White Paper: Antenna Configurations for MIMO In-Building Distributed Antenna Systems

Extract

INTRODUCTION

The following white paper details over-the-air (OTA) data throughput testing performed on Verizon’s LTE network at the Hilton Las Vegas Convention Center Hotel. The purpose of this study was to validate the performance benefits of MIMO vs. SISO radio architectures in a real world setting. While much has been claimed about the realization of MIMO benefits in live environments, little data has been published to credit or disprove its merits. This white paper endeavors to provide that missing data.

Finally, a variety of antenna configurations have been investigated to better understand their impact on end-to-end system data throughput.

TEST OVERVIEW

Selection of an appropriate test location within the Hilton Las Vegas Convention Center Hotel proved to be more challenging than initially expected. Since the over the air testing was performed on the deployed Verizon LTE
network, existing macro cell sites external to the hotel provided significant penetration into the hotel in some locations. Selection of the test site was done by turning off the in-building distributed antenna system (IDAS) and testing for network presence. After surveying several sites, a test location was chosen in a hallway (plan view shown in Figure 1).