SPACE INTERNET
Statistical Modeling of the High Altitude Platform
Dual-Polarized MIMO Propagation Channel
Mingchuan Yang 1,2*, Shuo Zhang 1, Xinye Shao 1, Qing Guo 1, Wenyan Tang 2
1
Communication Research Center, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150080, China.
2
Instrument Science and Technology postdoctoral Station, Harbin Institute of Technology
*
The corresponding author, Email: mcyang@hit.edu.cn
Abstract: In order to investigate the benefit
of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO)
technique applying to the high altitude
platform (HAP), a 22 MIMO statistical
model, which can accurately describe the
channel between HAP and high-speed train,
is presented. And dual polarization diversity
is particularly considered. Based on first-or-
der three-state Markov chain, the single-input
single-output (SISO) channel, a subset of the
MIMO channel is first established. The ray
tracing approach applied to the digital re-
lief model (DRM) which covers the railway
between Xian and Zhengzhou is used to
obtain the state probability vector and ma-
trix of the state transition probability. The
proposed model considers both Doppler shift
and temporal correlation, and the polarization
correlation and spatial correlation statistical
properties of large-scale fading and small-
scale fading are analyzed. Moreover, useful
numerical results on the MIMO HAP channel
outage capacity are provided based on which,
significant capacity gains with respect to the
conventional SISO case are illustrated. Such
statistical channel model can be applied to the
Received: Nov. 14, 2016
Revised: Feb. 02, 2017
future wireless communication system be-
Editor: Lidong, Zhu tween HAP and high-speed train.
43
Keywords: high altitude platform (HAP),
channel model, multiple-input multiple-output
(MIMO), polarization diversity.
I. INTRODUCTION
For the past few years, with the rapid devel-
opment of Chinese railway, an increasing
number of passengers are expecting to enjoy
smooth Internet access based on wireless local
area networks (WLAN) [1]. Thus, the demand
becomes stronger for high-speed trains to
provide digital, wireless mobile and broad-
band integrated services. If the traditional
cellular mobile system is applied, the signal
has to switch frequently between different
cellular when the train is traveling along the
railway. Then efficient and complex handoff
algorithms need to be developed, and the cost
and complexity of the system will increase.
Currently, a novel solution is to adopt
high altitude platform technique. High alti-
tude platform utilizes airship which locates
at 17-22km to be the aerial base station [2-
4]. And it combines the advantages of both
the satellite communication system and the
terrestrial cellular mobile communication
system. On one hand, it does not need many
China Communications March 2017
terrestrial infrastructures; On the other hand, it
has characteristics of large coverage area, low
propagation delays and broadband capability,
and these characteristics make HAP suitable
to provide communication service for high-
speed mobile terminal [5-7]. Modeling the
wireless communication channel is the most
fundamental step to develop the HAP com-
munication system, and up to now, there are
much research setting up channel models for
HAP communication system [8, 9]. Among
these research, most of them are single-input
and single-output channel models based on
first-order three-state Markov chain, which
describe channel characteristics under typical
different environments. Their main limit is
that they neglect to consider comprehensive-
ly both the channel temporal characteristics
(Doppler fading, shadowing) and the spatial
characteristics during the fading process. And
at the same time, they lack detailed analysis of
the factors that influence the channel capacity.
Thus, in terms of HAP system, it is urgent to
put forward a comprehensive channel model
which can describe its spatiotemporal domain
characteristics.
At the same time, MIMO has received ex-
tremely high attention in land mobile satellite
(LMS) field [10]. MIMO technique can utilize
the spatial diversity to improve the system ca-
pacity effectively without extra spectrum and
transmit power. But a main problem maintains
when the MIMO technique is applied to the
satellite system, i.e., LMS channel is charac-
terized by a strong line-of-sight (LOS) compo-
