Distributed Multi-Antenna Communications with Radio Stripes - Emil Björnson

The key technology in our new 5G networks is Massive MIMO. This means that the base station consists of arrays with 32 or 64 antenna-integrated radios, which are utilized to focus each signal at its desired receiving user and transmit to multiple users simultaneously. This is just the beginning of the MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) story. As the data traffic increases, we can continue adding more antennas to the base station arrays to support more users, but the users will always observe large data rate variations depending on their location in the cell, due to distance-based pathloss and inter-cell interference.

In this talk, Prof. Björnson will consider an alternative approach for future networks: serve the users by antennas that are distributed over the coverage area. By shifting from a world where base stations are surrounded by users, to a world where each user is surrounded by antennas, we can deliver almost uniformly good data rates wherever the user is. This concept has recently been called Cell-Free Massive MIMO. A core practical challenge is to deploy such a distributed MIMO array affordably. One potential approach is to use radio stripes, which are cables with integrated antennas. Emil Björnson will take a close look at how these can be implemented and recent results on how communications algorithms can be designed to exploit their special characteristics.