Measurement and Modeling of Multiantenna Systems in Small Aircraft

Multiantenna measurements were performed in three small aircraft (Beech Baron 58-P, Rockwell T-39 Sabreliner, and the Diamond DA-42 Twin Star) and compared to those of six statistical multiantenna channel models, being the Gaussian, Nakagami-m, Weibull, hyper-Rayleigh, virtual, and Weichselberger models. The results were also compared to that of a site-specific 3D ray-tracing-based model. The effects of the measurement system, like antenna polarization and radiation pattern, were added to all of the models. It was found that the 3D ray-tracing model provides the most accurate predictions, closely followed by the Nakagami-m and Gaussian models. Differences between measured and modeled data were typically less than 1 bit/s/Hz for the three aircraft for the 3D ray-tracing model. For the Nakagami-m model, the differences were typically in the range of 0.5-1.5 bits/s/Hz whereas the Gaussian model had differences typically in the range of 1-2 bit/s/Hz. The simpler statistical hyper-Rayleigh model gives differences of the order of 2-3 bit/s/Hz for the Beech Baron 58-P and 3-5 bits/s/Hz for the Rockwell T-39 Sabreliner. The virtual and Weichselberger models were in the range of 2-4 bits/s/Hz.