Millimeter Wave Cellular Networks: A MAC Layer Perspective

The millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency band is seen as a key enabler of multi-gigabit wireless access in future cellular networks. In order to overcome the propagation challenges, mmWave systems use a large number of antenna elements both at the base station and at the user equipment, which lead to high directivity gains, fully-directional communications, and possible noise-limited operations. The fundamental differences between mmWave networks and traditional ones challenge the classical design constraints, objectives, and available degrees of freedom. This paper addresses the implications that highly directional communication has on the design of an efficient medium access control (MAC) layer. The paper discusses key MAC layer issues, such as synchronization, random access, handover, channelization, interference management, scheduling, and association. The paper provides an integrated view on MAC layer issues for cellular networks, identifies new challenges and tradeoffs, and provides novel insights and solution approaches.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, to appear in IEEE Transactions on Communication

Methods and criteria for performance analysis of multiantenna systems in mobile communications

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technique is one of the most promising solutions for increasing reliability and spectral efficiency of the radio connection in future mobile communication systems. The performance potential of MIMO systems is well established from theoretical point of view. However, much effort is still needed in the experimental verification of those systems using realistic antennas and channels. It is widely accepted that the antenna properties are of significant importance regarding the performance of single-input single-output (SISO) systems. However, the effect of the antennas on MIMO systems has not been thoroughly studied. Due to the complexity of MIMO systems, evaluation of MIMO antennas becomes increasingly cumbersome and time-consuming process in comparison to simpler systems. In the first part of this work an advanced antenna evaluation technique called experimental plane-wave based method (EPWBM) is generalized and validated to cover MIMO systems. This work is the extension of the previous work where the method has been used in the analysis of SISO systems. The EPWBM is based on the measured or simulated complex 3-D radiation patterns of the antennas and measured directional radio channel data. The EPWBM simplifies antenna evaluation process in comparison to traditional means since the same channel library can be utilized in the evaluation of several antenna systems without performing the same measurements for each prototype antennas separately. It is verified that the EPWBM is sufficiently reliable in comparing the performance of prototype antennas. In the second part of the work new quality factors for MIMO system evaluation enclosing traditional systems as special cases have been developed. The MIMO channel correlation matrix is formulated so that it reveals the ability of MIMO antenna systems to transfer signal power from a transmitter to a receiver and to utilize parallel spatial channels. It is also verified that correct normalization of the channel matrices is of significant importance in the MIMO antenna evaluation. This approach gives comprehensive framework for MIMO antenna evaluation, which takes into account both realistic antenna and channel properties. In the last part of the work insight into the performance of different antennas in different signal propagation environments is given. The performance of the antennas depends on the signal-to-noise-ratio and on the outage probability level considered. Although MIMO systems are based on the utilization of parallel spatial channels, the capability of the system to transfer signal power plays a significant role especially with small MIMO systems. In the realistic dynamic channels the capacity variation is larger than in the ideal channels, which are based on the identically and independently distributed (iid) channel assumption. Large performance variations occur in the realistic channels with directive antennas, when antennas are rotated in the usage environment, whereas omnidirectional ones are more robust but are difficult to realize in practice. The largest differences between the antennas are found at the low outage probability levels due to different radiation properties of the antennas. The systems with the cross-polarized antennas have smaller eigenvalue dispersion and are more robust in performance for the variations of the channel than the systems with co-polarized antennas. On the other hand, the co-polarized antennas possess better capability to transfer signal power and are more robust in performance for the antenna array orientation. From practical point of view, the dual-polarized antennas seem to be the most feasible candidates to be used in MIMO antenna systems due to compact structure, and indoor seems to be the most suitable for MIMO applications due to typically scatter-rich channel.Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) tekniika on yksi lupaavimmista ratkaisuista lisätä radioyhteyden luotettavuutta ja spektritehokkuutta tulevaisuuden matkaviestinjärjestelmissä. MIMO järjestelmien suorituskykypotentiaali on teoreettisesti todistettu. Paljon työtä tarvitaan kuitenkin vielä kokeelliseen järjestelmätestaukseen käyttäen realistisia antenneja ja kanavia. On laajasti hyväksyttyä että antennien ominaisuudet ovat merkityksellisiä single-input single-output (SISO) järjestelmien suorituskyvyn kannalta. Antennien vaikutusta MIMO-järjestelmiin ei ole kuitenkaan perusteellisesti tutkittu. MIMO-järjestelmien lisääntyneestä monimutkaisuudesta johtuen, verrattuna yksinkertaisempiin järjestelmiin, MIMO antennien suorituskyvyn arviointi hankaloituu ja vie enemmän aikaa. Työn ensimmäisessä osassa uusi antennien arviointitekniikka nimeltään kokeellinen tasoaaltoihin perustuva menetelmä (EPWBM) on yleistetty käsittämään MIMO järjestelmät ja sen tarkkuus on arvioitu. Tämä työ on laajennus aikaisempaan työhön jossa menetelmää on käytetty SISO-järjestelmien arviointiin. EPWBM perustuu mitattuihin tai simuloituihin antennien kompleksisiin 3-D suuntakuvioihin ja mitattuun suuntatiedon sisältämään kanavadataan. EPWBM yksinkertaistaa antennin suorituskyvyn arviointia perinteisiin menetelmiin verrattuna, koska sama kanavamittausaineisto voidaan hyödyntää usamman antennisysteemin arvioinnissa tekemättä samoja mittauksia jokaiselle antenniprototyypille erikseen. On osoitettu että EPWBM on suhteellisen luotettava prototyyppiantennien suorituskyvyn vertailussa. Työn toisessa osassa on kehitetty uusia hyvyyslukuja MIMO-järjestelmien suorituskyvyn arviointiin sisältäen perinteiset järjestelmät erikoistapauksina. MIMO-kanavamatriisi esitetään siten että se paljastaa MIMO-antennijärjestelmien kyvyn siirtää signaalitehoa lähettimen ja vastaanottimen välillä ja hyödyntää rinnakkaisia kanavia. On myös todistettu että oikeanlainen kanavamatriisien normalisointi on erittäin merkittävää MIMO-antennivertailussa. Tämä lähestymistapa antaa kattavat puitteet MIMO-antennien suorituskyvyn arviointiin ottaen huomioon todelliset antennien ja kanavan ominaisuudet. Työn viimeisessä osassa annetaan käsitys erilaisten antennien suorituskyvystä erilaisissa signaalin etenemisympäristöissä. Antennien suorituskyky riippuu signaalikohinasuhteesta ja tarkasteltavan signaalin luotettavuustasosta. Vaikka MIMO-järjestelmät perustuvat rinnakkaisten kanavien hyödyntämiseen järjestelmän signaalitehon siirto-ominaisuudet ovat merkittäviä erityisesti pienillä MIMO järjestelmillä. Realistisissa dynaamisissa kanavissa kapasiteetinvaihtelu on suurempaa kuin ideaalisissa kanavissa jotka perustuvat oletukseen että signaalit ovat riippumattomasti ja identtisesti jakautuneita (iid). Suurta suorituskykyn vaihtelua esiintyy realistissa kanavissa suuntaavilla antenneilla, kun antenneja pyöritetään käyttöympäristössä, kun taas ympärisäteilevät antennit olisivat jäykempiä suorituskyvyn kannalta mutta käytännössä vaikeampia toteuttaa. Suuremmat erot antennien välillä on löydettävissä matalalta signaalin luotettavuustasolta johtuen antennien erilaisista säteilyominaisuuksista. Kaksipolarisaatioantennijärjestelmillä on pienempi ominaisarvohaje ja niiden suorituskyky on jäykempi kanavan vaihteluille kuin yksipolarisaatioantennijärjestelmä. Toisaalta yksipolarisaatioantenneilla on paremmat signaalitehon siirto-ominaisuudet ja suorituskyky vaihtelee vähemmän antennin katselusuunnan funktiona. Käytännön näkökulmasta katsoen kaksipolarisaatioantennit näyttävät olevan kaikkein toteuttamiskelpoisin vaihtoehto käytettäväksi MIMO-systeemeissä johtuen niiden kompaktista rakenteesta, ja sisätila näyttää olevan sopivin ympäristö MIMO-sovelluksiin johtuen tyypillisesti sirontarikkaasta kanavasta.reviewe

Preliminary Results on 3D Channel Modeling: From Theory to Standardization

Three dimensional beamforming (3D) (also elevation beamforming) is now gaining a growing interest among researchers in wireless communication. The reason can be attributed to its potential to enable a variety of strategies like sector or user specific elevation beamforming and cell-splitting. Since these techniques cannot be directly supported by current LTE releases, the 3GPP is now working on defining the required technical specifications. In particular, a large effort is currently made to get accurate 3D channel models that support the elevation dimension. This step is necessary as it will evaluate the potential of 3D and FD(Full Dimensional) beamforming techniques to benefit from the richness of real channels. This work aims at presenting the on-going 3GPP study item "Study on 3D-channel model for Elevation Beamforming and FD-MIMO studies for LTE", and positioning it with respect to previous standardization works

