This article is part of the series Space-Time Channel Modeling for Wireless Communications.

Open Access Research Article

Survey of Channel and Radio Propagation Models for Wireless MIMO Systems

P Almers1*, E Bonek2, A Burr3, N Czink2,4, M Debbah5, V Degli-Esposti6, H Hofstetter5, P Kyösti7, D Laurenson8, G Matz2, AF Molisch1,9, C Oestges10 and H Özcelik2

Author Affiliations

1 Department of Electroscience, Lund University, P.O. Box 118, Lund 221 00, Sweden

2 Institut für Nachrichtentechnik und Hochfrequenztechnik, Technische Universität Wien, Gußhausstraße, Wien 1040, Austria

3 Department of Electronics, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK

4 Forschungszentrum Telekommunikation Wien (ftw.), Donau City Straße 1, Wien 1220, Austria

5 Mobile Communications Group, Institut Eurecom, 2229 Route des Cretes, BP193, Sophia Antipolis 06904, France

6 Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informatica e Sistemistica, Università di Bologna, Villa Griffone, Pontecchio Marconi, Bologna 40044, Italy

7 Elektrobit, Tutkijantie 7, Oulu 90570, Finland

8 Institute for Digital Communications, School of Engineering and Electronics, The University of Edinburgh, Mayfield Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JL, UK

9 Mitsubishi Electric Research Lab, 558 Central Avenue, Murray Hill, NJ 07974, USA

10 Microwave Laboratory, Universite catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve 1348, Belgium

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EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking 2007, 2007:019070 doi:10.1155/2007/19070


The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://jwcn.eurasipjournals.com/content/2007/1/019070


Received:24 May 2006
Revisions received:15 November 2006
Accepted:15 November 2006
Published:26 February 2007

© 2007 Almers et al.

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

This paper provides an overview of the state-of-the-art radio propagation and channel models for wireless multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. We distinguish between physical models and analytical models and discuss popular examples from both model types. Physical models focus on the double-directional propagation mechanisms between the location of transmitter and receiver without taking the antenna configuration into account. Analytical models capture physical wave propagation and antenna configuration simultaneously by describing the impulse response (equivalently, the transfer function) between the antenna arrays at both link ends. We also review some MIMO models that are included in current standardization activities for the purpose of reproducible and comparable MIMO system evaluations. Finally, we describe a couple of key features of channels and radio propagation which are not sufficiently included in current MIMO models.

Research Article

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