Principal Multipath Component Analysis for Outdoor Microcell Scenario at 39 GHz

Tremendous research funding and efforts have been invested in millimeter-wave (mmWave) communication systems for fifth-generation (5G) and beyond wireless communications. Understanding the influence of the surrounding environment on the propagation channel is vital to mmWave system design and deployment. In this paper, principal multipath components (MPCs) are studied in in an outdoor microcell scenario at 39 GHz. The direction-scan channel sounding measurement is conducted in a typical urban living district. By adapting the 3D environment model and material parameters, the ray-tracing simulator is tuned to match the simulated MPCs with the measurement. Based on this, the main propagation mechanisms and influential objects are identified. The method, observations, and analysis in this work are useful for understanding mmWave channel and developing communication systems.