Ever since the invention of Bell Laboratories Layer Space-Time (BLAST) in mid 1990s, the focus of MIMO research and development has been largely on pushing the limit of spectral efficiency. While massive MIMO technologies laid the foundation of high spectrum efficiency in 5G and beyond, the challenge remains in improving energy efficiency given the increasing complexity of the associated radio systems. With the substantial negative implications of climate change looming ever closer, minimizing energy use is a key dimension of achieving sustainability and is of paramount importance for any future technology. Thus, every aspect of future extreme MIMO system design, implementation, and operation will be scrutinized to maximize energy efficiency. An analysis of the massive MIMO 5G radio energy consumption at different loads leads to qualitative energy efficiency design goals for emerging extreme MIMO systems. Following this, we focus on novel operational and component technology innovations to minimize energy consumption.

翻译：自20世纪90年代中期贝尔实验室提出分层空时（BLAST）架构以来，多输入多输出（MIMO）技术的研究与开发一直聚焦于提升频谱效率的极限。虽然大规模MIMO技术为5G及未来通信系统的高频谱效率奠定了基础，但由于相关无线系统复杂度的持续增加，如何提升能效仍面临挑战。随着气候变化带来的显著负面效应日益迫近，最小化能耗成为实现可持续发展的关键维度，对任何未来技术都具有至关重要的影响。因此，未来极端MIMO系统在设计、实现与运行的各个环节都将以最大化能效为目标进行严格论证。基于对不同负载下大规模MIMO 5G无线设备能耗的分析，本文提出了面向新兴极端MIMO系统的定性化能效设计目标。在此基础上，我们重点探索了降低能耗的新型运行模式与元器件技术创新方案。