Pushing the Limits of LTE: A Survey on Research Enhancing the Standard

Cellular networks are an essential part of todays communication infrastructure. The ever-increasing demand for higher data-rates calls for a close cooperation between researchers and industry/standardization experts which hardly exists in practice. In this article we give an overview about our efforts in trying to bridge this gap. Our research group provides a standard-compliant open-source simulation platform for 3GPP LTE that enables reproducible research in a well-defined environment. We demonstrate that much innovative research under the confined framework of a real-world standard is still possible, sometimes even encouraged. With examplary samples of our research work we investigate on the potential of several important research areas under typical practical conditions.Comment: The final version of the manuscript is available at: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6514821&isnumber=633654

Application of MIMO Technology to Systems Beyond 3G

The evolution of mobile Broadband over the years has been phenomenal and worthy of attention by academics, researchers, the corporate world and users alike. From the days of the First Generation (1G) through the Third Generation (3G) communication systems, the evolution has continued and has been largely influenced by an ever increasing demand for improved services and greater capacity evident in higher data rates, wider and improved coverage, improved spectral efficiency and lower latency. In response to these demands and to address some of the loopholes of the 3G networks, the 3rd Generation Partnership defined the Long Term Evolution (LTE). LTE though an evolving technology is widely accepted due to its unprecedented promised performance. As the evolution continues, the design of the „LTE-Advanced‟ is already in progress and has been tagged different names such as the „4G‟ and „Beyond 3G‟ (B3G). The main backbones behind these evolutions are technological developments in the underlying mobile radio technology such as multicarrier technology (majorly OFDMA), multiple-antenna technology (MIMO) and the application of packetswitching to the radio-interface through improvements in techniques like adaptive scheduling in both the frequency and spatial dimensions, link adaptation of modulation and code-rate and several modes of fast channel state reporting. This paper is set to present the multiple antenna technology and how it contributes to the delivery of the expectations of the wireless communication systems beyond 3

IST-2000-30148 I-METRA: D4 Performance evaluation

This document considers the performance of multiantenna transmit/receive techniques in high-speed downlink and uplink packet access. The evaluation is done using both link and system level simulations by taking into account link adaptation and packet retransmissions. The document is based on the initial studies carried out in deliverables D3.1 and D3.2.Preprin

