The Impact of Antenna Height on 3D Channel: A Ray Launching Based Analysis

Three-dimensional (3D) multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) is one of the enabling technologies for next-generation mobile communication. As the elevation angle in the 3D MIMO channel model might vary against the height of the base station (BS) antenna, it should be considered within channel modeling. In this paper, the impact of antenna height on the channel characteristics of the 3D MIMO channel is investigated by using the intelligent ray launching algorithm (IRLA). Three typical street scenarios, i.e., the straight street, the forked road, and the crossroad, are selected as benchmarks. The joint and marginal probability density functions (PDFs) of both the elevation angle of departure (EAoD) and the elevation angle of arrival (EAoA) are obtained through simulations. Moreover, the elevation angle spread (AS) and the elevation delay spread (DS) under various antenna heights are jointly discussed. Simulation results show that the characteristics of the PDFs of EAoD will vary under different street scenarios. It is observed that in order to obtain the maximum or minimum value of the AS and the DS, the BS antenna should be deployed at half of the building height.