KPI/KQI-Driven Coordinated Multi-Point in 5G: Measurements, Field Trials, and Technical Solutions

The fifth generation (5G) systems are expected to be able to support massive number of wireless devices and intense demands for high data rates while maintaining low latency. Coordinated multipoint (CoMP) is advocated by recent advances and is envisioned to continue its adoption in 5G to meet these requirements by alleviating inter-cell interference and improving spectral efficiency. The higher requirements in 5G have raised the stakes on developing a new CoMP architecture. To understand the merits and limitations of CoMP in 5G, this article systematically investigates evaluation criteria including key performance indicators (KPIs) and key quality indicators (KQIs) in 5G, conducts empirical measurements and field tests, and then proposes a KPI/KQI-driven CoMP architecture that fulfills KPI requirements and provides KQI guarantee for each user

Large System Analysis of Cooperative Multi-cell Downlink Transmission via Regularized Channel Inversion with Imperfect CSIT

In this paper, we analyze the ergodic sum-rate of a multi-cell downlink system with base station (BS) cooperation using regularized zero-forcing (RZF) precoding. Our model assumes that the channels between BSs and users have independent spatial correlations and imperfect channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT) is available. Our derivations are based on large dimensional random matrix theory (RMT) under the assumption that the numbers of antennas at the BS and users approach to infinity with some fixed ratios. In particular, a deterministic equivalent expression of the ergodic sum-rate is obtained and is instrumental in getting insight about the joint operations of BSs, which leads to an efficient method to find the asymptotic-optimal regularization parameter for the RZF. In another application, we use the deterministic channel rate to study the optimal feedback bit allocation among the BSs for maximizing the ergodic sum-rate, subject to a total number of feedback bits constraint. By inspecting the properties of the allocation, we further propose a scheme to greatly reduce the search space for optimization. Simulation results demonstrate that the ergodic sum-rates achievable by a subspace search provides comparable results to those by an exhaustive search under various typical settings.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communication

Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access: Common Myths and Critical Questions

Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has received tremendous attention for the design of radio access techniques for fifth generation (5G) wireless networks and beyond. The basic concept behind NOMA is to serve more than one user in the same resource block, e.g., a time slot, subcarrier, spreading code, or space. With this, NOMA promotes massive connectivity, lowers latency, improves user fairness and spectral efficiency, and increases reliability compared to orthogonal multiple access (OMA) techniques. While NOMA has gained significant attention from the communications community, it has also been subject to several widespread misunderstandings, such as $``\textit{NOMA is based on allocating higher power to users with worse channel conditions. As such, cell-edge users receive more power in NOMA and due to this biased power allocation toward cell-edge users inter-cell interference is more severe in NOMA compared to OMA. NOMA also compromises security for spectral efficiency.}''$ The above statements are actually false, and this paper aims at identifying such common myths about NOMA and clarifying why they are not true. We also pose critical questions that are important for the effective adoption of NOMA in 5G and beyond and identify promising research directions for NOMA, which will require intense investigation in the future.Comment: To appear in the IEEE Wireless Communication

Downlink Performance of Uplink Fractional Power Control in 5G Massive MIMO Systems

Uplink power control is an efficient scheme to mitigate pilot contamination in massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. In this work, we provide a comprehensive study on the effects of fractional power control (FPC) on the downlink performance of the most relevant fifth generation (5G) massive MIMO deployments. Specifically, we perform thorough system simulations based on the most recent three dimensional spatial channel model released by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project to evaluate the impact of different deployment-related parameters such as pilot reuse factor, beamforming criterion, and base station array size. Our results indicate the most suitable tuning of the FPC parameters and show that optimized FPC provides huge gains in the cell border throughput when compared to a baseline scheme with all the users transmitting at maximum power. Moreover, our simulations also demonstrate that the effectiveness of FPC grows in scenarios with severe pilot contamination, confirming that implementing this feature is essential in realistic deployments.Comment: Accepted at the IEEE GLOBECOM Workshop on Emerging Technologies for 5G and Beyond Wireless and Mobile Networks, Abu Dhabi (UAE), Dec. 201

Overview of Full-Dimension MIMO in LTE-Advanced Pro

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with a large number of basestation antennas, often called massive MIMO, have received much attention in academia and industry as a means to improve the spectral efficiency, energy efficiency, and processing complexity of next generation cellular system. Mobile communication industry has initiated a feasibility study of massive MIMO systems to meet the increasing demand of future wireless systems. Field trials of the proof-of-concept systems have demonstrated the potential gain of the Full-Dimension MIMO (FD-MIMO), an official name for the MIMO enhancement in 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP). 3GPP initiated standardization activity for the seamless integration of this technology into current 4G LTE systems. In this article, we provide an overview of the FD-MIMO system, with emphasis on the discussion and debate conducted on the standardization process of Release 13. We present key features for FD-MIMO systems, a summary of the major issues for the standardization and practical system design, and performance evaluations for typical FD-MIMO scenarios

