5G Fixed Wireless Access

Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) is one of the early planned use cases for 5G deployment, offering a new wireless alternative for providing broadband to homes and businesses. Because this requires very high bandwidth, many solutions for FWA consider use of new millimeter wave bands. This poses challenges for coverage, including increased path loss, weaker penetration through walls into the interiors of structures, and greater effects from shadowing of structures and trees on the outdoor propagation.

Wireless InSite provides a number of features and capabilities that are critical for understanding the nature of propagation and coverage for these scenarios. Whether determining coverage throughout a neighborhood or identifying locations where interior or exterior consumer premises equipment (CPE) can be placed to achieve effective throughput, Wireless InSite’s accurate ray-tracing predictions can provide valuable insight into this new use case to ensure products are designed and deployed in a way that can be successful in the field.

Simulating MIMO in Suburban Neighborhoods

Wireless InSite’s MIMO capability makes it possible to predict accurate path data between each transmitting and receiving element with precision, revealing critical channel characteristics for FWA scenarios. New beamforming and spatial multiplexing features allow a user to compare and contrast how techniques for increasing the SNR or creating multiple data streams can each be used to improve throughput and performance in a MIMO network.

The figure to the left shows an example comparing the increase in SNR when beamforming is employed for different CPE locations on houses within a suburban neighborhood. Wireless InSite provides full access to its results, allowing users to evaluate physical propagation paths, or extract data such as the complex channel matrix for further post-processing analysis. See our MIMO Beamforming, Spatial Multiplexing & Diversity page to find out more about Wireless InSite’s MIMO simulation capabilities.

Webinars

Design and Assessment of a 5G Base Station Using Massive MIMO for Fixed Wireless Access

Fixed Wireless Access is a key application expected to benefit from 5G networks. This webinar demonstrates how modeling and simulation can be used to assist system designers, first in the design of a complex antenna array for a base station, and then to assess its potential performance in the field.
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Videos

LTE and 5G NR Propagation in a Suburban Environment using Wireless InSite 3D Ray Tracing

Penn State University is located in State College, Pennsylvania, a suburban city that contains several LTE sites. This simulation shows the coverage prediction from its existing LTE sites in the downtown area.
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Publications

Using Modeling and Simulation to Assess Challenges and Solutions for 5G Fixed Wireless Access

One of the planned technologies that may change the digital landscape in the early rollouts of 5G is fixed wireless access (FWA), which will provide new and more flexible wireless solutions for broadband for the last mile to the home. In this paper, we use new modeling and simulation techniques to investigate some of the most critical challenges that FWA faces for operation in the physical environment at millimeter waves.
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Wireless InSite provides a number of features and capabilities that are critical for understanding the nature of propagation and coverage for FWA scenarios.

Evaluation of connectivity to three alternative CPE configurations.

Coverage in neighborhood is significantly affected by shadowing from trees and houses.

Beamforming increases SINR by 25-30 dB for each CPE configuration.

Simulating MIMO in Suburban Neighborhoods

Additional Information

Design and Assessment of a 5G Base Station Using Massive MIMO for Fixed Wireless Access

LTE and 5G NR Propagation in a Suburban Environment using Wireless InSite 3D Ray Tracing

Using Modeling and Simulation to Assess Challenges and Solutions for 5G Fixed Wireless Access

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