Massive MIMO Modularity Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing has plateaued, not accelerated. Activity peaked at 36 families in 2022 and the trend since is flat to declining, so the openly claimable window is not widening.
- Four fifths of filings touch base transmission architecture. H04B carries 111 of 118 records, meaning most competitive claim activity sits inside signal transmission and antenna-array processing rather than pure network orchestration.
- Co-assignment is almost non-existent. Only 4 co-assignee pairs exist across 118 families, so this remains a field of solo-filed corporate patents rather than joint-development claims.
Filing growth compares 2021 (9 records) with 2024 (13) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 118 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent families at the intersection of massive MIMO / large-scale antenna systems and O-RAN, open fronthaul, disaggregated RAN and interoperability claim language, scoped to IPC classes covering wireless network architecture, transmission and network management (H04W88/08, H04B7/06, H04L41). It is a narrow cut of a much larger massive MIMO literature: only records where modularity or open-interface language appears explicitly in the title or claims are counted.
Coverage runs from 2015 through the 2026-07-31 cut-off. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 and 2026 figures are undercounts of eventual filing volume, not a genuine falloff.
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Filing trend and technology composition
118 families span eight IPC subclasses and six receiving offices, giving a picture of both where claims concentrate and where filing activity has already peaked.
Filing trend: peak already behind us
Filings rose from zero in 2017 to a peak of 36 in 2022, then leveled off; with 2022 as the midpoint of the visible curve, the shape reads flat-to-declining rather than still accelerating. Treat the final one to two years as undercounted given publication lag.
Technology composition: transmission-heavy
H04B (transmission) appears in 111 of 118 records and H04W (wireless network architecture) in 61, confirming that most claims sit on physical-layer and antenna-array mechanics. H04L (network management, 45) and the small AI/computing tail (G06N, G06F) mark where orchestration and learning-based control are only beginning to enter the claim set.
Shares are the percentage of the 118 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Massive MIMO Modularity and Standardization with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about massive mimo modularity and standardization and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative filing
Beamforming and interference mitigation techniques for massive MIMO uplink and downlink in O-RAN 7-2 compatible base stations
An apparatus for use in an O-RAN base station includes processing circuitry. To configure the O-RAN base station for signal processing in an O-RAN network, the processing circuitry is to decode an SRS and a DMRS in a UL stream received from at least one UE. Channel estimation is performed based on the SRS to obtain a channel estimate matrix of channel estimates associated with reception of the UL stream. A noise covariance is generated using the DMRS. Beamforming weights are determined using the channel estimate matrix and the noise covariance. Beamforming is performed on UL data corresponding to the UL stream to generate beamformed data streams.Filed against the O-RAN 7-2 split specifically — a sign that claim drafting has moved from generic 'open interface' language to naming the actual interoperability standard.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20180343567A1 | Private multefire network with SDR-based massive MIMO, multefire and network slicing | 308 |
| 2 | US10334446B2 | Private multefire network with SDR-based massive MIMO, multefire and network slicing | 32 |
| 3 | US9414371B2 | Hierarchical channel sounding and channel state information feedback in massive MIMO systems | 30 |
| 4 | EP2775634A2 | Method for multi-input multi-output communication in large-scale antenna system | 27 |
| 5 | US10757576B2 | SDR-based massive MIMO with V-RAN cloud architecture and SDN-based network slicing | 21 |
| 6 | US20160182136A1 | Method and node in a wireless communication network | 16 |
| 7 | US20220416868A1 | Techniques to improve computational efficiency in massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems | 13 |
| 8 | US10797762B1 | Beamforming in massive MIMO networks | 9 |
| 9 | US9654272B2 | Method for multi-input multi-output communication in large-scale antenna system | 9 |
| 10 | US20240154658A1 | Beamforming and interference mitigation techniques for massive MIMO uplink and downlink in o-ran 7-2 compatib… | 8 |
Citation counts favor older filings that have had more time to accumulate citations inside a searched corpus; read them as a signal of influence on the field, not of current commercial importance.
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Three patterns stand out once families are viewed as the unit of count rather than raw published documents.
The growth curve has flattened
Activity climbed from nothing in 2017 to 36 families in 2022 and has not exceeded that since. A flat-to-declining trend after a clear peak usually means the core claim positions were staked early; new entrants now face denser prior art than filers did five years ago.
