A Measurement-Supported Extrapolation Framework for Lowband MIMO Coverage and Capacity Enhancement in Future...

Low-frequency mobile bands remain essential for wide-area and penetration-limited wireless coverage, but their limited channel bandwidth constrains the achievable capacity. This paper presents a measurement-supported extrapolation framework for assessing how lowband MIMO and future AAS-assisted operation can enhance coverage and single-user throughput-oriented capacity in wireless networks. The motivation is to evaluate whether such deployments can strengthen the lower-frequency layer as a robust coverage-and-capacity support layer for general traffic and reduce the load on midband and higher-frequency resources. Controlled radiated SISO and 2×2 MIMO measurements were performed with a base-station simulator and commercial user equipment in representative lowband and midband frequency bands. Measured RSRP, CQI, BLER, MAC-layer throughput, and IP-layer throughput thresholds for a 25 Mbit/s downlink target were used for coverage estimation and conditional extrapolation. Under the Extended Hata model, the measured 2×2 MIMO thresholds yielded a 43% larger estimated radius at 800 MHz than at 1800 MHz, while the same model indicated a 93% radius increase for a representative 10 dB AAS-related beamforming gain scenario. Conditional 4×4 MIMO extrapolations indicated data rates above 100 Mbit/s in 10 MHz and above 200 Mbit/s with 10 MHz two-component-carrier aggregation under ideal high-CQI conditions. The results support the potential of future lowband AAS deployments. The AAS and higher-order MIMO results are scenario-based estimates rather than direct field validation.