Development Challenges of Millimeter‐Wave 5G Beamformers

Abstract

Beamforming is the central concept that can make millimetre-wave (mmWave) a viable solution by solving challenges of link-budget, cost, power, form factor, complexity, regulatory constraint and so on. Before deployment of mmWave beamforming solution for 5G, and possibly beyond, several fundamental questions need to be answered. Some of them include hardware constraints, performance matrices, realistic propagation channel models including impairments due to obstacles such as body, blockages due to casings, phase noise, a model for Spatial-temporal variations in channels, and advanced MIMO techniques for multi-carrier and multi-user communications. The site constraints and massive non-line-of-sight transmission within the urban environment are severely questioning the conventional terrestrial low power node deployments that used to work well at low operational frequencies (sub-6 GHz). In addition to this, in beamforming technology using massive antenna arrays, the coordination of the users and beams at the transmitter and receiver end within a large network are very challenging. In this study, we comprehensively investigate some of the most prominent and best practice solutions that attempted to answer these challenging questions.

Limited Feedback Based on Hybrid Beamforming for Outdoor Environments Towards 5G Networks

“…The 5G is becoming a reality after deploying it by some of the main cities in the world. Millimeter-wave (mm-wave) communications play a crucial role in the 5G networks owing to its enormous available bandwidth [4]. Recent studies have confirmed a need for a fundamental change in the system architecture and radio technology to fulfill 5G goals [5,6].…”

Design of high gain base station antenna array for mm-wave cellular communication systems

“…10 Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar 25000, Pakistan. 11 Department of Electric, Electronic and Communication Engineering and the Institute of Smart Cities, Public University of Navarre, 31006 Pamplona, Spain. 12 Tecnologico de Monterrey, School of Engineering and Sciences, 64849 Monterrey, Mexico.…”

“…Consequently, the number of antennas required needs to be increased. This increases the associated electronics with each antenna elements making the overall array very expensive compared to its lower frequency counterpart 11 .…”