Characterisation of Indoor Massive MIMO Channels Using Ray-Tracing: A Case Study in the 3.2-4.0 GHz 5G Band

In this paper, research results on the applicability of ray-tracing (RT) techniques to model massive MIMO (MaMi) channels are presented and discussed. The main goal is to show the possibilities that site-specific models based on rigorous RT techniques, along with measurement campaigns considered for verification or calibration purposes where appropriate, can contribute to the development and deployment of 5G systems and beyond using the MaMi technique. For this purpose, starting from the measurements and verification of the simulator in a symmetric, rectangular and accessible scenario used as the testbed, the analysis of a specific case involving channel characterisation in a large, difficult access and measurement scenario was carried out using the simulation tool. Both the measurement system and the simulations emulated the up-link in an indoor cell in the framework of a MaMi-TDD-OFDM system, considering that the base station was equipped with an array consisting of 10 x 10 antennas. The comparison of the simulations with the measurements in the testbed environment allowed us to affirm that the accuracy of the simulator was high, both for determining the parameters of temporal dispersion and frequency selectivity, and for assessing the expected capacity in a specific environment. The subsequent analysis of the target environment showed the high capacities that a MaMi system can achieve in indoor picocells with a relatively high number of simultaneously active users.