Massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems are key technological components of fifth generation (5G) wireless communication systems. In such a context, geometric considerations show that the largely adopted plane wave model (PWM) of the channel potentially loses its validity. An alternative is to consider the more accurate but more complex spherical wave model (SWM). This paper introduces an intermediate parabolic wave model (ParWM), more accurate than the PWM while less complex than the SWM. The validity domains of those three physical models are assessed and estimation algorithms for the SWM and ParWM are proposed, showing a promising performance complexity trade-off.