One of the technologies which significantly improves 5G communication efficiency is MIMO (massive input massive output).
The concept assumes that both transmitter/receiver (i.e. base station and user device) has multiple TX and RX antennas. Thanks to that there is a number of transmission paths between base station and user device that enables:
- improving Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) or
- spatial multiplexing or
- beamforming.
If there is poor connection condition then there is a chance that among all, at least a few transmission paths will provide a good quality signal. This increases SNR and makes the connection more reliable.
However, if the SNR is already high and most of the paths are good quality then spatial multiplexing can be utilized. This means the usage of a different path to send different data and thus increasing the data rate.
What’s more thanks to the antennas matrix, the base station is able to shape the signal so that it will reach only a specific place. This means that the same frequencies could be used for different end-users if only they will be in different places. Such beamforming significantly increases the 5G cell capacity.
Please do share your view about 5G MIMO in comments!