Sub-6GHz MIMO Channel Sounding Dataset

Dataset Overview

This dataset was collected by the Radio Signal Processing Laboratory at Niigata University as part of drive measurement campaigns in urban macro-cell (UMa) and micro-cell (UMi) environments in Yokohama City, Japan. Four routes (R3, R4, R5, R6) were driven across three distinct areas: Yuraku, NTTCom, and World Porters (WP).

Each drive covers 3,000 measurement points (sample period: 0.512 s) with co-located 360° panoramic photos (every 10 s, ~150 pcs per route). Valid samples are selected based on vehicle motion, TX field-of-view, and power threshold criteria.

Measurement Setup

Measurement Campaigns

Google Earth

Measurement Method

Channel measurements were performed using a custom-built 8×8 full-array MIMO channel sounder capable of simultaneous dual-band operation at 2.4 GHz and 4.8 GHz. The system was designed for drive measurements (mobile receiver mounted on a vehicle), enabling large-scale data collection across urban environments.

Channel Sounder System

FDM+STDM Hybrid Multiplexing

The 8×8 MIMO channel matrix is sounded using a hybrid FDM+STDM (Frequency Division Multiplexing + Space-Time Division Multiplexing) scheme [Kim et al., 2012]. Within each 4-antenna unit, the four TX signals occupy different sub-bands (FDM). The two 4-element units are then switched sequentially via STDM with orthonormal beamforming weights, completing a full 8×8 channel measurement in a single 100 μs symbol duration — fast enough for continuous drive measurement.

FDM+STDM hybrid multiplexing: two TX units (Utx1/Utx2) are switched via TDM with orthonormal beamforming weights, each carrying 4 FDM sub-channels. One full frame measures the complete 8×8 MIMO channel.

Back-to-Back Calibration

A back-to-back (B2B) calibration procedure is applied to eliminate the frequency-dependent transfer characteristics of the TX and RX hardware chains. The calibration response — measured by connecting TX and RX directly — is divided out of each measured transfer function, yielding calibrated channel frequency responses.

Channel Sounder Hardware

TX and RX racks of the 8×8 MIMO channel sounder with 8-element UCA and ULA array antennas for 2.4 GHz and 4.8 GHz bands.

BS Installation (Yokohama)

Panoramic view from the BS rooftop installation (Yokohama city). The 8-element ULA antenna was mounted at building heights of 33–34 m (UMa) and 3 m (UMi).

Citation

If you use this dataset in your research, please cite the following paper:

@article{tsukada2025millimeter,
  author  = {Tsukada, Hibiki and Suzuki, Naoya and
             Bag, Banibrata and Takahashi, Riku and
             Kim, Minseok},
  title   = {{Millimeter-Wave Urban Cellular Channel
             Characterization and Recipe for
             High-Precision Site-Specific Channel
             Simulation}},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology},
  volume  = {74},
  number  = {3},
  pages   = {3598--3612},
  year    = {2025},
  doi     = {10.1109/TVT.2024.3492719}
}

@article{calist2025bridging,
  author  = {Calist, Inocent and Kim, Minseok},
  title   = {{Bridging FR1 to FR3: Urban Channel
             Parameterization Anchored at 4.85 GHz
             and Literature-Referenced Cross-Band
             Trends}},
  journal = {arXiv preprint},
  year    = {2025},
  eprint  = {2512.00707},
  url     = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.00707}
}

@article{zhang2026environment,
  author  = {Zhang, Xuejian and He, Ruisi and
             Kim, Minseok and Calist, Inocent and
             Yang, Mi and Qi, Ziyi},
  title   = {{Environment-Aware Channel Prediction
             for Vehicular Communications: A
             Multimodal Visual Feature Fusion
             Framework}},
  journal = {arXiv preprint},
  year    = {2026},
  eprint  = {2604.02396},
  url     = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.02396}
}

@article{kim2012novel,
  author  = {Kim, Minseok and Takada, Jun-ichi and
             Konishi, Yasuyuki},
  title   = {{Novel Scalable MIMO Channel Sounding
             Technique and Measurement Accuracy
             Evaluation with Transceiver Impairments}},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation
             and Measurement},
  volume  = {61},
  number  = {12},
  pages   = {3185--3197},
  year    = {2012},
  doi     = {10.1109/TIM.2012.2205492}
}

Related Publications

• arXiv 2025
  I. Calist, M. Kim, "Bridging FR1 to FR3: Urban Channel Parameterization Anchored at 4.85 GHz and Literature-Referenced Cross-Band Trends," arXiv:2512.00707, Nov. 2025.
  arXiv Link
• arXiv 2026
  X. Zhang, R. He, M. Kim, I. Calist, M. Yang, Z. Qi, "Environment-Aware Channel Prediction for Vehicular Communications: A Multimodal Visual Feature Fusion Framework," arXiv:2604.02396, Apr. 2026.
  arXiv Link
• IEEE TVT 2025
  H. Tsukada, N. Suzuki, B. Bag, R. Takahashi, M. Kim, "Millimeter-Wave Urban Cellular Channel Characterization and Recipe for High-Precision Site-Specific Channel Simulation," IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol., vol. 74, no. 3, pp. 3598–3612, Mar. 2025.
  DOI Link
• IEEE TIM 2012
  M. Kim, J. Takada, Y. Konishi, "Novel Scalable MIMO Channel Sounding Technique and Measurement Accuracy Evaluation with Transceiver Impairments," IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas., vol. 61, no. 12, pp. 3185–3197, Dec. 2012.
  DOI Link