Simulations of beamforming performance and energy efficiency for 5G mm-wave cellular networks

Beamforming is one of the key features enabled in the fifth generation (5G) of wireless communications networks to accommodate the higher throughput demanded by the users for their data-intensive applications. This paper simulates energy-efficient 5G networks with beamforming capabilities deployed on a realistic area in Ghent, Belgium to respond to the instantaneous bit rate needed by the users. Various beamforming architectures have been investigated and the results are compared with the 4G reference network. When beamforming is enabled, the results of the simulations show that under the same coverage performance, 5G networks require 15% more base stations to provide more capacity to the users and are 3 times more energy-efficient than the 4G reference network. Moreover, the hybrid beamforming architecture provides good trade-off between the higher capacity and the low-power consumption requirements and needs to be considered when designing 5G cellular networks.