Indoor MIMO Channel Measurement and Modeling

Forming accurate models of the multiple input multiple output (MIMO) channel is essential both for simulation as well as understanding of the basic properties of the channel. This paper investigates different known models using measurements obtained with a 16x32 MIMO channel sounder for the 5.8GHz band. The measurements were carried out in various indoor scenarios including both temporal and spatial aspects of channel changes. The models considered include the so-called Kronecker model, a model proposed by Weichselberger et. al., and a model involving the full covariance matrix, the most accurate model for Gaussian channels. For each of the environments different sizes of both the transmitter and receiver antenna arrays are investigated, 2x2 up to 16x32. Generally it was found that in terms of capacity cumulative distribution functions (CDFs) all models fit well for small array sizes, but none of them are good for large arrays. Additionally, some results on stationarity of the channel are presented.