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EUROPEAN COOPERATION COST 273 TD(05) 063

IN THE FIELD OF SCIENTIFIC Bologna, Italy


AND TECHNICAL RESEARCH 2005/Jan/19-21
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EURO-COST
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SOURCE: MEDAV - TeWiSoft
Germany

System-Oriented Measurement and Analysis of MIMO


Channels

Uwe Trautwein1
Markus Landmann2
Gerd Sommerkorn2
Reiner Thomä2
1
MEDAV - TeWiSoft
Ehrenbergstr. 11, D-98693 Ilmenau, GERMANY
Phone: + 49-3677 668 433
Fax: + 49-3677 668 168
Email: uwe.trautwein@tewisoft.de
2
Ilmenau University of Technology
Institute of Communications and Measurement Engineering

POB 100565, 98684 Ilmenau, GERMANY


Phone: + 49-3677 69 1157
Fax: + 49-3677 69 1113
Email: reiner.thomae@tu-ilmenau.de
System-Oriented Measurement and
Analysis of MIMO Channels
Uwe Trautwein1, Markus Landmann2, Gerd Sommerkorn2, Reiner Thomä2
1
MEDAV – TeWiSoft, Ilmenau, GERMANY, Email: uwe.trautwein@tewisoft.de
2
Ilmenau University of Technology, GERMANY, Email: reiner.thomae@tu-ilmenau.de

Abstract: Realistic modeling of the radio wave propagation is an essential prerequisite for
the evaluation of different concepts for future wireless communication systems. The German
research project WIGWAM is targeted to achieve 1 Gbit/s overall throughput in a bandwidth
of 100 MHz within the 5 GHz band, making the use of MIMO technology mandatory. This
paper presents an overview of several measurement campaigns performed with a RUSK
MIMO channel sounder in 2004 to gather data in representative deployment scenarios for
such a system. High resolution antenna arrays have been used for both the mobile terminal
(MT) side as well as the access point (AP) side. The RIMAX algorithm is applied to jointly
estimate the spatial-temporal parameters of the discrete multipath components for both link
ends, and to identify the contribution of the diffuse scattering. First results of the statistical
analysis of 10 different measurement routes are presented, including distributions of Tx and
Rx azimuth and delay parameters, CDF’s of their respective RMS spreads, the
characterization of their joint properties as well as CDF’s for the parameters of the dense
multipath components.

1 Motivation and Outline


The adoption of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technologies for the air interface of
new wireless communication systems promises to meet the increasing data rate demands of
future applications within a reasonable radio bandwidth [11]. MIMO can provide an increased
spectrum efficiency by exploiting the spatial dimension of the radio wave propagation. For
MIMO techniques, the multipath propagation itself turns into a key component of the trans-
mission system for separating multiple data streams transmitted at the same timeslot at the
same frequency. Thus, MIMO transceivers depend on the joint spatial and temporal multipath
structure at the transmitter (Tx) side as well as the receiver (Rx) side of the radio link. Hence,
it must be accurately modeled. The conceptual considerations for the channel modeling ap-
proach, in particular the joint frequency-spatial-temporal correlation for one user and fur-
thermore for multi-user MIMO channels, involves detailed insights into the physical nature of
propagation [9] This can only be by conceived by performing multidimensional channel
sounding campaigns with a broadband, real-time MIMO channel sounder such as the
MEDAV RUSK MIMO [1][2][7] and subsequent estimation of the spatial-temporal charac-
teristics of the various multipath components by means of a high resolution parameter estima-
tion algorithm such as RIMAX [3][4]. A statistical analysis of these results is the foundation
for the derivation of a stochastic-geometric model. Moreover, the statistical parameters can
serve the purpose of “calibrating” more refined channel models and for deriving a classifica-
tion of propagation environments with the respective parameter settings.

At the beginning of 2004 the German national research project WIGWAM (Wireless Gigabit
With Advanced Multimedia Support) [8] has been launched with the ambitious goal to de-
velop the technological foundations for a new wireless communication system capable to
provide 1 Gbit/s overall throughput. The project is funded by the German Ministry of Educa-

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tion and Research (BMBF) and combines in total 10 partners, among them many big wireless
equipment manufacturers active in Germany. MEDAV and TU Ilmenau contribute to this
project by channel measurements and modelling.

The WIGWAM concept puts high demands on the channel modeling aspects due to the high
system bandwidth and the mandatory commitment to MIMO transmission techniques. The
envisaged radio bandwidth of 100 MHz bandwidth leads to a very high resolution of multi-
path components in the delay domain. Presently there exists no suitable model for such a
bandwidth. It is currently under investigation whether known concepts can be expanded
straightforward, or whether an explicit introduction of a model for the diffuse scattering com-
ponents is required [5].

This paper describes the system-oriented measurement and analysis of MIMO channels in the
sense that the measurement environment, the measurement antennas, and the setup of the
measurement procedure is arranged according to the needs of a specific system and deploy-
ment scenario and the intended use of the measurement data and the derivable models. (See
[10] for a general discussion on this topic.) This should help to bridge the frequently observ-
able gap between the “pure” propagation modeling aspects and the channel modeling needs of
system designers.

The paper is organized as follows: We present a brief introduction into the WIGWAM system
concept and its influence on the measurements. Section 3 summarizes the basic data of the
applied measurement technique. The overview of the measurement environments considered
in this paper is given in Section 4. Section 5 presents details on the multipath parameter esti-
mation procedure by means of the RIMAX algorithm. A complete example of one measure-
ment setup and the respective data analysis in Section 6 familiarizes the reader with the con-
cept and the computational steps leading to the comparative depiction of some statistical
properties of 10 different channel measurements in Section 7.

2 System Aspects
This section summarizes some general information on the system concept that served as the
reference for the specific channel investigations. The main design objective of the WIGWAM
project [8] is to attain the required data rate of 1 GBit/s but at the same time not to exceed the
limits given by the technology that can be expected to be available in 2007, when the project
is finished. Several working groups have been established which are responsible for the sys-
tem concept, the hardware platform, the physical layer, the link layer, and the network layer.

Four different deployment scenarios are envisaged for the WIGWAM system:
• Home Scenario: autonomous self-configuring network
• Office Scenario: fixed network extension
• Public Access Scenario: cellular network extension for hot spots
• High Velocity Scenario: freeway and track information access

Depending on the scenario, different system parameters and also different frequency bands
are under consideration. Presently, it is most actively worked on an air interface for the 5
GHz band. Here, the bandwidth limitations are very tight. In order to achieve 1 GBit/s within
the assumed channel bandwidth of 100 MHz a spectral efficiency of at least 10 bit/s/Hz is
required which can only be reached by using multiple antenna techniques. MIMO-OFDM
schemes are currently the candidates for the physical layer, combined with adaptive coding
and modulation techniques. Currently, up to 4 x 4 MIMO schemes are considered.

3
The presentation in this paper focuses on MIMO channel characterization for the Public Ac-
cess Scenario. Here, the system is aimed to provide high data rate access in urban and hot
spot environments. It covers outdoor environments with a range of up to 500 m and medium
mobility support as well as public indoor hotspots such as railway station or conference hall.
The measurement locations (see Section 4) have been selected correspondingly. A measure-
ment antenna with a horizontal field of view of 120° and a vertical field of view of 60° is well
suited to resemble a potential AP antenna. The mounting sites are likewise realistically cho-
sen, e.g., close to house walls or other suitable constructions and with a good sight on the
scenario. The selected measurement antenna for the MT side provides omni-directional cov-
erage in azimuth and about 90° in elevation.

3 Measurement Technique
Although channel measurement and modeling is a very active field of research, a general lack
of true MIMO, i.e., double directional, measurements had to be stated at the beginning of the
WIGWAM project. The rationale behind the setup of several measurement campaigns in
2004 was therefore to cover representative Public Access scenarios and to use multiple and /
or flexible antenna configurations to allow the data to be used and analyzed for different in-
vestigations. This paper focuses exclusively on the measurements using well-calibrated high
resolution antenna configurations. This is required for the extraction of the directions of arri-
val (Rx side) and the directions of departure (Tx side) of the individual multipath components
by means of a high resolution parameter estimation algorithm.

The following table summarizes information on the measurement parameters:

Channel Sounder RUSK ATM MIMO (Medav) [1][2][7]


Carrier frequency / wavelength 5.2 GHz / λ = 5.77 cm
Measurement bandwidth 120 MHz
Maximum multipath delay 1.6 µs / 3.2 µs chosen according to the environment
Measurement rate chosen according to desired mobile speed and / or
hardware restrictions, 9 ms … 20 ms typ.
Tx/Rx synchronization Rubidium reference
Tx power at the antenna ca. 200 mW
Number of attached Tx/Rx ports maximum 16 Tx / 16 Rx
Access point antenna 8 element uniform linear patch array (8ULA), op-
(Rx side) tionally dual-polarized, coverage ca. 120° sector view
Mobile terminal antenna 16 element uniform circular array (16UCA), omnidi-
(Tx side) rectional coverage
Table 1 Summary of measurement parameters

