3D-Antenna Array Model for IST-WINNER Channel Simulations

The IST-WINNER channel model (WIM) offers a complete channel model description in a sense of large-scale as well as small-scale effects in MIMO radio-channel for B3G system designs. This paper proposes the extension of 1D regular array structures being currently supported within WIM (uniform linear array - ULA) to arbitrary 3D antenna arrays. Arbitrary antenna structures are necessary for both modelling and validation purposes since antenna arrays define the spatial dimension of the radio-channel. General 3D antenna array description also embeds polarization concepts that are becoming important for modelling of 3D rotation of antenna array. In this paper two different strategies of using 3D antenna arrays in channel model simulations are proposed and discussed. Both methods are compared in terms of the computational complexity and their suitability for the current WIM channel model implementation.