Extension of the COST 2100 channel model for massive MIMO

Massive MIMO has been shown, both in theory and through experiments, to offer very promising properties. These include the possibility to decrease output power by at least an order of magnitude while still achieving large gains in spectral efficiency, as compared to today’s access schemes. To efficiently design communication algorithms and evaluate massive MIMO schemes, channel models that capture important massive MIMO channel characteristics are needed. We pursue this by extending a well-known cluster-based MIMO channel model - the COST 2100 model. In the paper, we suggest a model extension for massive MIMO, and we discuss main concepts, parameters and implementation issues. The modeling work is based on measurement data from a measurement campaign in the 2.6 GHz frequency range using a physically-large array with 128 elements