Figure 1 High resolution measurement antennas: left – 16UCA, right – 8ULA

4
4 Overview of the Measurement Scenarios
The following table lists the locations and some characterization on the 2004 MIMO meas-
urement campaigns. The locations have been selected according to the specifications of a
potential Public Access deployment scenario. The AP antenna array is usually mounted in a
height of ca. 4 m. The AP mount locations are chosen such that it could be easily imagined to
be the site of a system’s AP, e.g., by mounting at a house wall. The MT took either the role of
a pedestrian or was mounted on a car. Results are presented for 10 selected measurement
routes, each labeled by a route designator, which is a small subset of the totally available
measurements.

Location Deployment Route Misc. Information


Designator
Ilmenau City Microcell street 1 street canyon (ca. 10 m width, pedestrian zone)
4 AP loca- square 1 public square into street canyon
tions
street 2 open street into street canyon
square 2 public square traversal, starting from adjacent street
Munich Microcell square 3 large public square
Stachus
Munich Sie- Macrocell tower AP mount height ca. 70 m with 30° down-tilt, i.e., signifi-
mens Tower cantly above surrounding buildings, route on factory prem-
ises,
MT on the roof of a car
Munich Rail- Public indoor hall dimensions 143m x 225m x 17m, heavily equipped with
way Station hotspot metal constructions
station 1 route under NLOS along a train platform
station 2 route across the hall with LOS and partly NLOS
Ilmenau Con- Public indoor lobby concrete/steel/glass construction, route mostly under NLOS,
ference Hall hotspot room dimensions 15m x 30m x 8m
Lobby
Autobahn Freeway in- bridge MT on the roof of a car, AP mount height ca. 8 m with
Bridge formation down-tilt, measured range ca.+80 m … –30 m
access by car

Table 2 Overview of Channel Measurement Scenarios

5 High Resolution Multipath Parameter Estimation


For the characterization of MIMO channels the spatial properties of the radio wave propaga-
tion are especially important. The results presented in this paper are almost exclusively based
on the identification of the parameters of the individual multipath components that can be
observed for each position of the MT along its trajectory. The maximum likelihood parameter
estimation algorithm RIMAX [3][4] is used for this purpose. The data model of the algorithm
includes additionally the estimation of the parameters of the dense multipath components
(DMC).

Data Model

The appropriate data model comprises two components which can be handled separately
throughout the estimation procedure. The first part is deterministic and results from specular-
like reflection. The second part represents the dense multipath components (DMC) which are

5
a consequence of the distributed diffuse scattering and the limited resolution of the measure-
ment system. It typically occurs in complicated, multipath rich environment. This part is ade-
quately modeled by a complex circular normal distribution. Its contribution varies depending
on the complexity of the propagation environment. It can be almost negligible in macrocell
LOS scenarios and can even dominate in complicated propagation environments such as fac-
tory halls. In the discrete angular-delay Doppler domain the specular part is described by a
superposition of K R-dimensional Dirac deltas weighted by a 2x2 complex polarimetric path
weight matrix with its components γ xy, k , where the indices x,y indicate horizontal and vertical
polarization at Tx and Rx resp. The R dimensions are the DoD ϕT , ϑT (azimuth and eleva-
tion), TDoA τ, Doppler-shift α, and DoA ϕ R , ϑR :

γ HH , k γ VH , k 
( ) ( )( )( )
K
H (α , τ , ϕ R , ϑ R , ϕT , ϑT ) = ∑   δ (α − α k ) δ (τ − τ k ) δ ϕ R − ϕ R k δ ϑ R − ϑ R k δ ϕT − ϕT k δ ϑT − ϑT k
k =1 γ HV , k γ VV , k 

(1)

The observable channel response s(θk) in the multidimensional aperture domain is defined by
the limited observation time, finite bandwidth, and finite (effective) antenna apertures. θ k is
the condensed propagation path parameter vector containing 14 real-valued unknowns. We
arrange the sampled channel response in vectors as a(µ k ) = a(µ k( R ) ) ⊗ a(µ k( R−1) ) ⊗ … ⊗ a(µ k(1) ) ,
( )
whereby the a µ k(i ) are complex exponentials resulting from Fourier transform of (1) and the
(i )
µ k are normalized path parameters [3]:

s(θ k ) = γ HH ,k ⋅ G HH ⋅ a(µ k ) + γ HV ,k ⋅ G HV ⋅ a(µ k ) + γ VH ,k ⋅ GVH ⋅ a(µ k ) + γ VV ,k ⋅ GVV ⋅ a(µ k ) (2)

