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3G Americas Publishes Valuable

Resource on MIMO and Smart
Antennas for LTE
May 13 2010

BELLEVUE, Wash. –

3G Americas, a wireless industry trade association representing the GSM family of technologies including LTE, today
announced that it has published an educational white paper titled, MIMO and Smart Antennas for 3G and 4G
Wireless Systems: Practical Aspects and Deployment Considerations. The report is a complete tutorial reference
document that outlines the considerable importance of various smart antenna schemes for improving the capacity and
coverage of the emerging generations of wireless networks.

With the rapid growth of wireless data traffic, now greatly exceeding voice traffic in many developed markets,
operators are anxious to quickly expand the capacity and coverage of their wireless networks. To address these
demands for increased capacity in a cost effective way, 3GPP standards have incorporated powerful techniques for
using “smart antennas.”

“The gains in spectral efficiency being advanced by new wireless air interface technologies, such as LTE and
LTE-Advanced, will be enabled by the application of MIMO and other smart antenna technologies,” stated Kevin
Linehan, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer – Base Station Antenna Systems, Andrew Solutions. Linehan,
one of the project leaders for the creation of the 3G Americas report continued, “It is critical that operators and others
in the industry appreciate these advanced technologies and their practical application.”

The term smart antennas refers to adaptive array antennas – those with electrical tilt, beam width and azimuth control
that can follow relatively slow-varying traffic patterns; intelligent antennas, which can form beams aimed at particular
users or steer nulls to reduce interference; and MIMO antenna schemes, predominately featured in LTE and
LTE-Advanced.

The white paper was created by a 3G Americas technical work group and concentrates on the practical aspects of
antennas and their deployment for 3G and 4G wireless systems, specifically downlink antenna techniques available in
3GPP LTE Release 8. The comprehensive report highlights a substantial and growing body of theoretical and field
experience that provides reliable guidance on the tradeoffs of various antenna configurations. Some of the areas
addressed in the paper include:

Smart antennas provide the next substantial increase in throughput for wireless networks. The peak data
rates tend to be proportional to the number of send and receive antennas, so 4X4 MIMO is theoretically
capable of twice the peak data rates as 2X2 MIMO systems. For another example, in upgrading from HSPA
(1X2) to LTE (2X2) a gain of 1.6x is seen (Rysavy Research, 2009).

The practical tradeoffs of performance with the realistic constraints on the types of antennas that can be
realistically installed, cognizant of zoning, wind loading, size, weight and cabling challenges and constraints
from legacy terminals and other equipment. Constraints are, of course, present in both the base station and
the terminal side of the air interface, where MIMO technology promises useful gains if multiple antennas,
amplifiers, receivers and baseband processing resources can be made available in terminals.

Beyond the single antenna or beamforming array cases, 3GPP Release 8 of the LTE standard supports MIMO
antenna configurations. This includes Single-User (SU-MIMO) protocols using either Open Loop or
Closed-Loop modes as well as Transmit Diversity and MU-MIMO. Closed-Loop MIMO mode, which supports
the highest peak data rates, is likely to be the most commonly used scheme in early deployments. However,
this Closed-Loop MIMO scheme provides the best performance only when the channel information is accurate,
when there is a rich multipath environment and is appropriate in low mobility environments such as with fixed
terminals or those used at pedestrian speeds.

“3G Americas is pleased to offer this detailed technical and business document for the industry on the increasingly
complex area of antenna system design for network deployments,” said Chris Pearson, President of 3G Americas.
Operators and analysts will find the paper to be an invaluable resource full of insightful information.”

The white paper, MIMO and Smart Antennas for 3G and 4G Wireless Systems: Practical Aspects and Deployment
Considerations, was written collaboratively by members of 3G Americas and is available for free download on the 3G
Americas website at www.3gamericas.org.

While MIMO and Smart Antennas for 3G and 4G Wireless Systems concentrates on the practical aspects of
deploying antennas in emerging wireless markets, 3G Americas’ June 2009 white paper, MIMO Transmission
Schemes for LTE and HSPA Networks, provides additional background information on the processing gains feasible
with smart antennas.

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3G Americas http://www.3gamericas.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=pressreleasedisplay...

About 3G Americas: Unifying the Americas through Wireless Technology

3G Americas is an industry trade organization composed of telecommunications service providers and manufacturers.
The organization's mission is to promote, facilitate and advocate for the deployment and adoption of the GSM family
of technologies including LTE throughout the Americas. 3G Americas has contributed to the successful commercial
rollout of GSM across the Americas and its place as the No. 1 technology in the region, as well as the global adoption
of EDGE. The organization aims to develop the expansive wireless ecosystem of networks, devices, and applications
enabled by GSM and its evolution to LTE. 3G Americas is headquartered in Bellevue, Wash., with an office for Latin
America and the Caribbean in Dallas. More information is available at www.3gamericas.org.

3G Americas' Board of Governors members include Alcatel-Lucent, América Móvil, Andrew Solutions, AT&T, Cable &
Wireless, Ericsson, Gemalto, Huawei, HP, Motorola, Nokia Siemens Networks, Openwave, Research In Motion (RIM),
Rogers, T-Mobile USA and Telefónica.

###

Contact:
Vicki Livingston
3G Americas
262 242 3458
vicki.livingston@3gamericas.org

3G Americas, LLC | 1750 - 112th Avenue NE, Suite B220 | Bellevue, WA 98004 USA

P: 425-372-8922 | F: 425-372-8923

3G Americas unites mobile operators and manufacturers of the GSM family of wireless technologies – GSM, EDGE, UMTS-HSPA and LTE.

*Estimated market data from WCIS, not usable for legal purposes.

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