A 3-D Space-Time-Frequency Non-Stationary Model for Low-Altitude UAV mmWave and Massive MIMO Aerial Fading Channels

In this article, a 3-D geometry-based stochastic model (GBSM) is proposed for millimeter wave (mmWave) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) channels. The proposed model is the first mmWave massive MIMO UAV two-cylinder GBSM that enables to jointly model the channel space-time-frequency non-stationarity by a novel variable parameter-based method. In this novel method, key parameters of UAV channels are assumed to vary in space, time, and frequency domains, and the effect of the unique UAV-related parameters is further taken into account, such as the UAV’s altitude, velocity, and moving directions. Based on the proposed model, some statistical properties are derived, including the time-variant transfer function (TVTF), space-time-frequency correlation function (STF-CF), Doppler power spectral density (PSD), and the standard deviation of Doppler frequency on antenna arrays. Simulation results show that the channel non-stationarity in space, time, and frequency domains can be captured, and the aforementioned UAV channel-related parameters have a great impact on channel statistics. Finally, the utility of the proposed model is validated by the excellent agreement between simulation results and measurements.