Transmission mechanics dominate the claim set
Almost every family in this set claims something inside transmission/antenna-array processing (H04B), while orchestration-layer classes like H04L and the AI-adjacent G06N appear far less often. That gap is where less-crowded claim language is more likely to exist.
Filing strategy still centers on the US and Europe
The United States, EPO and WIPO together account for the bulk of receiving-office activity, with India, China and Australia trailing well behind. A filer chasing global coverage in this space is still following a US/EU-first pattern rather than a China-first one.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to massive mimo modularity and standardization, with the prior art for and against each one.
Assignee landscape
Filing here is largely solo: cross-assignee collaboration is rare, and recent-year momentum has cooled even for the historically active filers.
Joint filing is the exception, not the norm
Only four co-assignee pairs appear in the whole dataset, and the strongest of them is an internal pairing between two entities under the same corporate group rather than a cross-company partnership. Most families here are filed by a single assignee acting alone.
Even established filers have gone quiet recently
Several of the assignees with the deepest filing history show zero families in the latest year, including one filer down 100% year-on-year. Given publication lag, this understates true 2025–2026 activity, but it is consistent with the broader flat-to-declining trend.
Activity has shifted toward smaller, newer filers
The assignee with the most recent-year activity in this set is filing at a modest single-family pace, not the double-digit pace seen from earlier leaders during the 2022 peak. That is consistent with a maturing claim landscape rather than a growing one.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Geo Platforms Ltd. | 1 | — |
| Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (Sweden) | 0 | -100% |
| KDDI Corporation | 0 | — |
| Nextgen Partners IP LLC | 0 | — |
| Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy | 0 | — |
| Nokia Shanghai Bell Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Intel Corporation | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to a field with an established transmission-layer core and a thinner, still-open orchestration and AI layer.
Map the white space claim-by-claim
The under-claimed sub-areas identified here (AI-assisted beamforming, 7-2 split channel estimation, slicing-aware scheduling) need claim-level review, not just IPC counting, before a freedom-to-operate call can be made.
Explore white space in EurekaTrack the quiet incumbents
Several historically dominant filers show zero recent-year activity; watch for continuations or new filings that would signal renewed investment ahead of any commercial deployment cycle.
Set up assignee monitoring in EurekaRe-run this query as O-RAN specs mature
With filing lagging the standards process by design, revisiting this exact search string in 12–18 months will surface the families currently hidden by publication lag.
Rerun this search in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
This landscape only includes families where massive MIMO or large-scale antenna language appears alongside explicit interoperability terms — O-RAN, open fronthaul, disaggregated RAN or interoperability — in the title or claims, and where the IPC classification touches wireless network architecture, transmission or network management. It excludes the much larger body of general massive MIMO patents that do not address modularity or open interfaces. That narrower scope is why the total is 118 families rather than several thousand.
The visible trend rises from zero in 2017 to a peak of 36 families in 2022 and then flattens, which typically signals that the core claim positions in a defined technical area were staked during the run-up years. It does not mean interest in the underlying technology has faded; O-RAN deployment and massive MIMO rollout both continued past 2022. Publication lag of roughly 18 months also means the 2025–2026 figures in this dataset are undercounted and should not be read as a real decline yet.
The most-cited records in this corpus include private-network and SDR-based massive MIMO filings alongside foundational channel-sounding and multi-input multi-output patents, several carrying citation counts well above the rest of the set. High citation counts favor older filings that have simply had more time to be cited, so they are a better guide to technical influence than to who is most active today. Recent-year momentum data in this same landscape shows a different, smaller set of assignees currently filing.
The technology composition skews heavily toward transmission and antenna-array mechanics (H04B, present in 111 of 118 families), while orchestration-layer and AI-assisted claim language (H04L, G06N) appears in a much smaller share of the set. That gap — AI-assisted beamforming computation, O-RAN 7-2 split channel estimation, and slicing-aware fronthaul scheduling in particular — carries fewer filed claims relative to its technical relevance and is worth a closer freedom-to-operate look before assuming it is occupied.
Almost entirely alone. Only four co-assignee pairs appear across the full 118-family set, and the strongest pairing links two entities within the same corporate group rather than two independent companies. That means licensing and cross-development deals, if they exist in this space, are largely happening outside the patent record rather than being reflected in joint ownership.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.