Elevation beamforming with beamspace methods for LTE

Abstract

Recently, there has been interest in extending MIMO processing techniques to exploit the elevation dimension of the multipath channel in addition to the azimuth dimension. In this paper, we explore the use of beamspace methods for creating virtual antenna ports in the vertical direction to enable a base station antenna array to exploit the elevation dimension of the multipath channel. We consider two ways of configuring the vertical antenna array: vertical sectorization, which creates additional sectors in the vertical domain, and vertical beamforming, which simply leverages the additional vertical antenna ports with existing MIMO processing techniques. For Rel-8/10 LTE, we show that both vertical sectorization and vertical beamforming can provide significant gains in the average and cell-edge throughputs, both in full buffer traffic as well as bursty traffic. We also highlight the sensitivity of the results to the specific assumptions of the underlying multipath channel characteristics and other system parameters.

SANSA—hybrid terrestrial–satellite backhaul network: scenarios, use cases, KPIs, architecture, network and physical layer techniques

“…The antenna modelling should include the vertical dimension and the scatterers are supposed to distribute randomly in the 3D space. Therefore, the departure and arrival angles have to be modelled in both horizontal direction and vertical directions .…”

Adaptive Beamspace Processing for Phased-Array Weather Radars

“…Some classical direction-of-arrival estimation methods, such as Multiple Signal Characterization (MUSIC) and Estimation of Signal Parameters by Rotational Invariance Techniques (ESPRIT), have been adapted to operate in beamspace as well [29], [30]. More recently, adaptive beamspace beamforming also has found application in medical imaging [31], [32], sonar [33], communication [34], and radar [35]- [37]. The essential feature of adaptive beamspace processing is the reduction of data dimensionality via preprocessing.…”

Enabling 3D MIMO in LTE-Advanced — From the CSI acquisition perspective

“…It can improve average system performance through the higher gain of the vertical sector patterns. UE-specific elevation beamforming [9]- [11], on the other hand, promises to increase the signal-to-interferenceplus-noise ratio (SINR) by pointing the vertical antenna pattern in the direction of the UE, while spraying less interference to adjacent sectors by virtue of being able to steer the transmitted energy in elevation [12]. Another way of exploiting the elevation dimension of the 3D MIMO system is by highorder MU-MIMO across all antenna ports, both in the azimuth and elevation dimensions.…”