NIMO (non-interfering multiple output)

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An approach of an antenna and beamforming system, NIMO (non-interfering multiple output), is introduced that can be used to overcome bandwidth and capacity limitations on dense wireless networks. The new system combines beamforming technology with MIMO, providing a higher quality of service (QoS), and supports transparent integration with any telecommunication system. NIMO provides multiple narrow beams using a single antenna, and provides improved characteristics compared to conventional beamforming techniques such as reduced interference. Such a multi-beam antenna system increases spectral efficiency, user capacity, and throughput, as well as QoS. [1]

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In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource – a physical transmission medium. For example, in telecommunications, several telephone calls may be carried using one wire. Multiplexing originated in telegraphy in the 1870s, and is now widely applied in communications. In telephony, George Owen Squier is credited with the development of telephone carrier multiplexing in 1910.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IEEE 802.16</span> Series of wireless broadband standards

IEEE 802.16 is a series of wireless broadband standards written by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The IEEE Standards Board established a working group in 1999 to develop standards for broadband for wireless metropolitan area networks. The Workgroup is a unit of the IEEE 802 local area network and metropolitan area network standards committee.

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Smart antennas are antenna arrays with smart signal processing algorithms used to identify spatial signal signatures such as the direction of arrival (DOA) of the signal, and use them to calculate beamforming vectors which are used to track and locate the antenna beam on the mobile/target. Smart antennas should not be confused with reconfigurable antennas, which have similar capabilities but are single element antennas and not antenna arrays.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evolved High Speed Packet Access</span> Technical standard

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Multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) is a set of multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) technologies for multipath wireless communication, in which multiple users or terminals, each radioing over one or more antennas, communicate with one another. In contrast, single-user MIMO (SU-MIMO) involves a single multi-antenna-equipped user or terminal communicating with precisely one other similarly equipped node. Analogous to how OFDMA adds multiple-access capability to OFDM in the cellular-communications realm, MU-MIMO adds multiple-user capability to MIMO in the wireless realm.

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3G MIMO describes MIMO techniques which have been considered as 3G standard techniques.

Many antennas is a smart antenna technique which overcomes the performance limitation of single user multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques. In cellular communication, the maximum number of considered antennas for downlink is 2 and 4 to support 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) and IMT Advanced requirements, respectively. Since the available spectrum band will probably be limited while the data rate requirement will continuously increase beyond IMT-A to support the mobile multimedia services, it is highly probable that the number of transmit antennas at the base station must be increased to 8–64 or more. The installation of many antennas at single base stations introduced many challenges and required development of several high technologies: a new SDMA engine, a new beamforming algorithm and a new antenna array.

WSDMA is a high bandwidth channel access method, developed for multi-transceiver systems such as active array antennas. WSDMA is a beamforming technique suitable for overlay on the latest air-interface protocols including WCDMA and OFDM. WSDMA enabled systems can determine the angle of arrival (AoA) of received signals to spatially divide a cell sector into many sub-sectors. This spatial awareness provides information necessary to maximise Carrier to Noise+Interference Ratio (CNIR) link budget, through a range of digital processing routines. WSDMA facilitates a flexible approach to how uplink and downlink beamforming is performed and is capable of spatial filtering known interference generating locations.

CDMA spectral efficiency refers to the system spectral efficiency in bit/s/Hz/site or Erlang/MHz/site that can be achieved in a certain CDMA based wireless communication system. CDMA techniques are characterized by a very low link spectral efficiency in (bit/s)/Hz as compared to non-spread spectrum systems, but a comparable system spectral efficiency.

The first smart antennas were developed for military communications and intelligence gathering. The growth of cellular telephone in the 1980s attracted interest in commercial applications. The upgrade to digital radio technology in the mobile phone, indoor wireless network, and satellite broadcasting industries created new opportunities for smart antennas in the 1990s, culminating in the development of the MIMO technology used in 4G wireless networks.

Multiple-input, multiple-output orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) is the dominant air interface for 4G and 5G broadband wireless communications. It combines multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) technology, which multiplies capacity by transmitting different signals over multiple antennas, and orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), which divides a radio channel into a large number of closely spaced subchannels to provide more reliable communications at high speeds. Research conducted during the mid-1990s showed that while MIMO can be used with other popular air interfaces such as time-division multiple access (TDMA) and code-division multiple access (CDMA), the combination of MIMO and OFDM is most practical at higher data rates.

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Three-dimensional beamforming (3DBF), full dimension MIMO or tilt angle adaptation is an interference coordination method in cellular networks and radar systems which brings significant improvements in comparison with conventional 2D beamforming techniques. Most beamforming schemes currently employed in wireless cellular networks control the beam pattern radiation in the horizontal plane. In contrast to such two-dimensional beamforming (2DBF), 3DBF adapts the radiation beam pattern in both elevation and azimuth planes to provide more degrees of freedom in supporting users. By utilizing information on angle of arrival (AoA) of users provided by suitable antenna hardware such as sector antenna or planar array in both elevation and azimuth planes and estimating direction of arrival (DoA) of each users' signal, base station is capable of distinguishing different users using proper beamforming and also steering the array's beam to a desired direction which optimizes some preferred performance metric of the network.

References

  1. "Phased-Array Antennas Aid Wireless Communications". www.mwrf.com. Retrieved 20 January 2020.