Measurement-Based Massive MIMO Channel Characterization in Lobby Environment at 11 GHz

Abstract

In this paper, a massive MIMO channel measurement campaign is conducted at 11 GHz in an indoor lobby environment. The measurements use two types of 256-element virtual uniform rectangular arrays (URAs), i.e., the 4×64 virtual URA and the 64×4 virtual URA. The channel characterization is presented by investigating the typical channel parameters, including average power delay profile (APDP), K factor, root mean square (RMS) delay spread, and coherence bandwidth. Moreover, the channel characteristics in angular domain are investigated by applying the space-alternating generalized expectation-maximization algorithm (SAGE). The extracted MPCs are preliminarily clustered by visual inspection, and related to the interacting objects (IO) in physical environment. To evaluate the directional dispersion at the base station (BS) side, direction spread of departure is estimated based on the SAGE estimates. The results in this paper can help to reveal the propagation mechanisms in massive MIMO channels, and provide a foundation for the design and application of the practical massive MIMO system.