China Mobile Rolls Out Pre5G 3D-MIMO in Guangzhou

As China's urbanization accelerates, high-rise buildings are springing up in many cities. Poor coverage and call quality in these buildings have become a common issue that affects the quality of mobile networks. According to China Mobile, complaints about network coverage accounted for 41% of all complaints, and more than 70% of coverage-related complaints were related to indoor coverage. Therefore, improving indoor coverage is strategically important for China Mobile. In practice, China Mobile has had difficulty with site acquisition, property negotiation and indoor distribution project deployment.

China Mobile has adopted ZTE's innovative three dimensional multiple input multiple output (3D-MIMO) solution to solve the indoor coverage issue. In a commercial network, 3D-MIMO enables transmission rates to reach more than 300 Mbps, increasing throughput 300% to 500%. The most impressive case is the indoor coverage for Evergrande Center in Zhujiang New Town, Guangzhou. The Evergrande Center surrounded by numerous skyscrapers has 47 floors, four of which are underground. The surrounding wireless environment is complex, which makes indoor coverage and property management quite difficult. China Mobile deployed 3D-MIMO base stations at 30 m high that could cover the entire center. The cell capacity was significantly increased. Compared to China Mobile's existing large-angle-antenna macro stations, the average downlink throughput gains were 394%. Cell-edge user experience was also greatly enhanced. The test showed that the average downlink and uplink rate gains at the cell edge were 583% and 819% respectively. 3D-MIMO has flexible beam adjustment that enables vertical wide-angle coverage through the configuration of antenna weight. With wider and deeper coverage, 3D-MIMO is an ideal solution for high-rise buildings in central business districts.

Another core competitiveness of China Mobile's network is its macro coverage for heavy-traffic hotspots. On average, 65,000 passengers pass through Guangzhou East Railway Station Square every day, which demands more in capacity and coverage. China Mobile also adopted ZTE's 3D-MIMO to cover the railway station square. Compared with existing eight-antenna macro base stations, the test showed that the average downlink gain of a 3D-MIMO cell was 350% and its uplink gain at the cell edge was 357%. Moreover, in the test for a single UE, 96% of the areas can reach more than 5 Mbps throughout. 3D-MIMO base stations outperform traditional eight-antenna macro cells in terms of coverage, uplink and downlink throughput, and anti-interference. Therefore, 3D-MIMO works perfectly for large-capacity business scenarios.

"3D-MIMO is a promising technology that helps the evolution to 4G as well as the development of 5G. We are pleased to partner with ZTE in completing commercial 3D-MIMO test on a live network in Guangzhou," said Dr. Liu Guangyi, CTO of Wireless Department, China Mobile Research Institute. "All test results showed that 3D-MIMO can significantly enhance 4G user experience no matter in high-rise buildings or macro coverage scenarios. This further boosts our confidence to widely deploy 3D-MIMO."

3D-MIMO has:

●   128 antenna array elements and advanced baseband vector processing chipsets that increase network throughput by two to four times

●   3D-MIMO beamforming that expands coverage space from 2D to 3D and achieves seamless coverage

●   precise terminal tracking that enhances user experience

●   integrated antenna, RF, and baseband units that can be easily and flexibly deployed for various scenarios

●   full compatibility with existing commercial 4G terminals and networks.

3D-MIMO is a key component of ZTE's pre5G core technology that allows 4G users to enjoy 5G-like experience without changing their terminals. ZTE is a leader in developing 3D-MIMO that is expected to be commercially available in China in 2016 and will leverage its advantages in practical business environments. Pre5G 3D-MIMO brings 5G networks closer to us.