Hybrid beamforming in 5G Massive MIMO

Massive Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output (MIMO) technology is pivotal in the deployment of 5G networks, playing a crucial role in augmenting the performance and capacity of wireless communication systems. It facilitates the simultaneous handling of numerous users and devices by spatially segregating their signals. An emerging technique in wireless communication systems, hybrid beamforming, combines the advantages of both analog and digital beamforming to achieve efficient and reliable data transmission. This approach overcomes the limitations of traditional beamforming methods, such as analog and digital beamforming, by employing analog beamforming through RF chains at the front-end and digital beamforming at the baseband signal processing stage. The primary advantage of hybrid beamforming lies in its computational simplicity compared to digital beamforming, which typically involves a higher number of antennas. This reduction in the number of RF chains and Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs) results in lower power consumption, a critical aspect for developing energy-efficient communication systems.