Performance comparison of the 3GPP/3GPP2 SCM and ITU-R IMT-Advanced MIMO channel models

This paper describes an evolution and standardization trends of the wireless channel modeling activities towards IMT-Advanced. In particular, the new developed and standardized ITU-R IMT-Advanced multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) Channel Model (IMT-Adv MCM) is detailed. The IMT-Adv MCM is compared with the well-known the 3GPP/3GPP2 Spatial Channel Model (SCM), and their main similarities and differences are pointed out. The performance of MIMO systems is greatly influenced by the spatial-temporal correlation properties of the underlying MIMO channels. Here, we investigate the spatial-temporal correlation characteristics of the 3GPP/3GPP2 SCM and the IMT-Adv MCM in term of their spatial multiplexing and spatial diversity gains. The main goals of this paper are to summarize the current state of the art, as well as to point out the gaps in the wireless channel modeling works, and thus hopefully to stimulate research in these areas.