Improving Throughput For Mobile Receivers Using Adaptive Beamforming

In anticipation of a rapid increase in wireless communication, MIMO is one key technology to be explored for 5G. Conventional approaches are unable to predict many of the key characteristics for MIMO channels, and more detailed methods suffer from significant computational complexity due to the number of antennas in a MIMO array. In this work, the beamforming performance for moving users in a large cell with effective channel throughput has been explored. The Glasgow University campus model is used to estimate channel properties when various beamforming techniques are implemented. The techniques explored are Maximum Ratio Transmission (MRT) (for transmitter), Equal Gain Combining (EGC), Selection Combining (SC), and Max Ratio Combining (MRC) (for receiver) beamforming in 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE). Throughput, received signal strength, and signal to noise interference ratio (SINR) are determined. By implementing the beamforming techniques, on average, we are able to improve the throughput from 9 Mbps to 14 Mbps. The best throughput/SINR has been observed with MRT-MRC in comparison to No-beamforming.