Measurement and Modeling of 3-Dimensional
Radio Channels with Cross-Polarizations in a
Gymnasium
Zhimeng Zhong
1
, Ruonan Zhang
2
, Kaijun Ren
2
, Kun Wang
2
, Bin Li
2
, and Xiaomei Zhang
1
1
Wireless Network Research Department, Huawei Technologies Ltd., Shanghai, China, zhongzhimeng@huawei.com
2
Communication Engineering Department, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China, rzhang@nwpu.edu.cn
Abstract—Directional beamforming can increase network ca-
pacity significantly with spatial multiplexing, especially for the
hot spots such as airport, shopping malls, and stadiums. Accurate
characterization and models of the spatial propagation in these
indoor environments are required. In this paper, a 3-dimensional
channel measurement campaign in a large gymnasium is pre-
sented. A wideband sounder equipped with two dual-polarized
crossed linear arrays was used and the transceivers were placed
at different positions on the stands. The azimuth and elevation
power spectrum and root-mean-square angular spread of arrival
(ASA/ESA) of the multipath components were measured. The
normal and lognormal distribution models are proposed for the
angular power spectra and angular spreads, respectively. Finally
it is demonstrated that the angular spreads have no tendency
with respect to the transceiver positions. The channel charac-
terization can support the design of the directional transmission
technologies for spatial multiplexing in indoor hot-spot scenarios.
Index Terms—indoor wireless channel, propagation measure-
ment, angular power spectrum, angular spread.
I. INTRODUCTION
The indoor hot spots, such as airports, shopping malls,
and stadiums, are one of the main scenarios that cellular
networks are expected to support. A feature of this kind of
scenarios is that a large amount of user equipments (UEs) are
densely located, which poses a great demand for the network
bandwith, coverage, and capacity. The spatial sectorization
and beamforming can significantly improve the service pro-
visioning by directional transmission/reception and spatial-
domain multiplexing. For example, by using antenna arrays
with a large number of active antenna elements (AEEs), the
full-dimensional multiple-input-multiple-output (FD-MIMO)
can form multiple narrow beams and extend spatial separation
to the elevation dimension as well as the azimuth dimen-
sion [1]. The 3-D beamforming and sectorization provide a
flexible and high-capacity architecture for the indoor hot spots.
Since the performance of beamforming is determined by both
the active antenna arrays and the signal spatial propagation
in radio channels, the 3-D propagation characterization and
channel models are critical for the spectral reuse and MIMO
enhancement technologies.
In order to simulate and evaluate the 3-D beamform-
ing and FD-MIMO, a 3-D channel model is needed which
includes modeling in both the vertical and horizontal di-
mensions [2], [3]. The important parameters include az-
imuth/elevation angle-of-arrival (AoA/EoA) and root-mean-
square (RMS) azimuth/elevation spread of arrival (ASA/ESA)
of the multipath components (MPCs). The AoA and EoA
distributions describe the probabilities of the incident angles
of MPCs, while ASA and ESA are the second-moments of the
angular power spectra (APSs) in the two dimensions. There-
fore, ASA and ESA concern not only the arrival directions but
also power of the MPCs. The parameters are critical spatial
properties and play important roles in the signal reception by
UE and eNodeB (eNB) antennas in the multipath channels.
WINNER II, WINNER+, and COST 2100 have developed
the 3-D channel models for various scenarios including the
indoor environments. In [4], channel measurements at 60 GHz
band were conducted in a large modern shopping mall.
The authors performed measurement and modeling on the
elevation-domain indoor channels at 2.6 GHz in the typical
hall and corridor environments in a modern office building [5].
In [6], a radio channel measurement campaign was carried
out in a two-story lobby at 10.1 GHz by using 9 × 324 dual-
polarized virtual antenna arrays. However, the 3-D channel
models for indoor hot spots are still limited due to the lack
of measurement data.
Furthermore, how the spatial channel properties change
for different polarizations in an indoor environment is also
of interest. For example, do the propagation paths change
considerably for different polarizations in the 3-D space? Does
polarization make significant impact on the angular spreads?
Therefore, polarized measurements in typical indoor hot-spot
scenarios are needed.
In this paper, we focus on the measurement and modeling
of the angular power spectra and spreads in both the azimuth
and elevation dimensions with cross polarizations. The main
contributions of this paper are two-fold.
First, a 3-D single-input-multiple-output (SIMO) channel
measurement campaign was carried out by the joint effort
of Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) and Huawei
Technologies Ltd. in the gymnasium of NPU. The multipath
propagation in both the elevation and azimuth dimensions with
±45
◦
polarizations was measured by using a high-resolution
3-D channel sounder. Both the transmitter (Tx) and receiver
(Rx) were equipped with a horizontal and a vertical dual-
polarized linear antenna arrays (LAAs). The receiver (Rx) was
installed at the top of a stand to emulate an eNB, while the
2017 11th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP)
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