Error Bounds for Uplink and Downlink 3D Localization in 5G mmWave Systems

Location-aware communication systems are expected to play a pivotal part in the next generation of mobile communication networks. Therefore, there is a need to understand the localization limits in these networks, particularly, using millimeter-wave technology (mmWave). Towards that, we address the uplink and downlink localization limits in terms of 3D position and orientation error bounds for mmWave multipath channels. We also carry out a detailed analysis of the dependence of the bounds of different systems parameters. Our key findings indicate that the uplink and downlink behave differently in two distinct ways. First of all, the error bounds have different scaling factors with respect to the number of antennas in the uplink and downlink. Secondly, uplink localization is sensitive to the orientation angle of the user equipment (UE), whereas downlink is not. Moreover, in the considered outdoor scenarios, the non-line-of-sight paths generally improve localization when a line-of-sight path exists. Finally, our numerical results show that mmWave systems are capable of localizing a UE with sub-meter position error, and sub-degree orientation error.Comment: This manuscripts is updated following two rounds of reviews at IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications. More discussion is included in different parts of the paper. Results are unchanged, and are still vali

Design and Optimization of a 3-D Plasmonic Huygens Metasurface for Highly-Efficient Flat Optics

For miniaturization of future USAF unmanned aerial and space systems to become feasible, accompanying sensor components of these systems must also be reduced in size, weight and power (SWaP). Metasurfaces can act as planar equivalents to bulk optics, and thus possess a high potential to meet these low-SWaP requirements. However, functional efficiencies of plasmonic metasurface architectures have been too low for practical application in the infrared (IR) regime. Huygens-like forward-scattering inclusions may provide a solution to this deficiency, but there is no academic consensus on an optimal plasmonic architecture for obtaining efficient phase control at high frequencies. This dissertation asks the question: what are the ideal topologies for generating Huygens-like metasurface building blocks across a full 2π phase space? Instead of employing any a priori assumption of fundamental scattering topologies, a genetic algorithm (GA) routine was developed to optimize a “blank slate” grid of binary voxels inside a 3D cavity, evolving the voxel bits until a near-globally optimal transmittance (T) was attained at a targeted phase. All resulting designs produced a normalized T≥80 across the entire 2π range, which is the highest metasurface efficiency reported to-date for a plasmonic solution in the IR regime

Spatiotemporal-MIMO channel estimator and beamformer for 5G

With requirements of spiraling data rates and limited spectrum availability, there is an increased interest in mm-wave beamformer-based communications for 5G. For upcoming cellular networks, the critical point is to exploit the increased number of employable antennas at both Tx and Rx to: 1) combat increased path loss; 2) tackle higher interference due to higher user density; and 3) handle multipath effects in frequency selective channels. Toward this, a multi-beam spatiotemporal superresolution beamforming framework is proposed in this paper as a promising candidate to design beampatterns that mitigate/suppress co-channel interference and deliver massive gain in the desired directions. Initially, channel and signal models suitable for the mm-wave MIMO system are presented using the manifold vectors of both Tx and Rx antenna arrays. Based on these models, a novel subspace-based channel estimator is employed, which estimates delays, directions, velocities, and fading coefficients of the desired signal paths. This information is then exploited by the proposed spatiotemporal beamformer to provide a massive array gain that combats path loss without increasing the number of antenna array elements and to be tolerant to the near-far problem in a high interference environment. The performance of the proposed channel estimator and beamformer is examined using computer simulation studies

Multi-source parameter estimation and tracking using antenna arrays

This thesis is concerned with multi-source parameter estimation and tracking using antenna arrays in wireless communications. Various multi-source parameter estimation and tracking algorithms are presented and evaluated. Firstly, a novel multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication system is proposed for multi-parameter channel estimation. A manifold extender is presented for increasing the degrees of freedom (DoF). The proposed approach utilises the extended manifold vectors together with superresolution subspace type algorithms, to achieve the estimation of delay, direction of departure (DOD) and direction of arrival (DOA) of all the paths of the desired user in the presence of multiple access interference (MAI). Secondly, the MIMO system is extended to a virtual-spatiotemporal system by incorporating the temporal domain of the system towards the objective of further increasing the degrees of freedom. In this system, a multi-parameter es- timation of delay, Doppler frequency, DOD and DOA of the desired user, and a beamformer that suppresses the MAI are presented, by utilising the proposed virtual-spatiotemporal manifold extender and the superresolution subspace type algorithms. Finally, for multi-source tracking, two tracking approaches are proposed based on an arrayed Extended Kalman Filter (arrayed-EKF) and an arrayed Unscented Kalman Filter (arrayed-UKF) using two type of antenna arrays: rigid array and flexible array. If the array is rigid, the proposed approaches employ a spatiotemporal state-space model and a manifold extender to track the source parameters, while if it is flexible the array locations are also tracked simultaneously. Throughout the thesis, computer simulation studies are presented to investigate and evaluate the performance of all the proposed algorithms.Open Acces

