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Telecom Business Review | Friday, December 30, 2022
AAS technologies can enhance the end-user experience, capacity, and coverage by deploying the most advanced beamforming and MIMO techniques.
FREMONT, CA: Recent technological advancements have made advanced antenna systems (AAS) an attractive deployment option for future 5G mobile networks. AAS significantly improves uplink and downlink network performance. An understanding of the characteristics of AAS and multi-antenna systems is required to determine the best AAS variants for specific network deployment in terms of performance gains and cost efficiency.
The application of advanced antenna system:
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Advanced antenna system (AAS): In an advanced antenna system (AAS), a radio and certain features are combined to form an advanced antenna system. Several components comprise an AAS radio, including an antenna array tightly integrated with the hardware and software needed to transmit and receive radio signals and signal processing algorithms from implementing AAS features. The antenna radiation patterns can be adapted to rapidly changing traffic patterns and multipath radio propagation conditions using this solution compared to conventional systems. It is possible to receive or transmit multiple signals simultaneously with different radiation patterns.
Multi-antenna techniques: An AAS feature is a multi-antenna technique, such as MIMO or beamforming. LTE networks today already use such features with conventional systems. AAS radios are significantly more efficient when AAS features are applied because the number of radio chains is larger, known as Massive MIMO, which also increases performance.
Beamforming: A beamformer directs radio energy through a radio channel toward a specific receiver, as shown in Figure 1. It is possible to increase the received signal strength and the user throughput by adjusting the phase and amplitude of the transmitted signals at the UE receiver. A beamformer also collects signal energy from a specific transmitter when it is receiving. With an AAS, beams of high performance are formed both in UL and DL by continuously adapting to the environment.
The transmission of energy in only one direction can sometimes be very effective, but it is not always the best solution. A multipath radio channel has multiple propagation paths from the transmitter to the receiver because of diffraction around corners and reflections of buildings and other objects. In such cases, sending the same data stream in multiple directions (direction and polarization) is advantageous, controlling phases and amplitudes so that they add constructively to the receiver. It is also possible to reduce interference to other UEs through null forming, which is part of generalized beamforming.
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