The linear projector matrices Gxy describe the measurement systems response which is com-
posed by the Kronecker product of the frequency, Doppler and spatial responses, respectively.
Resulting from many observations of measured channel responses an exponential decaying
data model was defined to represent the dense multipath components (DMC) in the delay
(correlation) domain ψ (τ ) with its corresponding frequency response Ψ ( f ) [5]. The parame-
ter vector θ dds is composed of the parameters β d , τ d , α1 which are the normalized coherence
bandwidth, base delay and maximum power respectively, see Figure 2. Note that due to the
limited observation bandwidth, a distortion of this response will be observed in the delay do-
main:

 0 τ <τd 
{
ψ x (τ ) = E x(τ )
2
} 
= α1 ⋅ 2 1 
τ = τd  −−−• ψ x(f ) =
α1
βd + j 2 π f
⋅ e − j 2 π fτ d (3)
α ⋅ e − B d (τ −τ d ) τ > τ 
 1 d

6
α1

power delay profile


βd

α0
0 τd time delay
Figure 2 Parameters characterizing the dense multipath components

Maximum Likelihood Parameter Estimation

With the stationary measurement noise n and the dense multipath and specular components d
and s resp. the total observed signal vector x is modeled as follows:
K
x = n + d(θ dds ) + ∑ s(θ k ) = n + d(θ dds ) + s(θ sp ) (4)
k =1

having a conditional probability density of:

1
pdf (x θ sp , θ dds ) =
−(x −s (θ sp ))H R (θ dds )−1⋅(x −s (θ sp ))
e . (5)
π det (R (θ dds ))
M

The related log-likelihood function is:

L(x; θ sp , θ dds ) = − M ⋅ ln (π ) − ln (det (R (θ dds ))) − (x − s(θ sp )) ⋅ R (θ dds ) ⋅ (x − s(θ sp ))


H −1
(6)

Because of the Gaussian nature of the probability density, the maximization of (6) in essence
is a nonlinear least squares problem. Since an exhaustive search in the multidimensional pa-
rameter space is not feasible, we are using an iterative search framework. This procedure pro-
ceeds snapshot by snapshot and takes advantage as much as possible from typical channel
behavior which is known a-priori from propagation physics and from experimental experi-
ence. So the estimated parameter set of every snapshot is taken as the initial estimate for the
next one. The global search for new paths (which has to be carried not only at the beginning
of the sequence but continuously step by step) is carried out by a SAGE-like procedure.
Rather than a random assumption for unknown parameters we use some kind of non-coherent
combining of observations to reduce the parameter dimension. The problem of local search is
completely different. We have found that in case of closely spaced coherent paths the coordi-
nate-wise search strategy of SAGE [6] has serious disadvantages because of its slow conver-
gence rate which is not only time-consuming but may also end in erroneous estimates when
using a quantized parameter data base [4]. On the other hand, it is well known that the ML
function is, under mild restrictions, quadratic at its maximum (in the local “attractor area”).
Therefore a conjugate gradient search promises much better convergence performance when
the parameters are coupled. From the variety of available procedures for nonlinear optimiza-
tion we have decided to use Levenberg-Marquardt because of its robustness. To calculate the
optimum step size and direction for parameter change these algorithms require the gradient,

7
the Jacobian and the Hessian of the log-likelihood function at the actual point in the parame-
ter space. The approximation of the Hessian as its is used in the Gauss-Newton / Levenberg-
Marquardt algorithm is essentially an estimate of the Fisher information matrix (FIM). This
provides us with information on the variance and on the interdependency of the parameter
estimates. The variance estimate helps to evaluate the reliability of the parameters and is used
to accept or drop estimated paths. The two major sources of excessive variance are line split-
ting and noise enhancement.

As a result of the parameter estimation we get a propagation path parameter vector for each
specular component plus one vector containing the parameters of the dense multipath compo-
nents for each measured MIMO channel snapshot. These result vectors are the basis for the
further analysis in this paper, aimed to achieve a better understanding of the wave propaga-
tion in the different scenarios using the model including dense multipath components. An
important parameter about the scenario is the power ratio between all specular components
(Pspecular) and the power of the dense multipath components (PDMC) which is strongly related
to the estimated number of paths.

