Towards a Realistic Assessment of Multiple Antenna HCNs: Residual Additive Transceiver Hardware Impairments and Channel Aging

Given the critical dependence of broadcast channels by the accuracy of channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT), we develop a general downlink model with zero-forcing (ZF) precoding, applied in realistic heterogeneous cellular systems with multiple antenna base stations (BSs). Specifically, we take into consideration imperfect CSIT due to pilot contamination, channel aging due to users relative movement, and unavoidable residual additive transceiver hardware impairments (RATHIs). Assuming that the BSs are Poisson distributed, the main contributions focus on the derivations of the upper bound of the coverage probability and the achievable user rate for this general model. We show that both the coverage probability and the user rate are dependent on the imperfect CSIT and RATHIs. More concretely, we quantify the resultant performance loss of the network due to these effects. We depict that the uplink RATHIs have equal impact, but the downlink transmit BS distortion has a greater impact than the receive hardware impairment of the user. Thus, the transmit BS hardware should be of better quality than user's receive hardware. Furthermore, we characterise both the coverage probability and user rate in terms of the time variation of the channel. It is shown that both of them decrease with increasing user mobility, but after a specific value of the normalised Doppler shift, they increase again. Actually, the time variation, following the Jakes autocorrelation function, mirrors this effect on coverage probability and user rate. Finally, we consider space division multiple access (SDMA), single user beamforming (SU-BF), and baseline single-input single-output (SISO) transmission. A comparison among these schemes reveals that the coverage by means of SU-BF outperforms SDMA in terms of coverage.Comment: accepted in IEEE TV

Hybrid Satellite-Terrestrial Communication Networks for the Maritime Internet of Things: Key Technologies, Opportunities, and Challenges

With the rapid development of marine activities, there has been an increasing number of maritime mobile terminals, as well as a growing demand for high-speed and ultra-reliable maritime communications to keep them connected. Traditionally, the maritime Internet of Things (IoT) is enabled by maritime satellites. However, satellites are seriously restricted by their high latency and relatively low data rate. As an alternative, shore & island-based base stations (BSs) can be built to extend the coverage of terrestrial networks using fourth-generation (4G), fifth-generation (5G), and beyond 5G services. Unmanned aerial vehicles can also be exploited to serve as aerial maritime BSs. Despite of all these approaches, there are still open issues for an efficient maritime communication network (MCN). For example, due to the complicated electromagnetic propagation environment, the limited geometrically available BS sites, and rigorous service demands from mission-critical applications, conventional communication and networking theories and methods should be tailored for maritime scenarios. Towards this end, we provide a survey on the demand for maritime communications, the state-of-the-art MCNs, and key technologies for enhancing transmission efficiency, extending network coverage, and provisioning maritime-specific services. Future challenges in developing an environment-aware, service-driven, and integrated satellite-air-ground MCN to be smart enough to utilize external auxiliary information, e.g., sea state and atmosphere conditions, are also discussed

