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1 Purpose
This document answers the following questions:
 What is a physical antenna?

 What is a TX/RX channel (TRX)?

 What are the benefits of multi-antenna technology?

2 Overview
Multi-antenna technology uses multiple antennas on a transmitter or a receiver, and works
with signal processing. Space domain, in addition to conventional time domain and
frequency domain, is introduced to multi-antenna technology to improve system capacity
and coverage.
Multi-antenna technology is complex. It has been attracting much attention since LTE, and
relevant protocols have been evolving. 5G faces larger capacity requirements and weak
coverage in high frequency bands. To improve system capacity and coverage, multi-antenna
technology becomes the basic technology of 5G.
The following will describe the basic concepts based on the antenna structure. For details about physical layer processing, see 5G Multi-Antenna Physical Layer Procedures in the technology
series.

3 Dipole and Antenna Oscillator

Dipole and antenna oscillator are the basic concepts related to the antenna structure.

A dipole consists of two symmetrical conducting wires. When the angle between the two
wires increases, the distance between them also increases. When the length of the entire
dipole is equal to half of the wavelength, as shown in Figure 3-1 , the induced
electromagnetic wave on the dipole is in the resonant state and the radiation efficiency is the
highest. Such a dipole is also called a half-wave oscillator.
Figure 3-1 Dipole

As the wavelength of mmWave is at the millimeter level, 5G mmWave antennas can be very small. Therefore, more such antennas can fit in the same amount of space compared to low-
frequency antennas.

An antenna oscillator consists of a dipole and a reflection plate. It causes signal

superimposition through reflection and implements directional radiation.
Figure 3-2 Antenna oscillator

An antenna oscillator is a basic unit of an antenna. During design of an RF module, multiple

antenna oscillators are usually arranged in an array manner as required. In other words,
multiple antenna oscillators form an antenna array.
Two antenna oscillators can form a beam. Under the same TX power condition, the more the
antenna oscillators, the narrower the beam, as shown in Figure 3-3 .
Figure 3-3 Antenna array gains

4 Physical Antenna and Antenna Polarization

A physical antenna consists of multiple antenna oscillators. Generally, all antenna oscillators connected to a power amplifier (PA) are referred to as a physical antenna or an antenna
subarray, which is also referred to as an antenna element.

Physical antennas commonly used are shown in Figure 4-1 . 1-drive-n indicates that one PA
is connected to n antenna oscillators. A larger number of antenna oscillators in a physical
antenna indicates a higher gain.
Figure 4-1 Physical antennas

During the propagation of radio waves generated by physical antennas, the electric field and
magnetic field are perpendicular to each other in the space domain, and both are
perpendicular to the propagation direction. Generally, the space direction of the electric
field vector is called the polarization direction of the electromagnetic waves radiated by the
antenna.
Figure 4-2 Propagation direction and polarization direction of electromagnetic waves

To use more antennas in a space and to resist multipath fading caused by electromagnetic
wave propagation so as to obtain the effect of diversity, dual-polarized antennas are
generally used in the industry. A dual-polarized antenna consists of two antennas whose
polarization directions are orthogonal. Dual-polarized antennas can be classified into
vertical/horizontal polarization antennas and +45°/–45° polarization antennas, using the
ground as the reference plane. As shown in Figure 4-3 , different colors represent antenna
elements in different polarization directions. Currently, +45°/–45° polarization antennas are
widely used.
Figure 4-3 Dual-polarized antennas

5 Antenna Array
An antenna array consists of multiple antenna elements. Generally, typical planar arrays are used in RF modules. That is, antenna elements are distributed in a rectangular shape on a plane
to obtain horizontal and vertical beamforming gains. A horizontal arrangement can obtain horizontal gains, while a vertical arrangement can obtain vertical gains.

Figure 5-1 Antenna arrays

The one-column antenna array can obtain only vertical gains. Other antenna arrays have elements arranged in the same horizontal direction and also elements in the same vertical direction.
They can implement three-dimensional beamforming and provide three-dimensional coverage, obtaining gains in both horizontal and vertical directions. Therefore, the antenna array
structure has a great impact on the coverage capability.

6 TX/RX Channel (TRX)

Concept of TRX
TX/RX channels are also called TRXs. At the TX end, baseband signals are modulated on high-frequency carriers and then sent to the radio propagation environment. At the RX end, a
reverse process is performed. A TRX consists of digital and analog RF chains, as shown in Figure 6-1 .
Figure 6-1 Low-frequency TRX structure

For high frequency (mmWave) bands of 5G, RF chains are redesigned. One digital RF chain corresponds to multiple analog RF chains, as shown in Figure 6-2 .

Figure 6-2 High-frequency TRX structure

Relationship Between TRX and Physical Antenna

The following figure uses low-frequency 64TRX (16H4V) RF module as an example to describe the relationship between 64 physical antennas and 64 TRXs in the antenna array.

 Each grid contains two 1-drive-3 physical antennas with +45°/–45° polarization directions. Therefore, 32 grids contain a total of 64 physical antennas (formed by 192 antenna
oscillators).
  Each 1-drive-3 physical antenna corresponds to an analog RF chain. As analog RF chains and digital RF chains generally have a one-to-one correspondence in a low-
frequency RF module, the RF module shown in the figure has 64 TRXs.

 Each row contains 8 TRXs and each column contains 4 TRXs. As dual-polarization is generally considered as a dimension on the horizontal plane, this 64TRX structure is also
called 16H4V.

