Implementation and Analysis of 3D Channel Emulation Method in Multi-Probe Anechoic Chamber Setups

The multi-probe anechoic chamber (MPAC) based method is a candidate to assess the performance of multiple input multiple output (MIMO) devices over the air. This paper investigates the core problem, channel emulation method (CEM), in MPAC setups. The CEM is utilized to map the desired channel onto the limited number of probes to synthesize the target channel environment within a certain test area. In addition, the channel in realistic propagation environment is a three-dimensional (3D) channel, which can achieve higher data transmission rate by containing both azimuth and elevation dimension. Hence, it is urgent to investigate the CEM for 3D channels in MPAC setups. In this paper, the implementation of a novel CEM for 3D channels is presented, which allocates the subpaths in a simple way and complements the drawbacks of prefaded synthesis method and spatial fading emulator. Furthermore, the impact of the target channel and probe configuration on the emulation accuracy in terms of temporal correlation function (TCF) and spatial correlation function (SCF) is discussed. Simulation results demonstrate that the emulation accuracy of TCF depends more on the motion direction of MIMO devices while that of SCF depends more on the probes distribution. Moreover, probes number decides the emulation accuracy first. If the same number of probes are applied, the coincidence of the probe configuration and the target channel determines the emulation accuracy.