Performance Analysis of SVD-Based Beamforming for Aerial Base Stations Operating in Millimetre-Wave Evolved 5G Networks

Abstract

This paper analyzes the performance of Singular Value Decomposition (SVD)-based beamforming for an aerial base station operating in millimetre-wave evolved 5G networks. System-level simulations were carried out in NS-3 using the mmWave module, EPC support, and the 3GPP Urban Macro (UMa) channel model. Two configurations were evaluated under identical conditions: a reference Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT)-based beamforming scheme, labelled BF OFF in the trace files, and an adaptive SVD-based scheme, labelled BF ON. The proposed approach increased the mean cell throughput from 24.000 Mbps to 79.032 Mbps and expanded the number of users effectively served above the 1 Mbps reference threshold from one user to seven users. It also provided a more stable temporal throughput profile and a broader distribution of service among users. These findings confirm that SVD-based beamforming is an effective technique for enhancing aerial base-station performance in mmWave 5G environments, especially under high offered load and heterogeneous channel conditions.