Enabling multi-service radio access networks with Massive MIMO

Wireless connectivity is currently considered a de-facto capability, enabling people and machines to communicate. Range of applications supported by such Radio Access Networks (RAN) ranges from voice and video calling, content streaming services, banking, cloud data storage, navigation and many more. The volume of data carried by cellular networks delivering the connectivity for such applications grows approximately by 40% every year, which means the data traffic approximately doubles every two years, according to Ofcom.

Research and development effort within industry and academia has been focussed on technologies capable of meeting this growing demand for capacity, delivering innovations in digital signal processing, computer science, optical transmission, circuitry, and antenna technology. Spectral efficiency, which is the amount of information that can be carried in a radio channel, has been the key focus for such inter-disciplinary effort since radio spectrum is a scarce resource and has to be used efficiently. Active Antenna Systems (AAS, also referred to as Massive MIMO) is the latest generation of base station technology for mobile networks delivering increased spectral efficiency by combining innovations and experience from multiple disciplines. AAS are already being rolled out as part of 5G network deployments globally and will continue to play a key role in future generations of mobile networks. However, in order for investment in mobile networks to be viable, more services need to be able to use mobile network efficiently, calling for support for multiple services to be concurrently delivered over the same cellular infrastructure. Practical potential of AAS to concurrently deliver multiple services is the focus of the original FLF.

Sustainability has emerged as a key theme in recent years with a view to reduce carbon emissions by a substantial amount to help reverse the negative impact of industrialisation on the climate. In mobile networks this has...