4G/5G Antenna Evolution

Practicalities Assessing Massive MIMO, Beam Steering and System Advances – Considering mass versus niche deployment drivers and innovation – Exploring Practicalities of 4G/5G and Multi-Band Integration

Hosted by:

 
 




When

October 30 - November 1

Where

Kimpton Charlotte Square

Edinburgh, Scotland

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Register

Limited to 100 seats

First Registered, First Served!

Attendance open to all IWPC Members


Introduction

4G and 5G air interface technologies increasingly rely on multi-port antennas in RAN to deliver capacity and coverage enhancements through spatial multiplexing and beamforming. Such dynamics already resulted in the evolution of antenna architectures from passive to active, and influences user performance prediction principles and deployment considerations to include the user-specific nature of new radio transmission schemes.

Workshop Goals

This IWPC workshop aims to explore all of these questions and more as we share and discuss deployment, operation and optimisation aspects of the latest 4G & 5G antenna systems. We will consider how antenna and basestation systems will develop to further enhance RAN performance in a sustainable way and what tools are available and being developed to assess and predict such performance.

Agenda

DAY 1
October 30

Wednesday

6:15 PM

 

 

 

Maxwell Institute Tour & Antenna Reception

 

 

 

Maxwell Foundation / Whigham's Wine Cellars

DAY 2
October 31

Thursday

7:00 AM

 

 

 

Breakfast

8:00 AM

Welcome and Introductions

 

 

 

 

Host Introduction and Keynote

 

 

 

 

BT/EE 4G/5G Radio Network

 

Principle Network Architect, Network Strategy

 

Antenna Opportunities and Challenges

Research Manager

 

10:00 AM

Networking Break

  

10:40 AM

Service Provider Perspectives

  • MIK and hybrid antennas
  • EMF constrains, power per beam control
  • Output power efficiency => power per bit analysis
  • Synchronization and dynamic frame structure for UL/DL in TDD
  • Massive MIMO for FWA analysis and other use cases

Deployment Aspects of Massive MIMO

Senior Project Manager

 

Massive MIMO Deployment Learnings

Technical Director

 

 

12:00 Noon

Networking Lunch

1:00 PM

OEM and System Perspectives

  • Why spatial multiplexing + beamforming, i.e. massive MIMO
  • User distribution and deployment (how will 16, 32 & 64TR behave?)
  • The MU-MIMO contradiction: Many users (high load) & high SNR (at the same time!)
  • Reciprocity and codebooks: both are needed (for different scenarios), i.e. why SRS and reciprocity have limited coverage
  • High-band vs mid-band: differences and similarities (where on the capacity curve do we work)
  • What do the facts say? Some comparisons from commercial networks
  • Massive MIMO and active antennas for 4G LTE and 5G
  • Deployment options for mid-band and mmWave
  • How should service providers deploy to make the best use of spectrum resources
  • How to combine mid-band and low-band resources, how will mmWave help?
  • How are standards and regulatory requirements impacting Active Antenna Systems
  • Will OTA (over-the-air) measurement help?
  • What are the main parameters that influence performance?
  • Antenna options: Passive/active stand-alone ('1+1 = 2') vs. "top box" option ('1 + 1 = 1') vs. integrated FDD + TDD ('1')
  • Azimuth and Elevation beamforming: 64T64R vs 16T16R, 8T8R
  • Broadband beamforming: 8T8R beamforming and column spacing (grating lobes)
  • BF weights: how to keep track of different weights for different antennas and vendors?
  • Storage in the antenna (RAE or similar), pre-stored in the radio, uploaded after deployment (allowing new beams to be added

Mid Band Antenna Drivers and Technical Considerations

Senior Expert Multi Antenna Systems

 

Practical Base Station Antenna Deployment for 5G Beamforming

Manager Antenna Solutions

 

Achieving mid-band FDD Massive MIMO Capacity Gains

 

Chief Technology Officer

 

 

 

 

 

 

3:00 PM

Networking Break

  

3:30 PM

Technology Enablers

  • Considering 5G deployments demand for close inter working with 4G systems as the fallback for 5G services
  • Boosting 4G speed to make 5G a success
  • Assessing passive sectorisation, for macro and hot spots
  • Delivery of low latency, distributed services with the Edge Cloud
  • New deployments combining 4T4R and sectorisation examined
  • Field results and deployment examples
  • Future developments and challenges

 

Passive Antennas Continuing Role in Providing Capacity Fall Back to 4G or Future 5G Services

 

Chief Technology Officer

 

SuperCoverage and Capacity SAS Antennas

Owner, Innovator

 

Antenna Orientation

Product Manager

5:00 PM

Adjourn

 

7:00 PM

Networking Dinner at Ghillie Dhu

 

DAY 3

November 1

Friday

7:00 AM

 

 

 

Breakfast

  

8:00 AM

Technology Enablers

  • Are existing safety guidelines being met?
  • How are guidelines changing?
  • What effect will 5G have on complying with safety guidelines
  • Are current guidelines actually safe? – a review of the ongoing debate

Understanding EMF/ICNIRP Issues

RAN Security

 

 

Challenges for Deployment of 5G - Massive MIMO EMF Measurement and In-Country Regulatory Limits

 

R&D Manager

 

 

Is 5G Safe? – Practical steps to mitigate the growing tension between the public and industry

 

Visiting Professor

 

10:00 AM

Networking Break

 

10:40 AM

Technology Enablers, continued

  • Analysing 5G NR compute requirements
  • Silicon innovations to implement full digital beamforming for sub 6GHz in Large Scale Antenna Array systems
  • OTA test methods for massive MIMO base stations and beamforming UEs
  • Practicalities and influencing factors for measurement uncertainty
  • Ideas for an alternative path to go

Qualification of Active Antennas – Mission Accomplished?

