Ray-tracing wireless channel modeling and verification in Coordinated Multi-Point systems

Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) transmission improves user's coverage and data throughput particularly on the cell edges. To make full advantage of CoMP, radio planning tools need very accurate models that fully capture the MIMO channels characteristics. This paper presents detailed modeling and analysis of an uplink CoMP system using Ray-Tracing (RT)-based channel modeling. The contribution of this paper is to show how close RT simulations can predict end-to-end system performance compared to the real-world measured performance. Thorough drive test measurements and RT simulations were performed. CoMP and Conventional MIMO systems performances are evaluated and compared for measured and RT-simulated channels. The results of several scenarios show that the RT matches the measurements in terms of rates and geometrical properties. The CoMP gain resulting from the measurements is almost double the gain of RT simulations. The differences come from the hardware and the RT 3D models impairments.