Nokia Networks

Multi-antenna Optimization
in LTE
Extended Coverage, Enhanced Data Rates
and Higher Capacity with Existing Macro Sites

Nokia Networks white paper

Multi-antenna Optimization in LTE

Contents
Introduction

Site solution

Base station 4TX4RX field performance

Base station 8TX8RX field performance

Centralized RAN

10

6-Sector solution

11

Further evolution of antenna solutions

13

Summary

14

Further reading

15

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Introduction
Multi-antenna techniques have become an attractive solution for boosting
user data rates, cell coverage areas and network capacity. Radio performance
can be substantially enhanced by using the latest antenna technologies, while
retaining existing base station sites and backhaul connections. The target is
to bring more capacity and improve the network quality without increasing
capital expenditure.
The technological framework of LTE is very well prepared for making use
of advanced antenna configurations. The first LTE version in 3GPP, Release
8, included MIMO2x2 in the downlink, 4-antenna downlink transmission
(MIMO4x2) and multi-antenna uplink reception for four and eight antennas.
Also uplink Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) with Centralized RAN (CRAN) can be
supported with Release 8 terminals. All these features can be found in todays
commercial LTE networks.
Releases 9 and 10 added more advanced capabilities for 8-antenna
Transmission Modes (TM) 8 and 9. Release 11 defined the downlink CoMP
feature with ideal backhaul, while Release12 introduced enhanced CoMP
with both ideal and non-ideal backhaul. A new 4-transmit antenna downlink
codebook was also in Release 12 and it is expected to achieve a 10% gain in
system performance.
Release 13 is currently studying the use of larger numbers of MIMO antennas,
also known as Massive MIMO, as well as using the vertical dimension for
MIMO transmission. The evolution of multi-antennas in 3GPP specifications is
shown in Figure 1. All todays terminals have two antennas for reception and
one antenna for transmission. The first four-antenna terminals are already
available in the market in the form of LTE + Wi-Fi routers.

Release 8

Release 9

Release 10

Release 11

Release 12

Release 13

8TX TM8

8TX TM9

Downlink CoMP
(TM10)

Downlink eCoMP
New 4TX
codebook

Massive MIMO

2x2MIMO
4TX downlink
4/8RX uplink
Uplink CRAN

Figure 1. 3GPP evolution of multi-antenna solutions (TM = Transmission Mode).

Based on the field deployments of multi-antennas, this white paper discusses
site solutions, antennas and performance benefits. How antenna solutions
will evolve further is also discussed. The inter-site interference coordination
solutions CoMP and eCoMP are discussed in more detail in the Nokia Smart
Scheduler white paper.

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Site solution
A compact site solution is essential to make multi-antennas work in practice.
The size of the antenna and the size and number of the RF units should be
kept to a minimum. Typical cross-polarized multi-branch antennas are shown
in Figure 2: the four-branch antenna uses two columns of cross-polarized
antennas in the same radome as the eight-branch antenna, which comprises
four columns. Co-polarized elements within a column are phased at RF to
form the vertical elevation pattern needed to cover the sector. This approach
helps to minimize the site space needed and means that the antennas could
have remote electrical downtilt.
Antenna size is a function of wavelength: the size of the antenna is smaller at
higher frequencies. Therefore, a four-branch antenna is quite practical at a
frequency of around 2 GHz and an eight-branch antenna at higher frequency
bands. The relative size of the antennas in different frequency bands is shown
in Figure 3. Multi-band antennas are commonly used today - such antennas
often include two-branch at low frequencies and four-branch at higher
frequencies.

2-branch
antenna

4-branch
antenna

8-branch
antenna

Figure 2. Typical multi-branch antenna solutions

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26 cm

32 cm
2.3 m
40 cm
1.3 m
0.7 m

2-branch
antenna at
1 GHz band

4-branch
antenna at
2 GHz band

8-branch
antenna at
3.5 GHz band

Figure 3. Multi-branch antennas practical at high frequency bands

Minimizing the size of the RF units also helps ensure a compact site solution.
The most compact RF solution is the Nokia Flexi RF module, shown in Figure4.
This module delivers 6x60W output power in a form-factor of less than 25
liters. A single module can provide MIMO2x2 for a three-sector base station.
The high power is beneficial for the coverage and indoor penetration, for both
multi-radio and multi-carrier sharing.