nent, and the environment could not provide
the same richness in scattering as it does in the
terrestrial communication, thus, independent
paths are difficult to be generated which leads
to a rank deficiency of the MIMO channel ma-
trix. Currently, most satellite MIMO systems
are realized through adopting polarization
diversity technique. Reference [11] presents a
statistical modeling of dual-polarized MIMO
LMS fading channels and time-series gener-
ation of the proposed MIMO LMS channel
model is provided. But such model did not
imitated Doppler spectrum that the real signal
China Communications March 2017
experienced. On such basis, a dual-satellite dis-
tributed MIMO scheme is studied in [12]. This
model considers the spatial correlation and the
polarization correlation, and then terrestrial
gap fillers are applied to realize the system de-
sign of the hybrid satellite-terrestrial. However,
establishing a distributed MIMO system on
two low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellites is too
difficult, and problems like synchronous cov-
erage and transmission from satellite to earth
need to be considered comprehensively [13].
The appealing gains as well as the occurred
problems and challenges, which obtained by
satellite MIMO systems, generate a further
interest in investigating the applicability of the
same principle in HAP systems. In contrast
with satellite MIMO system, MIMO HAP
system has characteristics of low cost, stable
links between platforms, flexible network
coverage, etc. Reference [14] emphasizes
to analyze adaptive coding and modulation
scheme as well as space and platform diversity
exploiting in order to increase the reliability
of the communication system. And based on
multiple HAP constellations, reference [15]
analyzes the virtual MIMO technique, proving
that the transmit diversity scheme based on
space-time block coding (STBC) can decrease
the link outage and increase the average spec-
tral efficiency. The above research all adopt
spatial diversity technique, and single HAP is
assumed as equipped with one antenna, thus
multiple HAPs should be launched to form
MIMO system. And if single HAP is equipped
with multiple antennas, it will be difficult to
generate a completely independent fading
profile because of the relatively high spatial
correlation. Besides, adopting polarization
diversity can generate two independently or-
thorhombic sub-channels on the polarization
direction. Thus, it only needs single HAP to
consist the MIMO system, which decreases
the space and launching cost greatly. However,
currently study on the polarization diversity of
HAP system is very deficient.
In this paper, a statistical channel model
for dual circularly polarized 22 MIMO HAP
channels is presented. Such model can be real-
44
 ized by separately installing a right-hand and
a left-hand circularly polarized element on the
HAP and the high-speed train. First, the Dop-
pler shift and temporal correlation are consid-
ered. Then, the analysis method for the spatial
correlation of each sub-channel is designed.
And finally, the complete channel modeling
process is presented in this paper. Through
simulation, the influence pattern of the channel
model parameters to the channel capacity is
achieved. Besides, the channel model in this
paper can expand to distributed MIMO HAP
system, whose application field could reach
the communication service of remote areas
and emergency rescue.
II. SYSTEM SCENARIO
The system scenario of this paper is shown in
Fig. 1. A right-hand and a left-hand circularly
polarized element are separately installed on
single HAP. At the same time, two circularly
polarized antennas are also installed on the op-
erational train. Under the above described sit-
uation, MIMO HAP channel can be expressed
by a 22 MIMO channel matrix H=[hij] (i,
j=1,2), where hij is the channel gain between
transmit antenna (polarization) j and receive
antenna (polarization) i. Each channel gain
hij can be expressed as the sum of large-scale
fading part and small-scale fading part , 3.1 Description of temporal
which separately represents shadowing effect
of the LOS path and the multipath diffuse.
HAP
RHCP
LHCP
RHCP
17~22km LHCP
high - speed moving train
Fig. 1 System scenario of a 22 dual polarization MIMO HAP system
45
(1)
In (1), assume the amplitude of the signal
h ij meets the Loo distribution [16]. Where
amplitude meets the logarithmic normal
