More is more is more

New Massive MIMO handbook third edition

Massive MIMO spectrum efficiency everywhere

The 5G future is here with more deployments, ever-increasing data traffic and subscriber growth. The new performance demands on networks require new levels of spectral efficiency, and flexibility. Massive MIMO technology offers communication service providers the larger bandwidth of the mid-band to deliver powerful 5G experiences nationwide.

#MassiveMIMO #midband #Macro

Massive MIMO Handbook Tech Primer third edition_web report

Two books in one! - a guide for:

how to use Massive MIMO to meet the performance requirements in 5G mobile networks
how to choose suitable products in typical network deployment scenarios
deeper understanding of how Massive MIMO works, covering architecture, implementation, and radio requirements
detailed insights about antennas, wave propagation, antenna arrays, multi-antenna technologies, 3GPP solutions, network performance, and Massive MIMO features

What´s new?

In the third edition, you will also find information about the latest additions to the Massive MIMO frequency division duplex, Massive MIMO time division duplex and millimeter wave portfolio.

All about Massive MIMO

New high-performing and sustainable Massive MIMO radios

AIR 3255

Ultralight Massive MIMO mid-band TDD radio with 32 transmitters and receivers (32T/32R).

Highlights

Single-band TDD
12 kg
128 antenna elements
200 MHz instantaneous bandwidth
eCPRI - Packet fronthaul
Passive cooling – no fans, less maintenance
Open RAN prepared

What’s new?

Highly energy efficient, and with its reduced weight and size, the AIR 3255 will help service providers to incentivize mid-band deployments.

Benefits

More than 25% energy savings and 20% lower embodied carbon footprint
Global TDD sub-6 GHz frequency bands support
Enhanced receiver processing and improved energy efficiency with a new generation Massive MIMO Ericsson Silicon

Triple-band Massive MIMO FDD with 32 transmitters and receivers (32T/32R)

AIR 5343

mmWave radio used for high-capacity and high-performing Fixed Wireless Access with macro deployment.

Highlights

70 dBm EIRP
1600 MHz total carrier bandwidth
16 kg
eCPRI - Packet fronthaul
Passive cooling – no fans, less maintenance

What’s new?

AIR 5343 allows high-capacity and high-performing Fixed Wireless Access with macro deployment.

Benefits

11 dB coverage boost and up to 1600 MHz total carrier bandwidth
85% energy savings vs. peak with Deep Sleep functionality support
Distributed and Centralized RAN optimized

AIR 3284

Triple-band Massive MIMO FDD with 32 transmitters and receivers (32T/32R).

Highlights

192 antenna elements
1800, 2100 and 2600 MHz, full instantaneous bandwidth
47 kg
eCPRI – packet fronthaul
Passive cooling – no fans, less maintenance
Open RAN prepared

What’s new?

With its highly optimized weight and design, the AIR 3284 will simplify rollouts in high-capacity sites to handle more of the demand for uplink capacity.

Benefits

4x higher uplink capacity vs. 4T/4R radio
2x higher downlink capacity vs. 4T/4R radio
Boost uplink and downlink performance in high-traffic sites

Uplink Multi-user Massive MIMO FDD

Radio software functionality to boost uplink capacity.

Highlights

Supporting spatial multiplexing in the uplink with up to four layers and is based on the full interference rejection combining (IRC) advanced receiver.

What’s new?

Massive MIMO FDD is crucial to capture more of the uplink traffic growth and boosting both downlink and uplink performance.

Benefits

2x incremental uplink capacity
Increased uplink throughput
Increased spatial resource utilization due to the spatial multiplexing, where the uplink layers are co-scheduled on the same time and frequency resources

Ultra-wideband Massive MIMO radios

What's new?

Ultra-wideband: AIR 6476 delivers 600 MHz IBW, 400 W output power in 30 kg. AIR 6476 enables doubled mid-band capacity with zero added antenna footprint.

Dual-band TDD: AIR 3229 enables 2x200 MHz IBW, supporting two separated frequency bands in just one Massive MIMO antenna unit.

Dual-band FDD: AIR 3283 brings Massive MIMO on two FDD bands, enabling 3x more capacity on 4G and 5G with no added footprint.

Key features

2x more carrier bandwidth in one radio
Interference Sensing, with up to 40% more capacity
Intelligent Cell Shaping, with up to 35% higher cell edge speed
Passive cooling across portfolio—no fans, less maintenance
Cloud RAN ready

AIR 6476

30 kg, 63 liters
64T64R branches
Zero added footprint supporting legacy plus new spectrum
Industry-first with ultra wideband Massive MIMO radio
Higher output power with 4 W/MHz

“The new Massive MIMO radio AIR 6476 from Ericsson will double network capacity, allowing us to continue delivering premium mobile broadband services while lowering costs and avoiding additional site footprint. This solution suits the future needs of the South Korean market.”

