Real-World Performance Evaluations of Low-Band 5G NR/4G LTE 4x4 MIMO on Commercial Smartphones

TL;DR

This study evaluates the real-world 4x4 MIMO performance on low-band frequencies of commercial smartphones, focusing on Sony Xperia models in Thailand, and compares it with 2Rx configurations to understand practical benefits.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed real-world performance analysis of 4x4 MIMO on low-band frequencies in commercial smartphones, including firmware modifications for comparative testing.

Findings

4x4 MIMO improves throughput and reliability on low-band frequencies.

Real-world gains are limited by network deployment and device design.

Firmware modifications enable effective comparison between 2Rx and 4Rx performance.

Abstract

All 3GPP-compliant commercial 5G New Radio (NR)-capable UEs on the market are equipped with 4x4 MIMO support for Mid-Band frequencies (>1.7 GHz) and above, enabling up to rank 4 MIMO transmission. This doubles the theoretical throughput compared to rank 2 MIMO and also improves reception performance. However, 4x4 MIMO support on low-band frequencies (<1 GHz) is absent in every commercial UEs, with the exception of the Xperia 1 flagship smartphones manufactured by Sony Mobile and the Xiaomi 14 Pro as of January 2024. The reason most manufacturers omit 4x4 MIMO support for low-band frequencies is likely due to design challenges or relatively small performance gains in real-world usage due to the lack of 4T4R deployment on low-band by mobile network operators around the world. In Thailand, 4T4R deployment on the b28/n28 (APT) band is common on True-H and dtac networks, enabling 4x4 MIMO transmission on supported UEs. In this paper, the real-world 4x4 MIMO performance on the b28/n28 (APT) band will be investigated by evaluating the reliability test under different signal conditions and the maximum throughput test by evaluating the performance under optimal conditions, using the Sony Xperia 1 III and the Sony Xperia 1 IV smartphone. Devices from other manufacturers are also used in the experiment to investigate the performance with 2Rx antennas for comparison. Through firmware modifications, the Sony Xperia 1 III and IV can be configured to use only 2 Rx ports on low-band, enabling the collection of comparative 2 Rx performance data as a reference.