Multi-beam MIMO Prototype for Real-Time Multiuser Communication at 28 GHz

John Brady, John Hogan, and Akbar Sayeed - University of Wisconsin-Madison

(Chris Hall and Kevin Zhu, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Supported by NSF and WARF

I. Beamspace MIMO for 5G Gigabit Applications II. Dense Beamspace Data Multiplexing
6” x 6” antenna: 9 elements @3GHz vs. 6000 elements @80GHz
Potential power & spectral efficiency gains
Beam Footprints
mmWave (80 GHz)
5 GHz BW
100x
10 Tbps (100 users)
capacity
100 Gbps/user
gain

LTE-A (3 GHz)
100 MHz BW
antenna
mmWave: 30-300GHz Orders-of-magnitude larger bandwidth (GHz) 10 Gbps (9 users)
gain
1 Gbps/user
2D Lens Array
Key 5G Use Cases: Key 5G Requirements:
Backhaul Multi-Gbps speeds Key Functionality:
Last Mile sub-millisecond latency Multi-beam Steering & Data Multiplexing
Small-Cell Mobile Access
Key Challenge:
Complexity (hardware & computational)
Large antenna gain

Highly directive narrow beams

6” antenna 45dBi
80GHz
35 deg @ 3GHz Continuous Aperture Phased (CAP) MIMO Sparse active beams
(15dBi Gain) 15dBi

4 deg @ 30GHz 3 GHz

(45dBi Gain)
Beamspace MIMO: Multiplexing Data into Beams
Spatial Fourier Transform array steering vector
CAP-MIMO Features
n orthogonal • Beamspace MIMO transceiver
Antenna space n-element array beams • Lens array for analog multi-beamforming
multiplexing ( spacing) Beamspace • Optimum exploitation of mmW T/R chains
Scalable performance-complexity optimization
multiplexing • Scalable architecture

III. CAP-MIMO vs Competing Architectures IV. Multi-beam CAP-MIMO Prototype

Conventional MIMO: Digital
VCO
Beamforming Phased Array Architecture Prototype Specs 28 GHz
FPG
A
DAC IQ BPF PA (All Competing Prototypes) Lens Size 6 in diameter
LO Feed Antenna WR-28 WG
LNA BPF IQ Feed Array Dim. 4 x 4 (16 feeds)
ADC FPG
A Channels 2 x 4 MU-MIMO
Current sampling rate 125-370 MS/s
28 GHz prototype: lens; mmW and baseband hardware

Limited to single-beam (no MIMO)

28 GHz Real-Time Multiuser Communication
Prohibitive complexity • Frame design: beam selection (BS), frame synch (FS), channel estimation (CE),
Key CAP MIMO differentiators interference suppression, and temporal equalization for MU communication
• Electronic multi-beam steering & data multiplexing • Both uplink/downlink OFDM communication; currently uplink
• Dramatic reduction in hardware & computational complexity • Real-time receive processing implemented in the FPGA: beam-selection,
beam-frequency channel estimation, beam-frequency MMSE filtering
• Scalable performance-complexity optimization
28 GHz • PCIe interface used for data offload from the AP to a PC
16, single-beam 4, 25-beam
Phased Arrays 14-16 Gbps CAP-MIMO CAP-MIMO Arrays
(16 total beams) 100% BW/user (100 total beams)
(7 users/beam) 63 pJ/bit PHASED ARRAY (1 user/beam)
20dB
1-2 Gbps
1-7% BW/user
476 pJ/bit

Raw samples beamspace filtering Temporal filtering

Potential Applications and Impact

• Disruptive 5G technology • Millisecond latency • Scalability to meet performance metrics with minimum complexity
• Multi-Gigabit speeds • Key use cases: Backhaul, Last Mile, & Mobile Access • New channel sounding architecture for multi-beam measurements