System Advantages of Using Large-Scale Aperiodic Array Topologies in Future mm-Wave 5G/6G Base Stations: An Interdisciplinary Look

The encouraging potential of employing large-scale aperiodic base station arrays in addressing the radiation pattern and thermal requirements of the next generation communication systems is demonstrated. Sample 256-element layout-optimized multibeam arrays are presented as a futuristic view. The system benefits (in terms of the statistical quality-of-service, energy efficiency, thermal management, and processing burden) of the proposed arrays, as well as their performance versus design complexity tradeoffs, are explained through interdisciplinary simulations. The key advantage of the proposed antennas over the currently proposed 64-element periodic arrays is identified as the increased gain with much lower side lobes, which yields much less power and less heat per element with more surface for cooling, and allows robust/computationally efficient precoding.