Zero-Forcing Precoding in the Measured Massive MIMO Downlink: How Many Antennas Are Needed?

Abstract

In order to understand how many antennas are needed in a multiuser massive MIMO system, theoretical derivation and channel measurements are conducted; the effect of a finite number of base station (BS) antennas on the performance capability of Zero-forcing (ZF) precoding in a rich scattering channel is quantified. Through the theoretical analysis, the needed number of the transmit antennas for ZF precoder to achieve a certain percentage of the broadcast channel (BC) capacity will monotonically decrease with the increase of the transmit signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and the lower bound of the needed transmit antennas is derived with a simple expression. Then the theoretical derivation is verified by simulation results, and the transmission performance is evaluated by channel measurements in urban microcell (UMi) scenario with frequencies of 3.5 and 6 GHz. From the measurement results, the ZF capability can be enhanced by improving the SNR and enlarging the antenna array spacing when the massive MIMO channel does not under a favorable propagation condition. Furthermore, because of the lower spatial correlation, the performance of ZF precoding at 6 GHz is closer to the theoretical derivation than 3.5 GHz.