RF Lens-Embedded Massive MIMO Systems: Fabrication Issues and Codebook Design

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate a radio frequency (RF) lens-embedded massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system and evaluate the system performance of limited feedback by utilizing a technique for generating a suitable codebook for the system. We fabricate an RF lens that operates on a 77 GHz (mmWave) band. Experimental results show a proper value of amplitude gain and an appropriate focusing property. In addition, using a simple numerical technique--beam propagation method (BPM)--we estimate the power profile of the RF lens and verify its accordance with experimental results. We also design a codebook--multi-variance codebook quantization (MVCQ)--for limited feedback by considering the characteristics of the RF lens antenna for massive MIMO systems. Numerical results confirm that the proposed system shows significant performance enhancement over a conventional massive MIMO system without an RF lens.