distribution based on parameters (, ), and
amplitude meets Rayleigh distribution
with MP multipath power.
As the ITU permitted the use of several
frequency bands (including the bands around
2 GHz for IMT-2000) for HAP systems
[17], so the working frequency band is set
as 2GHz in this paper. Train speed is set as
v=300km/h, and the HAP elevation angle is
denoted by . As the distance between HAP
to the ground is relatively low, and transmis-
sion delay is much short, the multipath echoes
are not significantly spread in time. Thus, the
proposed statistical channel model can be
considered as narrowband. Because HAP and
LMS have many similar characters in channel
environment, thus a MIMO HAP channel can
be modeled according to the MIMO LMS
channel model.
III. DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF MIMO
HAP CHANNEL STATISTICAL MODEL
correlation
The fading of signal can be divided into fast
variations, slow variations and very slow
variations these three different rates [18, 19].
And channel fading of different rate could be
imitated by adopting different sampling rate.
Where, parameter lcorr is applied to represent
the direct signal correlation length. That is
to say when the displacement distance at the
receiver is less than lcorr, the received signals
have certain correlation. Typically, correlation
lengths for these slow variations depend on
the size of the objects causing the blockages,
i.e., several meters. In the channel model, the
direct signal slow variations are sampled at
v/lcorr, where v is the constant moving rate at
China Communications March 2017
the receiver. Additionally, the fast variations
are generated with a much higher sampling
rate to take into account of the Doppler band-
width. And the produced uncorrelated samples
are spaced /F meters, where is the wave-
length of the transmission signal and F is set
as 8 in this paper. So this means that spline
interpolation must be applied to the slower
variations to make the sum of the matrices in
formula (1) established [19].
Another approach of analyzing the tempo-
ral correlation of large-scale fading is to let
uncorrelated samples (sampled at Fv/) pass a
low-pass IIR (Innite Impulse Response) filter
of one coefficient [14].
(2)
Where, , T is the equiv-
alent form of sampling interval in the time do-
main, that is T=/Fv. Then the filtered samples
are scaled by (1A2) in order to restore the
statistics of the samples before the filtering.
The very slow variations when a mobile
terminal travels across large-scale propagation
environments are modeled based on a first-or-
der three-state Markov model. In this paper,
three typical environments are selected: the
first state represents the LOS propagation; the
second state denotes the situation, when the
signal is partially shadowed by trees; while
the third state represents the channel which is
completely blocked. And assume lstate models
the minimum state duration of the channel,
which is set as 5m. Besides, statistical parame-
ters of Loo model are assumed constant during
each lstate meters of travelled route. And the
following approach is adopted to imitate the
states (or Loo model parameters) transfer pro-
cess: assume the current state is St and the next
state is St+1, and P (i, j) donates the transition
probability for state i to state j. First, assume
i=1, and variable U which is uniform among
(0, 1) is generated randomly. If variable meets
(3)
Then the state of the next block T is St+1=i.
Otherwise, take i=i+1 into (3) and test again
till it meets the condition. Finally, discrete
state sequence with interval lstate meters is ob-
China Communications March 2017
tained through such approach.
From the above analysis, the Markov chain
is characterized by state probability vector W
and state transition probability matrix P, which
are typically obtained from the real propaga-
tion channel measurement data. In this paper,
the ray tracing approach mentioned in [8] will
be adopted to achieve the vector W and matrix
P. First, the geographic data along the railway
line between Xian and Zhengzhou in China
is selected. Then, assume trees are distributed
randomly along the railway, and import the
longitude and latitude data of the railway to
generate the digital relief model (as shown in
Fig. 2, where the white line represents the rail-
way). The high altitude platform is set to lo-
