Cluster Characterization of 3D MIMO Propagation Channel in an Urban Macrocellular Environment in NS2

For the design of MIMO (multiple input multiple output) systems, channel models are required that properly describe the behavior of the physical channel. The propagation environment around a mobile station (MS) and a base station (BS) is a multipath environment. Multipath components can be grouped together into so called clusters. We define a cluster as a group of paths with similar directions of departure or arrival in azimuth and elevation and similar time delay of arrival. A 3D deterministic ray-tracing tool is used to calculate the double-directional MIMO channel. The advantage of deterministic ray-tracing in contrast to measurements is that ray-tracing offers the possibility of detailed characterization of all multipaths and investigation of the propagation effects without any constraint concerning the antenna or the measurement equipment. A new automatic procedure to identify clusters in azimuth, elevation and delay at the transmitter and the receiver from ray-tracing data is presented. Based on the ray-tracing simulations, we propose a new iterative procedure to extract multipath clusters. The extracted parameters show clearly that, in macrocellular environments, the number of MS-clusters is much greater than the number of BS-clusters. The presented cluster characteristics help to parameterize MIMO channel models and to make simulation results more realistic.