4x4 MIMO Preview and 5G Standardization Update

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the tests are so insightful!

12/19/2016 | 18 pages

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Since we will not be publishing our next Signals Ahead report until early January, we would like to close out the year with a special treat – a sneak preview of our forth coming study on 4×4 MIMO and an update on the 3GPP standardization process with a particular focus on 5G.

4×4 Testing Under Way.  We are currently testing the T-Mobile network in the greater Minneapolis-Saint Paul area where Nokia is the infrastructure supplier. We are using commercially-procured Galaxy S7 smartphones with the suite of Accuver Americas drive test solutions to collect and analyze the data.

The Highlights.  During the exploratory phase of the study we transferred >70 GB. Average downlink data speeds = 51.5 Mbps. Average uplink data speeds = 27.7 Mbps. In addition to supporting 4×4 MIMO, the network also supports up to 3-carrier CA, 256-QAM, and uplink 64-QAM.

We’re Keeping it Wrapped.  Since the results are based on a mix of channel bandwidth combinations (5 MHz to 35 MHz), it isn’t possible for readers to determine the incremental benefits of each enabling technology. We’re saving this information for the January report.

5G Standardization Update.  With 5G hopefully moving from a study item to a work item in the next 3 months, we provide a brief update on the standardization efforts based on the recent RAN Plenary meeting.