5G large MIMO, Gangnam-style: SRG places Samsung radios to the take a look at in Seoul
One of many defining traits of 5G networks has been the mixing of large multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) radios into the macro community, with a purpose to enhance spectral effectivity and supply quicker throughput in spectrum from the midband on up.
MIMO techniques have shifted from easy two-transmit, two-receive (2T2R) techniques to an growing variety of parts. Alerts Analysis Group just lately took the chance after the shut of 3GPP’s assembly in Seoul, South Korea, to do some comparative testing of MIMO techniques within the type of 32T32R and 64T64R radios from Samsung Networks in Korea Telecom’s 5G Standalone community.
SRG needed to know whether or not there have been efficiency variations between the 64-element radio and a 32-element radio, and what any positive aspects would appear to be. KT is within the means of migrating its 5G SA community from 32T32R to 64T64R radios, and its community within the Gangnam district of Seoul supplied the prospect to drive-test each radios in an apples-to-apples, city state of affairs. Clearly the provider sees the improve as investment-worthy—and the SRG testing reveals why.
“We simply recognized an apparent achieve in downlink efficiency with the 64T64R radios,” SRG reported, happening to say that “there was a transparent double-digit proportion achieve with the usage of extra antenna parts.”
On an intriguing notice, SRG additionally discovered that the relative efficiency achieve for the 64T64R radios elevated as community loading elevated. The positive aspects had been “much more apparent throughout the midafternoon drive assessments than the nighttime drive assessments,” the benchmarking and evaluation agency concluded.
“From an operator’s perspective, the efficiency positive aspects translate into larger spectral effectivity, that means the flexibility to help extra voice and information site visitors. This end result was additionally very evident within the outcomes we analyzed,” SRG stated.
SRG additionally discovered that the relative positive aspects elevated with distances additional away from the cell website.
Early final 12 months, SRG had additionally benchmarked Samsung Networks’ 64T64R large MIMO radios in Verizon’s community. Learn extra particulars from that testing right here.
For SRG, the Seoul testing was additionally an opportunity for reflection on how far the 5G ecosystem has come, provided that it had examined the identical space of town in 2019, again when 5G was first rising and, after all, pre-Covid-19. That testing was plagued with hyperlink failures as a result of overheating handsets, and LTE was the anchor provider as a result of 5G SA networks merely didn’t exist on the time.
This time? No overheating smartphones, and SRG stated that “the 5G information speeds stomped throughout what we obtained again in 2019,” when LTE was incessantly quicker than 5G. 5G uplink speeds had been “hardly ever” beneath 75 Mbps and downlink speeds exceeded 1 Gbps greater than 50% of the time, in accordance with SRG’s abstract of its testing. And it wasn’t as a result of a rise in out there bandwidth, SRG famous—every Korean operator makes use of (then and now) one 100-megahertz channel of three.5 GHz for his or her 5G site visitors. However the downlink speeds achieved in 2025 had been 3x quicker than what SRG noticed in 2019, with a delta that SRG referred to as “startling to say the least.”
“The one factor that has modified is the maturity of the 5G ecosystem on the a part of the operator, community infrastructure, system and chipset,” SRG stated.
SRG used a Galaxy S23 Extremely smartphone for the testing, plus logging and evaluation instruments from Accuver. The testing was performed in mid-March, earlier than KT applied MIMO within the uplink—a complete different facet of efficiency enhancements that KT is within the means of rolling out.
Learn extra particulars from SRG right here.