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Channel Characterization for Wireless and Mobile Communications
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Channel Characterization for Wireless and Mobile Communications

A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Microwave and Wireless Communications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2021) | Viewed by 27110

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Rafael P. Torres

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Departamento de Ingeniería de Comunicaciones, Universidad de Cantabria, 39005 Santander, Spain
Interests: radio channel measurement and modelling; ray-tracing techniques; MIMO systems and massive-MIMO channel measurements; spatial modulation; space-time coding and diversity techniques

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The knowledge of the radio channel has historically been a fundamental element for the development of radio communications. Successive generations of mobile communications, from precursor analogue systems to the present day (5G and beyond), have been preceded by significant efforts to know and characterize the radio channel. That is why today, along with the development and deployment of the new mobile and wireless systems encompassed under the acronym 5G, the characterization and modelling of radio channels in new frequency bands that are suitable for new technologies (beamforming, MIMO, etc.) and new environments are topics of great interest. 

In the final decades of the last century, there was a major paradigm shift: we went from studying the radio channel as an enemy to be defeated to considering it as a possible ally. So, from strategies and techniques that we could describe as countermeasures (diversity, equalization, automatic power control, etc.), we move on to concepts and ideas that put the channel in our favor: the techniques of space-domain multiple access (SDMA), within mainly beamforming and MIMO techniques.

The main objective of this Special Issue is to contribute to the latest advances on channel characterization for wireless and mobile communications. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to the following:

  • Channel models for mmW communications.
  • Massive MIMO channel measurements and models.
  • V2V channel characterization and modelling including high mobility.
  • Three-dimensional models, spatial-consistency, and time evolution.
  • Hybrid channel models.
  • Models for special scenarios: tunnels, industrial, underwater, etc.
  • Impact of channel in 5G system performance.

Prof. Dr. Rafael P. Torres
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Electronics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • radio channel measurements
  • radio channel models
  • mmW channel measurements and characterization
  • V2V channels
  • three-dimensional models
  • spatial-consistency
  • time evolution modelling

