Time-varying Characteristics of mmWave Channel based on the Clustered Sparsity Model

A better understanding of the mmWave channel coherence time will play a significant role in both communication and sensing. Traditional literatures consider that the channel coherence time in mmWave communication will be very short due to high frequency, which makes the channel estimation more difficult. However, we believe that the propagation characteristics of the mmWave channel will affect its coherence time, i.e., channel sparsity may limit its time variability. In this paper, we investigate the time-varying nature of mmWave channel by analyzing its Doppler spread based on the clustered sparsity model. After the derivation of Doppler spectrum DPS and the simulation analysis based on the two-cluster channel, we found that the maximum angle between clusters and the power distribution between clusters are two main factors limiting the Doppler spread. Finally, the realistic mmWave NYUSIM model is used for Doppler spread comparative analysis with Clarke’s model and find that Doppler spread of NYUSIM channel is far less than that estimated based on Clarke’s model. Thus, it is demonstrated that even if the mmWave frequency is high, the clustered sparsity characteristics makes its channel coherence time not as short as thought intuitively, which is meaningful for mmWave vehicular sensing and communication.