Channel modeling and capacity analysis of large MIMO in real propagation environments

To account for antenna physical parameters and real propagation conditions encountered by large-scale multipleinput multiple-output (MIMO) antenna systems in practical deployment, this paper develops a comprehensive MIMO channel model in an analytical way. In particular, major parameters including path loss, shadowing effect, multi-path fading, channel polarization, channel correlations, antenna cross-polarization discrimination and environmental cross-polar coupling, are integrated in a mathematically tractable way. Then, an upper bound on the ergodic capacity of the comprehensive MIMO channel is derived asymptotically, i.e. as the number of transmit and/or receive antennas of the MIMO system approaches infinity. Finally, Monte Carlo simulation results corroborate the effectiveness of the proposed model and the accuracy of the resulting capacity bound. Thanks to its high generality and compactness, the proposed model can serve as the kernel for the design and performance evaluation of large-scale MIMO in real propagation environments.