UE Antenna Properties and Their Influence on Massive MIMO System Performance

• The use of large-scale antenna arrays can bring substantial improvements both in energy and spectral efficiency. This paper presents an initial study of user equipment (UE) antenna performance based on prototypes for a massive MIMO test bed. Most publications in the massive MIMO area have assumed isotropic or dipole antenna behavior at the UE side. It is, however, of greatest interest to evaluate the impact of realistic antenna implementations and user loading on such systems. Antennas are integrated into realistic UE form factors. Simulations are carried out to evaluate system performance using the UE antenna behavior measured in a Satimo StarGate 64. Comparisons are made with ideal isotropic un-correlated antennas. The presented UEs are designed for the 3.7 GHz band used by the LuMaMi massive MIMO test bed at Lund University.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Elektroteknik och elektronik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

antenna

antenna pattern

channel interaction

massive MIMO

measurement

system performance

Publication and Content Type

kon (subject category)

ref (subject category)