5G Channel Models for Railway Use Cases at mmWave Band and the Path Towards Terahertz

TL;DR

This paper develops realistic 5G mmWave channel models for railway scenarios, validating them through simulations and measurements, and discusses future prospects towards terahertz communications for smart rail mobility.

Contribution

It introduces reference scenarios for railway mmWave channel modeling and validates these models with detailed simulations and measurements.

Findings

Validated channel models reflect railway object influence

Simulations match measurement data accurately

Identified challenges for future terahertz communication

Abstract

High-speed trains are one of the most relevant scenarios for the fifth-generation (5G) mobile communications and the "smart rail mobility" vision, where a high-data-rate wireless connectivity with up to several GHz bandwidths will be required. This is a strong motivation for the exploration of millimeter wave (mmWave) band. In this article, we identify the main challenges and make progress towards realistic 5G mmWave channel models for railway use cases. In order to cope with the challenge of including the railway features in the channel models, we define reference scenarios to help the parameterization of channel models for railway use at mmWave band. Simulations and the subsequent measurements used to validate the model reflect the detailed influence of railway objects and the accuracy of the simulations. Finally, we point out the future directions towards the full version of the smart rail mobility which will be powered by terahertz (THz) communications.