Senior Technology Manager

 

 

 

Scaling Up For Beamforming

Director

 

 

 

12:00 Noon

Networking Lunch

  

1:00 PM

Technology enablers, continued

  • Testing Requirements
  • Proposed Low Cost Solution
  • Performance Evaluation

5G Millimeter Wave Frequencies and Mobile Networks

 

Director, Mobile Systems and Devices Strategy & Architecture Technology Architecture & Innovation,

CTO Group

 

 

Low Cost Millimeter Wave OTA

 

Professor

 

Field Performance and Future Variations of Holographic Beamforming Systems

 

Speaker

 

3:00 PM

Networking Break

  

3:30 PM

Technology Enablers, continued

  • 5G Antenna requirements
  • Electronically beam steerable antennas
  • Addressing 5G beam steerable antennas main concerns - power consumption and cost
  • Advantages and Limitations - requiring adaptations from network/radio
  • Introduction of Gradient Index Devices
  • 3D Printed Luneburg Lenses and Other Devices for mmWave Applications
  • Light-Weight Luneburg Lenses for Sub-6 GHz Applications
  • Experimental Verification and Measurement Results

Exploring Electronically Beam Steerable Liquid Crystal Antennas

 

RF Engineer, 5G Developmentaster Master Scientist

 

Novel Luneburg Lenses for 5G Wireless Communication

 

VP, Business Development & Strategic Partnerships

 

 

4:30 PM

Closing Discussion

  

5:00 PM

Adjourn

FAQs

  1. What is the deadline for presentation/handout materials?
  2. Who are the attendees?
  3. What are the costs/registrations fees?
  4. Hotel information?
  5. What are the travel options from the airport to the hotel?
  6. Are there any audiovisual requirements?
  7. Will business cards be collected?
  8. What is the dress code?
  9. How will handout materials be provided?
  1. What is the deadline for presentation/handout materials?

    Deadline for electronic version of presentation/handout materials: Monday, October 21, 2019

  2. Who are the attendees?
    • We do not permit the Press.
    • We do not permit Analysts.
    • We do not permit Consultants.
    • We do not permit 3rd party sales reps.
    • We only permit "first hand knowledge experts" in business and technology issues, prepared to contribute to the discussion.
  3. What are the costs/registrations fees?

    ALL Hosts, Speakers, Panel Members and Attendees will be asked to cover out-of-pocket workshop costs such as conference room costs, food (Social Reception plus First Day breakfast/lunch/dinner plus Second Day breakfast/lunch plus Breaks), audio/visual costs, etc.

    These costs will be $960 (USD) per person. (For IWPC Members only.)

    ALL Hosts, Speakers, Panel Members and Attendees will be asked to pay this fee in advance with either Visa, MasterCard, American Express, cash, personal check or business check. Make checks payable to IWPC.

  4. Hotel information?

    Kimpton Charlotte Square
    38 Charlotte Square Street
    Edinburgh,EH2 4HQ UK
    Phone: +44 (0)13 1240 5500
    Hotel Website

    The IWPC room block rate is £145.00/night. The deadline for hotel reservations is Monday, September 30, 2019. After that date, rooms cannot be guaranteed at the IWPC rate. You can make your reservations at Hotel Reservations.

  5. What are the travel options from the airport to the hotel?

    https://www.kimptoncharlottesquare.com/us/en/edinburgh/maps-and-directions/

  6. Are there any audiovisual requirements?

    A Computer Projector will be available for the speakers.

    In addition, we audiotape all presentations and the interactive discussions. Post workshop, presentations are made available to IWPC Members on the IWPC WEB site, along with “recordings” of all presentations and panel sessions.

  7. Will business cards be collected?

    Business cards will be collected at the door from all attendees. We will make copies of these cards, which will be available to all who provided a business card.

  8. What is the dress code?

    Business casual suggested. No ties, please!

  9. How will handout materials be provided?

    For ALL IWPC members:

    All IWPC members are invited to submit materials to be included in the online workshop folder in the IWPC Research Library. This should NOT BE SALES MATERIALS. Rather, we suggest it contain technical information about your technology as it relates to the workshop topics.

    For all companies who will be making a presentation at the Workshop:

    You are invited to submit an advance copy of your presentation, complete with graphics and illustrations.

    These materials will be included on the IWPC website Research Library.

    Please submit these materials either by email, as a Word for Windows file, Power Point files or PDF files.

    SUBMISSION OF PRESENTATION:

    • Go to www.iwpc.org
    • Click on IWPC Activities Tab
    • Under Workshop: RAN Connectivity and Architectural Decomposition
    • Click on Submit Presentation Proposal. Complete the form and attach your presentation.
    • Once we receive your presentation we will send an email confirmation.

    AS BACKUP, PLEASE BRING AN ELECTRONIC COPY USB STICK WITH YOU!