cate 20km in height at the midpoint of the two
cities. When the train travels along the railway,
if the ray from the train to platform intersects
the earth surface (represented by DRM), the
channel is in block state. And when the ray is
obstructed by the trees along the railway, then
the channel is in shadowed state. And if there
is a clear view of the platform from the train,
then the channel is in the LOS state, Finally,
through statistical calculation, the vector W
and the matrix P under specific geographic
environment are obtained (shown in Table I).
Such approach considers the real influencing
factors, i.e., geographic environment along the
Table I Channel characteristics of three-state markov channel model
Characteristics State probability vector W State transition probability matrix P
Simulated value 0.1896 0.4374 0.3730
railway
Zhengzhou
HAP
Xi an
Fig. 2 Generated digital relief model from Xian to Zhengzhou in China after im-
porting data
46
 railway, height and location of the HAP, to im-
itate precisely the visibility between HAP and
each site along the railway.
Due to the terminals motion, the frequency
spectrum of the actual received signal will
cause Doppler Effect. In this case, a low-
pass low-order Butterworth filter will be used,
which is a quite common assumption in land
mobile satellite channels [18, 19].
(4)
Where, fc is the cutoff frequency and k is
the order of the filter. As the standard devia-
tion of the zero-mean Gaussian random vari-
able will change when it passes the filter, thus
a multiplicative factor, which is proportional
to the inverse of the square root of the filters
energy, needs to be introduced at its output to
compensate for this effect.
In the next step, the phase variations in
the direct signal are introduced. These are as-
sumed to be linearly varying giving rise to a
constant Doppler spectral line. When the train
travels /F meters, constant phase increment is
given by
(5)
Where, and being the relative azimuth,
with respect respectively to the train route and
elevation angles.
3.2 Description of spatial correlation
and polarization correlation
The spatial correlation and polarization cor-
relation of each sub-channel in the dual polar-
ized MIMO channel model will influence the
performance and capability of the MIMO sys-
tem. The cross-polar transmissions (e.g. from
a right-handed circular polarized Tx antenna
to a left-handed circular polarized antenna
Rx antenna) would not exist according to the
ideal situation. But because of the potential
depolarization influence from the environ-
ment during the transmission process, and the
unsatisfactory XPI (cross-polar isolation) of
the transmitting and receiving antennas, the
cross-polar transmissions will exist in practi-
cal situation. Considering a 22 dual polarized
MIMO channel model described in formula
47
(1), if hij (i,j=1,2) represents the gain of the
complex channel, define as the
power gain between polarized antenna i and
polarization antenna j, where E[] donates the
expected value. Then we have:
(1) XPDenv=P11/P12 represents the depolar-
ization caused by the environment;
(2) XPDant,t and XPDant,r represent respec-
tively the depolarization caused the unsatis-
factory XPI of the transmitting and receiving
antennas;
(3) CPR=P 11/P 22 represents the co-polar
ratio, and assume 10log 10CPR=0dB, which
indicates power of the signals traveling along
the two co-polar directions is symmetrical;
(4) and
represent respectively the cross-polar cor-
relation at the transmitting terminal and the
receiving terminal;
(5) and
represent respectively the co-polar correlation
and anti-polar correlation;
(6) For the convenience of analysis and
deduction, two linear auxiliary parame-
ters are defined: and
.
In the following formula, designates the
dual-polarized MIMO channel for co-located
antennas (there are no spatial correlation ef-
fects), that is to say it imitates the polarization
correlation between each sub-channel and
the unbalanced distribution of power during
channel depolarization process. And can be
considered as the sum of the large-scale fad-
ing component ( ) and the small-scale fading
component ( ), which is shown as followed
(6)
Where, Mr and Mt are respectively the ef-
fect of imperfect cross-polar antenna isolation
at the transmitter and receiver in the depolar-
ization process. Mr and Mt can be described as
(7)
China Communications March 2017