6 An Introductory Example to the Analysis Results


The purpose of this section is to portray the complete approach to the setup and the analysis
of one specific measurement. We selected “square 1” from Table 2 for this example. The
measurement location is in the city of Ilmenau. The AP antenna array (R2) is positioned in
one corner of a small square (Apothekerbrunnen) with the looking direction diagonally across
the square and into an adjacent pedestrian shopping zone, as depicted in Figure 3. The array is
mounted approx. 6 m above the average surrounding street level and well below the roof tops,
which yields a typical microcellular deployment scenario.

AP R2

50m

R2

16

MT
3

Figure 3 Map and photograph of the presented example scenario “square 1”

8
In the sequel, the measurement results of the route from point 16 to point 3 in Figure 3 are
described, which lies in the continuation of the street to be seen in the photograph. At first,
the MT traverses the square and enters then into an adjacent street. The MT covered a dis-
tance of ca. 70 m in a time of ca. 50 s with walking speed. A total number of ca. 3000 MIMO
channel snapshots have been recorded during this time. On the square dominate line-of-sight
(LOS) conditions, partly the LOS is obstructed by a van parking on the square. As soon as the
MT leaves the square, the LOS disappears completely. This hard transition can be very well
recognized from the time-variant power delay profile depicted in Figure 4.

50
average power [dB]

[s]
0 40

me
30

ti
-20

ent
20

em
-40

sur
10

mea
0
0.2 0.4
0.6
0.8 1
delay [µs]

Figure 4 Normalized magnitude of the time-variant power delay profile for the
selected measurement run, averaged over all measured antenna channels

The first processing step towards the statistical characterization of the spatial-temporal multi-
path propagation is the parameter estimation by means of the RIMAX algorithm. Figure 5
and Figure 6 depict for each of the MIMO snapshots recorded along the measurement run the
following parameters of the identified multipath components: the path delay, the Doppler
frequency, the angle in azimuth at the MT side, the angle in azimuth at the AP side and the
relative path weight in dB, which is coded in the color of the dots.

1 30

-10 -10
20
0.8
Doppler frequency [Hz]

-20 -20
10
0.6 -30
delay [µs]

-30
0
-40 -40
0.4
-10
-50 -50

0.2 -20
-60 -60

0 -30
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 10 20 30 40 50
measurement time [s] measurement time [s]

Figure 5 Parameter estimation results for the selected measurement run – col-
ors depict magnitudes of the path weights in dB (left: delay, right: Doppler)

9
150 150
-10 -10
100
angle in azimuth @MT [deg]

100

angle in azimuth @AP [deg]


-20 -20
50 50
-30 -30
0 0
-40 -40
-50 -50

-50 -50
-100 -100

-60 -60
-150 -150

0 10 20 30 40 50 0 10 20 30 40 50
measurement time [s] measurement time [s]

Figure 6 Parameter estimation results for the selected measurement run – col-
ors depict magnitudes of the path weights (left: angle of departure at the mo-
bile terminal, right: angle of arrival at the access point)

A joint presentation of the multipath parameters can help to identify clusters of multipath
components and can give indications on an eventual coupling of the path parameters. Figure 7
shows as an example the angle in azimuth versus the relative path delay for the selected
measurement run in a scatter plot. It indicates for the very first multipath components a rather
independent distribution with a tendency to smaller angles with increasing delays. For larger
delays, a cluster-like appearance for certain delay/azimuth ranges can be stated.

150
-10
100
angle in azimuth @AP [deg]

-20
50
-30
0
-40
-50
-50
-100
-60
-150

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8


rel. delay [ µs]

Figure 7 Joint representation of the parameter estimation result for the se-
lected measurement run – relative delay vs. angle of arrival at the access point

Clustering effects can effectively be investigated by the inspection of the joint power density
spectra over a limited segment of the measurement routes. Figure 8 shows this presentation
for the relevant signal dimension combinations separately for the LOS and the NLOS part of
the selected measurement run. For the LOS segment it can be observed that for short delays
(ca. 200 ns), the MT and AP azimuth angles arrive via a large sector with two main clusters
that are separable in the MT azimuth but not in the AP azimuth. For larger delays a few dis-
tinct scattering areas can be recognized. For the NLOS segment of the route there are also
some clusters visible, but the cluster areas are close to another. They are especially hard to
distinguish in the joint MT and AP azimuth spectrum, the delay component needs addition-
ally to be considered.

