LTE Spectrum Sharing Research Testbed: Integrated Hardware, Software, Network and Data

This paper presents Virginia Tech's wireless testbed supporting research on long-term evolution (LTE) signaling and radio frequency (RF) spectrum coexistence. LTE is continuously refined and new features released. As the communications contexts for LTE expand, new research problems arise and include operation in harsh RF signaling environments and coexistence with other radios. Our testbed provides an integrated research tool for investigating these and other research problems; it allows analyzing the severity of the problem, designing and rapidly prototyping solutions, and assessing them with standard-compliant equipment and test procedures. The modular testbed integrates general-purpose software-defined radio hardware, LTE-specific test equipment, RF components, free open-source and commercial LTE software, a configurable RF network and recorded radar waveform samples. It supports RF channel emulated and over-the-air radiated modes. The testbed can be remotely accessed and configured. An RF switching network allows for designing many different experiments that can involve a variety of real and virtual radios with support for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna operation. We present the testbed, the research it has enabled and some valuable lessons that we learned and that may help designing, developing, and operating future wireless testbeds.Comment: In Proceeding of the 10th ACM International Workshop on Wireless Network Testbeds, Experimental Evaluation & Characterization (WiNTECH), Snowbird, Utah, October 201

Enabling Technologies for Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communications: From PHY and MAC Layer Perspectives

© 1998-2012 IEEE. Future 5th generation networks are expected to enable three key services-enhanced mobile broadband, massive machine type communications and ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC). As per the 3rd generation partnership project URLLC requirements, it is expected that the reliability of one transmission of a 32 byte packet will be at least 99.999% and the latency will be at most 1 ms. This unprecedented level of reliability and latency will yield various new applications, such as smart grids, industrial automation and intelligent transport systems. In this survey we present potential future URLLC applications, and summarize the corresponding reliability and latency requirements. We provide a comprehensive discussion on physical (PHY) and medium access control (MAC) layer techniques that enable URLLC, addressing both licensed and unlicensed bands. This paper evaluates the relevant PHY and MAC techniques for their ability to improve the reliability and reduce the latency. We identify that enabling long-term evolution to coexist in the unlicensed spectrum is also a potential enabler of URLLC in the unlicensed band, and provide numerical evaluations. Lastly, this paper discusses the potential future research directions and challenges in achieving the URLLC requirements

Developments of 5G Technology

This technology is the future of current LTE technology which would be a boost to the future of wireless and computer networks, as the speeds would be way higher than the current LTE networks, which will push the technology to a new level. This technology will make the radio channels to support data access speeds up to 10 Gb/s which will turn the bandwidth radio channels as WiFi. Comparing it with other LTE technology\u27s it has high speed and capacity, support interactive multimedia, voice, internet and its data rate is 1 Gbps which makes it faster than other LTE’s . This is much more effective than other technology’s due to its advanced billing interfaces. This paper provides detail explanation of 5G technology, its architecture, challenges, advantages and disadvantages, issues and ends with future of 5G technology

Filtered multi-carrier modulations for industrial wireless communications based on cognitive radio

