Statistical characterization of an urban dual‐polarized MIMO LMS channel

• Published in: International journal of satellite communications and networking Vol. 36; no. 6; pp. 474 - 488
• Main Authors: Nikolaidis, Viktor, Moraitis, Nektarios, Kanatas, Athanasios G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.11.2018
• Subjects: Approximation; Beamforming; channel characterization; channel modeling; dual‐polarized; Fading; Land mobile satellite service; multiple‐input‐multiple‐output (MIMO) satellite measurements; Urban environments
• ISSN: 1542-0973; 1542-0981
• DOI: 10.1002/sat.1253

Summary This paper presents a thorough statistical characterization of a dual‐polarized multiple‐input‐multiple‐output channel, based on a measurement campaign of 2 land mobile satellite link scenarios in urban environments. The received signal is decomposed into its large‐scale and small‐scale fading parts, which are separately evaluated and characterized. The large‐scale fading can be well approximated by the Lognormal distribution, whereas the small‐scale fading in line‐of‐sight condition can be characterized as a Rician channel with a strong direct component and high K‐factors. On the other hand, in nonline‐of‐sight cases, the fading can be approximated by Nakagami or Rician distribution with low K‐factors. The cross‐polar discrimination is found between 14.2 and 22.5 dB, whereas the cross‐polar isolation is found between 12.8 and 21 dB, respectively. Finally, assessing the diversity performance, applying the maximal ratio combining technique, it is found that the left‐hand circular polarized transmission outperforms the right‐hand circular polarized transmission, providing gains up to 2.5 dB, especially in nonline‐of‐sight cases. The low‐diversity gains indicate that beamforming would be preferable to be applied in the specific channel. This paper presents a thorough statistical characterization of a dual polarized MIMO channel. Measurement campaign for 2 LMS links in urban environment. The large‐scale and small‐scale fading parts are extracted from the received signal. Low diversity gains were found, indicating that beamforming would be better for the specific channel.