  Communication at mmWave frequencies is one of the major innovations of the
fifth generation of cellular networks, because of the potential multi-gigabit
data rate given by the large amounts of available bandwidth. The mmWave
channel, however, makes reliable communications particularly challenging, given
the harsh propagation environment and the sensitivity to blockage. Therefore,
proper modeling of the mmWave channel is fundamental for accurate results in
system simulations of mmWave cellular networks. Nonetheless, complex models,
such as the 3GPP channel model for frequencies above 6 GHz, may introduce a
significant overhead in terms of computational complexity. In this paper we
investigate the trade offs related to the accuracy and the simplicity of the
channel model in end-to-end network simulations, and the impact on the
performance evaluation of transport protocols.
