Massive MIMO Based Hybrid Unicast/Multicast Services for 5G

Abstract

This work focuses on the analysis for multicast services in fifth-generation (5G) wireless communication system. We investigate the physical- layer wireless multicast technology in massive multi-input multi-output (MIMO) mutual coupling channel model, and proposed the hybrid unicast/multicast transmission system. The mutual coupling channel model is adopted to describe the channel characteristics under the linear antenna array scenario and the rectangular antenna array scenario. The proposed hybrid transmission scheme adopts multicast beamforming in the multicast groups as well as multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) linear precoding in the unicast group to increase system throughput. The null-space method based interference cancellation is further performed between each group to eliminate signal leakage generated from each group. Comparisons between two types of antenna array configurations, different channel models, linear precoding as well as multicast beamforming, and user grouping strategies for multicast services are presented and analyzed by simulation.