Single- and multiple-RF load controlled parasitic antenna arrays operating at Cm-wave frequencies: Design and applications for 5G wireless access / backhaul

Abstract

MIMO technology is expected to play a key role in the endeavour to reach the capacity target of 5G systems, in conjunction with the use of frequencies above 6 GHz. This communication paradigm is anticipated to be utilised also in the wireless backhaul domain, in order to meet the high capacity requirements of the future wireless transport networks. The performance of the considered MIMO transmission methods is determined by the number of antennas that can be deployed on the transmitting nodes, which in turn is limited by cost and energy consumption constraints. Load controlled parasitic antenna arrays represent a type of antenna systems which are able to boost the performance of these communication schemes, while employing a small number of antennas. In this paper, we present the design of single- and multiple-fed parasitic antenna arrays operating at the 19 GHz frequency band. Moreover, we describe a simple and robust technique that allows us to perform arbitrary channel-dependent precoding with such arrays. Furthermore, we study a low-complexity communication protocol that can be applied to setups that are equipped with such antenna systems and used in low-mobility scenarios, such as wireless backhaul applications. The numerical simulation results showcase the validity of these approaches for both wireless access and backhaul applications and demonstrate the superiority of the parasitic antenna arrays over equivalent, regarding the number of their antenna elements, antenna systems.