Modeling and characterization of urban radio channels for mobile communications

Results of this thesis contribute in modeling and characterization of radio channels for future mobile communications. The results are presented mainly in three parts: a) modeling of propagation mechanisms, b) methodology of developing a propagation model, c) characterization of urban radio channel. One of the main propagation physical phenomena that have an important role in diverting signals to non line of sight scenarios is the diffraction process. This thesis proposes diffraction coefficients that have better agreement with finite difference time domain solution and rigorous diffraction theory than the coefficient commonly used in propagation predictions for mobile communications. The importance of diffuse scattering has also been investigated and showed that this physical process may have a key role in urban propagation, with a particular impact on the delay spread and angular spread of the signal at the receiver. This thesis proposes wideband propagation models for main and perpendicular streets of urban street grids. The propagation models are ray-based and are given in explicit mathematical expressions. Each ray is characterized in terms of its amplitude, delay, and angle of arrival, angle of departure for vertical and horizontal polarizations. Each of these characteristics is given in a closed mathematical form. Having wideband propagation model in explicit expression makes its implementation easy and computation fast. Secondary source modeling approach for perpendicular streets has also been introduced in this thesis. The last part of the thesis deals with characterization of urban radio channels for extracting parameters that help in successful design of mobile communication systems. Knowledge of channel characteristics enables reaching optimum trade off between system performance and complexity. This thesis analyzes measurement results at 2 GHz to extract channel parameters in terms of Rake finger characteristics in order to get information that helps to optimize Rake receiver design for enhanced-IMT2000 systems. Finger life distance has also been investigated for both micro- and small cell scenarios. This part of the thesis also presents orthogonality factor of radio channel for W-CDMA downlink at different bandwidths. Characterization of dispersion metrics in delay and angular domains for microcellular channels is also presented at different base station antenna heights. A measure of (dis-) similarity between multipath components in terms of separation distance in delay and angular domains is introduced by the concept of distance function, which is a step toward in development of algorithm extraction and analysis multipath clustering. In summary, the significant contributions of the thesis are in three parts. 1) Development of new diffraction coefficients and corrections of limitations of existing one for accurate propagation predictions for mobile communications. 2) Development of wideband propagation models for urban street grid. The novelty of the model is the development in explicit mathematical expressions. The developed models can be used to study propagation problem in microcellular urban street grids. 3) Presenting channel parameters that will help in the design of future mobile communication systems (enhanced-IMT2000), like number of active fingers, finger life distance, and orthogonality factors for different bandwidths. In addition, a technique based on multipath separation distance is proposed as a step toward in development of algorithms for extraction and analysis of multipath clusters.reviewe

Performance of smart antennas with receive diversity in wireless sensor networks

In this paper we propose a Geometrically Based Single Bounce Elliptical Model (GBSBEM) for multipath components involving randomly placed scatterers in the scattering region with sensors deployed on a field. The system model assumes a cluster based wireless sensor network (WSN) which collects information from the sensors, filters and modulates the data and transmit it through a wireless channel to be collected at the receiver. We first develop a GBSBE model and based on this model we develop our channel model. Use of Smart antenna system at the receiver end, which exploits various receive diversity combining techniques like Maximal Ratio Combining (MRC), Equal Gain Combining (EGC), and Selection Combining (SC), adds novelty to this system. The performance of these techniques have been proved through matlab simulations and further ahead based on different number of antenna elements present at the receiver array, we calculate the performance of our system in terms of bit-error-rate (BER). Based on the transmission power we quantify for the energy efficiency of our communication model.<br /

Terahertz Wireless Channels: A Holistic Survey on Measurement, Modeling, and Analysis

Terahertz (0.1-10 THz) communications are envisioned as a key technology for sixth generation (6G) wireless systems. The study of underlying THz wireless propagation channels provides the foundations for the development of reliable THz communication systems and their applications. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the study of THz wireless channels. First, the three most popular THz channel measurement methodologies, namely, frequency-domain channel measurement based on a vector network analyzer (VNA), time-domain channel measurement based on sliding correlation, and time-domain channel measurement based on THz pulses from time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS), are introduced and compared. Current channel measurement systems and measurement campaigns are reviewed. Then, existing channel modeling methodologies are categorized into deterministic, stochastic, and hybrid approaches. State-of-the-art THz channel models are analyzed, and the channel simulators that are based on them are introduced. Next, an in-depth review of channel characteristics in the THz band is presented. Finally, open problems and future research directions for research studies on THz wireless channels for 6G are elaborated.Comment: to appear in IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorial