiowave propagation at 70 GHz is carried out. The scattering properties of several, different objects commonly present in indoor environment are investigated by means of measurements carried out in an anechoic chamber. The measured data have been also exploited to tune some parameters of a 3D ray tracing model.