Distributed Massive MIMO in Cellular Networks

Abstract

Wireless communications, together with its underlying applications, is among today's most active areas of technology development, with the demand for data rates expected to grow to unprecedented levels by 2020. Cisco's latest report predicts a monthly mobile traffic of 24.3 exabytes (260 bytes) in 2019, which represents a 57% compound annual growth rate compared with 2014 [1]. The catalyst for this seminal development is 5G, the fifth generation of wireless systems, which denotes the next major phase of mobile telecommunications standards beyond the current fourth generation (4G) International Mobile Telecommunications-Advanced (IMT-Advanced) standards and promises speeds far beyond what the current 4G can offer. This represents a radically new paradigm in the field of wireless communications and promises to substantially improve the area spectral efficiency (measured in bit/s/Hz/km2) and energy efficiency (EE) (measured in bit/J). According to [2], there are three symbiotic technologies that can support the required “data-rate boom”: