A discrete-time model for triply selective MIMO Rayleigh fading channels

A statistical discrete-time model is proposed for simulating wideband multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) fading channels which are triply selective due to angle spread, Doppler spread, and delay spread. The new discrete-time MIMO channel model includes the combined effects of the transmit filter, physical MIMO multipath channel fading, and receive filter, and it has the same sampling period as that of the MIMO receiver. This leads to very efficient simulation of physical continuous-time MIMO channels. A new method is also presented to efficiently generate the MIMO channel stochastic coefficients. The statistical accuracy of the discrete-time MIMO channel model is rigorously verified through theoretical analysis and extensive simulations in different conditions. The high computational efficiency of the discrete-time MIMO channel model is illustrated by comparing it to that of the continuous-time MIMO channel model. The new model is further employed to evaluate the channel capacity of MIMO systems in a triply selective Rayleigh fading environment. The simulation results reveal some interesting effects of spatial correlations, multipaths, and number of antennas on the MIMO channel capacity.