Impact of 3D Propagation on Wi-Fi Performance in MIMO System

One of the research activities in 5G communication systems is the extension of the MIMO processing from the 2D to the 3D plane by exploiting the elevation dimension which gives an additional degree of freedom to meet the high capacity demands. Despite the growing researches concerning 3D space propagation, there are few studies that evaluate the impact of 3D propagation on MIMO performance at the PHY level and the capacity gained from exploiting the elevation component. The aim of this paper is to evaluate, quantify and compare the downlink BER performance experienced by users in an urban environment in cases of 2D and 3D channel models, where the impact of the 3D component on MIMO performance is evaluated. Results indicate that 3D modelling implies lower correlation between MIMO spatial streams and consequently lower BER. Therefore, the full benefits of MIMO cannot be accurately predicted in 2D model where high correlated MIMO spatial streams are observed. The study also compares two different orientations of linear MIMO arrays (horizontal and vertical). In this study, we are also implementing our enhanced 3D channel model which is an extension of the well known 3GPP/ITU channel model. The proposed channel model is made available to the public through SourceForge.