5G: What is beam forming and how it is better than LTE radio access mechanism ?

Question

I want to understand beam forming concept and why it is considered for 5G ?

Answer 1

Hi,

Beam forming is nearly same as multi user MIMO in LTE, each antenna is dedicated to an set of UE's but major difference between beam forming and multi user MIMO is selecting the antenna which is apt for the UE to utilize resource effectively.
instead of making antenna to focus around the cell focusing only to an particular UE group such that those UE will get better signal strength, this better beam will be selected by UE based on the beam-RSRP and this will improve coverage as well.

Comments

All the antennas or a set of antennas (antenna array) are used to transmit to a particular UE, while at the UE side, the signal appears to be received from a single antenna. This is achieved by modifying the phase and amplitude of signal at each transmit chain so that signals from all antennas traversing different paths converge at the UE at the same time.

Answer 2

Beam forming is a vast concept but i try to explain logical part of it -
Beam-forming is massive(multi)antenna technology, which dissipate the power in certain direction(& angle).
In non - technical words - lightening CFL in a room will dissipate the energy in surrounding direction but lightening beamed torch will dissipate the energy in particular direction.

Advantage in wireless system - The biggest advantage(but not only) is - improved SNR. It sense, end users distance, direction, movement speed, traffic type etc and dissipate the energy in particular direction.