Antennas

6x60W in 25 liters
RF module

Flexi RF module

Figure 4. Compact Nokia RF module site solutions

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Base station 4TX4RX field performance

An LTE MIMO2x2 network can be enhanced by using four-antenna base station
transmission and reception (4TX4RX). All LTE terminals support a four antenna
solution since the capability was defined in Release 8. This makes the fourantenna approach a simple upgrade to the network, even with large numbers
of legacy devices. There is no need to change devices to benefit from the
full gain. It is expected that 4TX4RX can improve user data rates, especially
at the cell edge, by around 50% and average data rates by some 20% in
the downlink and even more in the uplink. 4TX4RX can also extend the cell
size and improve indoor penetration. The expected gains from 4TX4RX are
summarized in Figure 5.

Benefit of 4TX4RX Compared to 2TX2RX

Push average data rates +20% in
downlink and +50% uplink

Boost cell edge

data rates +50%

Increase cell
range up to 3 dB

With legacy 2-antenna UEs

Cell edge with
2TX2RX

Cell edge with

4TX4RX

Figure 5. Benefits of 4TX4RX, compared to 2TX2RX (simulations, using legacy devices

with 2 antennas)
Well next illustrate 4TX4RX benefits based on field measurements. Figure6
shows stationary measurements with MIMO2x2 open loop (TM3) and closed
loop (TM4) and MIMO4x2 with closed loop. Upgrading from two transmit
antennas to four antennas produces clear link-level throughput gain,
particularly in situations with low to medium Signal-to-Interference and
Noise Ratio (SINR). The total transmit power with four transmit antennas is
3 dB higher, so the result includes both power and diversity gain. The SINR
shown in the horizontal axis is the value measured by the device. An even
more important benefit of four antennas is the possibility of employing 4-way
maximum ratio combining (MRC) or interference rejection combining (IRC) in the
uplink. The uplink link budget is usually the limiting factor in practical networks.

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Field measurement, stationary UE

downlink throughput, Megabits per second

45
40
35
30

2x2 tm3

25

2x2 tm4

20

4x2 tm4

15
10

20% gain in
average signal

>50% gain
in weak signal

5
0
0

10

15

18

20

UE-measured SINR, dB

Figure 6. Downlink MIMO4x2 measurements

The measured cell throughput values from a live network with 2TX2RX and
with 4TX4RX are shown in Figure 7.The uplink cell throughput increases by
100%, which is a very promising result and in fact uplink improvements are
the major reason for deploying 4TX4RX technology.
The downlink cell throughput increases by 50%. In general, the downlink
benefits consist of the multi-antenna transmission gain and the higher
transmission power. In this case, the downlink power was doubled by using
4T4RX compared to 2TX2R. The downlink improvements are also beneficial
since the 4RX antenna can also directly support 4TX.

Cell throughput in live network

16
14
12

Mbps

10
8

2TX2RX

4TX4RX

4
2
0

Downlink

Uplink

Figure 7. 4TX4RX gains in live FDD network

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Base station 8TX8RX field performance

Eight-antenna (8TX) beamforming can use Transmission Mode 8 or 9. TM8
uses device measurements based on downlink Common Reference Signals
(CRS) and base station measurements based on uplink Sounding Reference
Signals (SRS). The drawback of the uplink SRS based solution for downlink
beamforming is that only one transmit antenna is used in the uplink, while two
receive antennas are used. This means the uplink does not provide full channel
information for the downlink direction. TM9 brings further improvement on
top of TM8 by using device-specific Demodulation Reference Signals (DM-RS)
for the downlink measurements to generate feedback to the network.
8TX has been deployed in TD-LTE networks. The beamforming evolution in
3GPP is shown in Figure 8. An example set of drive test results are shown in
Figure 9. These show that TM8 beamforming brings a clear benefit to user
data rates compared to TM3. The peak rate does not increase and the data
rate in the good signal areas also does not increase, while the average data
rate and the cell edge data rate are improved considerably. TM9 offers a
better performance than TM8, while the performance can also be enhanced
with 4-antenna terminals. Using 4-antenna terminals instead of 2-antenna
terminals, the benefit in cell capacity is expected to be 40-50% and 70-100%
in the cell edge data rate.

