Enabling Technologies for 5G and Beyond: Bridging the Gap between Vision and Reality

It is common knowledge that the fifth generation (5G) of cellular networks will come with drastic transformation in the cellular systems capabilities and will redefine mobile services. 5G (and beyond) systems will be used for human interaction, in addition to person-to-machine and machine-to-machine communications, i.e., every-thing is connected to every-thing. These features will open a whole line of new business opportunities and contribute to the development of the society in many different ways, including developing and building smart cities, enhancing remote health care services, to name a few. However, such services come with an unprecedented growth of mobile traffic, which will lead to heavy challenges and requirements that have not been experienced before. Indeed, the new generations of cellular systems are required to support ultra-low latency services (less than one millisecond), and provide hundred times more data rate and connectivity, all compared to previous generations such as 4G. Moreover, they are expected to be highly secure due to the sensitivity of the transmitted information. Researchers from both academia and industry have been concerting significant efforts to develop new technologies that aim at enabling the new generation of cellular systems (5G and beyond) to realize their potential. Much emphasis has been put on finding new technologies that enhance the radio access network (RAN) capabilities as RAN is considered to be the bottleneck of cellular networks. Striking a balance between performance and cost has been at the center of the efforts that led to the newly developed technologies, which include non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), millimeter wave (mmWave) technology, self-organizing network (SON) and massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO). Moreover, physical layer security (PLS) has been praised for being a potential candidate for enforcing transmission security when combined with cryptography techniques. Although the main concepts of the aforementioned RAN key enabling technologies have been well defined, there are discrepancies between their intended (i.e., vision) performance and the achieved one. In fact, there is still much to do to bridge the gap between what has been promised by such technologies in terms of performance and what they might be able to achieve in real-life scenarios. This motivates us to identify the main reasons behind the aforementioned gaps and try to find ways to reduce such gaps. We first focus on NOMA where the main drawback of existing solutions is related to their poor performance in terms of spectral efficiency and connectivity. Another major drawback of existing NOMA solutions is that transmission rate per user decreases slightly with the number of users, which is a serious issue since future networks are expected to provide high connectivity. To this end, we develop NOMA solutions that could provide three times the achievable rate of existing solutions while maintaining a constant transmission rate per user regardless of the number of connected users. We then investigate the challenges facing mmWave transmissions. It has been demonstrated that such technology is highly sensitive to blockage, which limits its range of communication. To overcome this obstacle, we develop a beam-codebook based analog beam-steering scheme that achieves near maximum beamforming gain performance. The proposed technique has been tested and verified by real-life measurements performed at Bell Labs. Another line of research pursued in this thesis is investigating challenges pertaining to SON. It is known that radio access network self-planning is the most complex and sensitive task due to its impact on the cost of network deployment, etc., capital expenditure (CAPEX). To tackle this issue, we propose a comprehensive self-planning solution that provides all the planning parameters at once while guaranteeing that the system is optimally planned. The proposed scheme is compared to existing solutions and its superiority is demonstrated. We finally consider the communication secrecy problem and investigated the potential of employing PLS. Most of the existing PLS schemes are based on unrealistic assumptions, most notably is the assumption of having full knowledge about the whereabouts of the eavesdroppers. To solve this problem, we introduce a radically novel nonlinear precoding technique and a coding strategy that together allow to establish secure communication without any knowledge about the eavesdroppers. Moreover, we prove that it is possible to secure communications while achieving near transmitter-receiver channel capacity (the maximum theoretical rate)

