Samsung's new technology improves 5G networks

In the parlance of mobile technology, MIMO stands for Multiple-Input Multiple-Output. It expands the throughput of a radio connection between a cell site base station and a phone. This is accomplished by using multiple antennas to send data from the base station to multiple antennas placed inside the handset. You might be familiar with 2 x 2 MIMO (two antennas sending, two receiving in the phone), and 4 x 4 MIMO (four antennas sending from the base station and four receiving from the phone). Massive MIMO places a large number of antennas on a base station to improve network throughput even more.

Samsung announced on Wednesday new technology for its Massive MIMO radios that it says will increase the throughput of 4G and 5G networks by up to 30%. The manufacturer calls this "Mobility Enhancer" and it uses advanced signal processing and AI to improve the accuracy of 4G and 5G signals being sent from a base station to the radio in some random guy's 5G handset as he walks down the street. The Massive MIMO radios produced by Samsung include models that work with 3.5GHz, 2.5GHz, and Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) in the U.S.

Testing the new technology during a field trial with a walking mobile user, Samsung discovered that it created as much as a 30% hike in throughput. And as a result of the successful testing, the company plans on disseminating a global software update to its Massive MIMO radios globally some time this year. JeongHo Park, VP and head of Advanced System Design Lab, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics, said in a statement that "At Samsung, our goal is to deliver the finest network solutions to mobile operators of all kinds, enabling them to provide their customers with the highest quality, most immersive mobile experience possible. Mobility Enhancer is one of the key advancements we are working on to innovate mobile networks, and help advance 5G performance to the next level."

Massive MIMO works with sub-6GHz 5G signals and handles multiple data channels for beamforming. The later is a technology used to target the transmission of precise beams to different devices simultaneously without creating interference. AT CES this year, Samsung showed off beanforming antenna arrays for high-band mmWave 5G.

Samsung isn't the only company working on such technology. Yesterday, Ericsson introduced three new mid-band 5G radios that include Massive MIMO technology.