Figure 6-3 Structure of a 64TRX RF module

Generally, the number of TRXs or mHnV is used to indicate the coverage capability of an
RF module. A larger value of m results in a larger horizontal beamforming gain. A larger
value of n results in a larger vertical beamforming gain.
As shown in Figure 6-4 , both 32TRX (16H2V) and 64TRX (16H4V) have 192 antenna
oscillators. In 2V of 16H2V, each TRX drives 6 antenna oscillators. In 4V of 16H4V, each
TRX drives 3 antenna oscillators. The former has more antenna oscillators corresponding to
a single TRX, and the energy gain of a single physical antenna in a specific direction is
larger. However, as there are fewer TRXs, the gain in energy converged by physical
antennas in a specific direction is smaller. At the receive end, the coverage gains achieved
by the RF modules with the same number of antenna oscillators are basically the same under
the same power condition. The advantage of 64TRX is that it can provide beamforming
gains in more directions. The disadvantage is that it has a larger size, heavier weight,
and higher cost than 32TRX.
Figure 6-4 Structure comparison between 32TRX and 64TRX RF modules

Relationship Between TRX and Beamforming

The beamforming processing methods for low and high frequency bands of 5G are different due to different RF chains in TRXs.

In low frequency bands of 5G, 32TRX/64TRX RF modules have many digital RF chains. Adjusting the weights of digital RF chains of different TRXs can change the amplitudes and phases of
signals. Signals sent by different physical antennas in a specific direction can be coherently superimposed, while signals in other directions can be counteracted. In this way, a narrow beam
with directivity is formed. Interference between narrow beams can be suppressed, increasing the channel capacity in low frequency bands through spatial multiplexing and improving spectral
efficiency.

This process is called digital beamforming, in which input signals are processed in the digital domain and the amplitudes and phases of signals are adjusted to form beams.

Figure 6-5 Digital beamforming

For an RF module with mHnV (m>1, n>1), each TRX supports separate weight adjustment.
Signals sent by multiple TRXs in different directions can be flexibly superimposed or
counteracted. In this way, beams are dynamically formed in different directions, that is,
three-dimensional beamforming is implemented.
Figure 6-6 Three-dimensional beamforming

In high frequency bands of 5G, there are abundant mmWave spectrum resources. Improving spectral efficiency through digital RF chains is not the primary goal of mmWave communication.
Therefore, there is a small number of TRXs (equal to the number of digital RF chains); usually there are 2 or 4 TRXs. On the other hand, mmWave features a large transmission loss, and its
coverage becomes the primary problem. Therefore, there is a large number of physical antennas (equal to the number of analog RF chains) for transmitting/receiving mmWave signals. In
other words, the number of digital RF chains is far less than the number of analog RF chains. Such a design is generally adopted, with each digital RF chain corresponding to multiple
analog RF chains.

Analog beamforming and digital beamforming are used together to exploit the advantages of the two technologies, that is, to enable amplitude and phase adjustment while
reducing the number of digital RF chains, as shown in Figure 6-7 .
Figure 6-7 Hybrid beamforming

 W BF : weight matrix for digital beamforming

 : number of digital RF chains

 F RF : weight matrix for analog beamforming

 N t : number of analog RF chains, that is, number of physical antennas

7 Multi-Antenna Gains
Multi-antenna gains are as follows:

 Array gains: increasing the average signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)

 Noises from different antennas are uncorrelated, and the power of the combined noise remains unchanged.

 Signals from different antennas are correlated, and the power of the combined signal is increased by folds.

 Joint processing by multiple antennas increases the average SNR, achieving array gains.

The more the physical antennas, the higher the signal strength after superimposition in the same direction. The more the antenna elements in a physical antenna,
the higher the signal strength after superimposition.

 Interference suppression gains: increasing the average signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR)

Multi-antenna interference cancellation algorithms such as digital beamforming and interference rejection combining (IRC) are used to increase the average SINR, bringing
gains in interference scenarios.

The more the physical antennas, the narrower the beams and therefore the better the interference suppression capability. 5G uses intra-frequency networking and
experiences strong interference. Using narrow beams can effectively reduce interference.

 Spatial diversity gains: decreasing the SNR fluctuation

Radio channel fading causes the SNR of received signals to fluctuate. The probability of simultaneous deep fading of signals from different antennas is low. Combining signals
from different antennas can significantly reduce the probability of deep fading, as shown in Figure 7-1 .
 Figure 7-1 Space diversity against deep fading

 Spatial multiplexing gains: increasing the number of transmission layers and system capacity

Multiple antennas provide more degrees of freedom (DOFs) in the space domain and therefore support more transmission layers, increasing system capacity.

Low frequency bands feature small bandwidth, strong interference, and limited capacity. The capacity is improved mainly by exploiting interference suppression gains and
spatial multiplexing gains. In other words, digital beamforming is employed to effectively suppress inter-beam interference, enabling time-frequency resources to be reused in different
spaces and improving system capacity.

High frequency bands (mmWave bands) feature fast fading and limited coverage. The coverage is improved mainly by exploiting array gains and spatial diversity gains. That is, a
large number of physical antennas are used. In the downlink, the signal strength is increased after signals in the same direction are superimposed. In the uplink, the probability of deep fading
is reduced after signals from different antennas are combined.

8 References
None