A General 3D GBSM for 6G Satellite Communication Systems

Satellite communications hold great promises in achieving the global coverage vision of the sixth generation (6G) mobile communications. This paper presents a general three-dimensional (3D) geometry-based stochastic model (GBSM) for satellite communication channel modeling. The proposed GBSM is suitable for commonly used satellite communication frequency bands from S-band to millimeter wave (mmWave) band, and is applicable to different satellite orbits through modeling satellite trajectories based on the real orbit. The model considers the spatial consistency of large-scale parameters (LSPs) and the dependence of channel parameters on environment, frequency, and satellite elevation angle. In addition, the model considers the ionospheric effect and the rain attenuation. Finally, under different satellite trajectories and rain rates, we simulate and analyze statistical properties including delay spread (DS), temporal auto-correlation function (ACF), and local Doppler spread. Results prove that satellite elevation and height have considerable effect on channel characteristics. In addition, it is proved that rain attenuation can cause more severe multipath effect.