MIMO Performance at 700MHz: Field Trials of LTE with Handheld UE

MIMO is one of the techniques used in LTE Release 8 to achieve very high data rates. A field trial was performed in a pre-commercial LTE network. The objective is to investigate how well MIMO works with realistically designed handhelds in band 13 (746-756 MHz in downlink). In total, three different handheld designs were tested using antenna mockups. In addition to the mockups, a reference antenna design with less stringent restrictions on physical size and excellent properties for MIMO was used. The trial comprised test drives in areas with different characteristics and with different network load levels. The effects of hands holding the devices and the effect of using the device inside a test vehicle were also investigated. In general, it is very clear from the trial that MIMO works very well and gives a substantial performance improvement at the tested carrier frequency if the antenna design of the hand-held is well made with respect to MIMO. In fact, the best of the handhelds performed similar to the reference antenna.