FINAL PEPORT OF RESEARCH PROJECT

“4G/5G Multiple Antennas for Future Multi-

Mode MIMO connections”

Student ID Name Section

u1610001 Abbosjon Kudratov 001
u1610023 Amalbek Jalilov 001
u1610053 Boburjon Borataliev 001
u1610177 Oybek Bijanov 001
u1610230 Shokhruhmirzo Mirzakhmedov 001

16-Dec-2018
IUT, Uzbekistan
 Engineering Communications (NTS3020), Inha University in Tashkent, Fall 2018

4G/5G Multiple Antennas for Future Multi-Mode MIMO connections

Keywords: MIMO, 4G, 5G, multi-antenna, multi-mode, energy-efficiency

Contents

1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 2
2. Related work and discussion............................................................................................... 3
3. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 7
4. References ......................................................................................................................... 8

Abstract
In this paper multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antennas are investigated for better
connectivity of networks. The purpose of the research is to find the optimum solution for faster
and most importantly energy-efficient broadband and data streaming. Several versions of
antennas and their simplified prototypes were compared by radiation patterns, S-parameters
and antenna efficiency according to experimental results. The desired antenna should be
implementing the decoupling technique between antenna elements for MIMO system and be
capable of covering the wide band from GSM(850-1900 MHz) to C-band(3400-3600 MHz) in
order to provide sustainable connection.

1. Introduction

With the rapid development of radio access technologies, wireless communication network
and increasing demand for wireless bandwidth, environment has become a mixture of different
kinds of heterogeneous networks. The next generation of wireless communication technology -
the fifth generation (5G) is one of the important milestones for 21st century's economic growth,
employment, education, transportation, communication and beyond. These new networks and
technologies will provide high speed and low latency for wireless broadband applications, such
as the internet of things (IoT). How to design the energy-efficient antenna array with compact
size, high gain and broad beamwidth coverage for these applications becomes one of the key
factors to achieve fast and sustainable data and voice communication quality [1].

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Since entering the 5G era, it has been officially announced that the 3.5-GHz band (3400–
3600 MHz) is assigned for indoor 5G communications systems [2], and the 3.6-GHz band
(3400–3800 MHz) is located as the FDD and TDD LTE frequency band in 5G mobile
communications. As a result, the development and exploitation of multi-mode mobile terminals
has aroused worldwide interest in the wireless communication field [3]. Multi-mode and multi-
band smart phone antenna is a prerequisite requirement for present and future terminal devices
with MIMO (multiple-input-multiple-output) system. Due to the limited volume size of mobile
terminal devices (such as mobile handset), strong mutual coupling among antenna elements is
inevitable, and it has impact on the antenna efficiency and also influences the correlation.
Therefore, it is vital to apply decoupling technique between antenna elements for MIMO system.
Nowadays as mobile communication systems advance, the existing standards of 4G
networks are becoming gradually incapable to satisfy people’s demands for higher data
transmission rates. Therefore, it is crucial and desirable to research 5G antenna modules.
Internal multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) antenna arrays covering the frequency band
of 3.5-3.6-GHz for 5G mobile terminal applications has become a research hotspot.[4]
One of the simplest perceptions of MIMO include an old radio technique that uses multiple
antennas divided assort intuitiveness apart. The antenna with the strongest signal is switched to
the receiver for best reception. MIMO signal testing focuses first on the transmitter or receiver
system (Fig. 1.)

Fig. 1. MIMO channel model (©Wikipedia)

2. Related work and discussion

In [5] a minkowski patch type MIMO antenna is constructed and the proposed MIMO system
is designed in commercially available Computer Simulation Technology (CST) software. The
minkowski antenna obtained by cutting rectangular slots at each sides of a square patch as
shown Fig. 2. The antenna got a minimum conduction loss due to the radiating patch length is
considered as 0.05 mm. The interference between the antennas is assessed by the parameter -
mutual coupling. To decrease the mutual coupling between the antennas is the main objective
of any MIMO design. The separation between two antennas is D = 0.563λ0. It is large enough
when compared to other systems. The slots at the sides of square patch on all sides end of the
patch vary with different sizes cutting lengths and this variation leads to mutual coupling
minimizing. The evolution stages of proposed antenna structure are depicted in Fig. 3.

