3D Massive MIMO Channel Modeling With Cluster Based Ray Tracing Method

This paper presents a new technique for channel modeling in the fifth generation (5G) of wireless communication systems. In 5G communications, the bandwidth and channel capacity should be significantly increased against fourth generation (4G) wireless technology while the energy consumption of the network must be reduced. With the severe spectrum shortage in the conventional cellular bands, millimeter wave (mmW) frequencies have been attracting growing attention as a possible candidate for 5G wireless networks. Another key candidate for implementation of 5G systems is massive multiple-input multiple-output (M-MIMO) technology. In a M-MIMO system, the base station (BS) is equipped with tens or hundreds of antennas and simultaneously serves several mobile station (MS) terminals. The corresponding propagation channel should be modeled precisely in M-MIMO systems. In this paper, a new efficient method for 3 dimensional (3D) M-MIMO channel modeling is presented based on the cluster concept and ray tracing (RT) method. Accordingly, by mapping clusters to the propagation environment and applying ray tracing method, the propagation mechanisms are modeled and the channel response is determined. This method can predict the received signal amplitude as well as the other channel parameters such as angle of arrivals (AoAs) and delay of the multipath components (MPCs). This 3D channel model can be applied for both microwave and mmW M-MIMO communication systems.