Theoretical analysis of adequate number of probe antennas in spatial channel emulator for MIMO performance evaluation of mobile terminals

Abstract

At present, techniques are under investigation for evaluating the Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) performance of mobile terminals in laboratories. Employing a spatial channel emulator is one promising candidate because it emulates several radio propagation characteristics. However, detailed technical specifications of the emulator, especially the number of probe antennas (and channel ports) in the emulator, have not yet been established. In this paper, we propose a theoretical analysis method in order to obtain the adequate number of probe antennas, and clarify the adequate number of probe antennas in the emulator when assuming a single-cluster model (SCM) and a multi-cluster model (SCME) as the power angular spectrum around a mobile terminal.