Planning 5G Networks for Rural Fixed Wireless Access

We study the planning of a rural 5G multi-user massive MIMO fixed wireless access system to offer fixed broadband service to homes. Specifically, we aim to determine the user limit, i.e., the maximum number of homes that can simultaneously receive target minimum bit rates (MBRs) on the downlink (DL) and on the uplink (UL) given a set of network resources and a cell radius. To compute that limit, we must understand how resources should be shared between the DL and UL and how user and stream selection, precoding and combining, and power distribution should be performed. We use block diagonalization and propose a static grouping strategy that organizes homes into fixed groups (of possibly different sizes) in the DL and UL; then we develop a simple approach to compute the user limit that we validate numerically. We study the impact of group size and show that smaller groups yield larger user limits in a 3.5 GHz band. We show how the user limit at different cell radii is impacted by the system bandwidth, the number of antennas at the base station and homes, the transmit power, and the MBRs. Lastly, we offer insights into how the network could be operated.