10
-80 -60 -40 -20 -80 -60 -40 -20 -100 -80 -60 -40 -20

0.8 0.8
150

angle in azimuth @MT [deg]


0.6 0.6 100

50
delay [ns]

delay [ns]
0.4 0.4 0

-50
0.2 0.2 -100

-150
0 0
-100 0 100 -100 -50 0 50 100 -100 -50 0 50 100
angle in azimuth @M T [deg] angle in azimuth @AP [deg] angle in azimuth @AP [deg]

-60 -40 -20 -60 -40 -20 -60 -40 -20

0.8 0.8
150

angle in azimuth @MT [deg]


0.6 0.6 100

50
delay [ns]

delay [ns]

0.4 0.4 0

-50
0.2 0.2 -100

-150
0 0
-100 0 100 -100 -50 0 50 100 -100 -50 0 50 100
angle in azimuth @M T [deg] angle in azimuth @AP [deg] angle in azimuth @AP [deg]

Figure 8 Joint power density spectra for the LOS part of the selected meas-
urement run (upper row) and for the NLOS part (lower row). The colors rep-
resent the normalized power in dB in relation to the total discrete multipath
power of the respective segments.

A basic statistical description of the channel characteristics is obtained by computing the cu-
mulative distribution functions (CDF’s) of individual channel parameters. The basis is the
progression of the parameters over a measurement run within a specific environment. The
first analysis item is the delay window duration, which characterizes the total delay time in-
terval with significant multipath components present in the power delay profile. This parame-
ter is important, e.g., for the definition of the guard interval in OFDM systems. The left part
of Figure 9 shows the temporal progression over the measurement time, and the right part the
CDF of this parameter.
800 1

700
0.8
Prob(delay window < Abscissa)

600
delay window [ns]

500
0.6

400

300 0.4

200
0.2
100

0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 200 400 600 800
measurement time [s] delay window [ns]

Figure 9 Estimated delay window duration for the selected measurement run
(left: progression over the measurement time, right: CDF)

The rms delay spread of the channel is a very important basic channel parameter from a sys-
tem design point of view. The progression of this quantity over the measurement run is de-
picted in the left part of Figure 10. Here, the transition from the LOS part of the route into the

11
NLOS part can be clearly identified by the step-like increase at around 20 s. When looking at
the CDF of the rms delay spread in the right part of Figure 10, the presence of a clear distinc-
tion of the two “sub-scenarios” can be identified by a non-monotonic shape of the CDF curve.
1
100

Prob(rms delay spread < Abscissa)


0.8
80
rms delay spread [ns]

0.6
60

0.4
40

20 0.2

0 0
0 10 20 30 40 0 20 40 60 80 100
measurement time [s] rms delay spread [ns]

Figure 10 Estimated rms delay spread for the selected measurement run (left:
progression over the measurement time, right: CDF)

MIMO transmission principles rely on the presence of multipath components distributed over
a preferably large angular sector at the AP and the MT side of a radio link. This characteris-
tics can be grasped by analyzing the rms angular spread of the angles of departure and the
angles of arrival of the individual multipath components. The parameters depicted in Figure 5
are the basis for computing the rms angular spread values depicted in Figure 11 for the MT
side and in Figure 12 for the AP side. For the first 20 seconds, where the MT traverses the
square mostly under LOS, very large spread values for the MT side can be observed, which is
probably a result of wall reflections from the buildings surrounding the square. The transition
into the adjacent street goes along with a smooth decrease in the spread values. Finally, only
small spread values are observed, indicating multipath propagation only along the street to-
wards the square. According to these observations, the CDF of the rms azimuth spread values
rises rather smooth for the selected measurement run.
Prob(rms angular spread in azimuth @MT < Abscissa)

1
rms angular spread in azimuth @MT [deg]

120

0.8
100

80 0.6

60
0.4
40

0.2
20

0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 20 40 60 80 100 120
measurement time [s] rms angular spread in azimuth @M T [deg]

Figure 11 Estimated rms angular spread in azimuth at the MT for the selected
measurement run (left: progression over the measurement time, right: CDF)

The rms angular spread values for the AP side depicted in Figure 12 are smaller than for the
MT side. This can be expected, because the antenna covers only a sector. The change from
the LOS area into the NLOS is likewise to be recognized. For the NLOS part the values are
within rather tight limits, because the multipath components always arrive via propagation
along the street and reflections at certain objects on the square at the AP antenna. The result
of this characteristics is a steep shape of the CDF.