Mobile to mobile channel modelling for wireless communications

Wireless communication has been experiencing many recent advances in mobile to mobile (M2M) applications. M2M communication systems differ from conventional fixed to mobile systems by having both transmitter and receiver in low elevation and in motion. This raises the need to come up with new channel models and perform statistical analysis on M2M communication channels looking from a different perspective. This need motivated us to perform the research outlined in this thesis. In reviewing the literature we found that though in general the M2M channel models are sparse, a major gap exists in the non geometrical stochastic based mathematical channel models. In filling this gap, we develop a novel mathematical non geometrical stochastic multiple input multiple output (MIMO) M2M channel model for two dimensional (2D) and three dimensional (3D) scattering environments. This model is based on the underlying physics of free space wave propagation and can be used as a framework for any environment by selecting suitable complex scattering gain functions. In addition, we extend this novel model to multicarrier M2M which is the first multicarrier channel model in the non geometrical stochastic M2M category. Based on our novel M2M channel model, we carry out an extensive analysis in space-time correlation, space-frequency correlation and second order channel statistics. With the choice of suitable parameters, this analysis and channel model can be used for any wireless environment. Thus, we claim that our novel channel model together with the analysis performed in this thesis can be taken as a generalized framework. A significant contribution of our analysis is the consideration of the impact of transmitter and receiver speed to space-time and space-frequency correlation, which is not available in the literature. Using a von Mises-Fisher distribution as the angular power distribution, the usefulness of the derived temporal correlation function is discussed. The simulation results corroborate the fact that both space-time and space-frequency correlations are reduced when transmitter or receiver speed increases. The rate of reduction of space-time correlation in von Mises-Fisher distribution scattering environment is more than in the isotropic environment. Under second order channel statistics, we consider Rice, Rayleigh and Nakagami fading channels in four different non-isotropic scattering environments with angle of departure (AoD) and angle of arrival (AoA) distributions given by (i) separable Truncated Gaussian, (ii) separable von-Mises, (iii) truncated Gaussian bivariate and (iv) truncated Laplacian bivariate distributions. We show that the major second order statistics, namely, the level crossing rate (LCR) and the average fade duration (AFD), in different fading channels can be expressed in terms of known scattering coefficients of the AoD and AoA distributions. As the channel models and their respective measurements provide reliable knowledge of the channel for the design and analysis of M2M systems, the proposed channel model and the corresponding analysis will be useful for the design, testing and performance evaluation of future M2M communication systems

Near-Field Communications: A Comprehensive Survey

Multiple-antenna technologies are evolving towards large-scale aperture sizes, extremely high frequencies, and innovative antenna types. This evolution is giving rise to the emergence of near-field communications (NFC) in future wireless systems. Considerable attention has been directed towards this cutting-edge technology due to its potential to enhance the capacity of wireless networks by introducing increased spatial degrees of freedom (DoFs) in the range domain. Within this context, a comprehensive review of the state of the art on NFC is presented, with a specific focus on its 1) fundamental operating principles, 2) channel modeling, 3) performance analysis, 4) signal processing, and 5) integration with other emerging technologies. Specifically, 1) the basic principles of NFC are characterized from both physics and communications perspectives, unveiling its unique properties in contrast to far-field communications. 2) Based on these principles, deterministic and stochastic near-field channel models are investigated for spatially-discrete (SPD) and continuous-aperture (CAP) antenna arrays. 3) Rooted in these models, existing contributions on near-field performance analysis are reviewed in terms of DoFs/effective DoFs (EDoFs), power scaling law, and transmission rate. 4) Existing signal processing techniques for NFC are systematically surveyed, encompassing channel estimation, beamforming design, and low-complexity beam training. 5) Major issues and research opportunities associated with the integration of NFC and other emerging technologies are identified to facilitate NFC applications in next-generation networks. Promising directions are highlighted throughout the paper to inspire future research endeavors in the realm of NFC.Comment: 56 pages, 23figures; submit for possible journa