Advanced receivers for high data rate mobile communications

Improving the spectral efficiency is a key issue in the future wireless communication systems since the spectrum is a scarce resource. Both the number of users as well the demanded data rates are increasing all the time. Furthermore, in mobile communications the wireless link is required to be reliable even when the mobile is in a fast moving vehicle. Using Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) antennas is a well known technique to provide higher spectral efficiency as well as better link reliability. Additionally, higher order modulation methods can be used to provide higher data rates. In order to benefit from these enhancements in practise, sophisticated signal processing methods as well as accurate estimates of time-varying wireless channel parameters are needed. This thesis addresses the problem of designing multi-antenna receivers in high data rate systems. The case of multiple transmit antennas is also considered. System specific features of High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) which is part of 3rd generation (3G) Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) evolution are exploited in channel estimation methods and in MIMO receiver design. Additionally, complexity reduction methods for Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) equalization are addressed. Blind channel estimation methods are spectrally efficient, since no extra resources are needed for pilot signals. However, in mobile communications accurate estimates are needed also in fast fading channels. Consequently, semi-blind channel estimation methods where the receiver combines blind and pilot based channel estimation are an appealing alternative. In this thesis blind and semi-blind channel estimation methods based on knowledge of multiple spreading codes are derived. A novel semi-blind combining scheme for code multiplexed pilot signal and blind estimation is proposed. Another important factor in receiver design criteria is the structure of interference in the received signals. Interference mitigation techniques in MIMO systems have been shown to be potential methods for providing improved performance. A chip level inter-antenna interference cancellation method has been developed in this thesis for HSDPA. Furthermore, this multi-stage ordered interference canceler is combined with the semi-blind channel estimation scheme to enhance the system performance further.Langattomassa tiedonsiirrossa radiospektrin tehokas käyttö on tulevaisuuden suuria haasteita. Taajuuksia on käytössä vain rajoitetusti, kun taas käyttäjien määrä sekä vaaditut siirtonopeudet kasvavat jatkuvasti. Lisäksi langattomien yhteyksien on toimittava luotettavasti myös nopeasti liikkuvissa kulkuneuvoissa. Moniantennijärjestelmät, joissa on useita antenneita sekä tukiasemissa että päätelaitteissa mahdollistavat radiospektrin tehokkaamman käytön sekä parantavat yhteyksien laatua. Tiedonsiirtonopeutta voidaan myös kasvattaa erilaisilla modulaatiotekniikoilla. Hyötyjen saavutamiseksi käytännössä tarvitaan sekä kehittyneitä vastaanotinrakenteita että tarkkoja estimaatteja aikamuuttuvasta radiokanavasta. Tässä työssä on kehitetty vastaanotinrakenteita ja kanavan estimointimenetelmiä kolmannen sukupolven (3G) nopeiden datayhteyksien (HSPA) järjestelmissä. Työssä on johdettu menetelmiä, jotka hyödyntävät HSPA järjestelmien erikoispiirteitä tehokkaasti. Lisäksi on kehitetty laskennallisesti tehokkaita menetelmiä vastaanottimien signaalinkäsittelyyn. Ns. sokeat menetelmät mahdollistavat taajuuskaistan tehokkaan käytön, koska ne eivät vaadi tunnettuja harjoitussignaaleja. Mobiileissa tietolikennejärjestelmissä radiokanava saattaa kuitenkin muuttua hyvin nopeasti, jonka vuoksi kanavan estimoinnissa on tyypillisesti hyödynnetty tunnettua pilottisignaalia. Yhdistämällä pilottipohjainen ja sokea kanavaestimointimenetelmä, voidaan saavuttaa molempien menetelmien edut. Tässä työssä kehitettiin sokeita kanavaestimointimenetelmiä, jotka hyödyntävät useita tunnettuja hajoituskoodeja. Sokean ja koodijakoiseen pilottisignaaliin pohjautuvien kanavan estimaattien yhdistämiseksi kehitettiin uusi menetelmä. Signaalin laatua ja siten vastaanottimen suorituskykyä voidaan langattomissa järjestelmissä parantaa vaimentamalla interferenssiä eli häiriöitä. Vastaanottimen toimintaa voidaan tehostaa oleellisesti, jos häiriösignaalin rakenne tunnetaan. Käytettäessä useampaa lähetysantennia HSPA järjestelmissä vastaanotetussa signaalissa olevia häiriötä voidaan kumota usealla eri tasolla. Tässä työssä on kehitetty chippitasolla häiriöitä kumoava vastaanotinrakenne, joka hyödyntää HSPA järjestelmän ominaisuuksia. Vastaanottimen suorituskykyä on edelleen parannettu yhdistämällä se aiemmin esitettyyn puolisokeaan kanavan estimointimenetelmään.reviewe

Computationally Efficient UE Blocking Probability Model for GBR Services in Beyond 5G RAN

Modeling the probability of blocking User Equipment (UE) sessions within a cell is a crucial aspect within the management of 5G services with Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR) requirements, especially in the process of planning in advance the deployment of such services. The complexity of modeling the UE blocking probability arises from the dependency of this performance indicator on multiple factors, including the UE channel quality within the cell, the MAC scheduling discipline, the statistical distributions of the traffic demand and session duration, and the GBR requirements of the corresponding service. In this vein, we propose an analytical model to assess the UE blocking probability for a GBR service. The proposed model is based on a Markov chain which is insensitive to the holding time distribution of the UE data sessions. Furthermore, it may consider as input any continuous distribution for the average Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio (SINR) within the cell. The simulation results demonstrate the execution time of the proposed model is on the order of tens of milliseconds, which makes it suitable for testing multiple network configurations in a short term, training ML models or detecting traffic anomalies in real time. Additionally, the results show that our model exhibits an estimation error for the UE blocking probability below 2.6%.Ministry for Digital Transformation and of Civil Service of the Spanish Government through (6G-CHRONOS) Project under Grant TSI-063000-2021-28European Union through the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan—NextGenerationEUMICIU/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 under Grant PID2022-137329OB-C4