5G Americas White Paper: Advanced Antenna Systems for 5G – 2019 1
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- Table of Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 3 2. Challenges Addressed by 5G Antenna Methods ...................................................................................... 3 3. Review of 4G Antennas ............................................................................................................................ 4 4. Current Enhancements to the Antenna Side of the Network .................................................................... 5 4.1 What 5G Promises and How Antennas Will Get Us There ................................................................. 5 4.2 Spectrum Extension (Sub-6 GHz and mmWave) ................................................................................ 6 4.3 Active Antennas ................................................................................................................................... 6 4.4 Network Deployment and Densification .............................................................................................. 7 5. Multi-Element Array Antenna .................................................................................................................... 7 5.1 Antenna Technology Fundamentals and Challenges ......................................................................... 7 5.2 Array Theory – Grating lobes .............................................................................................................. 9 5.3 One and Two-Dimensional Beamforming Examples ........................................................................ 11 6. Spatial Processing Methods and Functionality - Advanced Antenna System (BF, SU-, MU-MIMO) ..... 14 6.1 Spatial Processing Techniques ......................................................................................................... 14 6.1.1 MU-MIMO versus SU-MIMO ....................................................................................................... 15 6.1.2 FD (Full Dimensional) MIMO ...................................................................................................... 17 7. Antenna Array Structure for One and Two-Dimensional Beamforming .................................................. 17 8. Active Antennas versus Passive Antennas ............................................................................................. 19 8.1 How mMIMO and mmWave Causes the Shift from RRH to Integrated Antenna .............................. 19 9. Differences Between Active and Passive Antennas ............................................................................... 21 9.1 Structure (Hardware) and Function ................................................................................................... 21 9.2 Active and Passive Antennas Testing ............................................................................................... 25 10. Trade-Offs for Massive MIMO Antenna ................................................................................................ 27 10.1 Massive MIMO in TDD .................................................................................................................... 28 10.2 Massive MIMO in FDD .................................................................................................................... 29 11. 5G Support for Further Spatial Processing Enhancements .................................................................. 29 5G Americas White Paper: Advanced Antenna Systems for 5G – 2019 1 11.1 Channel Knowledge ........................................................................................................................ 29 12. Spectrum Considerations ...................................................................................................................... 31 12.1 FR1, FR2 and US Spectrum Allocation ........................................................................................... 31 12.2 Analog, Digital and Hybrid Beamforming Architectures .................................................................. 34 12.2.1 Beamforming Architecture Highlights and Use Cases .............................................................. 36 12.3 Path Loss Above 6 GHz (Rain, Foliage) ......................................................................................... 37 12.4 Beamforming for mmWave Antennas ............................................................................................. 39 13. Beam Management ............................................................................................................................... 39 13.1 Initial Beam Acquisition ................................................................................................................... 40 13.2 Beam Switching/Recovery .............................................................................................................. 41 13.3 Beam Refinement ............................................................................................................................ 43 14. Performance of AAS Features and Deployment Scenarios .................................................................. 44 14.1 Feature Performance....................................................................................................................... 45 14.2 Multi-Carrier Deployment Scenario ................................................................................................. 48 15. AAS in Different Deployment Scenarios ............................................................................................... 49 15.1 Deployment Scenario: Dense Urban High-Rise .............................................................................. 49 15.1.1 Urban High-Rise Macrocell ....................................................................................................... 50 15.1.2 Urban High-Rise Street Macro .................................................................................................. 50 15.1.3 Urban High-Rise In-Building ..................................................................................................... 50 15.2 Deployment Scenario – Urban Low-Rise ........................................................................................ 51 15.3 Deployment Scenario – Suburban and Rural .................................................................................. 51 15.4 Deployment Scenario – Rural and FWA ......................................................................................... 51 15.5 AAS Deployment Configuration Choices ........................................................................................ 53 16. Summary and Conclusions ................................................................................................................... 54 Appendix ..................................................................................................................................................... 55 A. Definitions and Acronyms ................................................................................................................... 55 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................................... 58 5G Americas White Paper: Advanced Antenna Systems for 5G – 2019 2 1. INTRODUCTION As the demand for throughput, improved user experience and ubiquitous coverage from consumers and corporations continues to grow, operators are quickly improving and expanding coverage and capacity in their wireless network in a cost-effective way. Recent technology developments have made advanced antenna systems (AASs) a viable option for large scale deployments in existing 4G and 5G mobile networks. AASs enable state-of-the-art beamforming and multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) techniques that are powerful tools for improving end-user experience, capacity and coverage. These advances have brought mmWave communications, untenable almost two decades 1 ago, to manageable today. AAS significantly enhances network performance in both uplink and downlink. Finding the most suitable AAS variants to achieve performance gains and cost efficiency in a specific network deployment requires an understanding of the characteristics of both AAS and of multi-antenna features. The goal of this paper is to clarify why AAS is being commercialized now, to describe AAS and how it works, and to explain the relevant complexity/performance drivers. Finally, this paper examines how AAS is used in real deployments, for both sub-6 GHz and mmWave, and which AAS parameters impact performance in different environments. The paper is organized into six broad sections, Introduction being the first one. The second section of this paper is titled as Challenges Addressed by 5G Antenna Methods, which will review how passive antennas, MIMO and beamforming are used today. The technology and challenges in the network are discussed as well as two examples on how grating lobes can impact performance. The next section, Review of 4G Antennas, highlights passive versus active antennas and why a tighter integration of RF electronics and antennas is necessary for massive MIMO (mMIMO) and mmWave antennas. This will highlight how this integration makes antenna testing more complex. Certain trade-offs of different MIMO antennas that are considered are highlighted. The fourth section, Current Enhancements to the Antenna