2,158 research outputs found
AirSync: Enabling Distributed Multiuser MIMO with Full Spatial Multiplexing
The enormous success of advanced wireless devices is pushing the demand for
higher wireless data rates. Denser spectrum reuse through the deployment of
more access points per square mile has the potential to successfully meet the
increasing demand for more bandwidth. In theory, the best approach to density
increase is via distributed multiuser MIMO, where several access points are
connected to a central server and operate as a large distributed multi-antenna
access point, ensuring that all transmitted signal power serves the purpose of
data transmission, rather than creating "interference." In practice, while
enterprise networks offer a natural setup in which distributed MIMO might be
possible, there are serious implementation difficulties, the primary one being
the need to eliminate phase and timing offsets between the jointly coordinated
access points.
In this paper we propose AirSync, a novel scheme which provides not only time
but also phase synchronization, thus enabling distributed MIMO with full
spatial multiplexing gains. AirSync locks the phase of all access points using
a common reference broadcasted over the air in conjunction with a Kalman filter
which closely tracks the phase drift. We have implemented AirSync as a digital
circuit in the FPGA of the WARP radio platform. Our experimental testbed,
comprised of two access points and two clients, shows that AirSync is able to
achieve phase synchronization within a few degrees, and allows the system to
nearly achieve the theoretical optimal multiplexing gain. We also discuss MAC
and higher layer aspects of a practical deployment. To the best of our
knowledge, AirSync offers the first ever realization of the full multiuser MIMO
gain, namely the ability to increase the number of wireless clients linearly
with the number of jointly coordinated access points, without reducing the per
client rate.Comment: Submitted to Transactions on Networkin
Waveforms for the Massive MIMO Downlink: Amplifier Efficiency, Distortion and Performance
In massive MIMO, most precoders result in downlink signals that suffer from
high PAR, independently of modulation order and whether single-carrier or OFDM
transmission is used. The high PAR lowers the power efficiency of the base
station amplifiers. To increase power efficiency, low-PAR precoders have been
proposed. In this article, we compare different transmission schemes for
massive MIMO in terms of the power consumed by the amplifiers. It is found that
(i) OFDM and single-carrier transmission have the same performance over a
hardened massive MIMO channel and (ii) when the higher amplifier power
efficiency of low-PAR precoding is taken into account, conventional and low-PAR
precoders lead to approximately the same power consumption. Since downlink
signals with low PAR allow for simpler and cheaper hardware, than signals with
high PAR, therefore, the results suggest that low-PAR precoding with either
single-carrier or OFDM transmission should be used in a massive MIMO base
station
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