LTE, WIFI and 5G Massive MIMO Communications in Maritime Propagation Environments

Norway's vast geographic distances and the economic importance of activities at sea in remote areas demand novel and innovative radio-based solutions. However, current maritime communication systems are mainly using VHF radio, GSM, UMTS, WLAN or mobile Ku-band satellite systems. These systems may suffer from low bandwidth (VHF and GSM), limited coverage (GSM,WLAN) or high cost (VSAT). To cope with above challenges, this MAMIME project focuses on the enhancement of 4G LTE and WiFi and the innovative research of 5G massive MIMO for maritime applications. According to the previous R&D results, the main R&D challenges are the insufficient coverage, limited capacity, strong path-loss fadings at short TX-RX distances and antenna mismatch due to the maritime radio propagation environments. To overcome the above challenges, the primary objective of this MAMIME project is to design a solution with high data rate and large coverage for land-to-boat and boat-to-boat radio communications, utilizing 5G Massive MIMO schemes. The 2nd main objective is to develop a hardware Massive MIMO channel sounder that can measure the channel impulse response for Massive MIMO scenarios. The 3rd main objective is to build up a new maritime Massive MIMO channel model, which can be used for system design, performance evaluation and standardization. The 4th main objective is to upgrade Witelcom's Wi-Fi solutions and ZTE's LTE solutions for maritime applications. These innovative solutions have the potential for Internet Service Provider (ISP) to provide more reliable and much higher data-rate service with larger radio coverage for the maritime applications. In addition, the R&D results can be used for 5G maritime system designs for the manufacturers and radio coverage planning for the ISP, respectively. This project can be the first dedicated 5G research for maritime applications all over the world and possible to be standardized.

Norway's vast geographic distances and the economic importance of activities at sea in remote areas demand novel and innovative radio-based solutions. However, current maritime communication systems are mainly using VHF radio, GSM, UMTS, WLAN or mobile Ku-band satellite systems. These systems may suffer from low bandwidth (VHF and GSM), limited coverage (GSM,WLAN) or high cost (VSAT). To cope with above challenges, this project focuses on the enhancement of 4G LTE and the innovative research of 5G massive MIMO for maritime applications. According to the R&D results of the previous MarCom project funded by the NFR MarOFF program and WiFi measurement over sea, four following main R&D challenges are found: 1. Insufficient coverage due to the earth curvature. 2. Limited capacity due to highly-correlated radio propagation environment (line-of-Sight scenario). 3. Reflections from sea surface and interference, which results in strong path-loss fadings (>20 dB) at short TX-RX distances. 4. Antenna mismatch due to the boat movement (> 20 dB power loss). To overcome the above challenges, this project idea consists of 4 major research domains: 1. Design a Massive MIMO solution for maritime communications. 2. Design and development of a Massive MIMO channel sounder. 3. Development of a Massive MIMO channel model for maritime application. 4. Development of a dedicated antenna system for LTE and Wi-Fi systems. These innovative solutions have the potential for Internet Service Provider (ISP) to provide more reliable and much higher data-rate service with larger radio coverage for the maritime applications. In addition, the R&D results can be used for 5G maritime system designs for the manufactures and radio coverage planning for the ISP, respectively. This project can be the first dedicated 5G research for maritime applications all over the world and possible to be standardized.