Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication technology, in which multiple antennas are jointly used for data transmission and/or reception, has been identified as a key approach to achieve the unprecedented data throughput in some advanced wireless systems such as Third Generation Partnership Project Long Term Evolution-Advanced (3GPP LTE-A) and IEEE 802.11ad. In classic MIMO-related research and development, antenna arrays consisting of only two, four, or eight logical antenna ports (for baseband processing) are usually considered due to complexity and cost issues. For instance, 3GPP LTE-A can support up to eight antenna ports for downlink transmission since Release 10. Recently, a new paradigm dubbed massive MIMO [1] has emerged, and it promises tremendous benefits by using a very large number of antenna ports for downlink data transmission. In particular, high array gains can be attained by narrow beams generated via massive MIMO, which potentially boosts the link quality for the targeted receiver and reduces interference to the other nearby users. Moreover, multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) can be applied in a more efficient manner with a large antenna array, as more users can be jointly served in the same radio resource through spatial division.
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