Performance analysis of interference measurement methods for link adaptation in 5G New Radio

5G New Radio (NR) is coming faster than expected with early deployments which take place early 2019. It is more than a new mobile generation that offers higher data rates compared to previous generations, although it’s still the main driver. It will enable many new use cases and deployment scenarios that can be put into three main categories: enhanced mobile broad band (eMBB), ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC) and massive machine type communications (mMTC). 5G NR aims to further increase frequency resources utilization and efficiency. Cell edge users usually suffer from high levels of interference known as inter-cell interference. This phenomenon results in lower performance for the cell edge users and inefficient utilization of radio resources. Link adaptation techniques aim to increase cell edge performance by exploiting varying channel conditions and interference level at user equipment (UE). In this thesis channel state information (CSI) is studied as an essential part of link adaptation process. Channel quality indicator (CQI) is the main component of CSI reports from UE that gives recommendations about the next transmission modulation order and code rate. The accuracy of reported CQI depends on the accuracy of channel and interference measurements. In this thesis two different interference measurement methods based on two reference signals are studied: CSI interference measurement (CSI-IM) and non-zero power CSI reference signal (NZP CSI-RS). In this thesis performance with different configurable factors, different channel models and UE speeds are considered. Overall system overhead is also studied to give recommendation about the configuration of lower system overhead. Simulation results has shown that CSI-IM based interference measurement is more efficient compared to NZP CSI-RS method and operates well in different channel scenarios and different UE speed. While NZP CS-RS shows sensitivity to frequency selective channels and in higher user mobility cases. On the other hand, from overall system overhead perspective, CSI-IM based configuration is the best solution

Cooperative Uplink Inter-Cell Interference (ICI) Mitigation in 5G Networks

In order to support the new paradigm shift in fifth generation (5G) mobile communication, radically different network architectures, associated technologies and network operation algorithms, need to be developed compared to existing fourth generation (4G) cellular solutions. The evolution toward 5G mobile networks will be characterized by an increasing number of wireless devices, increasing device and service complexity, and the requirement to access mobile services ubiquitously. To realise the dramatic increase in data rates in particular, research is focused on improving the capacity of current, Long Term Evolution (LTE)-based, 4G network standards, before radical changes are exploited which could include acquiring additional spectrum. The LTE network has a reuse factor of one; hence neighbouring cells/sectors use the same spectrum, therefore making the cell-edge users vulnerable to heavy inter cell interference in addition to the other factors such as fading and path-loss. In this direction, this thesis focuses on improving the performance of cell-edge users in LTE and LTE-Advanced networks by initially implementing a new Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) technique to support future 5G networks using smart antennas to mitigate cell-edge user interference in uplink. Successively a novel cooperative uplink inter-cell interference mitigation algorithm based on joint reception at the base station using receiver adaptive beamforming is investigated. Subsequently interference mitigation in a heterogeneous environment for inter Device-to-Device (D2D) communication underlaying cellular network is investigated as the enabling technology for maximising resource block (RB) utilisation in emerging 5G networks. The proximity of users in a network, achieving higher data rates with maximum RB utilisation (as the technology reuses the cellular RB simultaneously), while taking some load off the evolved Node B (eNodeB) i.e. by direct communication between User Equipment (UE), has been explored. Simulation results show that the proximity and transmission power of D2D transmission yields high performance gains for D2D receivers, which was demonstrated to be better than that of cellular UEs with better channel conditions or in close proximity to the eNodeB in the network. It is finally demonstrated that the application, as an extension to the above, of a novel receiver beamforming technique to reduce interference from D2D users, can further enhance network performance. To be able to develop the aforementioned technologies and evaluate the performance of new algorithms in emerging network scenarios, a beyond the-state-of-the-art LTE system-level-simulator (SLS) was implemented. The new simulator includes Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) antenna functionalities, comprehensive channel models (such as Wireless World initiative New Radio II i.e. WINNER II) and adaptive modulation and coding schemes to accurately emulate the LTE and LTE-A network standards