The application of GPR and ERI in combination with exposure logging and retrodeformation analysis to characterize sinkholes and reconstruct their impact on fluvial sedimentation

This work illustrates the practicality of investigating sinkholes integrating data gathered by ground penetrating radar(GPR), electrical resistivity imaging (ERI) and trenching or direct logging of the subsidence-affected sediments in combination withretrodeformation analysis. This mutidisciplinary approach has been tested in a large paleosinkhole developed during the depositionof a Quaternary terrace on salt-bearing evaporites. The subsidence structure, exposed in an artificial excavation, is located next toPuilatos, a village that was abandoned in the 1970s due to severe subsidence damage. Detailed logging of the exposure revealedthat the subsidence structure corresponds to an asymmetric sagging and collapse paleosinkhole with no clear evidence of recent ac-tivity. The sedimentological and structural relationships together with the retrodeformation analysis indicate that synsedimentary sub-sidence controlled channel location, the development of a palustrine environment and local changes in the channel pattern. GPRprofiles were acquired using an array of systems with different antenna frequencies, including some recently developed shielded an-tennas with improved vertical resolution and penetration depth. Although radargrams imaged the faulted sagging structure and pro-vided valuable data on fault throw, they did not satisfactorily image the complex architecture of the fluvial deposit. ERI showed lowerresolution but higher penetration depth when compared to GPR, roughly capturing the subsidence structure and yielding informationon the thickness of the high-resistivity alluvium and the nature of the underlying low-resistivity karstic residue developed on top ofthe halite-bearing evaporitic bedrock. Data comparison allows the assessment of the advantages and limitations of these comple-mentary techniques, highly useful for site-specific sinkhole risk management

Matrix and Tensor-based ESPRIT Algorithm for Joint Angle and Delay Estimation in 2D Active Broadband Massive MIMO Systems and Analysis of Direction of Arrival Estimation Algorithms for Basal Ice Sheet Tomography

In this thesis, we apply and analyze three direction of arrival algorithms (DoA) to tackle two distinct problems: one belongs to wireless communication, the other to radar signal processing. Though the essence of these two problems is DoA estimation, their formulation, underlying assumptions, application scenario, etc. are totally different. Hence, we write them separately, with ESPRIT algorithm the focus of Part I and MUSIC and MLE detailed in Part II. For wireless communication scenario, mobile data traffic is expected to have an exponential growth in the future. In order to meet the challenge as well as the form factor limitation on the base station, 2D "massive MIMO" has been proposed as one of the enabling technologies to significantly increase the spectral efficiency of a wireless system. In "massive MIMO" systems, a base station will rely on the uplink sounding signals from mobile stations to figure out the spatial information to perform MIMO beamforming. Accordingly, multi-dimensional parameter estimation of a ray-based multi-path wireless channel becomes crucial for such systems to realize the predicted capacity gains. In the first Part, we study joint angle and delay estimation for 2D "massive MIMO" systems in mobile wireless communications. To be specific, we first introduce a low complexity time delay and 2D DoA estimation algorithm based on unitary transformation. Some closed-form results and capacity analysis are involved. Furthermore, the matrix and tensor-based 3D ESPRIT-like algorithms are applied to jointly estimate angles and delay. Significant improvements of the performance can be observed in our communication scheme. Finally, we found that azimuth estimation is more vulnerable compared to elevation estimation. Results suggest that the dimension of the antenna array at the base station plays an important role in determining the estimation performance. These insights will be useful for designing practical "massive MIMO" systems in future mobile wireless communications. For the problem of radar remote sensing of ice sheet topography, one of the key requirements for deriving more realistic ice sheet models is to obtain a good set of basal measurements that enables accurate estimation of bed roughness and conditions. For this purpose, 3D tomography of the ice bed has been successfully implemented with the help of DoA algorithms such as MUSIC and MLE techniques. These methods have enabled fine resolution in the cross-track dimension using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images obtained from single pass multichannel data. In Part II, we analyze and compare the results obtained from the spectral MUSIC algorithm and an alternating projection (AP) based MLE technique. While the MUSIC algorithm is more attractive computationally compared to MLE, the performance of the latter is known to be superior in most situations. The SAR focused datasets provide a good case study to explore the performance of these two techniques to the application of ice sheet bed elevation estimation. For the antenna array geometry and sample support used in our tomographic application, MUSIC performs better originally using a cross-over analysis where the estimated topography from crossing flightlines are compared for consistency. However, after several improvements applied to MLE, i.e., replacing ideal steering vector generation with measured steering vectors, automatic determination of the number of scatter sources, smoothing the 3D tomography in order to get a more accurate height estimation and introducing a quality metric for the estimated signals, etc., MLE outperforms MUSIC. It confirms that MLE is indeed the optimal estimator for our particular ice bed tomographic application. We observe that, the spatial bottom smoothing, aiming to remove the artifacts made by MLE algorithm, is the most essential step in the post-processing procedure. The 3D tomography we obtained lays a good foundation for further analysis and modeling of ice sheets

