First 4x4 MIMO Field Trial: Stellar Data Rates Reported, Few Details Provided
By Paul Kruczkowski, Editor
Last week, Huawei reported that it had successfully conducted the world’s first 4x4 MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) field trial, on Deutsche Telekom’s 1.8 GHz band LTE network in Cologne, Germany. Huawei claims the trial demonstrated downstream data rates of up to 250 Mbps using the company’s SingleRAN LTE equipment. However, few details were given concerning the user equipment (UE) that was implemented or the trial’s measurement protocol. So, the question remains: Did this trial represent a major advance in UE MIMO technology?
Trials like the one in Germany are important because MIMO technology is a critical part of the LTE standard, and because mobile service providers will be implementing MIMO to improve network performance in terms of coverage, spectral efficiency, and throughput. MIMO will play an even greater role when equipment designed for the LTE Advanced standard is rolled out in a couple of years.
With 4x4 MIMO, both the UE and the base station or eNodeB (eNB) must have four antennas. It is fairly easy to implement four or even eight antenna arrays on a tower or rooftop, and 4x4 MIMO technology has even been integrated into Wi-Fi routers. However, one significant technical challenge has yet to be overcome — implementing four, and eventually eight, 700 MHz PCB antennas with adequate isolation in continuously shrinking smartphones.
Huawei has become a major player in the global information and communications technology (ICT) space, overtaking Nokia Siemens Networks for the number two spot on the wireless equipment provider list, with $2.53 billion in Q42011 revenue, according to ABI Research. Looking forward, Huawei plans to increase investment and operation in India and to increase investment in Europe and focus on establishing more partnerships with European firms.
If you are wondering whether Huawei LTE equipment can bring that kind of performance to the U.S. mobile market, you will likely have to wait a while to find out. Huawei‘s past missteps in dealing with the U.S. market, combined with U.S. national security concerns about Chinese counterfeit electronic parts, may hinder its ability to gain traction in the United States. And comments like those made recently by former U.S. counter-terrorism specialist Richard Clarke to Smithsonian magazine — suggesting that electronics made in China and other foreign countries may well have built-in trapdoors, allowing malware to infect American systems on command — will not help Huawei’s U.S. endeavors either. For these reasons, I think it will be a long time before Huawei conducts a 4x4 MIMO field trial in the United States. In the meantime, hopefully we’ll get more concrete information about the German test.