Directional antenna channel modeling in urban area using ray tracing

Directional antenna are regarded as one of the key technologies to achieve higher signal quality and data rate. Evidence has shown that the directional antenna channel features can be very different from the omnidirectional ones. Therefore, it is essential to characterize the directional antenna channel model (DACM), since an accurate, easy-to-implement DACM plays a vital role in the wireless network design, optimization and utilization. In this paper, we cluster the incident rays based on the azimuth direction of arrival at the receiver and extract the features concerning the number of clusters, the distribution of the cluster center and the cluster power ratio. The proposed DACM is derived by the ray tracing method and is feasible for a typical urban scenario within a range of a few hundred meters. Moreover, our proposed model is verified by both ray tracing and numerical simulations. In this paper, we present the model derivation methodology, recommend the model parameters and offer an implementation guideline.