Interference reduced by using beam control with digital signal processing

Tokyo, May 23, 2018 - NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE: 6701) today announced the world's first* successful use of 5.5 Gbps throughput in eight mobile stations using beamforming with inter-base station coordination between two base stations in the same area using a 4.5 GHz band for 5G communications.

NEC and NTT DOCOMO implemented beamforming coordinated between two base stations consisting of signal processors and massive-element antennas through digital signal processing and conducted a simultaneous communication experiment with eight users (mobile stations) in Kawasaki City, Japan, from May 9 to 11, 2018.

In this experiment, 5.5 Gbps wireless communication was achieved in eight mobile stations by utilizing beamforming through small base stations of optical feeder structure that connect antennas with a total of 128 elements with signal processing via optical fiber. The experiment verified beamforming with inter-base station coordination where base stations located in two different places coordinated to control the beam. Although antennas located in different places tend to cause major interference depending on the location, and reduce communication speed, this experiment realized beam control that mutually cancels out interference through digital signal processing. As this beam control more flexibly enables the installation of multiple antennas, it is expected to bring about higher-capacity communications, even in urban areas with high population density.

This experiment includes a portion of the results of "The research and development project for realization of the fifth-generation mobile communications system" commissioned by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan.

Note:

(*) According to NEC and NTT DOCOMO as of May 23, 2018