12
Prob(rms angular spread in azimuth @AP < Abscissa)
1
rms angular spread in azimuth @AP [deg]

120

0.8
100

80 0.6

60
0.4
40

0.2
20

0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 20 40 60 80 100 120
measurement time [s] rms angular spread in azimuth @AP [deg]

Figure 12 Estimated rms angular spread in azimuth at the AP for the selected
measurement run (left: progression over the measurement time, right: CDF)

The depiction of the joint probability density functions (PDF’s) of the rms spread values of
the multiple dimension in Figure 13 helps to discover mutual dependencies between the
channel characteristics in the different signal dimensions. We can clearly see a cluster-like
occurrence of certain delay/azimuth ranges plus a rather independently distributed fraction of
the rms angular spread in azimuth at the MT. It is also interesting to see in the middle picture
that there are two clusters with a correlation in the spread values.

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5
rms angular spread in azimuth @MT [deg]

250 250 120

100
200 200
rms delay spread [ns]

rms delay spread [ns]

80
150 150
60
100 100
40

50 50 20

0 0 0
0 50 100 0 20 40 60 80 0 20 40 60 80
rms angular spread in azimuth @M T [deg] rms angular spread in azimuth @AP [deg] rms angular spread in azimuth @AP [deg]

Figure 13 Joint probability densities for rms delay spread, rms angular spread
in azimuth at the AP and at the MT for the selected measurement run (the grey
values represent the probability in %)

Especially the azimuth characteristics depends on the identification of a sufficiently high


number of discrete multipath components. For informative purposes, the CDF for this number
is depicted in the left part of Figure 14. Another important quantity for the evaluation of the
significance of the estimated discrete multipath components is the ratio of the power contrib-
uted by the discrete or specular multipath components to the power of the dense multipath
components. The larger this ratio, the better is the representation of the multipath scenario by
the discrete components. Vice versa, a small ratio indicates, that the propagation situation is
dominated by diffuse scattering and relying on discrete components only for modeling pur-
poses might lead to erroneous results. The CDF of this parameter depicted in the right part of
Figure 14 indicates potentially this situation for 65 % of the cases, where the power of the
specular components is smaller than the power of the dense multipath components.

13
1 1

< Abscissa)
Prob(number of paths < Abscissa)

0.8 0.8

0.6 0.6

DMC
Prob(Power /Power
0.4 0.4

SC
0.2 0.2

0 0
0 10 20 30 40 -10 -5 0 5 10
number of paths Power /Power [dB]
SC DMC

Figure 14 Left: CDF of the number of estimated paths per snapshot for the se-
lected measurement run, right: CDF for the ratio of the power of the specular
components vs. dense multipath components

7 Analysis Results of Selected Measurements


In this section we present a comparative presentation of the characteristic channel properties
introduced by the example in the previous section. This is important in order to classify
propagation environments and to find out the range of the values for typical as well as for
extreme cases. For the delay window as well as for the rms delay spread depicted in Figure
15, extremely large values are observed for the measurements at the railway station. At the
other extreme we find the bridge scenario, were we have always LOS and no significant scat-
terers around. In all cases but the station, the delay window is found to be smaller than ca.
500 ns with 95 % probility, and the rms delay spread smaller than ca. 90 ns.
1 1
Prob(rms delay spread < Abscissa)

0.8 0.8
Prob(delay window < Abscissa)

station 1
station 2
street 1 0.6
0.6
street 2
square 1
0.4 square 2 0.4
square 3
lobby
0.2 0.2
tower
bridge
0
0 0 50 100 150 200 250
0 500 1000 1500
rms delay spread [ns]
delay window [ns]

Figure 15 CDF’s for the estimated delay window (left) and the rms delay
spread (right) for all scenarios

For the rms angular spreads in azimuth at the mobile terminal depicted in the left part of
Figure 16 the smallest spread values are again for the bridge scenario, which is not really sur-
prising. However, the largest values are here observed for the indoor scenario lobby and for
the tower scenario. In both environments reflecting walls are close to MT antenna leading to
multipath propagation into very different directions. The right part of Figure 16 shows in con-
trast the smallest spread values for the tower scenario, where the MT was relatively far away
from the AP, and hence, all paths arrived from a rather small sector. Here, the two station

14
measurements mark the upper bound of the spread values, reflections can arrive from a large
sector via the metallic hall construction.
Prob(rms angular spread in azimuth @MT < Abscissa)

Prob(rms angular spread in azimuth @AP < Abscissa)


1 1

0.8 0.8 station 1


station 2
street 1
0.6 0.6 street 2
square 1
square 2
0.4 0.4
square 3
lobby
0.2 0.2 tower
bridge