Heterogeneous Traffic Multiplexing in Next Generation Cellular Networks

The vision shaping the upcoming sixth-generation (6G) wireless cellular networks has recently gained considerable attention from researchers in academia and industry. 6G networks are expected to fulfill the limitations of the fifth-generation (5G) networks and support a wide range of new applications and services beyond those supported by 5G, namely, enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC) and massive machine-type communications (mMTC). Further, these emerging networks are thus mandated to support new emerging applications that concurrently demand multiple quality of service (QoS) requirements of data rate, reliability, latency, and connectivity. Due to the fundamental trade-off of such extremely diverse QoS requirements, the coexistence of these emerging applications has been identified as a major challenge in 6G networks and their predecessors. This dissertation aims at addressing the coexistence problem, specifically URLLC and eMBB traffic, by developing spectrally efficient multiplexing and scheduling solutions. By considering different key enabling technologies, this dissertation provides unique research contributions to the coexistence problem that led to effective designs. In particular, coupling URLLC and eMBB through the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) superposition/puncturing scheme naturally arises as a promising option due to the latter's tolerance in terms of latency and reliability. Moreover, reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) has been proposed as a potential low-cost and energy-efficient technology that can control the wireless propagation environment providing endless benefits in supporting coexisting 6G services. Regarding the superposition scheme, this thesis investigates the joint scheduling of eMBB and URLLC traffic while minimizing the eMBB rate loss, considering URLLC reliability and the eMBB QoS. In the context of puncturing, this thesis studied the interplay between the RIS configuration, URLLC reliability and eMBB rate by proposing proactive RIS configurations to guarantee the URLLC latency requirements. Although simulation results demonstrate that adopting the proposed scheme can further boost eMBB and URLLC traffic performance, the computational complexity of optimizing the RIS phase shifts is challenging. To this end, this thesis proposes two low-complexity methods for optimizing the RIS phase shift matrix. The first solution proposes reducing the number of optimization variables configuring the RIS to the number of users. The second algorithm is based on a closed-form expression for the RIS phase shift matrix. Finally, a new puncturing strategy is proposed to mitigate the impact on the eMBB transmission. The key idea of the proposed scheme is to puncture the eMBB data that has maximum symbol similarities with the URLLC leading to reducing the contaminated eMBB symbols. We study the performance of the proposed schemes in terms of the eMBB spectral efficiency, URLLC reliability and low complexity. We show analytically and through simulations the efficacy of the proposed schemes over their existing counterparts

Optical code-division multiple access system and optical signal processing

This thesis presents our recent researches on the development of coding devices, the investigation of security and the design of systems in the optical cod-division multiple access (OCDMA) systems. Besides, the techniques of nonlinear signal processing used in the OCDMA systems fire our imagination, thus some researches on all-optical signal processing are carried out and also summarized in this thesis. Two fiber Bragg grating (FBG) based coding devices are proposed. The first coding device is a superstructured FBG (SSFBG) using ±π/2-phase shifts instead of conventional 0/π-phase shifts. The ±π/2-phase-shifted SSFBG en/decoders can not only conceal optical codes well in the encoded signals but also realize the reutilization of available codes by hybrid use with conventional 0/π-phase-shifted SSFBG en/decoders. The second FBG based coding device is synthesized by layer-peeling method, which can be used for simultaneous optical code recognition and chromatic dispersion compensation. Then, two eavesdropping schemes, one-bit delay interference detection and differential detection, are demonstrated to reveal the security vulnerability of differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) and code-shift keying (CSK) OCDMA systems. To address the security issue as well as increase the transmission capacity, an orthogonal modulation format based on DPSK and CSK is introduced into the OCDMA systems. A 2 bit/symbol 10 Gsymbol/s transmission system using the orthogonal modulation format is achieved. The security of the system can be partially guaranteed. Furthermore, a fully-asynchronous gigabit-symmetric OCDMA passive optical network (PON) is proposed, in which a self-clocked time gate is employed for signal regeneration. A remodulation scheme is used in the PON, which let downstream and upstream share the same optical carrier, allowing optical network units source-free. An error-free 4-user 10 Gbit/s/user duplex transmission over 50 km distance is reazlied. A versatile waveform generation scheme is then studied. A theoretical model is established and a waveform prediction algorithm is summarized. In the demonstration, various waveforms are generated including short pulse, trapezoidal, triangular and sawtooth waveforms and doublet pulse. ii In addition, an all-optical simultaneous half-addition and half-subtraction scheme is achieved at an operating rate of 10 GHz by using only two semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) without any assist light. Lastly, two modulation format conversion schemes are demonstrated. The first conversion is from NRZ-OOK to PSK-Manchester coding format using a SOA based Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The second conversion is from RZ-DQPSK to RZ-OOK by employing a supercontinuum based optical thresholder

