Context Information Based Initial Cell Search for Millimeter Wave 5G Cellular Networks

Millimeter wave (mmWave) communication is envisioned as a cornerstone to fulfill the data rate requirements for fifth generation (5G) cellular networks. In mmWave communication, beamforming is considered as a key technology to combat the high path-loss, and unlike in conventional microwave communication, beamforming may be necessary even during initial access/cell search. Among the proposed beamforming schemes for initial cell search, analog beamforming is a power efficient approach but suffers from its inherent search delay during initial access. In this work, we argue that analog beamforming can still be a viable choice when context information about mmWave base stations (BS) is available at the mobile station (MS). We then study how the performance of analog beamforming degrades in case of angular errors in the available context information. Finally, we present an analog beamforming receiver architecture that uses multiple arrays of Phase Shifters and a single RF chain to combat the effect of angular errors, showing that it can achieve the same performance as hybrid beamforming

Hierarchical Beamforming: Resource Allocation, Fairness and Flow Level Performance

We consider hierarchical beamforming in wireless networks. For a given population of flows, we propose computationally efficient algorithms for fair rate allocation including proportional fairness and max-min fairness. We next propose closed-form formulas for flow level performance, for both elastic (with either proportional fairness and max-min fairness) and streaming traffic. We further assess the performance of hierarchical beamforming using numerical experiments. Since the proposed solutions have low complexity compared to conventional beamforming, our work suggests that hierarchical beamforming is a promising candidate for the implementation of beamforming in future cellular networks.Comment: 34 page

Development and implementation of an adaptive digital beamforming network for satellite communication systems

The use of adaptive digital beamforming techniques has, until recently, been largely restricted to high performance military radar systems. Recent advances in digital technology, however, have enabled the design of single chip digital beamforming networks. This, coupled with advances in digital signal processor technology, enables complete beamforming systems to be constructed at a lower cost, thus making the application of these techniques to commercial communications systems attractive. The design and development of such an adaptative digital beamforming network are described. The system is being developed as a proof of concept laboratory based demonstrator to enable the feasibility of adaptive digital beamforming techniques for communication systems to be determined. Ultimately, digital beamforming could be used in conjunction with large array antennas for communication satellite systems. This will enable the simultaneous steering of high gain antenna beams in the direction of gr...Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Cognitive Beamforming for Multiple Secondary Data Streams With Individual SNR Constraints

In this paper, we consider cognitive beamforming for multiple secondary data streams subject to individual signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) requirements for each secondary data stream. In such a cognitive radio system, the secondary user is permitted to use the spectrum allocated to the primary user as long as the caused interference at the primary receiver is tolerable. With both secondary SNR constraint and primary interference power constraint, we aim to minimize the secondary transmit power consumption. By exploiting the individual SNR requirements, we formulate this cognitive beamforming problem as an optimization problem on the Stiefel manifold. Both zero forcing beamforming (ZFB) and nonzero forcing beamforming (NFB) are considered. For the ZFB case, we derive a closed form beamforming solution. For the NFB case, we prove that the strong duality holds for the nonconvex primal problem and thus the optimal solution can be easily obtained by solving the dual problem. Finally, numerical results are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed cognitive beamforming solutions.Comment: This is the longer version of a paper to appear in the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processin

Adaptive minimum symbol error rate beamforming assisted receiver for quadrature amplitude modulation systems

An adaptive beamforming assisted receiver is proposed for multiple antenna aided multiuser systems that employ bandwidth efficient quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). A novel minimum symbol error rate (MSER) design is proposed for the beamforming assisted receiver, where the system’s symbol error rate is directly optimized. Hence the MSER approach provides a significant symbol error ratio performance enhancement over the classic minimum mean square error design. A sample-by-sample adaptive algorithm, referred to as the least symbol error rate (LBER) technique, is derived for allowing the adaptive implementation of the system to arrive from its initial beamforming weight solution to MSER beamforming solution