Abstract As the standardization of full-dimension MIMO systems in the Third Generation Partnership Project progresses, the research community has started to explore the potential of very large arrays as an enabler technology for meeting the requirements of fifth generation systems. Indeed, in its final deliverable, the European 5G project METIS identifies massive MIMO as a key 5G enabler and proposes specific technology components that will allow the cost-efficient deployment of cellular systems taking advantage of hundreds of antennas at cellular base stations. These technology components include handling the inherent pilot-data resource allocation trade-off in a near optimal fashion, a novel random access scheme supporting a large number of users, coded channel state information for sparse channels in frequency- division duplexing systems, managing user grouping and multi-user beamforming, and a decentralized coordinated transceiver design. The aggregate effect of these components enables massive MIMO to contribute to the METIS objectives of delivering very high data rates and managing dense populations.