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

28 pages, 2211 KiB  
Article
Performance Analysis of Multi-User MIMO Schemes under Realistic 3GPP 3-D Channel Model for 5G mmWave Cellular Networks
by Daniel Gaetano Riviello, Francesco Di Stasio and Riccardo Tuninato
Electronics 2022, 11(3), 330; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/electronics11030330 - 21 Jan 2022
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 3485
Abstract
Novel techniques such as mmWave transmission and massive MIMO have proven to present many attractive features able to support high data demand for 5G NR technologies. Towards the standardization of 5G networks, channel modeling has become an important step in order to test [...] Read more.
Novel techniques such as mmWave transmission and massive MIMO have proven to present many attractive features able to support high data demand for 5G NR technologies. Towards the standardization of 5G networks, channel modeling has become an important step in order to test the reliability of theoretical studies. In this paper, we study the performance of a 5G network at mmWave range for the downlink. We consider a single trisectorized base station equipped with planar arrays, and we model users as a spatial Poisson process in a hexagonal grid. We adopt the latest 3GPP channel model described in TR 38.901 and we provide a thorough description and step-by-step tutorial of it along with our customizations and MATLAB scripts for channel generation in the presented scenario. Moreover, we evaluate the performance of Multi-User Multi-Layer MIMO techniques, such as Signal-to-Leakage-plus-Noise Ratio (SLNR) precoding and MMSE combined with different system configurations by means of achievable per-user rate. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Channel Characterization for Wireless and Mobile Communications)
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20 pages, 5569 KiB  
Article
Optimized Polar Codes as Forward Error Correction Coding for Digital Video Broadcasting Systems
by Karim El-Abbasy, Ramy Taki Eldin, Salwa El Ramly and Bassant Abdelhamid
Electronics 2021, 10(17), 2152; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/electronics10172152 - 03 Sep 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3655
Abstract
Polar codes are featured by their low encoding/decoding complexity for symmetric binary input-discrete memoryless channels. Recently, flexible generic Successive Cancellation List (SCL) decoders for polar codes were proposed to provide different throughput, latency, and decoding performances. In this paper, we propose to use [...] Read more.
Polar codes are featured by their low encoding/decoding complexity for symmetric binary input-discrete memoryless channels. Recently, flexible generic Successive Cancellation List (SCL) decoders for polar codes were proposed to provide different throughput, latency, and decoding performances. In this paper, we propose to use polar codes with flexible fast-adaptive SCL decoders in Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) systems to meet the growing demand for more bitrates. In addition, they can provide more interactive services with less latency and more throughput. First, we start with the construction of polar codes and propose a new mathematical relation to get the optimized design point for the polar code. We prove that our optimized design point is too close to the one that achieves minimum Bit Error Rate (BER). Then, we compare the performance of polar and Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes in terms of BER, encoder/decoder latencies, and throughput. The results show that both channel coding techniques have comparable BER. However, polar codes are superior to LDPC in terms of decoding latency, and system throughput. Finally, we present the possible performance enhancement of DVB systems in terms of decoding latency and complexity when using optimized polar codes as a Forward Error Correction (FEC) technique instead of Bose Chaudhuri Hocquenghem (BCH) and LDPC codes that are currently adopted in DVB standards. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Channel Characterization for Wireless and Mobile Communications)
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11 pages, 2568 KiB  
Article
A Lower Bound for the Coherence Block Length in Mobile Radio Channels
by Rafael P. Torres and Jesús R. Pérez
Electronics 2021, 10(4), 398; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/electronics10040398 - 07 Feb 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1976
Abstract
A lower bound for the coherence block (ChB) length in mobile radio channels is derived in this paper. The ChB length, associated with a certain mobile radio channel, is of great practical importance in future wireless systems, mainly those based on massive multiple [...] Read more.
A lower bound for the coherence block (ChB) length in mobile radio channels is derived in this paper. The ChB length, associated with a certain mobile radio channel, is of great practical importance in future wireless systems, mainly those based on massive multiple input and multiple output (M-MIMO) technology. In fact, it is one of the factors that determines the achievable spectral efficiency. Firstly, theoretical aspects regarding the mobile radio channels are summarized, focusing on the rigorous definition of coherence bandwidth (BC) and coherence time (TC) parameters. Secondly, the uncertainty relations developed by B. H. Fleury, involving both BC and TC, are presented. Afterwards, a lower bound for the product BCTC is derived, i.e., the ChB length. The obtained bound is an explicit function of easily measurable parameters, such as the delay spread, mobile speed and carrier frequency. Furthermore, and especially important, this bound is also a function of the degree of coherence with which we define both BC and TC. Finally, an application example that illustrates the practical possibilities of the bound obtained is presented. As a further conclusion, the need to determine what degree of correlation is required to consider mobile channels as effectively flat-fading and stationary is highlighted. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Channel Characterization for Wireless and Mobile Communications)
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15 pages, 2054 KiB  
Article
V2I Propagation Loss Predictions in Simplified Urban Environment: A Two-Way Parabolic Equation Approach
by Mikhail Lytaev, Eugene Borisov and Andrei Vladyko
Electronics 2020, 9(12), 2011; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/electronics9122011 - 27 Nov 2020
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2172
Abstract
This study is devoted to radio wave propagation modeling in the urban environment. Special attention has been paid to the features of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications. For the first time, the three-dimensional bidirectional parabolic equation (PE) method has [...] Read more.
