[Barcelona, Spain, February 22, 2019] Huawei has announced that it will officially display all-scenario series smart massive MIMO product solutions at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona this year. These solutions meet the requirements of continuous LTE evolution and deployment of diversified customer networks in the 5G era, help operators deploy 5G networks in advance on the basis of existing 4G networks, and provide user experience that is several times better than that provided by common 4G network deployment technologies. These solutions are continuously evolving in aspects of simplified deployment, intelligent optimization, and energy saving to meet the requirements of rapid network traffic growth and diversified services in the future.

The multi-user space division multiplexing (SDM) technology of massive MIMO integrates two features: large system capacity and high-speed single-user experience. In this way, massive MIMO can provide x Gbit/s cell throughput and ultra-large user capacity, as well as the exclusive bandwidth and QoS guarantee functions supported by wired networks. As one of the key air interface technologies of 5G, massive MIMO is the core technology difference between 4G and 5G networks and the best solution to the rapid growth of regional traffic.

To meet the challenges in large-scale deployment of massive MIMO and the requirements of continuous network traffic growth in the future, a concept of long-term evolution towards simplified, intelligent, and energy-efficient massive MIMO networks has been introduced. During the deployment of massive MIMO sites, antenna information sensor units (AISUs) are used to automatically obtain accurate engineering parameter information, reducing the need for engineering personnel's skills and avoiding data import errors. This greatly reduces site adjustment and O&M and lays a foundation for long-term evolution of smart massive MIMO networks.

In terms of performance optimization, TDD-based smart massive MIMO solutions support intelligent scenario recognition and automatic configuration optimization to dynamically optimize and select nearly 300 parameter combinations, improving performance by more than 20%. FDD-based smart massive MIMO solutions automatically learn UE distribution changes on the network and adjust the beam azimuth, width, and power, improving performance by more than 15%. With smart massive MIMO solutions, base stations can automatically match different UE distribution scenarios to achieve optimal performance and greatly improve optimization efficiency. In this way, massive MIMO has a self-tuning capability. In low-load or specific coverage scenarios, in addition to traditional cell technologies such as symbol power saving and multi-carrier shutdown, some transmit channels of massive MIMO modules can be disabled to reduce the overall power consumption. Three energy-saving technologies are used to reduce the average power consumption of a smart massive MIMO site by 15% to 20%.

Cao Ming, President of Huawei Wireless Network LTE Product Line, reports that, "Most mobile users will be migrated to 4G networks in the next five years. Massive MIMO is the best solution to coverage and capacity expansion problems in urban areas and supports evolution to 5G. Huawei takes the lead in launching full series, full-band smart massive MIMO solutions that integrate AI technologies to help customers to improve the automation of the network, enhance the network performance, reduce OPEX, and maximize values. Smart massive MIMO solutions help operators deploy 5G networks in advance on the basis of existing 4G networks. In addition, with simplified O&M brought by wireless AI technologies, these solutions provide user experience that is several times better than that provided by common 4G network deployment technologies, better meeting the requirements of future mobile Internet services."

Huawei has studied the application of massive MIMO to 4G networks since 2014 and released the world's first commercial massive MIMO product in 2016, initiating the global large-scale commercial use of massive MIMO. By the end of 2018, Huawei massive MIMO networks have been deployed by more than 60 operators worldwide, covering all mainstream frequency bands such as 1.8 GHz, 2.3 GHz, 2.6 GHz, and 3.5 GHz. Compared with traditional networks, Huawei massive MIMO networks improve cell capacity by 3–5 times. In 2017, Huawei finished testing the AI-based adaptive parameter optimization technology on commercial TDD massive MIMO networks in Japan. The test results showed that the network optimization period was shortened by 80% and network performance was improved by more than 20%. This is the first time that smart massive MIMO has been applied to commercial networks. In addition, Huawei FDD massive MIMO has finished performance verification and large-scale deployment on more than 30 commercial networks in countries such as China, Thailand, Turkey, and Kuwait. The capacity of a massive MIMO network is 3–5 times higher than that of a live network. Meanwhile, smart massive MIMO technologies have successfully passed field verification in Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia. It is estimated that Huawei smart massive MIMO will be commercially deployed on a large scale in 2019, helping operators take preemptive opportunities in 5G.