3-D Statistical Channel Model for Millimeter-Wave Outdoor Mobile Broadband Communications

This paper presents an omnidirectional spatial and temporal 3-dimensional statistical channel model for 28 GHz dense urban non-line of sight environments. The channel model is developed from 28 GHz ultrawideband propagation measurements obtained with a 400 megachips per second broadband sliding correlator channel sounder and highly directional, steerable horn antennas in New York City. A 3GPP-like statistical channel model that is easy to implement in software or hardware is developed from measured power delay profiles and a synthesized method for providing absolute propagation delays recovered from 3-D ray-tracing, as well as measured angle of departure and angle of arrival power spectra. The extracted statistics are used to implement a MATLAB-based statistical simulator that generates 3-D millimeter-wave temporal and spatial channel coefficients that reproduce realistic impulse responses of measured urban channels. The methods and model presented here can be used for millimeter-wave system-wide simulations, and air interface design and capacity analyses.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, ICC 2015 (London, UK, to appear

Analysis of DVB-H network coverage with the application of transmit diversity

This paper investigates the effects of the Cyclic Delay Diversity (CDD) transmit diversity scheme on DVB-H networks. Transmit diversity improves reception and Quality of Service (QoS) in areas of poor coverage such as sparsely populated or obscured locations. The technique not only povides robust reception in mobile environments thus improving QoS, but it also reduces network costs in terms of the transmit power, number of infrastructure elements, antenna height and the frequency reuse factor over indoor and outdoor environments. In this paper, the benefit and effectiveness of CDD transmit diversity is tackled through simulation results for comparison in several scenarios of coverage in DVB-H networks. The channel model used in the simulations is based on COST207 and a basic radio planning technique is used to illustrate the main principles developed in this paper. The work reported in this paper was supported by the European Commission IST project—PLUTO (Physical Layer DVB Transmission Optimization)

A Survey of Air-to-Ground Propagation Channel Modeling for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), particularly for small UAVs, due to their affordable prices, ease of availability, and ease of operability. Existing and future applications of UAVs include remote surveillance and monitoring, relief operations, package delivery, and communication backhaul infrastructure. Additionally, UAVs are envisioned as an important component of 5G wireless technology and beyond. The unique application scenarios for UAVs necessitate accurate air-to-ground (AG) propagation channel models for designing and evaluating UAV communication links for control/non-payload as well as payload data transmissions. These AG propagation models have not been investigated in detail when compared to terrestrial propagation models. In this paper, a comprehensive survey is provided on available AG channel measurement campaigns, large and small scale fading channel models, their limitations, and future research directions for UAV communication scenarios

Antennas and Propagation Aspects for Emerging Wireless Communication Technologies

The increasing demand for high data rate applications and the delivery of zero-latency multimedia content drives technological evolutions towards the design and implementation of next-generation broadband wireless networks. In this context, various novel technologies have been introduced, such as millimeter wave (mmWave) transmission, massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems, and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) schemes in order to support the vision of fifth generation (5G) wireless cellular networks. The introduction of these technologies, however, is inextricably connected with a holistic redesign of the current transceiver structures, as well as the network architecture reconfiguration. To this end, ultra-dense network deployment along with distributed massive MIMO technologies and intermediate relay nodes have been proposed, among others, in order to ensure an improved quality of services to all mobile users. In the same framework, the design and evaluation of novel antenna configurations able to support wideband applications is of utmost importance for 5G context support. Furthermore, in order to design reliable 5G systems, the channel characterization in these frequencies and in the complex propagation environments cannot be ignored because it plays a significant role. In this Special Issue, fourteen papers are published, covering various aspects of novel antenna designs for broadband applications, propagation models at mmWave bands, the deployment of NOMA techniques, radio network planning for 5G networks, and multi-beam antenna technologies for 5G wireless communications

Experimental statistical channel modelling for advanced wireless communication systems in indoor environments

Draadloze communicatiesystemen voor mobiele telefonie en draadloos internet zijn onmisbaar geworden in het dagelijkse leven. De grootste troef van draadloze communicatie over bedrade communicatie is de toegenomen mobiliteit. Draadloze communicatie heeft evenwel ook één groot nadeel, namelijk de onzekerheid over de kwaliteit van de link tussen zender en ontvanger. Waar bedrade communicatie een doorgedreven ontwerp van het kanaal tussen zender en ontvanger (d.i. de kabel) toelaat, is het ontwerp van het draadloze kanaal (d.i. de omgeving) bijna onmogelijk. Desondanks kunnen wel modellen van de propagatie van draadloze signalen opgesteld worden voor verschillende types omgevingen. Deze modellen laten toe om de betrouwbaarheid en de performantie van een draadloze link in te schatten. Modellering van draadloze propagatie voor indooromgevingen is het algemeen onderwerp van dit proefschrift. De propagatiemodellering in dit proefschrift betreft drie types indooromgevingen, nl. industriële en kantooromgevingen, en de omgeving binnen in een voertuig. De modellering bestaat uit statistische modellen gebaseerd op veldmetingen in deze omgevingen. Verschillende parameters van draadloze signalen worden onderzocht, zoals de variabiliteit van het signaalvermogen met de afstand en in de tijd, het signaalbereik, de dispersie in het tijdsdomein, de dispersie in het spatiaal domein en het vermogensverlies bij propagatie van buiten naar binnen een voertuig