Doktoretza-tesi honetako helburu nagusia, hari gabeko komunikazio industrialetarako fidagarritasun maila onargarria eman dezakeen maila fisikoko modulazio bat aurkitzea da. Eremu industrialetako radio bidezko kanaletan ematen diren komunikazioetarako baldintza bereziki aurkakoak direla eta, helburu hori lortzea benetako erronkatzat jo liteke. Gainera, modulazio horrek \Radio Cognitiva" deritzoten teknikekin bateragarria izan beharra dauka, hauek hari gabeko komunikazioen fidagarritasuna hobetzeko gaitasuna baitute. Bibliografian oinarrituz, gaur egungo baliabideekin hari gabeko komunikazio industrial kasu ugariri konponbidea emateko aukera badela ondoriozta genezake, baina ez kasu guztiei ordea. Hari gabeko kanalen egoera bereziki aurkakoa denerako eta komunikazio sistemek denbora muga bereziki zorrotzak bete behar dituztenerako, ezta erantzun nahikoa ona eman lezakeen hari gabeko komunikazio sistema industrialik bibliografia zientifikoan. Hori dela eta, doktoretza tesi honetan, \Radio Cognitiva" delakoa eta 5G-rako aurreikusita dauden filtro bankuetan oinarrituriko modulazio multigarraiatzaileak bezalako teknologia hasiberrietara jotzen dugu, aurrez aipaturiko arazoari konponbide berriak bilatu nahian. Bibliografian dauden filtro bankuetan oinarrituriko modulazio multi-garraiatzaileak aztertu eta ondoren beraien egokitasuna ebaluatzen dugu, kanal dispertsiboen aurkako sendotasuna eta \Radio Cognitiva" teknikekin izan lezaketen bateragarritasuna irizpide hartuz. Ebaluaketa horretan oinarrituz, doktoretza-tesi honetan \Radio Cognitiva" teknikekin bateragarria den WCP-COQAM proposatzen dugu modulazio industrial gisa. Modulazio teknika berau erakusteaz gain, bibliografian eskuragarri ez dauden WCP-COQAM-rentzat sinkronizazio eta kanal estimazio teknikak ere aurkezten ditugu.El objetivo principal de esta tesis doctoral consiste en encontrar una modulación de capa física capaz de proporcionar robustez y fiabilidad suficientes a sistemas de comunicaciones inalámbricas industriales. Esto supone un desafío, dadas las adversas condiciones del canal inalámbrico propias de entornos industriales. Además, dicha modulación debería presentar una alta compatibilidad con las técnicas de Radio Cognitiva, debido al potencial de éstas para mejorar la fiabilidad de las comunicaciones inalámbricas. Basándonos en la bibliografía, concluimos que las soluciones presentes en el estado del arte actual cubren una amplia variedad de escenarios dentro de las comunicaciones inalámbricas industriales, pero no todas. Para los escenarios con canales altamente dispersivos y requerimientos de tiempo especialmente estrictos, no existe ninguna solución en la industria ni dentro de la bibliografía científica. En esta tesis doctoral nos centramos en tecnologías incipientes como la Radio Cognitiva y las modulaciones multi-portadora con bancos de filtros para 5G para tratar de buscar nuevas soluciones al problema anteriormente descrito. Por lo tanto, analizamos algunas de las técnicas multi-portadora con bancos de filtros presentes en la bibliografía científica y las evaluamos basándonos en su robustez frente a canales altamente dispersivos y su compatibilidad con la Radio Cognitiva. Basándonos en dicha evaluación, proponemosWCP-COQAM como posible candidata a modulación industrial compatible con Radio Cognitiva. Además de la propia técnica de modulación, presentamos métodos de sincronización y estimación de canal para la misma que no se encuentran presentes en el estado del arte.The main goal of this doctoral thesis is to find a physical layer modulation able to provide high enough robustness and reliability levels for wireless industrial communications systems. Considering the harsh wireless channel conditions of industrial environments, that goal implies a considerable challenge. Besides, this modulation should be highly compatible with Cognitive Radio techniques, due to their potential to improve the reliability of wireless communications. Based on the bibliography, we conclude that the existent solutions in the current state of the art cover a wide range of wireless industrial communications scenarios, but not all of them. There is no solution, neither in the industry nor in the scientific bibliography, for those scenarios involving highly dispersive wireless channels and particularly stringent timeliness requirements. In this doctoral thesis, we focus on upcoming technologies such as Cognitive Radio and multi-carrier modulations based on filter banks for 5G, in order to search new solutions for the aforementioned problem. Therefore, we analyse some of the multi-carrier modulations based on filter banks of the scientific bibliography and we evaluate them in terms of robustness against highly dispersive channels and in terms of compatibility with Cognitive Radio. In this doctoral thesis we propose the modulation WCP-COQAM as possible candidate for industrial wireless modulation and compatible with Cognitive Radio. In addition to the modulation technique itself, we also introduce some synchronization and channel estimation techniques which are not present in the state of the art

Enhanced Spectrum Sensing Techniques for Cognitive Radio Systems

Due to the rapid growth of new wireless communication services and applications, much attention has been directed to frequency spectrum resources. Considering the limited radio spectrum, supporting the demand for higher capacity and higher data rates is a challenging task that requires innovative technologies capable of providing new ways of exploiting the available radio spectrum. Cognitive radio (CR), which is among the core prominent technologies for the next generation of wireless communication systems, has received increasing attention and is considered a promising solution to the spectral crowding problem by introducing the notion of opportunistic spectrum usage. Spectrum sensing, which enables CRs to identify spectral holes, is a critical component in CR technology. Furthermore, improving the efficiency of the radio spectrum use through spectrum sensing and dynamic spectrum access (DSA) is one of the emerging trends. In this thesis, we focus on enhanced spectrum sensing techniques that provide performance gains with reduced computational complexity for realistic waveforms considering radio frequency (RF) impairments, such as noise uncertainty and power amplifier (PA) non-linearities. The first area of study is efficient energy detection (ED) methods for spectrum sensing under non-flat spectral characteristics, which deals with relatively simple methods for improving the detection performance. In realistic communication scenarios, the spectrum of the primary user (PU) is non-flat due to non-ideal frequency responses of the devices and frequency selective channel conditions. Weighting process with fast Fourier transform (FFT) and analysis filter bank (AFB) based multi-band sensing techniques are proposed for overcoming the challenge of non-flat characteristics. Furthermore, a sliding window based spectrum sensing approach is addressed to detect a re-appearing PU that is absent in one time and present in other time. Finally, the area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) is considered as a single-parameter performance metric and is derived for all the considered scenarios. The second area of study is reduced complexity energy and eigenvalue based spectrum sensing techniques utilizing frequency selectivity. More specifically, novel spectrum sensing techniques, which have relatively low computational complexity and are capable of providing accurate and robust performance in low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) with noise uncertainty, as well as in the presence of frequency selectivity, are proposed. Closed-form expressions are derived for the corresponding probability of false alarm and probability of detection under frequency selectivity due the primary signal spectrum and/or the transmission channel. The offered results indicate that the proposed methods provide quite significant saving in complexity, e.g., 78% reduction in the studied example case, whereas their detection performance is improved both in the low SNR and under noise uncertainty. Finally, a new combined spectrum sensing and resource allocation approach for multicarrier radio systems is proposed. The main contribution of this study is the evaluation of the CR performance when using wideband spectrum sensing methods in combination with water-filling and power interference (PI) based resource allocation algorithms in realistic CR scenarios. Different waveforms, such as cyclic prefix based orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM), enhanced orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (E-OFDM) and filter bank based multicarrier (FBMC), are considered with PA nonlinearity type RF impairments to see the effects of spectral leakage on the spectrum sensing and resource allocation performance. It is shown that AFB based spectrum sensing techniques and FBMC waveforms with excellent spectral containment properties have clearly better performance compared to the traditional FFT based spectrum sensing techniques with the CP-OFDM. Overall, the investigations in this thesis provide novel spectrum sensing techniques for overcoming the challenge of noise uncertainty with reduced computational complexity. The proposed methods are evaluated under realistic signal models

