Ultrawideband 3D mmWave channel sounding for 5G

Increasing data rates in mobile networks require new technologies for the next generation of mobile communication systems such as massive MIMO, device-centric architectures, smarter devices, machine-2-machine communication etc. However, one important step to reach the goal of 100 GBit/s will be use of higher bandwidth. Owing to the limitation in bandwidth of currently used frequency bands, future fifth generation (5G) mobile networks will need to operate at higher frequencies. Analysis of the multipath propagation in dynamic single and multi-user scenarios under time-variant shadowing environments with high bandwidth requires a millimetre-wave (mm-wave) channel sounder (CS). It must provide ultra-wideband (UWB) real-time operation with multiple antennas and a high dynamic range. In addition, polarimetric information is needed to fully characterise the wireless channel, e.g. for cases of polarisation misalignment at the mobile device. This paper presents a novel UWB dual-polarised (DP) mm-wave channel sounder architecture for real time measurements in 5G mobile networks to overcome these requirements. We also show measurement data to motivate the need for polarimetric double-directional measurements.