Three-Dimensional Beamforming: A new enabling technology for 5G wireless networks

It is anticipated that the mobile data traffic will grow 1,000 times higher from 2010 to 2020 with a rate of roughly a factor of two per year [1]. This increasing demand for data in next-generation mobile broadband networks will lead to many challenges for system engineers and service providers. To address these issues and meet the stringent demands in coming years, innovative and practical solutions should be identified that are able to provide higher spectral efficiency, better performance, and broader coverage. Next generations of wireless cellular networks, which are known as fifth generation (5G) or beyond fourth generation (B4G) wireless networks, are expected to produce higher data rates for mobile subscribers in the order of tens of gigabits per second (Gbit/s) and support a wide range of services. Despite the absence of official standards for the 5G, the data rate of 1?Gbit/s per user anywhere for 5G mobile networks is expected to be deployed beyond 2020.