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Fig. 3. Evolution stages analysis S-parameters [5]

Fig. 2. Evolution stages analysis of proposed design [5]

The design of multi-band minkowski MIMO antenna decreases the mutual coupling. A major
limiting factor of MIMO systems is mutual coupling and it arises mainly due to the smaller
spacing between multiple antennas. Hence projected MIMO system which reproduce at first
resonant 2.5 GHz, second one resonate at 3.5 GHz, third one resonate at 5.2 GHz and finally
resonant at 7.0 GHz observed that an improvement in bandwidth as well as decline in mutual
coupling have 54 dB, 50 dB, 40 dB and 44 dB can be noticed in the imitation results. These
results were better when compared to the existing systems. As such this projected system is
appropriate in the area of Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) (2.4 GHz–2.5 GHz/5.2 GHz–5.8
GHz) and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access(WiMAX) (2.3 GHz–2.6 GHz/3.3
GHz–3.8 GHz/5.7 GHz–5.85 GHz).

Fig. 4. 54 Mbit/s WLAN PCI Card (802.11g) (©Wikipedia)

In [7] a novel design of 4×4 microstrip Quasi-Yagi beam-steering antenna array

operation at 3.5GHz for future 5G vehicle applications is proposed. The proposed array
consists of 16-element antennas with dimension of 374×374×1.15mm 3 , which exhibits
good bandwidth (impedance bandwidth of single antenna element about 440MHz for
S 11 less than -10dB at the center frequency of 3.5GHz) and high gain (for single antenna
about 7dBi and for antenna array about 5.8~8.76dBi). The beam-steering characteristics in
the operation band can nearly achieve omni-directional radiation.
In [8] was discussed about Base station equipment (BS) and downlink transmission
consume the major energy of cellular networks. Behind in the 5G network, a large number of
antenna elements of massive MIMO require energy efficient solutions. A new antenna

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suppression scheme for beamforming proposed takes into account spatial multipath
propagation. First we combine the antenna pattern of the antenna array and channel angular
power spectra at the BS and determine the gain of spatial reception (SRG). Then the minimum
the number of activated antennas is determined in accordance with the spatial profile of
multipath propagation and the requirement of SRG reduce energy consumption and ensure the
provision of services to users. In addition, field measurement campaign on rural macrocell
(RMa) 3.5 GHz channels was performed using a MIMO 3D echo sounder. The transmitter was
mounted on top of a 5-story building, and the receiver was moved to 152 positions along four
routes. The measured power spectra in azimuth and altitude (APS and EPS) were used to built
the Laplace distribution model for spectra.
Typically in macrocell, the gNB in the center provides access connections to a UE (user
equipment) distributed in a cell [9]. GNB is equipped Ng × Mg flat antenna array to perform 2D
beamforming in both azimuth and altitude domains, shown in Fig. 5. Distance between adjacent
antenna elements (denoted by da) in the array are equal or less than half the carrier wavelength
(denoted by λc), those. da ≤ λc / 2. Suppose that the carrier frequency fc and the signal user
bandwidth is Bu. Because Bu ≪ fc and separation distances between gNB and UE is much larger
than the range of the near field antennas outgoing / incident waves from / to the gNB array can
considered as mirror plane waves. The antenna elements in the array form a horizontal linear
array (HLA), which can perform azimuth pattern formation. Similarly, each column of antenna
matrix forms a vertical linear array (VLA) to perform domain elevation beamforming in the
vertical plane. Planar Antenna Matrix can generate multiple rays that indicate different UEs at
the same time, and thus uses spatial multiplexing to increase system bandwidth much. The UE
uses an omnidirectional antenna. The HLA azimuth beamforming in the uplink from the UE in
gNB. The model and method of the system are applicable to positive and negative polarizations,
and can also be easily extended to elevation beamforming and downlink transmission.

Fig. 5. The network model of gNB beamforming in a 3.5 GHz macrocell [8]

In [10] to meet the challenge of huge growth of mobile traffic in emerging 5G networks, the
Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (mMIMO) is proposed as an essential and capable
transmission technique, able to concurrently serve a large number of users, while guaranteeing
a very high spectral efficiency. Moreover, some other additional approaches, like the Joint
Spatial Division and Multiplexing precoding scheme and the multi-cell coordinated beamforming

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 Engineering Communications (NTS3020), Inha University in Tashkent, Fall 2018

technique for interference reduction, could be used to further improve the overall system
performance and reduce the mMIMO implementation complexity.
Two prototypes of antennas are compared in Fig.6 and Fig.7 by S-parameters. The eight-
antenna multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) array owning a widebandwidth to cover the
3.6-GHz (3400–3800 MHz) is proposed in [6]. The developed eight-antenna array consists of
two four-antenna sub-arrays having slight different physical dimensions.