The relationship between choice of spectrum sensing device and secondary-user intrusion in database-driven cognitive radio systems

As radios in future wireless systems become more flexible and reconfigurable whilst available radio spectrum becomes scarce, the possibility of using TV White Space devices (WSD) as secondary users in the TV Broadcast Bands (without causing harmful interference to licensed incumbents) becomes ever more attractive. Cognitive Radio encompasses a number of technologies which enable adaptive self-programming of systems at different levels to provide more effective use of the increasingly congested radio spectrum. Cognitive Radio has the potential to use spectrum allocated to TV services, which is not actually being used by these services, without causing disruptive interference to licensed users by using channel selection aided by use of appropriate propagation modelling in TV White Spaces.The main purpose of this thesis is to explore the potential of the Cognitive Radio concept to provide additional bandwidth and improved efficiency to help accelerate the development and acceptance of Cognitive Radio technology. Specifically, firstly: three main classes of spectrum sensing techniques (Energy Detection, Matched Filtering and Cyclostationary Feature Detection) have compare in terms of time and spectrum resources consumed, required prior knowledge and complexity, ranking the three classes according to accuracy and performance. Secondly, investigate spectrum occupancy of the UHF TV band in the frequency range from 470 to 862 MHz by undertaking spectrum occupancy measurements in different locations around the Hull area in the UK, using two different receiver devices; a low cost Software-Defined Radio device and a laboratory-quality spectrum analyser. Thirdly, investigate the best propagation model among three propagation models (Extended-Hata, Davidson-Hata and Egli) for use in the TV band, whilst also finding the optimum terrain data resolution to use (1000, 100 or 30 m). it compares modelled results with the previously-mentioned practical measurements and then describe how such models can be integrated into a database-driven tool for Cognitive Radio channel selection within the TV White Space environment. Fourthly, create a flexible simulation system for creating a TV White Space database by using different propagation models. Finally, design a flexible system which uses a combination of Geolocation Database and Spectrum Sensing in the TV band, comparing the performance of two spectrum analysers (Agilent E4407B and Agilent EXA N9010A) with that of a low cost Software-Defined Radio in the real radio environment. The results shows that white space devices can be designed using SDRs based on the Realtek RTL2832U chip (RTL-SDR), combined with a geolocation database for identifying the primary user in the specific location in a cost-effective manner. Furthermore it is shown that improving the sensitivity of RTL-SDR will affect the accuracy and performance of the WSD

The University Defence Research Collaboration In Signal Processing

This chapter describes the development of algorithms for automatic detection of anomalies from multi-dimensional, undersampled and incomplete datasets. The challenge in this work is to identify and classify behaviours as normal or abnormal, safe or threatening, from an irregular and often heterogeneous sensor network. Many defence and civilian applications can be modelled as complex networks of interconnected nodes with unknown or uncertain spatio-temporal relations. The behavior of such heterogeneous networks can exhibit dynamic properties, reflecting evolution in both network structure (new nodes appearing and existing nodes disappearing), as well as inter-node relations. The UDRC work has addressed not only the detection of anomalies, but also the identification of their nature and their statistical characteristics. Normal patterns and changes in behavior have been incorporated to provide an acceptable balance between true positive rate, false positive rate, performance and computational cost. Data quality measures have been used to ensure the models of normality are not corrupted by unreliable and ambiguous data. The context for the activity of each node in complex networks offers an even more efficient anomaly detection mechanism. This has allowed the development of efficient approaches which not only detect anomalies but which also go on to classify their behaviour