Millimeter-wave massive-MIMO channel sounding for future mobile broadband

Achieving the foreseeable high bandwidth and high data rate required for over 100 billion estimated data hungry devices in 2020 and beyond is the major goal of 5G technology. The synergy between millimeter-wave and massive MIMO technology in mobile communication will enhance the actualization of 5G systems. However, Channel behavior is not well understood for wireless multiple-access communications at millimeter wave band. Channel sounding is therefore needed to characterized future potential 5G air interface. 5G Channel sounding system must meet up with three fundamental requirements: Ultra-band wideband; millimeter-wave frequency band; and massive MIMO. In this paper, these requirements were verified via simulation. These basic requirements make 5G channel sounding systems highly challenging. Series of problems and various ways of addressing them for adequate and efficient channel characterization were highlighted. Keysight's Agilent SystemVue and Matlab softwares were identified as useful tools for electronic system level design and simulation of 5G channel sounder.