722 research outputs found
Separation Framework: An Enabler for Cooperative and D2D Communication for Future 5G Networks
Soaring capacity and coverage demands dictate that future cellular networks
need to soon migrate towards ultra-dense networks. However, network
densification comes with a host of challenges that include compromised energy
efficiency, complex interference management, cumbersome mobility management,
burdensome signaling overheads and higher backhaul costs. Interestingly, most
of the problems, that beleaguer network densification, stem from legacy
networks' one common feature i.e., tight coupling between the control and data
planes regardless of their degree of heterogeneity and cell density.
Consequently, in wake of 5G, control and data planes separation architecture
(SARC) has recently been conceived as a promising paradigm that has potential
to address most of aforementioned challenges. In this article, we review
various proposals that have been presented in literature so far to enable SARC.
More specifically, we analyze how and to what degree various SARC proposals
address the four main challenges in network densification namely: energy
efficiency, system level capacity maximization, interference management and
mobility management. We then focus on two salient features of future cellular
networks that have not yet been adapted in legacy networks at wide scale and
thus remain a hallmark of 5G, i.e., coordinated multipoint (CoMP), and
device-to-device (D2D) communications. After providing necessary background on
CoMP and D2D, we analyze how SARC can particularly act as a major enabler for
CoMP and D2D in context of 5G. This article thus serves as both a tutorial as
well as an up to date survey on SARC, CoMP and D2D. Most importantly, the
article provides an extensive outlook of challenges and opportunities that lie
at the crossroads of these three mutually entangled emerging technologies.Comment: 28 pages, 11 figures, IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials 201
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
Terahertz Communications and Sensing for 6G and Beyond: A Comprehensive View
The next-generation wireless technologies, commonly referred to as the sixth
generation (6G), are envisioned to support extreme communications capacity and
in particular disruption in the network sensing capabilities. The terahertz
(THz) band is one potential enabler for those due to the enormous unused
frequency bands and the high spatial resolution enabled by both short
wavelengths and bandwidths. Different from earlier surveys, this paper presents
a comprehensive treatment and technology survey on THz communications and
sensing in terms of the advantages, applications, propagation characterization,
channel modeling, measurement campaigns, antennas, transceiver devices,
beamforming, networking, the integration of communications and sensing, and
experimental testbeds. Starting from the motivation and use cases, we survey
the development and historical perspective of THz communications and sensing
with the anticipated 6G requirements. We explore the radio propagation, channel
modeling, and measurements for THz band. The transceiver requirements,
architectures, technological challenges, and approaches together with means to
compensate for the high propagation losses by appropriate antenna and
beamforming solutions. We survey also several system technologies required by
or beneficial for THz systems. The synergistic design of sensing and
communications is explored with depth. Practical trials, demonstrations, and
experiments are also summarized. The paper gives a holistic view of the current
state of the art and highlights the issues and challenges that are open for
further research towards 6G.Comment: 55 pages, 10 figures, 8 tables, submitted to IEEE Communications
Surveys & Tutorial
Multi-layer Utilization of Beamforming in Millimeter Wave MIMO Systems
mmWave frequencies ranging between (30-300GHz) have been considered the perfect solution to the scarcity of bandwidth in the traditional sub-6GHz band and to the ever increasing demand of many emerging applications in today\u27s era. 5G and beyond standards are all considering the mmWave as an essential part of there networks. Beamforming is one of the most important enabling technologies for the mmWave to compensate for the huge propagation lose of these frequencies compared to the sub-6GHz frequencies and to ensure better spatial and spectral utilization of the mmWave channel space. In this work, we tried to develop different techniques to improve the performance of the systems that use mmWave. In the physical layer, we suggested several hybrid beamforming architectures that both are relatively simple and spectrally efficient by achieving fully digital like spectral efficiency (bits/sec/Hz). For the mobility management, we derived the expected degradation that can affect the performance of a special type of beamforming that is called the Random Beamforming (RBF) and optimized the tunable parameters for such systems when working in different environments. Finally, in the networking layer, we first studied the effect of using mmWave frequencies on the routing performance comparing to the performance achieved when using sub-6 GHz frequencies. Then we developed a novel opportunistic routing protocol for Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks (MANET) that uses a modified version of the Random Beamforming (RBF) to achieve better end to end performance and to reduce the overall delay in delivering data from transmitting nodes to the intended receiving nodes. From all these designs and studies, we conclude that mmWave frequencies and their enabling technologies (i.e. Beamforming, massive MIMO, ...etc.) are indeed the future of wireless communicatons in a high demanding world of Internet of Things (IoT), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and self driving cars
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