Interference-Mitigating Waveform Design for Next-Generation Wireless Systems

A brief historical perspective of the evolution of waveform designs employed in consecutive generations of wireless communications systems is provided, highlighting the range of often conflicting demands on the various waveform characteristics. As the culmination of recent advances in the field the underlying benefits of various Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) schemes are highlighted and exemplified. As an integral part of the appropriate waveform design, cognizance is given to the particular choice of the duplexing scheme used for supporting full-duplex communications and it is demonstrated that Time Division Duplexing (TDD) is substantially outperformed by Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD), unless the TDD scheme is combined with further sophisticated scheduling, MIMOs and/or adaptive modulation/coding. It is also argued that the specific choice of the Direct-Sequence (DS) spreading codes invoked in DS-CDMA predetermines the properties of the system. It is demonstrated that a specifically designed family of spreading codes exhibits a so-called interference-free window (IFW) and hence the resultant system is capable of outperforming its standardised counterpart employing classic Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor (OVSF) codes under realistic dispersive channel conditions, provided that the interfering multi-user and multipath components arrive within this IFW. This condition may be ensured with the aid of quasisynchronous adaptive timing advance control. However, a limitation of the system is that the number of spreading codes exhibiting a certain IFW is limited, although this problem may be mitigated with the aid of novel code design principles, employing a combination of several spreading sequences in the time-frequency and spatial-domain. The paper is concluded by quantifying the achievable user load of a UTRA-like TDD Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system employing Loosely Synchronized (LS) spreading codes exhibiting an IFW in comparison to that of its counterpart using OVSF codes. Both system's performance is enhanced using beamforming MIMOs

Software-only TDOA/RTF positioning for 3G WCDMA wireless network

A hybrid location finding technique based oil time difference of arrival (TDOA) with round-trip time (RTT) measurements is proposed for a wideband code division Multiple access (WCDMA) network. In this technique, a mobile station measures timing from at least three base stations using user equipment receive-transmit (UE Rx-Tx) time difference and at least three base stations measure timing from the mobile station using RTT. The timing measurements of mobile and base stations are then combined to solve for both the location of the mobile and the synchronization offset between base stations. A software-only geolocation system based on the above mobile/base stations timing measurements is implemented in Matlab platform and the performance of the system is investigated using large-scale propagation models

Computational Contributions to the Automation of Agriculture

The purpose of this paper is to explore ways that computational advancements have enabled the complete automation of agriculture from start to finish. With a major need for agricultural advancements because of food and water shortages, some farmers have begun creating their own solutions to these problems. Primarily explored in this paper, however, are current research topics in the automation of agriculture. Digital agriculture is surveyed, focusing on ways that data collection can be beneficial. Additionally, self-driving technology is explored with emphasis on farming applications. Machine vision technology is also detailed, with specific application to weed management and harvesting of crops. Finally, the effects of automating agriculture are briefly considered, including labor, the environment, and direct effects on farmers

Wireless Communications in the Era of Big Data

The rapidly growing wave of wireless data service is pushing against the boundary of our communication network's processing power. The pervasive and exponentially increasing data traffic present imminent challenges to all the aspects of the wireless system design, such as spectrum efficiency, computing capabilities and fronthaul/backhaul link capacity. In this article, we discuss the challenges and opportunities in the design of scalable wireless systems to embrace such a "bigdata" era. On one hand, we review the state-of-the-art networking architectures and signal processing techniques adaptable for managing the bigdata traffic in wireless networks. On the other hand, instead of viewing mobile bigdata as a unwanted burden, we introduce methods to capitalize from the vast data traffic, for building a bigdata-aware wireless network with better wireless service quality and new mobile applications. We highlight several promising future research directions for wireless communications in the mobile bigdata era.Comment: This article is accepted and to appear in IEEE Communications Magazin

Business Case and Technology Analysis for 5G Low Latency Applications

A large number of new consumer and industrial applications are likely to change the classic operator's business models and provide a wide range of new markets to enter. This article analyses the most relevant 5G use cases that require ultra-low latency, from both technical and business perspectives. Low latency services pose challenging requirements to the network, and to fulfill them operators need to invest in costly changes in their network. In this sense, it is not clear whether such investments are going to be amortized with these new business models. In light of this, specific applications and requirements are described and the potential market benefits for operators are analysed. Conclusions show that operators have clear opportunities to add value and position themselves strongly with the increasing number of services to be provided by 5G.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure

Turbo-Coded Adaptive Modulation Versus Space-Time Trellis Codes for Transmission over Dispersive Channels

Decision feedback equalizer (DFE)-aided turbocoded wideband adaptive quadrature amplitude modulation (AQAM) is proposed, which is capable of combating the temporal channel quality variation of fading channels. A procedure is suggested for determining the AQAM switching thresholds and the specific turbo-coding rates capable of maintaining the target bit-error rate while aiming for achieving a highly effective bits per symbol throughput. As a design alternative, we also employ multiple-input/multiple-output DFE-aided space–time trellis codes, which benefit from transmit diversity and hence reduce the temporal channel quality fluctuations. The performance of both systems is characterized and compared when communicating over the COST 207 typical urban wideband fading channel. It was found that the turbo-coded AQAM scheme outperforms the two-transmitter space–time trellis coded system employing two receivers; although, its performance is inferior to the space–time trellis coded arrangement employing three receivers. Index Terms—Coded adaptive modulation, dispersive channels, space–time trellis codes