Design and Implementation of Scalable Massive-MIMO Networks

Massive-MIMO technology promises many-fold improvement in the capacity of wireless mobile networks by scaling up the number of base station antennas. Hence, it has become a key technology for upcoming fifth generation (5G) mobile networks. Previous work has mainly focused on building proof-of-concept systems to show the feasibility of massive-MIMO and its benefits. However, much work remains to demonstrate the performance of massive-MIMO in at-scale dense deployments. In this paper, we present our experience in building ArgosNet, a scalable multi-cell campus-wide massive-MIMO testbed. The goal of ArgosNet is to provide scalability, programmability, and ease of deployment for this technology in realistic large-scale environments. We present the design choices we made in architecting ArgosNet and provide details in how they helped us achieve these goals. By characterizing the performance of major components, we discuss how ArgosNet unlocks our ability to do research that is not possible with existing systems.