0 0
0 50 100 150 0 50 100 150
rms angular spread in azimuth @M T [deg] rms angular spread in azimuth @AP [deg]

Figure 16 CDF’s for the estimated rms angular spreads in azimuth at the mo-
bile terminal (left) and the access point (right) for all scenarios

Figure 17 serves the purpose to illustrate the relative significance of discrete and dense multi-
path components. The path numbers are greatest for the tower scenario which is a very spa-
cious environment with well-separated paths. These discrete paths contribute also to the high-
est power ratio of discrete vs. dense multipath components. The power of the diffuse scatter-
ing around the MT is too weak to reach the AP over the relatively large distance. On the other
hand, the station scenario features an average number of estimated discrete paths and is nev-
ertheless rather poorly represented by the discrete paths only. This can be recognized from the
low values in the right part of Figure 17.
1 1
< Abscissa)
Prob(number of paths < Abscissa)

station 1
0.8 0.8
station 2
street 1
0.6 street 2 0.6
DMC

square 1
Prob(Power /Power

square 2
0.4 square 3 0.4
SC

lobby
tower
0.2 0.2
bridge

0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30
number of paths Power /Power [dB]
SC DMC

Figure 17 CDF’s for the number of estimated paths per snapshot (left) and
CDF’s for the ratio of the power of the specular components vs. dense multi-
path components (right) for all scenarios

In order to keep the presentation clear, we limit the depiction of joint parameter representa-
tions to only 3 selected examples for the current paper. Interesting observations are for in-
stance, that the MT and AP angular spread values for the scenario street 2 are rather inde-
pendent. In contrast, the joint PDF of these parameters shows a clear dependency in the
square 3 scenario. The rms delay spread and the rms angular spread at the AP in the tower
scenario are pretty much focused to a very narrow area, whereas the joint PDF’s where the
rms angular spread at the MT is involved shows a rather wide range of MT rms angular
spread values within a narrow area of the other quantities.

15
0.5 1 1.5 1 2 3 4 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4

rms angular spread in azimuth @MT [deg]


250 250 120

100
200 200
rms delay spread [ns]

rms delay spread [ns]


80
150 150
60
100 100
40

50 50 20

0 0 0
0 50 100 0 20 40 60 80 0 20 40 60 80
rms angular spread in azimuth @M T [deg] rms angular spread in azimuth @AP [deg] rms angular spread in azimuth @AP [deg]

0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 2 4 6 8 1 2 3

rms angular spread in azimuth @MT [deg]


250 250 120

200 100
200
rms delay spread [ns]

rms delay spread [ns]

80
150 150
60
100 100
40

50 50 20

0 0 0
0 50 100 0 20 40 60 80 0 20 40 60 80
rms angular spread in azimuth @M T [deg] rms angular spread in azimuth @AP [deg] rms angular spread in azimuth @AP [deg]

1 2 3 2 4 6 8 10 rms angular spread in azimuth @MT [deg] 2 4 6

250 250 120

100
200 200
rms delay spread [ns]

rms delay spread [ns]

80
150 150
60
100 100
40

50 50 20

0 0 0
0 50 100 0 20 40 60 80 0 20 40 60 80
rms angular spread in azimuth @M T [deg] rms angular spread in azimuth @AP [deg] rms angular spread in azimuth @AP [deg]

Figure 18 Joint probability densities for rms delay spread, rms angular spread
in azimuth at the AP and at the MT for 3 different measurements (the grey
values represent the probability in %)

8 Summary and Outlook


New physical layer concepts need to be verified by using radio channel measurements and/or
channel models validated for the appropriate system deployment scenarios. We have pre-
sented an overview on system-oriented MIMO channel measurements as well as first results
of the statistical analysis.

Much more effort will be necessary for the further evaluation and for drawing conclusions for
a structural channel model and its parameters for the different deployment environments. It is
expected that clustering properties of discrete components, coupling of the parameters in mul-
tiple dimensions and the explicit consideration of the dense multipath components will be
required. Furthermore, the explicit introduction of sub-classes for LOS / NLOS situations for
each of the scenarios seems advisable.

16
Acknowledgement
This work was partly supported by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
within the project Wireless Gigabit with advanced multimedia support (WIGWAM) under
grant 01BU375. A special thanks goes to the colleagues of the following institutions support-
ing the individual measurements: Siemens Communications, Munich, MEDAV GmbH, Ut-
tenreuth, Ilmenau University of Technology, University of Ulm.

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17

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