Broadband Wireless Channel in Composite High-Speed Railway Scenario: Measurements, Simulation, and Analysis

The rapid development of high-speed railway (HSR) and train-ground communications with high reliability, safety, and capacity promotes the evolution of railway dedicated mobile communication systems from Global System for Mobile Communications-Railway (GSM-R) to Long Term Evolution-Railway (LTE-R). The main challenges for LTE-R network planning are the rapidly time-varying channel and high mobility, because HSR lines consist of a variety of complex terrains, especially the composite scenarios where tunnels, cuttings, and viaducts are connected together within a short distance. Existing researches mainly focus on the path loss and delay spread for the individual HSR scenarios. In this paper, the broadband measurements are performed using a channel sounder at 950 MHz and 2150 MHz in a typical HSR composite scenario. Based on the measurements, the pivotal characteristics are analyzed for path loss exponent, power delay profile, and tap delay line model. Then, the deterministic channel model in which the 3D ray-tracing algorithm is applied in the composite scenario is presented and validated by the measurement data. Based on the ray-tracing simulations, statistical analysis of channel characteristics in delay and Doppler domain is carried out for the HSR composite scenario. The research results can be useful for radio interface design and optimization of LTE-R system