(8)
At the same time, matrices and imi-
tate respectively the polarization correlation
between each sub-channel of the large-scale
fading and the small-scale fading, which can
be generated from the following formulas
(9)
(10)
Where vec() denotes the operator which
stacks a matrix into a vector columnwise.
is the 22 channel matrix with polarization
uncorrelated, identically distributed, zero
mean circularly symmetric complex Gaussian
(ZMCSCG) elements of unit variance. is a
22 channel matrix with ZMCSCG elements
of variance MP. And denotes the 44 posi-
tive semi-denite Hermitian covariance matrix
for the large-scale fading components. As the
LOS signal nearly travels the same route to
the receiver in the real environment, thus all
the elements of matrix are close to 1 in the
practical measurement [20]. And the small-
scale polarization covariance matrix is de-
fined by
(11)
A simpler and less general model is ob-
tained through adopting Kronecker model,
which assuming that can be expressed as
(12)
Where the superscript T denotes matrix
transposition, Rt and Rr are, respectively, the
transmit and receive covariance matrices,
and , where the
superscript H denotes matrix conjugate trans-
position, Rt and Rr can be obtained by the fol-
lowing formula
(13)
China Communications March 2017
Thus replacing (10), the polarization cor-
relation of the small-scale fading component
can be described as
(14)
Assume spatial correlation are indepen-
dent of polarization correlation [21], and H22
designates the dual-polarized channel matrix
combining spatial separation and dual polar-
ization, then H22 can be decomposed into
(15)
Where, denotes the Hadamard product
of two square matrices. is defined the same
with (6)matrix S22 designates the spatial
matrix, which represents the spatial correla-
tion generated when transmitting antenna (or
receiving antenna) has certain interval. Then
in the same way, S22 can also be decomposed
into large-scale fading component and
small-scale fading component .
If a 2N2M dual polarization is considered,
the MIMO channel with spatial correlation
needs to be equipped with N and M sub-arrays
at the transmitting terminal and the receiving
terminal respectively. And each sub-array is
identical and is made of two orthogonally
polarized antennas with certain interval. Then
the channel matrix can be described as [22]
(16)
Where, is the Kronecker product of two
matrices, and the covariance of S NM is the
spatial covariance related to the spacing be-
tween the sub-arrays, each sub-array is repre-
sented with H22 as defined in (15).
3.3 Time series generator of 22
MIMO HAP channel
On the basis of the above analysis, a specif-
ic time series generator of 22 MIMO HAP
channel for dual-polarized co-located antennas
will be set up, which can be divided into two
main parts. For part one, four independent
MIMO HAP sub-channel simulation models,
respectively representing two co-polar trans-
mission channels and two cross-polar trans-
48
 mission channels, are set up with the same deviation Gaussian series (sampled at vF/)
approach. And temporal correlation and Dop- in quadrature are passed through a Doppler
pler Shift are taken into consideration in each spread low-pass filter simulating Clarkes
sub-channel. For part two, the polarization spectrum, as shown in (4). After Doppler shap-
correlation and power distribution between ing, the resulting complex series of the small
each sub-channel are analyzed. Below is the scale fading components is multiplied by MP.
specific analysis: On the other hand, the lognormal series
For part one, it can be divided into two generator is as follows: an (dB) mean and
steps, the first step is to make use of DRM to (dB) standard deviation Gaussian series is
imitate the real environment for train travel- generated. These Gaussian series are then low-
ing from Xian to Zhengzhou in China, and pass filtered in order to introduce the temporal
state probability vector W and state transition correlation, as shown in (2). The series are
probability matrix P of the Markov chain are converted to linear units (lognormal distribut-
generated by ray tracing approach. Then, a ed) by computing the antilogarithm, a=10A/20.
discrete state sequence with interval lstate me- In the next step, the phase variations in the
ters is obtained by adopting (3). Such discrete large scale fading components are introduced,
state sequence can be utilized to select the as shown in (5). Finally, the series from the
corresponding parameters of Loo model under two rails (large and small scale fading com-
different states. As the antennas at link ends ponents), can be added up to produce a Loo
are displayed with co-positions, so both polar- distributed time series, as shown in (1).
izations are transmitted via the same link. Thus The process diagram of comprehensive
the four sub-channels can adopt the same dis- MIMO HAP sub-channel simulation model is
crete state sequence [22]. shown in Fig. 3. It completely describes the
The second step is to generate the time se- process for the complex envelope of single-in-
ries of the received signal, which satisfies the put single-output channel model.
Loo distribution. The time series generator of Then for part two, when considering the
the small scale fading components is as fol- polarization correlation of each sub-channel, it
lows [19]: two zero-mean and unit-standard also can be divided into two main steps:

