What is the Role of MIMO in

Future Cellular Networks:

Massive? Coordinated?
mmWave?
Robert W. Heath Jr.
The University of Texas at Austin
Wireless Networking and Communications Group

www.profheath.org
Presentation (c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

Outline
MIMO in cellular networks
Coordinated Multipoint a.k.a. network MIMO
Massive MIMO
Millimeter wave MIMO
Comparison between technologies
Parting thoughts

MIMO in Cellular Systems

# of parallel data streams is the
multiplexing gain

2 data streams

Point-to-point MIMO
2 data streams

limited by # user antennas

sum of the # of parallel data

streams is the multiplexing gain

2 data streams

Multiuser MIMO

limited by # BS antennas

(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

Where is MIMO Headed?

Coordinated MIMO

Massive MIMO
B

mmWave MIMO

Candidate architectures for 5G cellular

(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

Outline
MIMO in cellular networks
Coordinated Multipoint a.k.a. network MIMO
Massive MIMO
Millimeter wave MIMO
Comparison between technologies
Parting thoughts

What is Network MIMO?

Out-of-cell
interference

cellular backhaul network

Coordinated transmission from multiple base stations

Known as CoMP or Cooperative MIMO or base station coordination
Interference turned from foe to friend
Exploits presence of a good backhaul connection

Used to improve area spectral efficiency, system capacity

(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

Network MIMO Architectures

eNodeB

eNodeB

eNodeB
Like DAS uses local
coordination

Coordinate over backhaul

Cloud RAN

Coordination clusters

Dynamic coordination

Processing for many base

stations using cloud
(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

Potential Gains from Coordination

1500

1000

90

19 cells and 3 sectors per cell

BS-MS distance= 192 m
ISD=500m

BS
MS

80

500

sum rates per cell

70
Sum-rates (bits/sec/Hz)

500

K=1
K=3
K=9

60

Linear increase

50
40

Unbounded gains

30
20

1000

1500
1500

10

1000

500

500

1000

1500

Grid model for a cellular network

10

15
SNR (dB)

20

25

30

Throughput gains when out-of-cluster interference is ignored

More cooperation leads to higher gains
Cell edge pushed further out, no uncoordinated interference in the cell

(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

Addressing Out-of-Cell Interference

1500

1000

19 cells and 3 sectors per cell

BS-MS distance= 192 m
ISD=500m

25

BS
MS

20

Sum-rates (bits/sec/Hz)

500

500

K=1
K=3
K=9

15

Bounded gains
10

Sum-rates saturation
5

1000

1500
1500

1000

500

500

1000

1500

10

15
SNR (dB)

20

25

30

Grid model for a cellular network

Performance saturates with out-of-cluster interference

30% performance gains observed in industrial settings
Be mindful of the saturation point
A. Lozano, R. W. Heath, Jr., and J. G. Andrews, ``Fundamental Limits of Cooperation" to appear in
the IEEE Trans. on Info. Theory. Available on ArXiv.

(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

Critical Issues with Network MIMO

Out-of-cell interference

channel state feedback overhead

When included, results are not as good

Feedback overhead
Need channel state information
Performance seriously degrades

eNodeB

Control channel overhead

eNodeB

Backhaul delay

Increased reference signal overhead

Backhaul link constraints

Reference signal

Data payload

Backhaul link latency (delayed CSI and data sharing)

Cluster edge effects

Coordination still has a cell edge with fixed clusters
Dynamic clustering solves the problem, but more more implementation overhead

(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

10

Network MIMO Conclusions

Observations
Network MIMO promises a way to get rid of interference
...Yet uncoordinated interference still limits high SNR performance
Backhaul constraints and system overheads further reduce performance gains
General disconnect between academia and industry on the potential

Forecast
Already incorporated into 4G, coordination will be part of 5G as well
Architectures will evolve to support network MIMO-like coordination

Distributed antenna systems are a good starting point

Distributed radio access networks are a likely evolution point
Cloud radio access networks are a possible end objective

(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

11

Outline
MIMO in cellular networks
Coordinated Multipoint a.k.a. network MIMO
Massive MIMO
Millimeter wave MIMO
Comparison between technologies
Parting thoughts

12

What is Massive MIMO?

hundreds of BS antennas

tens of users

A very large antenna array at each base station

An order of magnitude more antenna elements in conventional systems

A large number of users are served simultaneously

An excess of base station (BS) antennas
Essentially multiuser MIMO with lots of base station antennas
T. L. Marzetta, Noncooperative cellular wireless with unlimited numbers of base station antennas, IEEE Trans. Wireless Commun., vol. 9, no. 11, pp.
35903600, Nov. 2010.
(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

13

Massive MIMO Key Features

Uplink
training

pilot
contamination

Benefits from the (many) excess antennas

Simplified multiuser processing
Reduced transmit power
Thermal noise and fast fading vanish
Differences with MU MIMO in conventional cellular systems
Time division duplexing used to enable channel estimation
Pilot contamination limits performance
F. Rusek, D. Persson, B. K. Lau, E. G. Larsson, T. L. Marzetta, O. Edfors, and F. Tufvesson, Scaling up MIMO: Opportunities and challenges with very
(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013
large arrays, IEEE Signal Processing Mag., vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 4060, Jan. 2013.