Recent Advances in Cloud Radio Access Networks: System Architectures, Key Techniques, and Open Issues

As a promising paradigm to reduce both capital and operating expenditures, the cloud radio access network (C-RAN) has been shown to provide high spectral efficiency and energy efficiency. Motivated by its significant theoretical performance gains and potential advantages, C-RANs have been advocated by both the industry and research community. This paper comprehensively surveys the recent advances of C-RANs, including system architectures, key techniques, and open issues. The system architectures with different functional splits and the corresponding characteristics are comprehensively summarized and discussed. The state-of-the-art key techniques in C-RANs are classified as: the fronthaul compression, large-scale collaborative processing, and channel estimation in the physical layer; and the radio resource allocation and optimization in the upper layer. Additionally, given the extensiveness of the research area, open issues and challenges are presented to spur future investigations, in which the involvement of edge cache, big data mining, social-aware device-to-device, cognitive radio, software defined network, and physical layer security for C-RANs are discussed, and the progress of testbed development and trial test are introduced as well.Comment: 27 pages, 11 figure

Spatial Intercell Interference Cancellation with CSI Training and Feedback

We investigate intercell interference cancellation (ICIC) with a practical downlink training and uplink channel state information (CSI) feedback model. The average downlink throughput for such a 2-cell network is derived. The user location has a strong effect on the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) and the channel estimation error. This motivates adaptively switching between traditional (single-cell) beamforming and ICIC at low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) where ICIC is preferred only with low SIR and accurate channel estimation, and the use of ICIC with optimized training and feedback at high SNR. For a given channel coherence time and fixed training and feedback overheads, we develop optimal data vs. pilot power allocation for CSI training as well as optimal feedback resource allocation to feed back CSI of different channels. Both analog and finite-rate digital feedback are considered. With analog feedback, the training power optimization provides a more significant performance gain than feedback optimization; while conversely for digital feedback, performance is more sensitive to the feedback bit allocation than the training power optimization. We show that even with low-rate feedback and standard training, ICIC can transform an interference-limited cellular network into a noise-limited one.Comment: 24 pages, 10 figures, submitted to IEEE Trans. Wireless Commun., May, 201

Pushing the Limits of LTE: A Survey on Research Enhancing the Standard

Cellular networks are an essential part of todays communication infrastructure. The ever-increasing demand for higher data-rates calls for a close cooperation between researchers and industry/standardization experts which hardly exists in practice. In this article we give an overview about our efforts in trying to bridge this gap. Our research group provides a standard-compliant open-source simulation platform for 3GPP LTE that enables reproducible research in a well-defined environment. We demonstrate that much innovative research under the confined framework of a real-world standard is still possible, sometimes even encouraged. With examplary samples of our research work we investigate on the potential of several important research areas under typical practical conditions.Comment: The final version of the manuscript is available at: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6514821&isnumber=633654

Massive MIMO for Drone Communications: Case Studies and Future Directions

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, are proliferating. Applications, such as surveillance, disaster management, and drone racing, place high requirements on the communication with the drones in terms of throughput, reliability, and latency. The existing wireless technologies, notably Wi-Fi, that are currently used for drone connectivity are limited to short ranges and low-mobility situations. New, scalable technology is needed to meet future demands on long connectivity ranges, support for fast-moving drones, and the possibility to simultaneously communicate with entire swarms of drones. Massive multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO), the main technology component of emerging 5G standards, has the potential to meet these requirements.Comment: To appear in IEEE Acces

Cloud Radio Access Network: Virtualizing Wireless Access for Dense Heterogeneous Systems

Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) refers to the virtualization of base station functionalities by means of cloud computing. This results in a novel cellular architecture in which low-cost wireless access points, known as radio units (RUs) or remote radio heads (RRHs), are centrally managed by a reconfigurable centralized "cloud", or central, unit (CU). C-RAN allows operators to reduce the capital and operating expenses needed to deploy and maintain dense heterogeneous networks. This critical advantage, along with spectral efficiency, statistical multiplexing and load balancing gains, make C-RAN well positioned to be one of the key technologies in the development of 5G systems. In this paper, a succinct overview is presented regarding the state of the art on the research on C-RAN with emphasis on fronthaul compression, baseband processing, medium access control, resource allocation, system-level considerations and standardization efforts.Comment: To appear on JC