PRESS RELEASE: China Mobile Shaanxi and Huawei verified an innovative networking solution — 5G indoor distributed Massive MIMO — at the Xi’an Olympic Sports Center. Distributed Massive MIMO more than triples the capacity of cell splitting solutions while efficiently mitigating uplink and downlink interference. In simple terms, this means that users enjoy outstanding connectivity for everything from multi-angle live broadcasting to Internet access and video sharing in the stadiums during the games.

The verification included extreme capacity planning, pressure tests involving more than 400 users, and drive test optimization. The ultimate goal is to provide the highest quality network experience to both players and audiences of the coming National Games of China, set to open soon.

14,000 athletes will compete at the National Games of China on September 15 to 27, 2021. The Olympic sports center is a sports complex with a multipurpose stadium, gymnasium, and aquatic center, designed to welcome 60,000–80,000, 10,000–12,000, and 5,000–6,000 spectators, respectively. As a premier sports event, the sheer number of players and viewers will create an extreme burst of heavy data traffic. This will no doubt put a lot of pressure on indoor networks under enormous challenges, particularly in terms of 5G co-channel interference.
To meet the diverse service requirements, China Mobile Shaanxi deployed Huawei’s best-in-class 5G LampSite indoor network solution, based on which Massive MIMO is implemented for the users inside stadiums. The network supports joint beamforming between pRRUs (RF headend used in the solution) and spatial multiplexing MU-MIMO as well as addressing co-channel interference from split 5G cells. These features guarantee excellent user experience and cell capacity. So far, field tests showed a 50% and 35% improvement in downlink and uplink user experience indicators, respectively, in addition to a threefold increase in average throughput.

5G indoor distributed Massive MIMO has proven effective in boosting network experience and capacity, ready to meet tremendous demand for mobile data traffic. Today, it’s one of the go-to solutions for stadiums. China Mobile Shaanxi hopes that the 5G indoor experience at the National Games will serve as a best practice to later replicate this solution in other key stadiums and across metro lines in the province.