Exploiting the Viability of Antenna Arrays for Multi-Band FR2 Base-Station Massive MIMO Systems

In this paper, the feasibility of antenna arrays has been studied for wide/multi-band base station massive multiple- input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems in millimeter-wave band according to requirements of 3GPP TR 38.877. Base stations utilize special beamforming with uniform phased array antennas on numerous panels to serve many users. An 8-panel massive MIMO antenna system is designed with a 4x4 phased antenna array for a wide bandwidth of almost 42.2%, supporting n257 /n261 +n260 or n258+n260 band combinations. It achieves a peak gain of a minimum of 17 dBi and a scanning range of ±40° with sidelobes lower than 9.4 dB. The minimum isolation of 17 dB is achieved between the adjacent antenna elements with the use of a decoupling method. The diversity parameters envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) and diversity gain (DG) remain better than 0.007 and 9.9997 dB, respectively, over the entire operating bandwidth for different steering angles, showing a good MIMO performance.