Massive MIMO-Based Network Planning and Performance Evaluation for High Speed Broadband Connection in Rural Areas of Tanzania

Abstract

The need for high speed broadband connection in rural areas is inevitable since services like e-governance, virtual classrooms, telemedicine, video-on-demand, home entertainment, etc. are needed. However, in order to provide broadband services, service providers must incur high deployment costs and wait for long time for return on investments. Thus, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) with its favorable propagation phenomenon can be exploited as an alternative to boost signal coverage in rural areas while providing high speed broadband connection. In this chapter, planning and performance evaluation for massive MIMO network has been conducted for rural areas in Tanzania. Infovista and MATLAB tools were used for network simulation. The results show that massive MIMO network at 5MHz bandwidth performs better in terms of RSRP and SINRu when compared to 10 MHz and 20MHz channel bandwidths.

Performance Comparison between Massive MIMO Based Network and Conventional LTE Network for High Speed Broadband Connection in Rural Areas of Tanzania

“…In addition, massive MIMO has a potential to boost the coverage through a favorable propagation phenomenon [9]. Favorable propagation inherent in massive MIMO were exploited by Tchao et al [10] to reduce the number of cells proposed by Yogapratama et al [5] by deploying large cells. It is evident that a massive MIMO based network can bring down the cost via bandwidth and cell reduction.…”

“…It is evident that a massive MIMO based network can bring down the cost via bandwidth and cell reduction. However, LTE networks can be used to provide broadband services in remote areas and need to be compared to massive MIMO based networks [10].…”