This study is devoted to radio wave propagation modeling in the urban environment. Special attention has been paid to the features of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications. For the first time, the three-dimensional bidirectional parabolic equation (PE) method has been applied to the specified problem. Buildings and other obstacles are modeled by impenetrable (perfectly electric conducting) cuboids. A harmonic radiation source with an arbitrary direction pattern may be modeled. Numerical simulation is performed for various propagation scenarios. A comparison with the ray-tracing (RT) method is given. The results of the numerical simulation prove the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed method. Some recommendations for deploying VANETs are obtained based on the numerical results. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Channel Characterization for Wireless and Mobile Communications)
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16 pages, 6774 KiB  
Article
Indoor LOS Propagation Measurements and Modeling at 26, 32, and 39 GHz Millimeter-Wave Frequency Bands
by Domingo Pimienta-del-Valle, Luis Mendo, José Manuel Riera and Pedro Garcia-del-Pino
Electronics 2020, 9(11), 1867; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/electronics9111867 - 06 Nov 2020
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2152
Abstract
Although the deployment of 5G networks has already started, there are still open questions regarding propagation at millimeter-wave frequency bands. Several propagation campaigns have been carried out at several bands previously identified by regulatory organizations, but due to the wide range of allocated [...] Read more.
Although the deployment of 5G networks has already started, there are still open questions regarding propagation at millimeter-wave frequency bands. Several propagation campaigns have been carried out at several bands previously identified by regulatory organizations, but due to the wide range of allocated segments of spectrum and the variety of possible propagation scenarios, more measurement campaigns are needed. In this regard, the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) has taken millimeter-wave measurements at 26, 32, and 39 GHz bands in an indoor corridor scenario in line-of-sight (LOS) conditions with two antenna configurations (a horn antenna has been used in transmission whereas horn and omnidirectional antennas have been used in reception), and the main results are presented in this paper. The obtained path loss results have been compared with existing millimeter-wave propagation models. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Channel Characterization for Wireless and Mobile Communications)
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19 pages, 5534 KiB  
Article
MIMO Channel Estimation in an SDR Platform for Evaluation of D&F Relay Nodes
by Randy Verdecia-Peña and José I. Alonso
Electronics 2020, 9(10), 1662; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/electronics9101662 - 12 Oct 2020
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2852
Abstract
Relay Nodes (RNs) have received special attention as a radio access technology which can overcome channel fading and improve the channel capacity in high-speed and dense vehicle environments. RNs have been the object of standardization by the 3GPP; however, this process has not [...] Read more.
Relay Nodes (RNs) have received special attention as a radio access technology which can overcome channel fading and improve the channel capacity in high-speed and dense vehicle environments. RNs have been the object of standardization by the 3GPP; however, this process has not been accompanied by the development of hardware that allows for evaluation of the advantages of RNs. Software Defined Radio (SDR) has emerged as a promising technology to implement the concept of RNs at low cost. In this paper, a detailed study of the MIMO wireless channel between an evolved Node-B (eNB) and an RN is carried out. The developed algorithms are implemented in an SDR platform for Decode-and-Forward (D&F) relay node evaluation, resulting in significant improvements of its capabilities on the MIMO channel. A pilot symbol-assisted channel estimation algorithm based on combinations of the Least-Squares (LS) technique and Bi-Cubic (BCI), Bi-Linear (BLI), and Bi-Nearest Neighbors (BNNI) interpolation methods is considered. Furthermore, the Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) and Zero-Forcing (ZF) equalization schemes are studied. In the tests conducted, Line-of-Sight (LOS) and Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) scenarios are considered, demonstrating the capabilities of the developed platform. The performance measurements using different modulation schemes are compared under the same conditions. The simulation results show that the LS technique together with the BCI and MMSE methods performed the best among all evaluated channel estimation and equalization algorithms, in terms of the Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) performance of the received Resource Grid (RG). Furthermore, we show that the Bit Error Rate (BER) and throughput of the core network increase when using the 2 × 2 MIMO technique. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Channel Characterization for Wireless and Mobile Communications)
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15 pages, 4668 KiB  
Article
Radio Channel Scattering in a 28 GHz Small Cell at a Bus Stop: Characterization and Modelling
by Manuel García Sánchez, Alejandro Santomé Valverde and Isabel Expósito
Electronics 2020, 9(10), 1556; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/electronics9101556 - 23 Sep 2020
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2199
Abstract
The 28 GHz band is one of the available bands in Frequency Range 2 (FR2), above 6 GHz, for fifth generation (5G) communications. The propagation characteristics at this frequency band, together with the bandwidth requirements of 5G communications, make it suitable for ultra-dense [...] Read more.
The 28 GHz band is one of the available bands in Frequency Range 2 (FR2), above 6 GHz, for fifth generation (5G) communications. The propagation characteristics at this frequency band, together with the bandwidth requirements of 5G communications, make it suitable for ultra-dense smart cell networks. In this paper, we investigate the performance of a radio channel in the presence of moving, scattering sources for a small cell at 28 GHz, located at a bus stop. To do so, measurements of the channel complex impulse response with a sweep time delay cross-correlation sounder were made and then used to examine the distribution of multipath components. Besides analyzing the delay spread caused by the channel, we also evaluate the impact on the Doppler spectrum (DS) caused by the vehicles passing near the bus stop. We show that delay components are grouped in clusters exhibiting exponential decay power. We also show that the DS varies with time as vehicles pass by, so the channel cannot be considered stationary. We propose an empirical DS model, where the model parameter should change with time to describe the non-stationary nature of the radio channel. We have also found that the DS with maximum spread is similar for channel contributions in different delay clusters. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Channel Characterization for Wireless and Mobile Communications)
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20 pages, 5876 KiB  
Article
Characterisation of Indoor Massive MIMO Channels Using Ray-Tracing: A Case Study in the 3.2–4.0 GHz 5G Band
by Luis Valle, Jesús R. Pérez and Rafael P. Torres
Electronics 2020, 9(8), 1250; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/electronics9081250 - 04 Aug 2020
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2323
Abstract
In this paper, research results on the applicability of ray-tracing (RT) techniques to model massive MIMO (MaMi) channels are presented and discussed. The main goal is to show the possibilities that site-specific models based on rigorous RT techniques, along with measurement campaigns considered [...] Read more.
In this paper, research results on the applicability of ray-tracing (RT) techniques to model massive MIMO (MaMi) channels are presented and discussed. The main goal is to show the possibilities that site-specific models based on rigorous RT techniques, along with measurement campaigns considered for verification or calibration purposes where appropriate, can contribute to the development and deployment of 5G systems and beyond using the MaMi technique. For this purpose, starting from the measurements and verification of the simulator in a symmetric, rectangular and accessible scenario used as the testbed, the analysis of a specific case involving channel characterisation in a large, difficult access and measurement scenario was carried out using the simulation tool. Both the measurement system and the simulations emulated the up-link in an indoor cell in the framework of a MaMi-TDD-OFDM system, considering that the base station was equipped with an array consisting of 10 × 10 antennas. The comparison of the simulations with the measurements in the testbed environment allowed us to affirm that the accuracy of the simulator was high, both for determining the parameters of temporal dispersion and frequency selectivity, and for assessing the expected capacity in a specific environment. The subsequent analysis of the target environment showed the high capacities that a MaMi system can achieve in indoor picocells with a relatively high number of simultaneously active users. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Channel Characterization for Wireless and Mobile Communications)
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26 pages, 932 KiB  
Article
A Non-WSSUS Channel Simulator for V2X Communication Systems
by José Jimmy Jaime-Rodríguez, Carlos Antonio Gómez-Vega, Carlos A. Gutiérrez, José Martín Luna-Rivera, Daniel Ulises Campos-Delgado and Ramiro Velázquez
Electronics 2020, 9(8), 1190; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/electronics9081190 - 24 Jul 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2921
Abstract
This paper presents a simulator of non-wide sense stationary uncorrelated scattering (non-WSSUS) multipath fading channels for the performance analysis of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication systems. The proposed simulator is constructed with the combination of the Monte Carlo and sum-of-cisoids (SOC) principles, and it is [...] Read more.
This paper presents a simulator of non-wide sense stationary uncorrelated scattering (non-WSSUS) multipath fading channels for the performance analysis of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication systems. The proposed simulator is constructed with the combination of the Monte Carlo and sum-of-cisoids (SOC) principles, and it is suitable for multicarrier transmission schemes such as those defined for dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) and cellular-based V2X (C-V2X) communications. The channel simulator provides an accurate and flexible solution to reproduce the time and frequency (TF) correlation properties of non-WSSUS vehicular channels under arbitrary isotropic and non-isotropic scattering conditions. Furthermore, the proposed simulator allows velocity variations and non-linear trajectories of the mobile stations (MSs). To demonstrate the practical value of the presented simulator, we evaluate the bit error rate (BER) performance of two channel estimation techniques that are considered for IEEE 802.11p transceivers, namely the least squares (LS) estimator and the spectral temporal averaging (STA) technique. The BER performance of both channel estimators was analyzed by considering three propagating scenarios for road safety applications. Our results show that the non-stationary characteristics of the vehicular multipath fading channel have nearly no effects on the LS estimator’s BER performance. In contrast, the performance of the STA estimator is significantly affected by the channel’s non-stationary characteristics. A variation of the original STA technique that applies only a temporal averaging is introduced in this work to improve the system’s BER in non-WSSUS channels. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Channel Characterization for Wireless and Mobile Communications)
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18 pages, 1014 KiB  
Article
Energy Efficiency-Oriented Resource Allocation for Massive MIMO Systems with Separated Channel Estimation and Feedback
by Feng Hu, Kaiyue Wang, Shufeng Li and Libiao Jin
Electronics 2020, 9(4), 582; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/electronics9040582 - 30 Mar 2020
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2192
Abstract
This paper proposes a dynamic resource allocation scheme to maximize the energy efficiency (EE) for Massive MIMO Systems. The imperfect channel estimation (CE) and feedback are explicitly considered in the EE maximization problem, which aim to optimize the power allocation, the antenna subset [...] Read more.
This paper proposes a dynamic resource allocation scheme to maximize the energy efficiency (EE) for Massive MIMO Systems. The imperfect channel estimation (CE) and feedback are explicitly considered in the EE maximization problem, which aim to optimize the power allocation, the antenna subset selection for transmission, and the pilot assignment. Assuming CE error to be bounded for the complex-constrained Cramer–Rao Bound (CRB), theoretical results show that the lower bound is directly proportional to its number of unconstrained parameters. Utilizing this perspective, a separated and bi-directional estimation is developed to achieve both low CRB and low complexity by exploiting channel and noise spatial separation. Exploiting global optimization procedure, the optimal resource allocation can be transformed into a standard convex optimization problem. This allows us to derive an efficient iterative algorithm for obtaining the optimal solution. Numerical results are provided to demonstrate that the outperformance of the proposed algorithms are superior to existing schemes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Channel Characterization for Wireless and Mobile Communications)
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