G (0 ,1 ) G (0 ,1 ) G ( , )

(, , MP)
for LOS state
pAA pAB j
pBB Low-pass
LOS State
pBA Shadowed State
wA wB IIR filter
(, , MP)
pAC pCB
(, , MP) for pCA pBC
for each
Shadowed state duration T
A/20
A/20
Blocked State 10
wC Doppler spread
pCC low pass filter
(, , MP) for
Blocked state phase
ray tracing approach

Generate digital elevation model(DEM) of railway

Doppler shift of
MP direct signal

Geographic Latitude and

Distribution of
data along the longitude
trees along the
railway line coordinates of
railway line
railway
complex envelop

Fig. 3 Process diagram of comprehensive MIMO HAP sub-channel simulation model

49 China Communications March 2017

 The first step is to respectively imitate the
polarization correlation of large-scale fading

Channel Fading Components(dB)

0
and small-scale fading through (9) and (14).
But because the antennas at link ends are dis- -1
h11
played with identical positions, so matrix S22 h22
in (15) is 122which means all its elements -2
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
equal to 1. So the influence of its spatial cor- Traveled distance(m)

relation is not taken into account.

Channel Fading Components(dB)

-15
The second step is to imitate the depolariza-
tion influence of the transmission environment -16
h12
as well as the transmitting and receiving an- h21
tennas through the power distribution of each -177
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
sub-channel. Below are the two assumptions: Traveled distance(m)
(a) Open
(1) Assume the XPDant, t of the transmitting
antenna located at the HAP is close to . Thus Channel Fading Components(dB) 0
we only consider the depolarization influence
-2
of the receiving antenna. And XPD ant,r will h11
influence both the large-scale fading and the -4 h22

small-scale fading parts; 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
Traveled distance(m)
(2) The depolarization influence XPD env
Channel Fading Components(dB)

-10
caused by environmental factors will only af-
fects the small-scale fading part.
-20
Based on the above assumptions, a more h12
reasonable power distribution approach is pre- h21
-30
sented by [11]We assumes symmetry of the 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
Traveled distance(m)
co- to cross-polar ratio independently of the (b) Suburban
reference polarization, hence the power of the
Channel Fading Components(dB)

small-scale fading component is given by:

-10
(17) h11
h22
Then the power of the large-scale fading -200
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
component is given by: Traveled distance(m)
Channel Fading Components(dB)

-10

-20

(18) -30 h12

Essentially speaking, such approach chang- -400

h21

es the power ratio of co-polar transmission to 0 200 400 600 800 1000
Traveled distance(m)
1200 1400 1600 1800

cross-polar transmission and realize the imita- (c) Urban

tion of depolarization mechanism.

Fig. 4 Time series generated for 22 MIMO HAP channel

IV. SIMULATED RESULTS AND

DISCUSSION OF MIMO HAP CHANNEL
MODEL
Based on the consolidated statistical channel
model presented above, a snapshot of the time
series generated for a high speed train moving
at 300 km/h in an open rural, suburban and
urban environment is presented in Fig. 4. And
cumulative distribution of the receiving level
under the above three states is shown in Fig.
5. From the figure, it is obvious that the train
experiences three different states, and each