Study of mm-wave Fixed Beam and Frequency Beam-Scanning Antenna Arrays

Millimeter-wave frequencies are anticipated to be widely adapted for future wireless communication systems to resolve the demand of high data-rate and capacity issues. The millimeter-wave frequency range offers wide spectrum and a shift for most newly developing technologies as the microwave and lower frequency bands are becoming overcrowded and congested. These high frequency bands offer short wavelengths which has enabled the researchers to design and implement compact and adaptable antenna solutions. This research focuses on the implementation, transformation and modification of antenna structures used in lower frequency bands to millimeter-wave applications with high gain and multi-band and wideband performances. The first part of the thesis presents a microstrip patch array antenna with high gain in the upper 26 GHz range for 5G applications. The tolerance of the antenna, on widely used Rogers RT/duroid 5880 substrate, is observed with the edge-fed structure when curved in both concave and convex directions. In the second part of the thesis, 20 rectangular loops are arranged in a quasi-rhombic shaped planar microstrip grid array antenna configuration with dual-band millimeter-wave performance. A comparison with equal sized microstrip patch array is also presented to analyse the performance. The antenna operates in the upper 26 GHz band and has two frequency bands in close proximity. The third part of the thesis discusses the transition from wire Bruce array antenna to planar technology. Having been around for nearly a century and despite the simplicity of structure, the research community has not extended the concept of Bruce array antenna for further research. The proposed planar Bruce array antenna operates in three frequency v bands with optimization focus on 28.0 GHz band that has a directive fan-beam radiation pattern at broadside whereas the other two frequency ranges, above 30 GHz, have dual-beam radiation patterns which provide radiation diversity in narrow passages. The final part of the thesis deals with the transformation and modification of wire Bruce array antenna geometry to edge-fed printed leaky-wave antennas for millimeter-wave frequency scanning applications. In the first approach, the lengths of the unit-cell are optimised, without any additional circuitry, to enable two scanning ranges and mitigate the Open-Stopband, at broadside, for seamless scanning in the first range. A Klopfen-stein tapered divider is then deployed to make a linear array of the proposed antenna to achieve high gain. In the second approach, the horizontal and vertical lengths of the meandered unit-cell are replaced with semi-circular and novel bowtie elements, respectively, to obtain wide scanning range. The numerical results and optimizations have been performed using CST Micro-wave Studio where the effects of metallization and dielectric losses are properly consid-ered. The prototypes of the proposed antennas have been fabricated and experimentally validated

Design, Modelling, and Characterisation of Millimetre-Wave Antennas for 5G Wireless Applications

PhDFuture 5G systems and beyond are expected to implement compact and versatile antennas in highly densifi ed millimetre-wave (MMW) wireless networks. This research emphasises on the realisation of 5G antennas provided with wide bandwidth, high gain, adaptable performance, preferably conformal implementation, and feasible bulk fabrication. Ka{band (26.5{40 GHz) is selected based on recent 5G standardisation, and novel antenna geometries are developed in this work on both rigid and flexible substrates by implementing advanced techniques of frequency reconfi guration, multiple-input-multiple- output (MIMO) assembly, as well as wideband and multiband antennas and arrays. Nove lMMW wideband antennas are presented for 5G and spatial diversity at the antenna front-ends is substantially improved by deploying wideband antennas in a MIMO topology for simultaneous multiple-channel communication. However, wideband operation is often associated with efficiency degradation, which demands a more versatile approach that allows the adaptable antenna to select the operating frequency. In this research, high performance recon figurable antennas are designed for frequency selection over Ka- {band. Also, an efficient and conformal antenna front-end solution is developed, which integrates both frequency recon guration and MIMO technology. Gain of the antenna is critically important for 5G systems to mitigate high propagation losses. Antenna design with both high gain and bandwidth is challenging as wideband antennas are traditionally gain-limited, while antenna arrays deliver high gain over a narrow bandwidth. An Enhanced Franklin array model is proposed in this thesis, which aggregates multiband response with high gain performance. Furthermore, novel flexible monopole antenna and array con gurations are realised to attain high gain profi le over the complete Ka{band. These proposed 5G antennas are anticipated as potential contribution in the progress towards the realisation of future wireless networks.EECS Fees Waiver Award and National University of Sciences and Technolog

