World record in 5G wireless spectrum efficiency set
Using a flexible prototyping platform from NI based on LabVIEW system design software and PXI hardware, the Bristol configuration implements Massive MIMO, where 128 antennas are deployed at the base station. This is in contrast to the standard MIMO used today based on up to four antennas at a base station.
The hardware behind this demonstration was provided to Bristol University as part of the Bristol Is Open programmable city infrastructure. Lund University has a similar setup, the LuMaMi testbed, enabling researchers at both sites to work in parallel with their development.
Bristol’s Massive MIMO system used for the demo operates at a carrier frequency of 3.5 GHz and supports simultaneous wireless connectivity to up to 12 single antenna clients. Each client shares a common 20 MHz radio channel. Complex digital signal processing algorithms unravel the individual data streams in the space domain seen by the antenna array.
The Massive MIMO demonstration was conducted in the atrium of Bristol’s Merchant Venturers Building and achieved an unprecedented bandwidth efficiency of 79.4 bit/s/Hz. This equates to a sum rate throughput of 1.59 Gbit/s in a 20 MHz channel.
Professor Andrew Nix, Head of the CSN Group and Dean of Engineering, said: “This activity reinforces our well established propagation and system modelling work by offering a new capability in model validation for Massive MIMO architectures.”
Ove Edfors, Professor of Radio Systems at Lund University says: “We see massive MIMO as the most promising 5G technology and we have pushed it forward together with partners in Bristol and in our EU project MAMMOET.”
James Kimery, Director of RF Research and SDR Marketing at NI, commented: “This Massive MIMO reference design system demonstrates the power and productivity researchers can achieve with NI tools and technologies.”
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :
