On the Contribution of Dense Multipath Components in an Intrawagon Environment for 5G mmW Massive MIMO Channels

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[EN] In this letter, the dependence of the specular multipath components (SMC) and dense multipath components (DMC) to the interuser spatial correlation and sum-rate capacity of a massive multiuser multiple-input--multiple-output (MU-MIMO) setup is evaluated from measurements conducted inside an underground subway wagon at the 25-40 GHz candidate frequency bands for 5G systems. The radio channel consists in a 7 7 uniform rectangular array (URA) acting as access point for eight users uniformly distributed in the wagon. The DMC power ratio is observed to be distance- and frequency-dependent as the SMC and DMC exhibit different propagation mechanisms. Remarkably, it is reported that the interuser spatial correlation computed with DMC offers the best favorable propagation for a massive MIMO setup, whereas SMC contribute to the users correlation. Hence, correlation is found to be strongly dependent on the DMC ratio frequency characteristics. In addition, better interuser correlation and sum-rate capacity values are obtained as the frequency is increased. These results highlight the need to include DMC in 5G massive MIMO channel models and emulators to improve their accuracy at the system level.