A Novel Wideband MIMO Car-to-Car Channel Model Based on a Geometrical Semi-Circular Tunnel Scattering Model

In this paper, we present a wideband multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) car-to-car (C2C) channel model based on a geometrical semi-circular tunnel (SCT) scattering model. From the geometrical SCT scattering model, a reference channel model is derived under the assumption of single-bounce scattering in line-of-sight (LOS) and non-LOS (NLOS) propagation environments. In the proposed reference channel model, it is assumed that an infinite number of scatterers are randomly distributed on the tunnel wall. Starting from the geometrical scattering model, the time-variant transfer function (TVTF) is derived, and its correlation properties in time, frequency, and space are studied. Expressions are presented for the space-time-frequency cross-correlation function (STF-CCF), the two-dimensional (2D) space CCF, the 2D time-frequency CCF (TF-CCF), the temporal autocorrelation function (ACF), and the frequency correlation function (FCF). Owing to the semi-circular geometry, we reduced the originally threefold integrals to double integrals in the computations of the correlation functions, which simplifies the numerical analysis considerably. From the TVTF characterizing the reference model, an efficient sum-of-cisoid (SOC) channel simulator is derived. Numerical results show that both the temporal ACF and the FCF of the SOC channel simulator match very well with those of the reference model. A validation of the proposed model has been done by fitting the delay spread of the reference model to that of the measured channel, which demonstrates an excellent agreement. The proposed channel simulator allows us to evaluate the performance of C2C communication systems in tunnel environments.