A novel proposal for implementing massive MIMO and user and control plane decoupling with UPWARC

Abstract

Implementing mmWave Massive MIMO in high speed mobility scenarios is challenging. Due to the rapidly time-variant or non-stationary channel characteristics the channel coefficients change drastically within a short period of time. To achieve desired performance levels with regards to spectral efficiency and reliability in such time-variant networks, Massive MIMO has become one of the most important candidates for realizing next-generation networks. High Speed Trains (HST), additionally, require a robust long-term architecture to ensure forward compatibility. Therefore, User Plane Wireless Adaptable Reliable Communication (UPWARC) focuses on designing a future proof network architecture for high speed mobile time-variant networks. The proposed architecture realizes a similar performance of Massive MIMO with lower number of antennas and is shown to perform similar or better at higher speeds. Our UPWARC architecture leverages the creation of delayed Massive MIMO using existing Base Station antennas and on-roof train antennas. The concepts of logical cells and sectors are also defined for precise location service-aided HST network planning with UPWARC. The simualtion of UPWARC has shown that a higher number of sectors in a logical cell leads to higher spectral efficiency, on par with that of Massive MIMO.