A Simple Parallel Ray Approximation Based Stochastic Channel Model for MIMO UWB Systems with Measurement Verification

A simple parallel ray approximation based stochastic channel model for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) ultra-wideband (UWB) system is proposed. Considering the attenuation of the multipath amplitudes, the phase shift and the difference of arrival time, the IEEE 802.15.3a standard channel model for single-input single-out (SISO) scenario is extended to the spatially correlated MIMO channel. The attenuation of the multipath amplitudes and the arrival time differences are determined by the structure of spatial linear arrays, the angle of departure (AOD) and the angle of arrival (AOA) of multipath components. The AOD and AOA can be approximated by Laplacian distribution according to the measurement results. In order to verify the channel model, the spatial correlation, the MIMO channel capacity, the bite-error-rate (BER) performance of spatial multiplexing (SM) UWB system and the BER performance of space time block coding (STBC) UWB system under the proposed channel model are compared with those under the measured channels. The measurement of MIMO UWB channel is carried out in a lab environment with virtual antennas. The results show that the simple MIMO UWB channel model matches the measured channel very well and performs better than the correlation-based channel model (CBCM).