- Kim DaeHee, Head of Network Infra Technology Group, at LGU+

Interference Sensing

Ericsson's award-winning unique Interference Sensing is portfolio-wide Massive MIMO software, that minimizes inter-cell interference and increases network capacity by up to 40 percent.

Powered by Ericsson Silicon, it is a perfect complement to the Ericsson Uplink Booster. This capacity-boosting Interference Sensing software helped Ericsson win top GTI Award 2023 for “Innovative Breakthrough in Mobile Technology” as well as the "Outstanding Award" for significant contribution to the industry.

Intelligent Cell Shaping

This portfolio-wide Massive MIMO Intelligent Cell Shaping software improves coverage with intelligent automation, gives more precise cell shapes matching the user distribution, reduces inter-cell interference and improves capacity and load balancing with up to 35 percent higher cell edge user throughput.

Deep Sleep for Massive MIMO and Remote Radios portfolio

Deep Sleep for Massive MIMO and Remote Radios portfolio can hibernate while consumers and businesses are asleep.

Low traffic hours enable substancial energy savings potential on each radio and site. Deep Sleep saves around 70% of the energy otherwise consumed by hibernating the radio when there is little or no traffic.

Booster Carrier Sleep

Ericsson Booster Carrier Sleep allows carriers to be switched on and off dynamically based on the traffic demand. This software creates more opportunities for cell sleep and radio deep sleep to be activated autonomously, being a key enabler for energy efficiency.

Click to watch the video

The unique combination of low weight, large bandwidth, high capacity, and energy efficiency makes the Ericsson Massive MIMO portfolio stand out wherever it is deployed. Key benefits include:

Easy deployment with lightweight radios
Energy-efficient: up to 20% improved from previous generations
Less maintenance with passive cooling
Powered by Ericsson Silicon

AIR 6428

Wideband, ultra-lightweight capacity radio
Optimized for effortless RAN sharing scenarios
25 kg, single-person carry radio
64 T/R branches, 400 MHz IBW

AIR 3268

12 kg (26 lbs), 23 liters
Up to 10% improved energy efficiency compared to previous generation
Easy roof top, tower, wall and pole mounting

AIR 3268 won the Red Dot Product Design Award 2023 for its design quality and degree of innovation. The product is not only aesthetically appealing but also helps reduce energy consumption and site footprint, and is easy and efficient to install and maintain.

Grow your 5G value – enabling differentiated connectivity offerings

Boost service differentiation for 5G premium experiences with a new innovative software toolkit with advanced RAN and Core capabilities.

Capture new opportunities

Chunghwa Telecom(CHT) has begun upgrading their installed Ericsson base of mid-band Massive MIMO from AIR 6488 to AIR 6419 and from AIR 3239 to AIR 3219 as part of their network modernization. With the latest Ericsson 5G solutions deployed, the actual power consumption in the field was reduced by an average of 33 percent, lowering CO2 emissions, and cutting CHT’s energy bills.

Read the case

The latest additions to Ericsson’s Massive MIMO and RAN Compute portfolios are powered by Ericsson Silicon. Its architecture design provides the Massive MIMO radios with real-time channel estimation and ultra-precise beamforming, enabling industry-leading coverage and improved user experience. Additional security has been embedded into the tight co-design of the silicon and the hardware architecture, ensuring the software and sensitive data are protected.

The Ericsson Silicon range, custom-made for mobile networks, spans all of our radio platforms – RAN compute, radio, and transport – to enable communication service providers to surpass the expectations of their end customers.

Explore Ericsson Silicon

White paper: Massive MIMO for 5G networks

Recent technology developments have made Massive MIMO the preferred option for large-scale deployments in 5G mobile networks. Massive MIMO enables state-of-the-art beamforming and MIMO techniques that are powerful tools for improving end-user experience, capacity, and coverage.

Ericsson Technology Review article: Meeting 5G network requirements with Massive MIMO

5G New Radio (NR) has been designed to fully support Massive MIMO as a native technology from the start. The vastly increased coverage, capacity and user throughput that Massive MIMO provides has quickly made it a natural and essential component of cellular network deployments.

Blog: How to build high-performing Massive MIMO systems

Let's explore how Ericsson has mastered the Art and Science of Massive MIMO to both unleash the full capacity benefits and extend the coverage of the new 5G mid-band spectrum - bringing outstanding user experience today, and setting the stage for the advanced applications of tomorrow.