Bridging the Digital Divide Using SuperCell Massive MIMO

Massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) emerged as the leading technology for supporting fifth generation (5G) and beyond 5G cellular communication systems. Due to the tremendous increase in data traffic in urban areas and to meet such a significant demand, most studies consider macro/micro cell deployments in urban environments. Internet service providers (ISPs) are less interested in providing communication services in rural areas considering the relatively low profits compared to the deployment and maintenance costs. In this paper, we investigate the massive MIMO performance in rural scenarios. In particular, we investigate different aspects to consider while designing a long-range communication system. We propose to use elevated base station (BS) with sectorized antennas with unusually large aperture and implement a user scheduling algorithm at the BS to provide full digital coverage. We analyze the coverage range of a massive MIMO system to provide high-rate services. Furthermore, we also analyze the link budget requirements and the rates users can achieve in such a SuperCell massive MIMO network.