Performance testing of massive MIMO base station with multi-probe anechoic chamber setups

The utilization of massive multiple-input multipleoutput (MIMO) antenna arrays at the base station (BS) side has been identified as an enabling technique for 5G communication systems. To evaluate the true end-to-end performance of BS’s, an over-the-air (OTA) radiated method is required. In this paper, we present a sectorized multi-probe anechoic chamber (MPAC) configuration equipped with a switch box for massive MIMO BS OTA testing. Simulations were performed for a BS equipped with an 8× 8 planar array of half-wavelength element spacing at 3.5 GHz, where 1 m measurement range and 8 active OTA probes are considered. Due to the important role of beamforming techniques in 5G antenna arrays, the Bartlett beamforming power patterns under the channel models reproduced in the MPAC setups are utilized to quantify the channel emulation accuracy.