Towards the Next Generation of Location-Aware Communications

This thesis is motivated by the expected implementation of the next generation mobile networks (5G) from 2020, which is being designed with a radical paradigm shift towards millimeter-wave technology (mmWave). Operating in 30--300 GHz frequency band (1--10 mm wavelengths), massive antenna arrays that provide a high angular resolution, while being packed on a small area will be used. Moreover, since the abundant mmWave spectrum is barely occupied, large bandwidth allocation is possible and will enable low-error time estimation. With this high spatiotemporal resolution, mmWave technology readily lends itself to extremely accurate localization that can be harnessed in the network design and optimization, as well as utilized in many modern applications. Localization in 5G is still in early stages, and very little is known about its performance and feasibility. In this thesis, we contribute to the understanding of 5G mmWave localization by focusing on challenges pertaining to this emerging technology. Towards that, we start by considering a conventional cellular system and propose a positioning method under outdoor LOS/NLOS conditions that, although approaches the Cram\'er-Rao lower bound (CRLB), provides accuracy in the order of meters. This shows that conventional systems have limited range of location-aware applications. Next, we focus on mmWave localization in three stages. Firstly, we tackle the initial access (IA) problem, whereby user equipment (UE) attempts to establish a link with a base station (BS). The challenge in this problem stems from the high directivity of mmWave. We investigate two beamforming schemes: directional and random. Subsequently, we address 3D localization beyond IA phase. Devices nowadays have higher computational capabilities and may perform localization in the downlink. However, beamforming on the UE side is sensitive to the device orientation. Thus, we study localization in both the uplink and downlink under multipath propagation and derive the position (PEB) and orientation error bounds (OEB). We also investigate the impact of the number of antennas and the number of beams on these bounds. Finally, the above components assume that the system is synchronized. However, synchronization in communication systems is not usually tight enough for localization. Therefore, we study two-way localization as a means to alleviate the synchronization requirement and investigate two protocols: distributed (DLP) and centralized (CLP). Our results show that random-phase beamforming is more appropriate IA approach in the studied scenarios. We also observe that the uplink and downlink are not equivalent, in that the error bounds scale differently with the number of antennas, and that uplink localization is sensitive to the UE orientation, while downlink is not. Furthermore, we find that NLOS paths generally boost localization. The investigation of the two-way protocols shows that CLP outperforms DLP by a significant margin. We also observe that mmWave localization is mainly limited by angular rather than temporal estimation. In conclusion, we show that mmWave systems are capable of localizing a UE with sub-meter position error, and sub-degree orientation error, which asserts that mmWave will play a central role in communication network optimization and unlock opportunities that were not available in the previous generation

Antenna Design for 5G and Beyond

With the rapid evolution of the wireless communications, fifth-generation (5G) communication has received much attention from both academia and industry, with many reported efforts and research outputs and significant improvements in different aspects, such as data rate speed and resolution, mobility, latency, etc. In some countries, the commercialization of 5G communication has already started as well as initial research of beyond technologies such as 6G.MIMO technology with multiple antennas is a promising technology to obtain the requirements of 5G/6G communications. It can significantly enhance the system capacity and resist multipath fading, and has become a hot spot in the field of wireless communications. This technology is a key component and probably the most established to truly reach the promised transfer data rates of future communication systems. In MIMO systems, multiple antennas are deployed at both the transmitter and receiver sides. The greater number of antennas can make the system more resistant to intentional jamming and interference. Massive MIMO with an especially high number of antennas can reduce energy consumption by targeting signals to individual users utilizing beamforming.Apart from sub-6 GHz frequency bands, 5G/6G devices are also expected to cover millimeter-wave (mmWave) and terahertz (THz) spectra. However, moving to higher bands will bring new challenges and will certainly require careful consideration of the antenna design for smart devices. Compact antennas arranged as conformal, planar, and linear arrays can be employed at different portions of base stations and user equipment to form phased arrays with high gain and directional radiation beams. The objective of this Special Issue is to cover all aspects of antenna designs used in existing or future wireless communication systems. The aim is to highlight recent advances, current trends, and possible future developments of 5G/6G antennas