Feasibility of large antenna arrays towards low latency ultra reliable communication

Industrial automation and safety applications demand low latency and ultra reliable communication. Currently deployed wireless communication technologies are mostly developed for non-critical applications and hence, they are not suitable for these kind of applications. On the other hand, cable based communication is widely popular in industries, even though it has limitations towards cost of installment and is susceptible towards mechanical wear and tear. This paper reviews the feasibility of large antenna arrays at the receiver to achieve low latency and ultra reliable communication for up-link scenarios. The suitability of both coherent and non-coherent multiple input multiple output (MIMO) receivers are investigated. Non-coherent MIMO receiver is found to be a promising option as signal to noise power ratio (SNR) is fairly reasonable in achieving the desired reliability. The effect of antenna correlation at the transmitter and at receiver on reliability are also looked into. Its influence on the system performance is very nominal. Moreover, in certain scenarios, antenna correlation at the transmitter gives a significant improvement in system performance. Furthermore, having a single antenna at the sensors is found not to be a limiting factor in achieving the desired performance goal.