3GPP Release 8

3GPP Release 9

3GPP Release 10

3GPP Release 11

TM7/TM3

TM8 SU- and MU-MIMO

TM9 SU- and MU-MIMO

TM10 CoMP

TM3
TM7

CQI
TM8

TM9

PMI1 PMI2

Figure 8. 3GPP Evolution for TD-LTE beamforming

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PDCP Thrput DL (kb/s)

1.25

CDF

0.75

0.5

TM3

TM8

0.25

-0.25

10000

TM3 Round0
TM8 Round1

20000

TM3 Round1
TM8 Round2

30000
TM3 Round2
TM8 Round3

40000
TM3 Round3

50000

60000

TM8 Round0

Figure 9. 8TX Downlink gains in the field in TD-LTE

The performance of downlink TD-LTE can be further enhanced with Nokia
Intelligent Beamforming, in which the eNodeB algorithms also consider intercell interference. Nokia Intelligent Beamforming not only tries to maximize the
signal level, but also attempts to maximize the signal-to-interference ratio,
leading to substantially higher data rates for users at the cell edge. One such
algorithm is shown in Figure 10.

Interference
avoiding PRB

Cell

Ce l l - 1

Ce l l - 2

Figure 10. Nokia Intelligent Beamforming for avoiding inter-cell interference

Combining uplink 8RX with Multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) is an attractive
solution for increasing uplink cell throughput and coverage. Figure 11 shows
that, in mobility tests, uplink MU-MIMO gains exceed 40%.

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Uplink cell throughput

14
12

Mbps

10
8
6

MU-MIMO on

MU-MIMO o

2
0

Figure 11. Over 40% uplink throughput gain with Multi-user MIMO

Centralized RAN
Uplink multi-antenna reception can also be extended beyond a single cell. In a
Centralized RAN network, the data transmitted by a device is received by the
antennas from multiple cells. While the basic concept is known as uplink CoMP,
the Nokia Centralized RAN solution, as illustrated in Figure 12, allows the
dynamic combination of uplink signals received by up to 12 antennas served
by different base band units. The major benefit here is that uplink CoMP works
with existing base station hardware and all existing LTE terminals.

Heavy cell
overlapping in
open area

Fiber
RF

Baseband

Figure 12. Uplink CoMP implementation with Centralized RAN

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Centralized RAN offers a major gain in uplink throughput and capacity by

turning inter-cell interference into a useful signal. Interference is a major
problem, particularly in open areas such as stadiums. The gain from
Centralized RAN is illustrated in Figure 13. Live network deployments typically
show an increase in uplink data rates and capacity of between 100 and
200%. The uplink improvements are important for mass events where people
typically want to share pictures and videos and where networks are uplink
limited.

Uplink throughput at stadium

120
100

Mbps

80
60

CRAN o

40

CRAN on

20
0

Open loop
power control

Closed loop
power control

Figure 13. Uplink CoMP gains in live network with Centralized RAN (CRAN)

6-Sector solution
Using a 6-sector solution instead of a conventional 3-sector solution can
improve network capacity and coverage. The 6-sector configuration increases
system capacity by minimizing the inter-cell interference and increases
coverage through higher antenna gain. A 3-sector antenna typically has a
65 degree 3dB beam width, while a 6-sector antenna typically has a 35 degree
beam width. Many Nokia networks have used 6 sectors, mainly for increasing
network capacity in congested areas. The configurations are shown in
Figure 14.

