The fifth (5G) mobile communication systems are attracting significant amount of interest from industry and academia. Compared to legacy 3G/4G systems which were voice and data-oriented, 5G is expected to cover a wide range of use cases including enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliability low-latency communication (URLLC), and massive machine-type-communication (mMTC).

Massive MIMO/FD-MIMO is expected to be one of the essential technologies in meeting the diverse performance requirements of 5G. For eMBB with 1000x faster data-rate than 4G, massive MIMO with hundreds of antennas is considered a key enabler for overcoming challenging propagation conditions, especially in mmWave band. For mMTC with millions of connected devices, massive MIMO enables extreme high-order MU-MIMO and new multiple-access schemes such as non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). For URLLC communications with very low latency and very high reliability (e.g., vehicular communications, automotive control), superior spatial diversity from massive antenna arrays is essential.

The performance gain of massive MIMO/FD-MIMO comes at the expense of increased system challenges including reference signal, channel quantization, CSI feedback, power consumption, beam steering and tracking, beam failure detection and recovery, as well as hardware complexity. The goal of this workshop is to bring together leading researchers in both academia and industry to share their views on these challenges, discuss progresses from both theoretical and implementation perspectives, and identify concepts and technologies that facilitate the successful rollout of massive MIMO in future 5G networks.