Channel simulation models for mobile broadband communication systems

Mobile broadband wireless communication systems (MBWCS) are emerging as a solution to provide broadband services to users on the move. These systems are expected to operate in a wide variety of propagation scenarios, at different mobile speeds, and at various frequency bands. Under such a variety of requirements, flexible and efficient channel simulation models will prove fundamental for the laboratory analysis of MBWCS. Currently, most of the existing channel simulation models are either too complex as to allow for an efficient performance investigation of MBWCS, or they cannot be applied to the simulation of some relevant classes of mobile fading channels. To overcome these limitations, we present in this doctoral a flexible and efficient methodology for the design of channel simulation models for MBWCS. Such a methodology is based on the sum-of-cisoids (SOC) approach, an approach that is closely in line with the electromagnetic plane-wave propagation model. We build our channel simulators upon a class of ergodic SOC simulation models. For the computation of the SOC model parameters, we introduce two simple methods that enable the design of simulation models for mobile fading channels characterized by any type of Doppler power spectral densities (DPSDs). The proposed methods are well-suited for the simulation of both single-input single-output (SISO) and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels. We evaluate the methods’ performance with respect to their accuracy for emulating important statistical functions of the channel, such as the autocorrelation function (ACF), the envelope probability density function (PDF), and the ACF of the squared envelope. In the case of MIMO channels, we evaluate the methods’ performance in terms of the approximation of the channel temporal ACF and spatial cross-correlation function (SCCF). The obtained results demonstrate the excellent performance of the proposed methods. This dissertation is also intended to provide a comprehensive treatise of the theory behind the design of SOC simulation models for mobile fading channels. In this respect, the statistical properties of SOC channel simulators are thoroughly analyzed. Important contribution are given concerning the correlation properties of the square envelope of SOC simulators. Such contributions include the derivation of closed-form expressions for the squared envelope ACF of the SOC simulation model, and the analysis of the ergodicity properties of the SOC model’s squared envelope. We also revisit here the concept of the symbol-spaced tapped line model (SSTDL) for WSSUS channels. In this regard, we present a discussion on the problems of SSTDL models, and we propose a simple solution to avoid them. The usefulness of such a solution is exemplary demonstrated by analyzing the bit error probability of a multi-carrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA) system

On the Geometric Modeling of the Uplink Channel in a Cellular System

To meet the challenges of present and future wireless communications realistic propagation models that consider both spatial and temporal channel characteristics are used. However, the complexity of the complete characterization of the wireless medium has pointed out the importance of approximate but simple approaches. The geometrically based methods are typical examples of low–complexity but adequate solutions. Geometric modeling idealizes the aforementioned wireless propagation environment via a geometric abstraction of the spatial relationships among the transmitter, the receiver, and the scatterers. The paper tries to present an efficient way to simulate mobile channels using geometrical–based stochastic scattering models. In parallel with an overview of the most commonly used propagation models, the basic principles of the method as well the main assumptions made are presented. The study is focused on three well–known proposals used for the description of the Angle–of –Arrival and Time–of–Arrival statistics of the incoming multipaths in the uplink of a cellular communication system. In order to demonstrate the characteristics of these models illustrative examples are given. The physical mechanism and motivations behind them are also included providing us with a better understanding of the physical insight of the propagation medium

Toward a Realistic Assessment of Multiple Antenna HCNs: Residual Additive Transceiver Hardware Impairments and Channel Aging

© 2017 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Given the critical dependence of broadcast channels by the accuracy of channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT), we develop a general downlink model with zero-forcing precoding, applied in realistic heterogeneous cellular systems with multiple-Antenna base stations (BSS). Specifically, we take into consideration imperfect CSIT due to pilot contamination, channel aging due to users relative movement, and unavoidable residual additive transceiver hardware impairments (RATHIs). Assuming that the BSS are Poisson distributed, the main contributions focus on the derivations of the upper bound of the coverage probability and the achievable user rate for this general model. We show that both the coverage probability and the user rate are dependent on the imperfect CSIT and RATHIs. More concretely, we quantify the resultant performance loss of the network due to these effects. We depict that the uplink RATHIs have equal impact, but the downlink transmit BS distortion has a greater impact than the receive hardware impairment of the user. Thus, the transmit BS hardware should be of better quality than user's receive hardware. Furthermore, we characterise both the coverage probability and user rate in terms of the time variation of the channel. It is shown that both of them decrease with increasing user mobility, but after a specific value of the normalized Doppler shift, they increase again. Actually, the time variation, following the Jakes autocorrelation function, mirrors this effect on coverage probability and user rate. Finally, we consider space-division multiple access (SDMA), single-user beamforming (SU-BF), and baseline single-input single-output transmission. A comparison among these schemes reveals that the coverage by means of SU-BF outperforms SDMA in terms of coverage.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio