Dynamic MmWave channel reconstruction of MIMO OTA testing for handover scenarios

Abstract

The evaluation of handover performance is essential for ensuring seamless user experience under innovative application scenarios in the fifth generation (5G) and beyond era, including autonomous driving, mobile augmented and virtual reality. However, due to the hardware constrains of a sectored multiprobe anechoic chamber (SMPAC), switching among multiple channel models is of low precision with a high cost in traditional over-the-air (OTA) test solutions. In this paper, we present an efficient and repeatable emulation strategy to reconstruct dynamic millimeter-wave (mmWave) channels in laboratories for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) mobile devices. Firstly, we propose a novel evaluation metric, called average power angular spectrum similarity percentage (APSP), which minimizes the unexpected impact induced by the indefinite condition of adaptive antenna arrays in mmWave terminals during handover process. Moreover, we propose a partitioned probe configuration strategy by designing a beam directivity-based switching circuit, which enables quick changes of probe configurations in SMPAC. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms, thus providing a guideline for the reconstruction of the dynamic channel in different scenarios with resource limitation.