Optimal Inter-Element Spacing of FD-MIMO Planar Array in Urban Macrocell with Elevation Channel Modelling

Abstract

Full Dimension multiple input multiple output (FD-MIMO) architecture employs a planar array design at the Base Station (BS) to provide high order multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) via simultaneous data transmission to large number of users. With FD-MIMO, the BS can also adjust the beam direction in both elevation and azimuth direction to concentrate the energy on the user of interests while minimizing the interference leakage to co-scheduled users in the same cell or users in the neighboring cells. In a typical highly populated macrocell environment, modelling the elevation angular characteristics of three-dimensional (3D) channel is critical to understanding the performance limits of the FD-MIMO system. In this paper, we study the throughput performance of FD-MIMO system with varying elevation angular spread and inter-element spacing using a 3D spatial channel model. Our results show that for a typical urban scenario, horizontal beamforming with correlated antenna spacing achieves optimal performance but by restricting the spread of elevation angles of departure, elevation beamforming achieves high array gain with wide inter-element spacing. We also realize significant gains due to spatial array processing via modelling the elevation domain and varying the inter-element spacing for both the transmitter and receiver.