14

Massive MIMO Key Features

Downlink

channel
reciprocity

interference
asymptotic
orthogonality

Benefits from the (many) excess antennas

Simplified multiuser processing
Reduced transmit power
Thermal noise and fast fading vanish
Differences with MU MIMO in conventional cellular systems
Time division duplexing used to enable channel estimation
Pilot contamination limits performance
F. Rusek, D. Persson, B. K. Lau, E. G. Larsson, T. L. Marzetta, O. Edfors, and F. Tufvesson, Scaling up MIMO: Opportunities and challenges with very
(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013
large arrays, IEEE Signal Processing Mag., vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 4060, Jan. 2013.

14

Centralized vs. Distributed

Centralized

7 cells without sectorization

12 users uniformly distributed in each cell
ISD = 500m

Distributed
BS antenna
clusters

BS

Fixed number of base station antennas per cell

* K. T. Truong and R. W. Heath, Jr., Impact of Spatial Correlation and Distributed Antennas for Massive MIMO systems, to
appear in the Proceedings of the Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers, Nov. 3-6, 2013.
(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

15

Potential Gains from Massive MIMO

Uplink

Downlink
60

45

55

40

50

35

number of

number of

45

30

40

25

35
30

20
25

15
10
24

20

48

72
96
120
144
Number of base station antennas

168

15
24

48

72
96
120
144
Number of base station antennas

168

7 cells without sectorization, 12 users uniformly distributed in each cell, ISD = 500m

Distributing antennas achieves higher gains

Saturation is not observed without huge # of antennas
(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

16

Critical Issues in Massive MIMO

Gains are not that big with not-so-many antennas
Require many antennas to remove interference
Need more coordination to remove effects of pilot contamination

Massive MIMO seems to be more uplink driven

Certain important roles are reserved between base stations and users
A different layout of control and data channels may be required

Practical effects are not well investigated

Channel aging affects energy-focusing ability of narrow beams
Spatial correlation reduces effective DoFs as increasing number of antennas
Role of asynchronism in pilot contamination and resulting performance

(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

17

Massive MIMO Conclusions

Observations
Pilot contamination is a big deal, but possibly overcome by coordination
Performance is sensitive to channel aging effects *
Good performance can be achieved with distributed antennas *
Not clear how to pack so many microwave antennas on a base station
Needs more extensive simulation study with realistic system parameters

Forecast
Massive MIMO will probably not be used in isolation
Will be combined with distributed antennas or base station coordination

Reduces the effects of pilot contamination

Work with smaller numbers of antennas

* K. T. Truong and R. W. Heath, Jr., Effects of Channel Aging in Massive MIMO Systems, to appear in the Journal of
Communications and Networks, Special Issue on Massive MIMO, February 2013.
(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

18

Outline
MIMO in cellular networks
Coordinated Multipoint a.k.a. network MIMO
Massive MIMO
Millimeter wave MIMO
Comparison between technologies
Parting thoughts

19

Why mmWave for Cellular?

1G-4G cellular
Microwave

300 MHz

3 GHz

5G cellular

millimeter wave
28 GHz

38-49 GHz

70-90 GHz

300 GHz

Cellular systems live with a little microwave spectrum

600MHz total (best case) in the US
Spectrum efficiency is king (MIMO, MU MIMO, HetNets)

Huge amount of spectrum available in mmWave bands [KhanPi]

29GHz possibly available in 23GHz, LMDS, 38, 40, 46, 47, 49, and E-band
mmWave already used in LAN, PAN, and VANET
mmWave links are used for backhaul in cellular networks
(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

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Antenna Arrays are Important

highly directional MIMO transmission

Baseband
Processing

Baseband
Processing

antennas are small (mm)

~100 antennas

used at TX and RX

New challenges faced by mmWave cellular

Larger bandwidth means higher noise power and lower SNR
Smaller wavelength means smaller captured energy in an antenna

Solution: Exploit array gain from large arrays

(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

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Coverage Gains from Large Arrays

I. M EASUREMENT R ESULTS

LOS & blocked path loss model from measurements.

A Poisson layout of mmWave BSs.
Average cell radius Rc=100m.
A Boolean scheme building model.

