Empirical Validation of a Class of Ray-Based Fading Models

TL;DR

This paper experimentally validates a class of ray-based fading models, especially the IFTR model, across various mmWave propagation scenarios, demonstrating its accuracy and limitations with a minimal set of parameters.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental validation of ray-based fading models like IFTR in diverse mmWave environments, highlighting their effectiveness and constraints.

Findings

IFTR model accurately reproduces diverse environments with four parameters

Validation conducted in anechoic, reverberation, and indoor scenarios

Limitations include reduced diffuse propagation and limited phase variability

Abstract

As new wireless standards are developed, the use of higher operation frequencies comes in hand with new use cases and propagation effects that differ from the well-established state of the art. Numerous stochastic fading models have recently emerged under the umbrella of generalized fading conditions to provide a fine-grain characterization of propagation channels in the mmWave and sub-THz bands. For the first time in literature, this work carries out an experimental validation of a class of such ray-based models in a wide range of propagation conditions (anechoic, reverberation and indoor scenarios) at mmWave bands. These models allow to characterize the communication channel with a reduced number of physically interpretable parameters. In specific, we show that the independent fluctuating two-ray (IFTR) model has good capabilities to recreate rather dissimilar environments with high accuracy and only four parameters. We also put forth that the key limitations of the IFTR model arise in the presence of reduced diffuse propagation, and also due to a limited phase variability for the dominant specular components.