NEC demos 28 GHz 5G beamforming

NEC has announced the successful transmission of digital beamforming with a massive-element, active antenna base station system that supports 28 GHz band for 5G communications.

The company said this is the first time simultaneous beamforming transmission (four multi-user MIMO) from a single massive-element active antenna system (AAS) to four terminals has succeeded.

The test saw NEC achieve a 3.1 Gbps cell throughput by applying a frequency bandwidth of 300 MHz.

NEC’s system adopts a fully digital control system, which improves the precision of beamforming and enables simultaneous beamforming in multiple directions from a single massive-element AAS unit, without interfering with adjacent users through spatial multiplexing.

In contrast, analog control systems require the installation of the same number of massive-element AASs as the number of beams, creating the issue of a larger footprint.

NEC says its digital control system is also capable of beamforming that takes into account multipath, a non-direct wave signal, and moderately adjusts beam directions to implement high-quality communication.

This is in addition to beamforming that cancels out interference through multipath and reduces performance deterioration caused by inter-cell interference.

NEC also claims that its system uses less power and has more compact conversion functions.

Image courtesy NEC.

Follow us and share on Twitter and Facebook