Wireless Channel Modeling for Machine Learning -- A Critical View on Standardized Channel Models

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Böck, Benedikt, Kasibovic, Amar, Utschick, Wolfgang
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Böck, Benedikt
Kasibovic, Amar
Utschick, Wolfgang
author_facet Böck, Benedikt
Kasibovic, Amar
Utschick, Wolfgang
contents Standardized (link-level) channel models such as the 3GPP TDL and CDL models are frequently used to evaluate machine learning (ML)-based physical-layer methods. However, in this work, we argue that a link-level perspective incorporates limiting assumptions, causing unwanted distributional shifts or necessitating impractical online training. An additional drawback is that this perspective leads to (near-)Gaussian channel characteristics. Thus, ML-based models, trained on link-level channel data, do not outperform classical approaches for a variety of physical-layer applications. Particularly, we demonstrate the optimality of simple linear methods for channel compression, estimation, and modeling, revealing the unsuitability of link-level channel models for evaluating ML models. On the upside, adopting a scenario-level perspective offers a solution to this problem and unlocks the relative gains enabled by ML.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_12279
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Wireless Channel Modeling for Machine Learning -- A Critical View on Standardized Channel Models
Böck, Benedikt
Kasibovic, Amar
Utschick, Wolfgang
Signal Processing
Standardized (link-level) channel models such as the 3GPP TDL and CDL models are frequently used to evaluate machine learning (ML)-based physical-layer methods. However, in this work, we argue that a link-level perspective incorporates limiting assumptions, causing unwanted distributional shifts or necessitating impractical online training. An additional drawback is that this perspective leads to (near-)Gaussian channel characteristics. Thus, ML-based models, trained on link-level channel data, do not outperform classical approaches for a variety of physical-layer applications. Particularly, we demonstrate the optimality of simple linear methods for channel compression, estimation, and modeling, revealing the unsuitability of link-level channel models for evaluating ML models. On the upside, adopting a scenario-level perspective offers a solution to this problem and unlocks the relative gains enabled by ML.
title Wireless Channel Modeling for Machine Learning -- A Critical View on Standardized Channel Models
topic Signal Processing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.12279