Topic: Can commercial technologies such as Massive MIMO achieve a 5G vision?

However, achieving the future of 5G is not easy. Although 5G mobile communication technology is in full swing, the industry still faces many problems such as the lack of standards and the lack of global consensus on spectrum utilization. In addition, there are still challenges in prototyping in 5G research. Eric Starkloff, executive vice president of global business and marketing at NI, pointed out in his interview that "the previous research was entirely in software and could not be verified or accurately performed in the real world." Forecasts, especially complex systems like massive multiple input multiple output (Massive MIMO), millimeter wave (mmW) - and these are important foundations for implementing 5G."

To overcome the system and technology challenges posed by 5G, Kimery noted that NI is currently working with partners in the ecosystem to “accelerate the feasibility of research by prototyping research and validating performance in real-world environments.” It is where software-defined radio (SDR) comes into play."

For SDR, Matt Ettus, founder and president of NI's subsidiary Ettus Research, talked about the currently proposed 5G spectrum technology, Massive MIMO. Building a Massive MIMO prototyping platform using an SDR-based architecture will help wireless communications research as quickly as possible to understand the impact of spectrum efficiency on real 5G systems.

For example, a recent collaborative study between the University of Bristol and Lund University used the NI MIMO Application facility to demonstrate the ability of Massive MIMO to achieve a 5G vision.

Note: Massive MIMO technology uses a large number of antennas in the base station and synchronizes them through the spatial domain, which greatly improves spectrum efficiency and energy efficiency.

Lund University professor Ove Edfors explained, "Massive MIMO opens up a new direction for wireless communication. When traditional systems use time or frequency domain for resource sharing between different users, Massive MIMO imports a spatial domain. The way is to use a large number of antennas in the base station and to synchronize them, so that it can achieve several times the gain in spectrum efficiency and energy efficiency." He also stressed that combined with NI USRP and PXI systems The implementation of distributed clock synchronization is even more critical for Massive MIMO.

In a joint study between the University of Bristol and Lund University, the multinational research team used a 128-antenna test platform to provide instant service to 22 users on a single 20MHz wireless channel. The results of this study surpassed all previous spectral efficiency records - up to 145.6 bits/s/Hz (LTE can achieve a spectral efficiency of 14-16 bits/s/Hz) and an aggregate data rate of 1.59 Gbps.

Note: Researchers test 128 antenna arrays in the anechoic chamber of the University of Bristol, UK

Andrew Nix, Dean of the School of Engineering at the University of Bristol, UK, stressed, “By the record in spectrum efficiency – 5G offers 20 times higher spectral efficiency than 4G and provides more LTE networks in the same spectrum. 20 times higher data throughput, proving that massive MIMO can be used as an alternative technology for 5G."

Next, researchers will launch more real-world tests of Massive MIMO through NI's platform. The University of Bristol will deploy the Massive MIMO test platform in the city and connect to the fiber network, and it is expected that further testing will further confirm the technology's ability to achieve the 5G vision.