Fig. 6. Experimental S-parameter results of the MIMO array. (a) Ant1. (b) Ant5. [6]

Fig. 7. S-parameters of (a) 4G antenna module, (b) 5G antenna module. [3]

As for the hybrid antenna [3] consisting of two antenna modules, namely, 4G antenna
module and 5G antenna module, the respective results of measured S-parameters and ECC
estimations of each module are given in Fig.6 and Fig.7 (b) respectively.
The antenna elements of 3.6 GHZ MIMO eight-antenna are all based on the stepped
impedance resonator (SIR) structure, positioned along the two long borderlines of the ground
plane in the mobile terminal. A wider bandwidth can be realized by properly choosing the
electrical length ratio and impedance ratio of the SIR structure, and the system performance can
be consequently improved. The measured results of the fabricated prototype show that the
value of the return loss is larger than 10 dB and the value of the inter-element isolation is more

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than 11.7 dB within the entire 3.6-GHz band. Furthermore, the envelop correlation coefficient
(ECC) between arbitrary two antenna elements is smaller than 0.1 for the developed eight-
antenna MIMO array (Fig.8 (a)) taken from [6].

(b)
(a)

Fig. 8. ECCs calculated from the experimental S-parameter results for (a) 3.6 GHZ MIMO eight-antenna
and (b) hybrid 4G/5G antenna

The 4G antenna of the hybrid antenna module proposed in [3] is a two-antenna array
capable of covering the GSM850/900/1800/1900, UMTS2100, and LTE2300/2500 operating
bands and the 5G module is an eight-antenna array operating in the 3.5-GHz band capable of
covering the C-band (3400–3600 MHz) that could meet the demand of future 5G application.
When compared with ideal uncorrelated antennas in an 8 × 8 MIMO system, the 5G antenna
module array has shown good ergodic channel capacity of ∼40 b/s/Hz and that is only 6 b/s/Hz
less than ideal case.

3. Conclusion

As we analyzed the current existing networks and the methods used for communication as
well as the different techniques to increase their efficiency. Among the discussed
models/prototypes of antennas the most promising in terms of energy-efficiency and
implementation of MIMO is a hybrid antenna consisting of 4G and 5G submodule arrays. The
measured results for this hybrid antenna show that the 4G antenna module can cover two wide
operating bands of 824–960 MHz and 1710–2690 MHz, and the 5G antenna module with eight
monopole antennas – 3400–3600 MHz band. Typical results such as S-parameters, radiation
efficiency, antenna gain and ECCs measured indicate they can meet the requirements of MIMO
systems. Therefore, the multi-antenna module is promising for future multi-mode smartphone
applications.

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4. References

[1] A.Michaloliakos, R.Rogalin, “Performance modeling of next-generation WiFi networks”,

Computer Networks 105 (2016) 150–165.

[2] M.Y.Li, Y.L.Ban, Z.Q.Xu, G.Wu, C.Y.D.Sim, K.Kang, Z.F.Yu, “Eight-port orthogonally dual-
polarized antenna array for 5G smartphone applications”, IEEE Trans Antennas
Propag, 64 (1) (2016) 3820-3830.

[3] Y.L.Ban, C.Li, C.Y.Desmond-Sim, G.Wu, K.L.Wong, “4G/5G Multiple Antennas for Future
Multi-Mode Smartphone Applications”, IEEE Access(Volume:4) 2016.

[4] H.Xu, H.Zhou, S.Gao, H.Y.Wang, Y.J.Cheng, “Multimode decoupling technique with
independent tuning characteristic for mobile terminals”, IEEE Trans Antennas
Propag, 65 (12) (2017) 6739-6751.

[5] K.V.Babu, B.Anuradha, “Design of multi-band minkowski MIMO antenna to reduce the
mutual coupling”, Journal of King Saud University – Engineering Sciences (2018).

[6] H.Shi, X.Zhang, J.Li, “ 3.6-GHz eight-antenna MIMO array for mobile terminal
applications”, Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AEÜ) 95 (2018) 342–348.

[7] H.Wang, G.Yang, “Design of 4×4 microstrip Quasi-Yagi beam-steering antenna array
operation at 3.5GHz for future 5G vehicle applications”, 2017 International Workshop on
Antenna Technology: Small Antennas, Innovative Structures, and Applications (iWAT),
Athens, Greece.

[8] R. Zhang, “Energy-Efficient Beamforming for 3.5 GHz 5G Cellular Networks based on 3D
Spatial Channel Characteristics”, Computer Communications 121 (2018) 59–70.

[9] L.Lu, G.Y.Li , A.L.Swindlehurst , A.Ashikhmin , R.Zhang , An overview of massive MIMO:

benefits and challenges, IEEE J. Sel. Top Signal Process. 8 (5) (2014) 742–758.

[10] A.Grassi, G.Piro, G.Boggia, M.Kurras, “ Massive MIMO interference coordination for 5G
broadband access: Integration and system level study“, Computer Networks 147 (2018)
191–203

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