Channel Model Mismatch Analysis for XL-MIMO Systems from a Localization Perspective

Radio localization is applied in high-frequency (e.g., mmWave and THz) systems to support communication and to provide location-based services without extra infrastructure. For solving localization problems, a simplified, stationary, narrowband far-field channel model is widely used due to its compact formulation. However, with increased array size in extra-large multiple-input-multiple-output (XL-MIMO) systems and increased bandwidth at upper mmWave bands, the effect of channel spatial non-stationarity (SNS), spherical wave model (SWM), and beam squint effect (BSE) cannot be ignored. In this case, localization performance will be affected when an inaccurate channel model deviating from the true model is adopted. In this work, we employ the misspecified Cramer-Rao lower bound to lower bound the localization error using a simplified mismatched model while the observed data is governed by a more complex true model. The simulation results show that among all the model impairments, the SNS has the least contribution, the SWM dominates when the distance is small compared to the array size, and the BSE has a more significant effect when the distance is much larger than the array size.