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3 sectors
6 sectors: less interference and
more coverage

Figure 14. 3 Sector and 6 sector configurations

The physical size of a 6-sector site solution can be minimized by using dual
beam antennas where the single antenna creates two beams for two adjacent
sectors. The complete 6-sector site solution with MIMO2x2 consists of three
antennas, two Nokia RF modules and one system module, which is significantly
more compact than traditional solutions. This is shown in Figure 15.

Three dual beam antennas

System module and two RF

modules <75 kg

Figure 15. Compact 6-sector site solution

Nokia Smart Dual Beam solution makes it possible to take benefit of 6 sector
solution also in GSM technology.
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Further evolution of antenna solutions

The evolution of Nokia RF technology makes it practical to integrate RF units
and antennas together, as shown in Figure 16. Such integration means that
the site solution becomes even more compact, minimizing the number of
separate units required. Since most operators will soon run networks on
up to five different frequency bands, integrated solutions must be capable
of supporting this. Nokias integrated solution is called Radio Antenna
System (RAS). The next phase in the evolution is the Active Antenna System
(AAS), where a large number of small RF units are distributed inside the
antenna. Active antennas also enable flexible beamforming in the vertical
plane, as shown in Figure 17. Nokia is the clear leader with active antenna
implementations - live network testing has been completed in both 3G and in
LTE networks with major operators, with gains exceeding 50%.
3GPP Release 13 brings even better support for active antennas with the
introduction of the Massive MIMO (Full dimension MIMO or 3D MIMO) work
item. Massive MIMO enables transmission using up to 64 antenna ports.
With multiband site solutions, we also need to consider the identification and
avoidance of Passive Intermodulation (PIM) effects, for example, in the case of
shared 700 MHz and 800 MHz deployments. Nokia RF products can run PIM
measurements remotely, determining the reasons for PIM and allowing any
uplink desensitization to be avoided. Nokia also supports frequency domain
interference avoidance using the Smart Scheduler and Nokia will also develop
an active PIM cancellation solution.

Nokia Flexi Radio

Antenna System
(RAS)

Nokia Flexi Active

Antenna System
(AAS)

Figure 16. Nokia integrated antenna solutions

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Figure 17. Vertical beamforming with active antennas

Summary
Base station multi-antenna solutions enhance network capacity and coverage
and offer higher data rates while continuing to use legacy two-antenna
devices. The 4TX4RX solution is already widely deployed in commercial FDD
and TDD networks, with 8TX8RX in use in TDD networks. 4TX4RX antennas at
2 GHz band and 8TX8RX at higher bands are quite compact and well suited
to urban deployments. 4TX4RX can also be used in bands below 1 GHz,
particularly in rural towers where larger antennas are allowed. Field results
indicate major gains from 4TX4RX and 8TX8RX, particularly in cell edge
performance in the downlink, with even greater gains in the uplink. Nokias
TD-LTE Intelligent Beamforming algorithm further improves the benefits of
8TX solutions.
Four-antenna devices can enhance the networks average throughputs and
capacity, and also increase the peak data rate with MIMO4x4. Nokia Flexi base
station offers a smooth evolution based on software upgrades to support
MIMO4x4 in the downlink.
The reception of uplink multi-antennas can be extended to several cells
with the Nokia Centralized RAN solution. This has proven very powerful in
increasing uplink capacity during mass events held at stadiums and at similar
gatherings. Nokia Centralized RAN works with any terminals and with current
base station hardware.

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Further reading
Nokia Centralized RAN summary
Nokia Centralized RAN press release
Nokia TD-LTE Intelligent Beamforming
Nokia High Performance 6-sector Site white paper
Nokia Active Antenna System white paper
Nokia Flexi Multiradio 10 base station
Nokia Smart Scheduler white paper
Nokia Liquid Radio Software Suites summary

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Nokia is a registered trademark of Nokia Corporation. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks or trade names of their
respective owners.
Nokia
Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy
P.O. Box 1
FI-02022
Finland
Visiting address:
Karaportti 3,
ESPOO,
Finland
Switchboard +358 71 400 4000
Product code C401-011906-WP-201507-1-EN
Nokia Solutions and Networks 2015

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