Analysing the 3GPP Spatial Consistency Procedure Through Channel Measurements

Millimeter-wave channel measurements for a meeting room, lecture room and open plan office floor were used to analyse and model the spatial consistency of channel clusters. Particularly, how the angles of arrival and delays of extracted multi-path components in each cluster varied with small changes in receiver location. We extended the KPowerMeans algorithm, for classifying captured multi-path components into clusters from the delay/angular domains, to include the location domain to allow the spatial consistency of the clusters between locations to be analysed. The observed spatial consistency in measurements was then used to validate whether the 3GPP spatial consistency procedure (3GPP SC-I) reflects real world spatial consistency. The 3GPP spatial consistency procedure for ensuring spatial consistency of cluster parameters during mobile user simulations was then applied for each environment, allowing for comparison between the ‘predicted’ cluster parameters and the measured cluster parameters. The 3GPP model/procedure showed a good fit for all environments but highlighted the impact of the environment on the amount of accuracy of the procedure.