Impact of Massive MIMO systems on future M2M communication

Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication is an emerging paradigm in which trillions of intelligent wireless devices are projected to communicate without or with small human intervention. The disparate application domains employing these M2M devices include Intelligent Transport System, Smart Grid and Metering, Home Automation, E-healthcare, Safety, Emergency and Industrial applications. This requires strong communication infrastructure support. However, existing communication infrastructure is unable to surmount operational challenges of such large scale communication due to underlying bottlenecks. On the other hand, Massive MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) is an emerging paradigm for future wireless communication systems that employ large number of antennas to improve system capacity, spectral efficiency and energy consumption. This paper promotes and advocates the use of Massive MIMO systems for future Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication. First, we elaborate various aspects of M2M communication paradigm. Then we describe merits and potential performance gains of Massive MIMO systems. Finally, we prescribe the use of massive MIMO systems for future M2M communication.