Properties of Measured Massive MIMO Channels using Different Antenna Geometries

Abstract:
With a significant increase in data throughput, massive MIMO has become an enabling technology for fifth generation (5G) wireless mobile communication systems. Evaluating achievable throughputs in massive MIMO propagation environments using actual channel measurements is an important task. In this paper we characterize three measurement scenarios over four key channel parameters in typical urban environments. We show that different antenna geometries result in different dominating channel properties due to angular resolution and diversity, leading to antenna geometries favoring particular scenarios. A good compromise in antenna geometry is the unconventional “L”-structure for separating channels even in near proximity of the basestation. It is shown that the performance for a practical system in a Rician fading environment can be better approximated with the average K-factor and channel order Np