3D beamforming: Performance improvement for cellular networks

Abstract

The beam pattern of a mobile communication base station has significant impact on the performance of a cellular network. Three‐dimensional (3D) beamforming combines the horizontal beam pattern adaptation, as applied for beamforming and multiple input multiple output (MIMO) schemes, with a vertical antenna pattern adaptation. The recent availability of new flexible antenna techniques enables a fully dynamic antenna pattern adaptation which can be specified per resource block and user equipment (UE), and makes 3D beamforming practically feasible. This paper describes the basic principles of 3D beamforming, including the impact of downtilt adaptation on the physical layer as well as the potential of its combination with beam coordination involving the media access control (MAC) layer. Our investigations assumed the vertical main lobe of the beam pattern was geometrically pointed towards the UE. We discuss a number of different realization options and simulation results including a Bell Labs field trial with vertical beam steering. Using wireless systems with state of the art Long Term Evolution (LTE) signal format and including the lightRadio™ antenna array, our trials in the Stuttgart testbed verified the basic predicted properties and potential advantages of 3D beamforming. © 2013 Alcatel‐Lucent.

Terahertz communication: The opportunities of wireless technology beyond 5G

“…By adopting beam coordination or MIMO schemes, the alteration in vertical dimension has the potential to capitalize on additional diversity or spatial separation. This will eventually result in either boosting the quality of the signal or increasing the number of users supported concurrently [37].…”

2D DOA Estimation Algorithm for Massive MIMO using Propagator Method

“…The large number of signal processing systems in today's world includes massive MIMO system and 3D beamforming for improved link reliability. 3D beamforming is a technique which enables to approximate perfectly (DOA), including both angles of the source signals [7][8]. In the previous decades DOA estimation has got much attention in the community of signal processing (SP).…”

Design of double codebook based on 3D dual-polarized channel for multiuser MIMO system

“…This challenges the traditional channel model and transmission techniques. In recent years, three-dimensional (3D) MIMO techniques, which fully exploit the degrees of freedom in 3D space, have attracted http://asp.eurasipjournals.com/content/2014/1/111 more and more attention [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. Compared with 2D MU-MIMO, the 3D MU-MIMO system is able to simultaneously serve several users who have the same azimuth but are located at different heights and therefore improves transmission efficiency greatly, as shown in Figure 1b.…”

“…A new 3D channel model has been set up by 3GPP [9], where the concept of downtilt or elevation angle is added as an important channel parameter, BS is deployed with uniform planar antenna array (UPA), and users are distributed in every floor instead of just moving on the ground. Based on the 3D channel model, some 3D beamforming methods that adjust the beam downtilt adaptively according to elevation sectorization or per-user elevation were proposed [10][11][12][13][14][15]. A 3D beamforming method for hexagonal multicell network was proposed in [10], which implements an implicit coordination scheme to control multicell interference by vertically and horizontally assigning different resources to adjacent sectors.…”

“…Based on the 3D channel model, some 3D beamforming methods that adjust the beam downtilt adaptively according to elevation sectorization or per-user elevation were proposed [10][11][12][13][14][15]. A 3D beamforming method for hexagonal multicell network was proposed in [10], which implements an implicit coordination scheme to control multicell interference by vertically and horizontally assigning different resources to adjacent sectors. The methods in [11] and [12] are based on cellular segmentation, the whole cell is split into several concentric annular zones, and each of them is allocated with a fixed beam downtilt.…”