LTE massive MIMO (Pre-5G) test in Oslo fjord

Video in Youtube:
https://youtu.be/RMQgJC9KoV0


2018 was the year when the deployment of LTE base stations with Massive MIMO capability began in Norway. Until now, there are quite a few discussions on whether the conventional massive MIMO systems original designed for the terrain propagation environments (Urban, Suburban, etc ) are able to demonstrate high performance for maritime applications due to the highly correlated line-of-sight (LOS) propagation environments. 

A pre-5G LTE Massive MIMO base station (8T8R) was installed by our MAMIME project partner, Telia Norge AS, in Horten close to the Oslo fjord and up running at 3.7 GHz (band 43) . It needs to be mentioned that the BS at Horten provides a very good coverage for a possible autonomous ship test area in the Oslo Fjord outside Horten. This will provide the possibility for potential cooperation between autonomous ship companies and us to investigate pre-5G system performance for autonomous ship applications.

Together with Telia Norge AS, the MAMIME project conducted LTE massive MIMO tests with a 12 m sail boat in Oslo fjord in the summer 2018. The goal of these tests was to evaluate the system performances in terms of signal strength, throughput, stability, and correlations between different Customer Premises Equipments (CPE). These results will help us optimize prototypes being designed to demonstrate the system potential for related pilot customers. 

This work is part of a big team effort with many contributors from Super Radio AS, Telia Norge AS, and others (project partners in MAMIME). The main contributors for these tests are listed as follows:

Test campaign participants and organizations

• Kun Yang (Super Radio AS)
• Terje Røste (Super Radio AS)
• Ning Zhou (Super Radio AS)
• John Eriksen (Telia Norge AS)
• Heiki Neskvern (Telia Norge AS)
• Elling Erichsen (Owner of test sailboat)
• Trygve Røste (Owner of test sailboat)

About MAMIME project:

MAMIME project funded by Norwegian Research Council Maroff program (2016-2019), aims to develop an optimized LTE and WIFI system and research dedicated 5G solutions for the maritime applications, especially for land-to-boat and boat-to-boat communications, which fits for both telecommunication R&D trend and Norwegian interests. These innovative solutions have the potential of extending the radio coverage and providing more stable radio link and much higher throughput.