A non-stationary channel model for 5G massive MIMO systems

We propose a novel channel model for massive multiple-input multiple-out (MIMO) communication systems that incorporate the spherical wave-front assumption and non-stationary properties of clusters on both the array and time axes. Because of the large dimension of the antenna array in massive MIMO systems, the spherical wave-front is assumed to characterize near-field effects resulting in angle of arrival (AoA) shifts and Doppler frequency variations on the antenna array. Additionally, a novel visibility region method is proposed to capture the non-stationary properties of clusters at the receiver side. Combined with the birth-death process, a novel cluster evolution algorithm is proposed. The impacts of cluster evolution and the spherical wave-front assumption on the statistical properties of the channel model are investigated. Meanwhile, corresponding to the theoretical model, a simulation model with a finite number of rays that capture channel characteristics as accurately as possible is proposed. Finally, numerical analysis shows that our proposed non-stationary channel model is effective in capturing the characteristics of a massive MIMO channel.