Experimental Characterization and Multipath Cluster Modeling for 13–17 GHz Indoor Propagation Channels

The traffic explosion of mobile communications increasingly requires effective and realistic fifth-generation (5G) channel models. Recently, we have conducted measurement campaigns in lecture hall and laboratory scenarios using steerable beam antennas for characterizing 13-17 GHz channels. The Space-Alternating Generalized Expectation-maximization (SAGE) algorithm was applied to estimate the multipath components (MPCs) in delay and angle of arrival domains. These estimated MPCs were further grouped into clusters via the threshold-based approach. It is noticeable that the observed channel characteristics obtained using the SAGE algorithm are less antenna-specific than those using the raw received signals. The scatterer locations identified from the MPCs show excellent agreement with the physical objects in the environment. Moreover, we found that the configurations of antenna-half-power-beamwidth and rotation step size exert great influence on the channel characteristics. These results provide important references for the existing 5G channel sounding and data processing, which naturally leads to fidelity of future channel models.