Space-time-frequency methods for interference-limited communication systems

textTraditionally, noise in communication systems has been modeled as an additive, white Gaussian noise process with independent, identically distributed samples. Although this model accurately reflects thermal noise present in communication system electronics, it fails to capture the statistics of interference and other sources of noise, e.g. in unlicensed communication bands. Modern communication system designers must take into account interference and non-Gaussian noise to maximize efficiencies and capacities of current and future communication networks. In this work, I develop new multi-dimensional signal processing methods to improve performance of communication systems in three applications areas: (i) underwater acoustic, (ii) powerline, and (iii) multi-antenna cellular. In underwater acoustic communications, I address impairments caused by strong, time-varying and Doppler-spread reverberations (self-interference) using adaptive space-time signal processing methods. I apply these methods to array receivers with a large number of elements. In powerline communications, I address impairments caused by non-Gaussian noise arising from devices sharing the powerline. I develop and apply a cyclic adaptive modulation and coding scheme and a factor-graph-based impulsive noise mitigation method to improve signal quality and boost link throughput and robustness. In cellular communications, I develop a low-latency, high-throughput space-time-frequency processing framework used for large scale (up to 128 antenna) MIMO. This framework is used in the world's first 100-antenna MIMO system and processes up to 492 Gbps raw baseband samples in the uplink and downlink directions. My methods prove that multi-dimensional processing methods can be applied to increase communication system performance without sacrificing real-time requirements.Electrical and Computer Engineerin

D 3. 3 Final performance results and consolidated view on the most promising multi -node/multi -antenna transmission technologies

This document provides the most recent updates on the technical contributions and research challenges focused in WP3. Each Technology Component (TeC) has been evaluated under possible uniform assessment framework of WP3 which is based on the simulation guidelines of WP6. The performance assessment is supported by the simulation results which are in their mature and stable state. An update on the Most Promising Technology Approaches (MPTAs) and their associated TeCs is the main focus of this document. Based on the input of all the TeCs in WP3, a consolidated view of WP3 on the role of multinode/multi-antenna transmission technologies in 5G systems has also been provided. This consolidated view is further supported in this document by the presentation of the impact of MPTAs on METIS scenarios and the addressed METIS goals.Aziz, D.; Baracca, P.; De Carvalho, E.; Fantini, R.; Rajatheva, N.; Popovski, P.; Sørensen, JH.... (2015). D 3. 3 Final performance results and consolidated view on the most promising multi -node/multi -antenna transmission technologies. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/7675

Millimeter Wave Systems for Wireless Cellular Communications

This thesis considers channel estimation and multiuser (MU) data transmission for massive MIMO systems with fully digital/hybrid structures in mmWave channels. It contains three main contributions. In this thesis, we first propose a tone-based linear search algorithm to facilitate the estimation of angle-of-arrivals of the strongest components as well as scattering components of the users at the base station (BS) with fully digital structure. Our results show that the proposed maximum-ratio transmission (MRT) based on the strongest components can achieve a higher data rate than that of the conventional MRT, under the same mean squared errors (MSE). Second, we develop a low-complexity channel estimation and beamformer/precoder design scheme for hybrid mmWave systems. In addition, the proposed scheme applies to both non-sparse and sparse mmWave channel environments. We then leverage the proposed scheme to investigate the downlink achievable rate performance. The results show that the proposed scheme obtains a considerable achievable rate of fully digital systems. Taking into account the effect of various types of errors, we investigate the achievable rate performance degradation of the considered scheme. Third, we extend our proposed scheme to a multi-cell MU mmWave MIMO network. We derive the closed-form approximation of the normalized MSE of channel estimation under pilot contamination over Rician fading channels. Furthermore, we derive a tight closed-form approximation and the scaling law of the average achievable rate. Our results unveil that channel estimation errors, the intra-cell interference, and the inter-cell interference caused by pilot contamination over Rician fading channels can be efficiently mitigated by simply increasing the number of antennas equipped at the desired BS.Comment: Thesi