Better than Rician: Modelling millimetre wave channels as Two-Wave with Diffuse Power

TL;DR

This paper provides experimental evidence that the two-wave with diffuse power (TWDP) fading model better explains millimetre wave channels than the Rician model, especially in reflecting or misaligned scenarios, based on indoor measurements.

Contribution

It presents the first experimental validation of TWDP fading in millimetre wave channels through extensive indoor measurements and statistical analysis.

Findings

TWDP fading is favored over Rician in reflecting or misaligned scenarios.

Experimental validation of TWDP in frequency, space, and time domains.

Demonstrates the importance of considering TWDP for millimetre wave channel modeling.

Abstract

This contribution provides experimental evidence for the two-wave with diffuse power (TWDP) fading model. We have conducted two indoor millimetre wave measurement campaigns with directive horn antennas at both link ends. One horn antenna is mounted in a corner of our laboratory, while the other is steerable and scans azimuth and elevation. Our first measurement campaign is based on scalar network analysis with 7 GHz of bandwidth. Our second measurement campaign obtains magnitude and phase information, additionally sampled directionally at several positions in space. %This second measurement campaign is limited to 2 GHz bandwidth. We apply Akaike's information criterion to decide whether Rician fading sufficiently explains the data or the generalized TWDP fading model is necessary. Our results indicate that the TWDP fading hypothesis is favoured over Rician fading in situations where the steerable antenna is pointing towards reflecting objects or is slightly misaligned at line-of-sight. We demonstrate TWDP fading in several different domains, namely, frequency, space, and time.