Stochastic Fading Channel Models with Multiple Dominant Specular Components for 5G and Beyond

Abstract: We introduce a comprehensive statistical characterization of the multipath wireless channel built as a superposition of a number of scattered waves with random phases. We consider an arbitrary number $N$ of specular (dominant) components plus other diffusely propagating waves. Our approach covers the cases on which the specular components have constant amplitudes, as well as when these components experience random fluctuations. These propagation scenarios are found in different use cases of 5G networks, as well as in the context of large intelligent surface based communications. We show that this class of fading models can be expressed in terms of a continuous mixture of an underlying Rician (or Rician shadowed) fading model, averaged over the phase distributions of the specular waves. It is shown that the fluctuations of the specular components have a detrimental impact on performance, and the best performance is obtained when there is only one specular component.