US operator Sprint and Nokia have completed a demonstration of massive MIMO for TD-LTE networks at Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona.
The demonstration at Nokia's both involved the use of massive MIMO with 64-transmit 64-receive (64T64R) for both the downlink and the uplink.
The companies are using Nokia's recently-launched AirScale massive MIMO adaptive antenna, as well as 3D beamforming software to deliver throughput gains of up to eightfold uplink and fivefold downlink.
Eight commercially available devices using Sprint's 2.5-GHz TD-LTE band 41 spectrum are being used for the demo.
“Massive MIMO is a critical part of our strategy to increase the capacity of our LTE Plus network today, and in the future, it will be a key element of our 5G network,” Sprint COO of technology Gunther Ottendorfer said.
“Working with Nokia to deliver massive MIMO is a competitive advantage for Sprint because it is more easily deployed on 2.5 GHz spectrum due to the smaller form factor of the radios, and it’s an important innovation that will take advantage of our deep spectrum holdings.”