Massive MIMO Nokia Massive MIMO enables 5G-like user experiences Executive Summary
Focus on high spectral efficiency Licensed spectrum, especially below 3.5 GHz, is a limited resource in a world of seemingly unlimited demand for mobile broadband services. The need to improve spectral efficiency is putting mobile broadband technology at the focal point of efforts to squeeze more capacity from existing frequencies. Leading these developments is massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) technology, which is set to deliver a step-change in mobile broadband performance. Massive MIMO substantially increases spectral efficiency to boost capacity and coverage, enabling operators to meet the needs of existing subscribers and helping them to win new enterprise and public safety customers. Often seen as a future technology to support 5G networks, Nokia is making massive MIMO available for deployment with LTE. Using existing spectrum and base station sites, Nokia AirScale massive MIMO Adaptive Antenna delivers far more capacity than conventional antennas and radios. Powered by AirScale, massive MIMO is a basic building block of Nokia 4.9G, which will take LTE network performance to near 5G levels to ensure service continuity as 5G is rolled out. 4.9G is also a viable technology for operators without the spectrum for early 5G deployment. Many streams create large data flows Massive MIMO extends conventional MIMO antenna technology used today. MIMO typically uses two transmit and two receive antenna elements to run two parallel streams of data between the base station and device, doubling the capacity. Massive MIMO goes further, using many simultaneous transmit and receive streams controlled by advanced software to create much higher network capacity. AirScale massive MIMO Adaptive Antenna deploys 64 transmit and 64 receive streams to deliver up to five times more network capacity and wider coverage. Massive MIMO also enhances beamforming. 3D, or Full Dimension (FD), beamforming increases hotspot capacity and improves indoor penetration, while also providing extended coverage. All of which means operators can avoid the need for network densification involving the costly building of new base station sites. In future 5G deployments, massive MIMO will enable new high frequency bands that typically suffer high propagation path losses to deliver similar coverage as lower frequencies. Once again the need to build many more new sites will be reduced. AirScale Base Stations are 5G ready, deliver Single RAN for FDD and TDD, offer market-leading throughput per system module, which handles baseband and control, and includes fronthaul and backhaul interfaces. More baseband capacity can be implemented by simply chaining together more system modules. Furthermore, AirScale Base Station can take advantage of additional baseband capacity available from AirScale Cloud RAN for unlimited scalability. Page 2
Massive MIMO achieves significantly increased throughput and capacity by using many antenna elements to create simultaneous data streams to a large number of users Powerful performance on the path to 5G Yet operators do not need to wait for the deployment of 5G to take advantage of these benefits. AirScale massive MIMO Adaptive Antenna with 3D beamforming works with existing 3GPP Release 9 devices on LTE TDD networks and with devices complying with 3GPP Release 13 devices on LTE FDD networks. No additional spectrum is needed and existing base station sites can be used. All that s needed is an upgrade of AirScale Radio Access and software for massive MIMO. AirScale massive MIMO Adaptive Antennas are the most compact available, include the radio and are around half the height of conventional 8T8R LTE antennas. This simplifies deployment on crowded sites and in dense urban areas, reduces wind loading and cuts the cost of installation. And being part of the Nokia AirScale family, low energy consumption and operational costs are assured. Nokia AirScale MIMO and beamforming capabilities are based on decades of antenna development by Nokia. Nokia Bell Labs invented massive MIMO that could deliver a system efficiency of up to 4500 bps/hz. With massive MIMO, operators now have a powerful new tool to boost capacity using their precious spectrum resources to meet the relentless growth in demand for mobile broadband. Page 3
AirScale massive MIMO Antenna with 3D beamforming software has been shown to deliver upload throughput gains of up to eight-fold compared to 8T8R antennas Nokia has launched multiple hardware and software features for Massive MIMO. Hardware features include: Nokia AirScale System Module, Nokia AirScale Massive MIMO Adaptive Antenna with multiple variants for several bands including Band 38, 40, 41, and 42. Software features include: Massive MIMO, MU-MIMO Massive MIMO, 16 Layer Massive MIMO, and Massive MIMO with CA. Massive MIMO proven in practice Nokia and Sprint have jointly proven the benefits of massive MIMO, with Sprint becoming first U.S. operator to demonstrate massive MIMO for TDD-LTE spectrum with 64T64R, for both the downlink and uplink on an existing LTE frequency. Using AirScale massive MIMO Adaptive Antenna and Nokia 3D Beamforming software, the showcase delivered throughput gains of up to eight-fold in the uplink and five-fold on the downlink. Eight commercially available devices operating on Sprint's 2.5 GHz TDD-LTE band 41 spectrum were used. Find out more about Nokia Massive MIMO. Please see our website and contact your local Nokia representative. Page 4
Nokia is a registered trademark of Nokia Corporation. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks or trade names of their respective owners. Nokia Oyj Karaportti 3 FI-02610 Espoo Finland Tel. +358 (0) 10 44 88 000 Product code SR1801021430EN (January) Nokia 2018 Page 5