Distributed MIMO (D-MIMO) for Seamless Uplink Performance Anywhere

As user-generated traffic surges from live streaming, XR/VR, and autonomous AI agents, securing stable uplink (UL) performance in wireless networks has become critically important. UL D-MIMO, where multiple TRPs (Transmission-Reception Points) cooperate to receive signals, is drawing attention as a key technology to meet these requirements.

In conventional approaches, a single user's signal is processed by only one TRP, causing interference to neighboring TRPs. In contrast, UL D-MIMO has neighboring TRPs act in a supporting role, collecting the user's data and sharing and combining it with the serving TRP. This increases received signal strength and turns former interference sources into cooperators, greatly improving spatial diversity and interference suppression capability.

However, implementing this technology presents the following challenges.

• Physical Layer (PHY): Since I/Q samples from numerous RUs and MMUs must be transmitted to a central DU, Fronthaul bandwidth requirements surge sharply, and Equalization computational complexity increases exponentially with the number of antennas.
• MAC Layer: Differences in signal quality, interference, and synchronization among geographically distributed TRPs require complex UE scheduling and TRP selection algorithms.