0.9

Serving BS

Typical User

Buildings

Coverage Probability

0.8

0.7

0.6

Gain from directional antenna array

0.5

0.4

Omni Directional
0.3

PPP Interfering BSs

Directional: HPBW=40

Directional: HPBW=10o
0.2
10

10

SINR Threshold in dB

Fig. 1.
mmWave networks
can provide acceptable coverage

Directional array gain compensates severe path loss

1

Smaller beamwidth reduces the effect of interference

0.9

0.8

(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

22

Critical Issues in mmWave MIMO

Dealing with hardware constraints

Need a combination of analog and digital beamforming
Array geometry may be unknown, may change

Performance in complex propagation environments

Evaluate performance with line-of-sight and blocked signal paths

Must adapt to frequent blockages and support mobility

Entire system must support directionality
Need approval to employ the spectrum
(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

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mmWave Conclusions
Observations
Coverage may be acceptable with the right system configuration
Strong candidate for higher per-link data rates
Hardware can leverage insights from 60GHz LAN and PAN
Highly directional antennas may radically change system design
Supporting mobility may be a challenge

Forecast
Will be part of 5G if access to new spectrum becomes viable
Most likely will co-exist with microwave cellular systems
Will remain useful for niche applications like backhaul

(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

24

Outline
MIMO in cellular networks
Coordinated Multipoint a.k.a. network MIMO
Massive MIMO
Millimeter wave MIMO
Comparison between technologies
Parting thoughts

25

Stochastic Geometry for Cellular

performance
analyzed for a
typical user

base station locations

distributed (usually) as a
Poisson point process (PPP)

Stochastic geometry is a useful tool for analyzing cellular nets

Reasonable fit with real deployments
Closed form solutions for coverage probability available
Provides a system-wide performance characterization

J. G. Andrews, F. Baccelli, and R. K. Ganti, "A Tractable Approach to Coverage and Rate in Cellular Networks", IEEE Transactions on Communications, November 2011.
T. X. Brown, "Cellular performance bounds via shotgun cellular systems," IEEE JSAC, vol.18, no.11, pp.2443,2455, Nov. 2000.

(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

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Comparing Different Approaches

CoMP model
Sectored cooperation model
Typical user can be edge or center user of the cluster
Several assumptions made to permit calculation

mmWave model
Directional antennas are incorporated as marks of the base station PPP
Blockages due to buildings incorporated via random shape theory

Massive MIMO model

Analyze asymptotic case with infinite number of antennas at the base station
No spatial correlation, includes estimation error, pilot contamination

New expressions derived for each case

Tianyang Bai and R. W. Heath, Jr., `` Asymptotic Coverage Probability and Rate in Massive MIMO Networks ,'' submitted to IEEE Wireless Communications Letters,
May 2013. Available on ArXiv.

(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

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SINR Coverage Comparison

Gain from directional
antennas and blockages
in mmWave

0.9

SINR Coverage Probability

0.8

0.7

0.6

0.5

Gain from larger number

of antennas

0.4
CoMP: Nt=4, 2 Users, 3 BSs/ Cluster

0.3

Massive MIMO: Nt=

mmWave: Nt=64, Rc=100m

0.2

SU MIMO: 4X4
0.1
10

5
SINR Threhold in dB

10

15

20

Fig. 1.

(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

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Rate Comparison
1

Gain from larger bandwidth

0.9

0.8

CoMP: Nt=4, 2 Users, 3 BSs/ Cluster

Massive MIMO: Nt=

Rate Coverage Probability

0.7

mmWave: Nt=64, Rc=100m

SU MIMO: 4X4

0.6

0.5

0.4

Gain from
serving multiple users

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0

Fig. 3.

500

1000

1500

2000
2500
3000
Cell Throughput in Mbps

3500

4000

4500

5000

(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

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Rate Comparison
Massive
MIMO

MMwave

CoMP

SU MIMO

Signal BW

50 MHz

500 MHz

50 MHz

50 MHz

User/ Cell

bps/Hz per user 5.47 bps/Hz

Rate/Cell
Capacity/ Cell

8.00 bps/Hz 4.34 bps/Hz 4.95 bps/Hz

21.88 bps/Hz 8.00 bps/Hz 8.68 bps/Hz 4.95 bps/Hz

1.10 Gbps

4.00 Gbps

434 Mbps

248 Mbps

mmWave outperforms due to more available BW

* of course various parameters can be further optimized
** SU MIMO is 4x4 w/ zero-forcing receiver
(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

30

Outline
MIMO in cellular networks
Coordinated Multipoint a.k.a. network MIMO
Massive MIMO
Millimeter wave MIMO
Comparison between technologies
Parting thoughts

31

Parting Thoughts
Conclusions
cooperation will be used in some form, more powerful
cooperative
with better infrastructure, need to be mindful of overheads
MIMO
in system design
massive
MIMO

some potential for system rates, need large base station

arrays, can be used with cooperation

mmWave
MIMO

large potential for peak rates, more hardware challenges,

requires more spectrum, more radical system design
potential

(c) Robert W. Heath Jr. 2013

32

Questions?
Robert W. Heath Jr.
The University of Texas at Austin

www.profheath.org