China Communications March 2017 50

 the simulated cross-polar levels hij (ij=1,2)
1
h 12 are lower than the co-polar hij (i=j=1,2) compo-
0.9 h 21 nents. As currently measured data for HAP sys-
Porbability the abscissa is not exceeded
0.8 h 11
tem is very limited, thus in this paper measured
h 22
0.7 data of Loo model for satellite propagation
0.6 channel is applied to the simulation of the HAP
0.5 channel model [23]. The shadowing correlation
0.4 matrix assumed is in line with [20]. Besides,
0.3 other simulation parameters of different envi-
0.2 ronments can be obtained from [11].
0.1 For the MIMO HAP system with Nt trans-
0 mit and Mr receiver antennas. The capacity is
-20
-2 -15 -10 -5 0 5
Signal level (dB/LOS) given by [24]
(a) Open

1
h12
1
h12 (19)
Porbability the abscissa is not exceeded

Porbability the abscissa is not exceeded

0.9 h21 0.9 h21 Where, is the identity matrix of size Mr,
h11 h11
0.8
h22
0.8
h22 is the average signal-to-noise ratio, HH is the
complex transpose of the MIMO channel ma-
0.7 0.7

0.6 0.6
trix, and det() denotes the matrix determinant.
0.5 0.5
For the SISO case, the capacity is given by
0.4 0.4

0.3 0.3
[24]
0.2 0.2 (20)
0.1 0.1 In general, MIMO channels change ran-
0
-30 -20 -10 0
0
-40
-4 -30 -20 -10 0 domly. Therefore, H is a random matrix,
Signal level (dB/LOS) Signal level (dB/LOS)
which means that its channel capacity is also
(b) Suburban (c) Urban
randomly time-varying. Thus a statistical
notion of the channel capacity, i.e., outage
Fig. 5 Cumulative distribution plots of the receiving level for 22 MIMO HAP channel capacity, can be applied to analyze the
channel channel capacity. And the outage probability is
defined as
7
(21)
6 MIMO-XPD ant,r =5dB In other words, the system is said to be in
outage if the decoding error probability cannot
MIMO-XPD ant,r =10dB
MIMO-XPD ant,r =20dB
be made arbitrarily small with the transmission
1% Outage Capacity /bps/Hz

5 SISO

4
rate of R bps/Hz. Then the -outage channel
capacity is defined as the largest possible data
3
rate such that the outage probability in (21) is
2
less than . In other words, it is corresponding
to C such that
1
(22)
0
The results of 1% outage capacity obtained
from Fig. 6 to Fig. 8 suggest a significant
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
SNR/dB

improvement in capacity in a dual polarized

Fig. 6 Simulated results for 1% outage capacity of 22 MIMO HAP channel with
22 MIMO HAP system compared with SISO
the change of XPDant,r (Open environment, =40)
system. In Fig. 6, As XPDant,r increases, the
state can be described by corresponding Loo influence of cross polarization will degrade.
statistical parameters (, , MP). As expected, And as the diagonalization degree of matrix

51 China Communications March 2017

H in (19) enhances, the outage probability of
6
MIMO channel will increases. That is to say,
the outage probability will be reduced and 5
MIMO-=40
MIMO-=60
the quality will be enhanced by increasing SISO-=40

1% Outage Capacity /bps/Hz

SISO-=60
the XPD ant,r of the receiving antenna in the 4

MIMO system. Moreover, Fig. 7 describes

that under suburban environment, the change
3

of 22 MIMO HAP 1% outage capacities with

2
the varying . The outage probability of the
signal decreases with large elevation, and the 1

probability for LOS state becomes even high-

er. Thus, the outage probability for MIMO 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
SNR/dB
channel will be improved. Additionally, the
elevation of HAP is higher with respect to
Fig. 7 Simulated results for 1% outage capacity of 22 MIMO HAP channel with
traditional cellular mobile system, and its the change of (Suburban environment)
channel capacity will be improved greatly.
Fig. 8 indicates that the 1% outage ca-
pacity achieved in an urban environment is 7

much lower than that in open and suburban MIMO-open

6
environments. This is because signals are
MIMO-suburban
MIMO-urban
1% Outage Capacity /bps/Hz

SISO-open
often blocked by high buildings in urban en- 5 SISO-suburban
SISO-urban
vironments, making the outage probability
4
increased. When SNR is 14dB, the SISO 1%
outage capacity for the open, suburban and 3

urban environment is 4.24bps/Hz, 2.68bps/

2
Hz and 0.83bps/Hz respectively, whereas for
the 22 MIMO case, they are 6.90bps/Hz, 1

5.67bps/Hz and 3.08bps/Hz, which increase to 0

2.66bps/Hz, 2.99bps/Hz and 2.25bps/Hz for
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
SNR/dB

each case.
Fig. 8 1% outage capacity for SISO and 22 MIMO HAP channel in the open,
V. CONCLUSION suburban and urban environments (=60)

Considering the stable meteorological con-

covers Xian and Zhengzhou in China. The
ditions and good radio wave transmission
state probability vector and matrix of the state
characteristics of the stratosphere, a novel
transition probability are generated. And the
notion which utilizes the HAP to carry on
time series of the receiving signal during the
multiple-input multiple-output communica-
train high-speed operation is obtained through
tion is presented. In this paper, a statistical
simulation. Besides, useful numerical results
channel model for dual circularly polarized
on the MIMO HAP channel capacity statistics
22 MIMO HAP channels is presented. Such
are also presented illustrating the effect of sev-
model considers both the Doppler shift and
eral critical channel modeling parameters. The
temporal correlation, and presents the analysis
results show that, compared with SISO sys-
method of polarization correlation and spatial
tem, MIMO HAP channel outage capacity has
correlation for each sub-channel. To conquer
been greatly improved under open, suburban
the problem of lacing measured data of HAP
and urban environments.
system, the ray tracing approach is applied
to the generated digital relief model which

China Communications March 2017 52

 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The paper is sponsored by National Natural
Science Foundation of China (No. 91538104,
No. 91438205), China Postdoctoral Science
Foundation (No. 2011M500664).
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Biographies
Mingchuan Yang (1977-), is
currently an associate research-
er of Communication Research
Center Harbin Institute of Tech-
nology, China. He received a
B.Sc. degree in Mechanical En-
gineering from Harbin Institute
of Technology, China, in 2001,
and a M.Sc degree and Ph.D degree in Information
and Communication Engineering from Harbin Insti-
tute of Technology, China, in 2004 and 2010 respec-
tively. His research interests are in the fields of space
information network and mobile propagation chan-
nel modeling, especially mobile satellite and High
Altitude Platforms (HAPs).
Shuo Zhang (1989-), is study
for a doctors degree in Infor-
mation and Communication
Engineering at Harbin Institute
of Technology, China. Her re-
search interests are in the fields
of the Space-time coding and
MIMO technologies of the
combined space information networks.
China Communications March 2017
Xinye Shao (1992-), is study
for a doctors degree in Infor-
mation and Communication
Engineering at Harbin Institute
of Technology, China. His re-
search interests are in the fields
of the interference cancellation
technologies and seamless
handover technologies of the combined satellite-ter-
restrial systems.
Qing Guo (1964-), received
the B.S. Degree in radio engi-
neering from Beijing Institute of
Posts and Telecommunications,
the M.S. and Ph.D. Degrees
from Harbin Institute of Tech-
nology in 1985, 1990 and 1998,
respectively. Currently, he is a
professor, vice dean and Ph.D. supervisor of School
of Electronics and Information Engineering at HIT.
His research interests are in the area of broadband
satellite communication, deep space communication,
multimedia communication, wireless transmission
protocol, QoS and broadband access technologies.
Wenyan Tang (1962-), is cur-
rently a professor of Communi-
cation Research Center Harbin
Institute of Technology, China.
His research interests are in the
fields of Sensors and Signal
Processing.
54