An Introduction to MAS Technology

Wireless has no shortage of growth — in subscriber numbers, in usage, in service innovation, in the bandwidth required by new applications, in competition, in constraints on cell siting, and in the scarcity of the best spectrum. But the confluence of all these is putting ever more pressure on operators and equipment suppliers to improve performance and reduce costs. In fact, much of the industry's vision for its future is critically dependent on fundamental advances in radio access network technology.

Fortunately, we at ArrayComm have proven clearly in the real world of large-scale commercial network operation (with over 300,000 deployments to date) that significant gains in performance can indeed be achieved by tapping the currently-underutilized dimension of space — with multi-antenna signal processing (MAS) concepts to which the industry is turning its attention with increasing focus. (See our note on terminology in the sidebar.)

Our Technology section can help you get to know the basics of MAS concepts, how they work, how the various flavors (including our unique A‑MAS™ software) compare, their industry context, and what we've learned and demonstrated by putting them into practice.

Wireless Challenges . . . explains important trends and resultant system-performance imperatives in the industry given its long-term objectives. This section identifies why this whole discussion of multiple antennas and their benefits matters in the first place.

The Vision . . . illustrates the fundamental concept of MAS in terms of what it achieves — an advance in radio access network operation from the current architecture of sectorized cells and omni client devices to architectures that focus communication resources tightly on individual endpoints of the communication link, instead of on a broad (and unhelpful) swath of coverage area.

MAS Principles . . . provides a very brief tutorial on how MAS architectures work in comparison to conventional 2-way wireless communication architectures.

MAS in Practice . . . identifies the range of approaches that have been and are being explored in the industry and highlights what we've learned by putting MAS concepts to work in the real world — something our team has done to an extent and with success unmatched by any other.

Field-Proven Results . . . provides summaries of our A‑MAS implementation successes in PHS, HC-SDMA, and GSM.

Common Misunderstandings . . . addresses a number of frequently-asked questions and common misconceptions about implementing MAS in wireless devices, systems, and networks.

Our Resources page offers a number of documents you can download to learn about these areas in more detail, and of course you can always contact us if you need information you can't find here.