Design and Implementation of a 5G NR Transmitter With Wi-Fi Coexistence by Beamforming and Power Control

Abstract

Telecom operators are under pressure to provide more spectrum resources to meet the increasing demand for high-throughput mobile communications. To achieve this, they have focused on unlicensed frequency bands, but the coexistence of 5G signals with other communication systems on these bands poses a challenge. To address this, beamforming technology has been introduced to reduce interference in space and enable independent demodulation of 5G and Wi-Fi signals. This paper implements a 5G base station (BS) prototype with an eight-antenna beamforming hardware transmitter, which concentrates the transmitted energy on individual 5G receivers while reducing the signal's impact on Wi-Fi receivers. Angle of arrival estimation and power control mechanisms are also integrated to enhance the efficiency of the solution. To verify the system coexistence, software-defined radio is used to realize 5G and Wi-Fi receivers. The proposed solution is demonstrated via over-the-air experiments to perform reliable transmission to multiple 5G receivers without interrupting Wi-Fi traffic on the same frequency band. The beamformer can also adjust its spatial profile and power level through environment-sensing functions built into the BS prototype. The proposed power control method delivers improved 5G transmitter and Wi-Fi transmitter energy performance by 50% and 51%, respectively.