Achieving 3D-MIMO With Massive Antennas From Theory to Practice With Evaluation and Field Trial Results

Abstract

Exploiting multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) techniques by using massive antennas can significantly improve the capacity and reliability of wireless systems and has been considered as one key technique in future fifth-generation mobile communications system. Considering the limitation of antenna panel size, placing the massive antennas in 2-D grid is an effective way for its commercialization, which is termed as “3D-MIMO.” In this paper, we study the performance of 3D-MIMO with massive antennas by system-level simulation using practical assumption and 3-D channel model and test the 3D-MIMO in field trial with commercial terminal and networks. In addition, we compare the system-level simulation results and the field trial test measurements. Our system-level simulation results show that the 3D-MIMO with 64 antennas can significantly improve the performance with 56% and 147% gain on cell-average and cell-edge throughputs compared with 2D-MIMO. We perform field trial to test the 3D-MIMO, and the results verify its performance gain obtained by simulation. Furthermore, the measurement in typical high-rise scenario shows that the 3D-MIMO can significantly enhance the data rate of users located at higher floors due to the capability of flexible elevation beamforming.