The characterisation and modelling of the wireless propagation channel in small cells scenarios

“A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy”.The rapid growth in wireless data traffic in recent years has placed a great strain on the wireless spectrum and the capacity of current wireless networks. In addition, the makeup of the typical wireless propagation environment is rapidly changing as a greater percentage of data traffic moves indoors, where the coverage of radio signals is poor. This dual fronted assault on coverage and capacity has meant that the tradition cellular model is no longer sustainable, as the gains from constructing new macrocells falls short of the increasing cost. The key emerging concept that can solve the aforementioned challenges is smaller base stations such as micro-, pico- and femto-cells collectively known as small cells. However with this solution come new challenges: while small cells are efficient at improving the indoor coverage and capacity; they compound the lack of spectrum even more and cause high levels of interference. Current channel models are not suited to characterise this interference as the small cells propagation environment is vast different. The result is that overall efficiency of the networks suffers. This thesis presents an investigation into the characteristics of the wireless propagation channel in small cell environments, including measurement, analysis, modelling, validation and extraction of channel data. Two comprehensive data collection campaigns were carried out, one of them employed a RUSK channel sounder and featured dual-polarised MIMO antennas. From the first dataset an empirical path loss model, adapted to typical indoor and outdoor scenarios found in small cell environments, was constructed using regression analysis and was validated using the second dataset. The model shows good accuracy for small cell environments and can be implemented in system level simulations quickly without much requirements

Performance Comparison of Dual Connectivity and Hard Handover for LTE-5G Tight Integration in mmWave Cellular Networks

MmWave communications are expected to play a major role in the Fifth generation of mobile networks. They offer a potential multi-gigabit throughput and an ultra-low radio latency, but at the same time suffer from high isotropic pathloss, and a coverage area much smaller than the one of LTE macrocells. In order to address these issues, highly directional beamforming and a very high-density deployment of mmWave base stations were proposed. This Thesis aims to improve the reliability and performance of the 5G network by studying its tight and seamless integration with the current LTE cellular network. In particular, the LTE base stations can provide a coverage layer for 5G mobile terminals, because they operate on microWave frequencies, which are less sensitive to blockage and have a lower pathloss. This document is a copy of the Master's Thesis carried out by Mr. Michele Polese under the supervision of Dr. Marco Mezzavilla and Prof. Michele Zorzi. It will propose an LTE-5G tight integration architecture, based on mobile terminals' dual connectivity to LTE and 5G radio access networks, and will evaluate which are the new network procedures that will be needed to support it. Moreover, this new architecture will be implemented in the ns-3 simulator, and a thorough simulation campaign will be conducted in order to evaluate its performance, with respect to the baseline of handover between LTE and 5G.Comment: Master's Thesis carried out by Mr. Michele Polese under the supervision of Dr. Marco Mezzavilla and Prof. Michele Zorz

Cooperative Radio Communications for Green Smart Environments

The demand for mobile connectivity is continuously increasing, and by 2020 Mobile and Wireless Communications will serve not only very dense populations of mobile phones and nomadic computers, but also the expected multiplicity of devices and sensors located in machines, vehicles, health systems and city infrastructures. Future Mobile Networks are then faced with many new scenarios and use cases, which will load the networks with different data traffic patterns, in new or shared spectrum bands, creating new specific requirements. This book addresses both the techniques to model, analyse and optimise the radio links and transmission systems in such scenarios, together with the most advanced radio access, resource management and mobile networking technologies. This text summarises the work performed by more than 500 researchers from more than 120 institutions in Europe, America and Asia, from both academia and industries, within the framework of the COST IC1004 Action on "Cooperative Radio Communications for Green and Smart Environments". The book will have appeal to graduates and researchers in the Radio Communications area, and also to engineers working in the Wireless industry. Topics discussed in this book include: • Radio waves propagation phenomena in diverse urban, indoor, vehicular and body environments• Measurements, characterization, and modelling of radio channels beyond 4G networks• Key issues in Vehicle (V2X) communication• Wireless Body Area Networks, including specific Radio Channel Models for WBANs• Energy efficiency and resource management enhancements in Radio Access Networks• Definitions and models for the virtualised and cloud RAN architectures• Advances on feasible indoor localization and tracking techniques• Recent findings and innovations in antenna systems for communications• Physical Layer Network Coding for next generation wireless systems• Methods and techniques for MIMO Over the Air (OTA) testin