Mobile 5G millimeter-wave multi-antenna systems

In reference to IEEE copyrighted material which is used with permission in this thesis, the IEEE does not endorse any of Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya's products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. If interested in reprinting/republishing IEEE copyrighted material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution, please go to http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/rights_link.html to learn how to obtain a License from RightsLink.Tesi en modalitat de compendi de publicacionsMassive antenna architectures and millimeter-wave bands appear on the horizon as the enabling technologies of future broadband wireless links, promising unprecedented spectral efficiency and data rates. In the recently launched fifth generation of mobile communications, millimetric bands are already introduced but their widespread deployment still presents several feasibility issues. In particular, high-mobility environments represent the most challenging scenario when dealing with directive patterns, which are essential for the adequate reception of signals at those bands. Vehicular communications are expected to exploit the full potential of future generations due to the massive number of connected users and stringent requirements in terms of reliability, latency, and throughput while moving at high speeds. This thesis proposes two solutions to completely take advantage of multi-antenna systems in those cases: beamwidth adaptation of cellular stations when tracking vehicular users based on positioning and Doppler information and a tailored radiation diagram from a panel-based system of antennas mounted on the vehicle. Apart from cellular base stations and vehicles, a third entity that cannot be forgotten in future mobile communications are pedestrians. Past generations were developed around the figure of human users and, now, they must still be able to seamlessly connect with any other user of the network and exploit the new capabilities promised by 5G. The use of millimeter-waves is already been considered by handset manufacturers but the impact of the user (and the interaction with the phone) is drastically changed. The last part of this thesis is devoted to the study of human user dynamics and how they influence the achievable coverage with different distributed antenna systems on the phone.Les arquitectures massives d'antenes i les bandes mil·limètriques apareixen a l'horitzó com les tecnologies que impulsaran els futurs enllaços sense fils amb gran ample de banda i prometen una eficiència espectral i velocitat de transmissió sense precedents. A la recent cinquena generació de comunicacions mòbils, les bandes mil·limètriques ja en són una part constitutiva però el seu desplegament encara presenta certes dificultats. En concret, els entorns d'alta mobilitat representen el major repte quan es fan servir diagrames de radiació directius, els quals són essencials per una correcta recepció del senyal en aquestes bandes. S'espera que les comunicacions vehiculars delimitin les capacitats de les xarxes en futures generacions degut al gran nombre d'usuaris simultanis i els requeriments estrictes en termes de fiabilitat, retard i flux de dades mentre es mouen a grans velocitats. Aquesta tesi proposa dues solucions per tal d'explotar al màxim els sistemes de múltiples antenes en tals casos: un ample de feix adaptatiu de les estacions bases quan estiguin fent el seguiment d'un vehicle usuari basat en informació de la posició i el Doppler i el disseny d'un diagrama de radiació adequat al costat del vehicle basat en una estructura de múltiples panells muntats a l'estructura del mateix. A més de les estacions base i els vehicles, un tercer element que no pot ser obviat en aquests escenaris són els vianants. Les generacions anteriors van ser desenvolupades al voltant de la figura d'usuaris humans i ara han de seguir tenint la capacitat de connexió ininterrumpuda amb la resta d'usuaris i explotar les capacitats de 5G. L'ús de frequències mil·limètriques també es té en compte en la fabricació de telèfons mòbils però l'impacte de l'usuari és completament diferent. La última part de la tesis tracta l'estudi de les dinàmiques de l'usuari humà i com influeixen en la cobertura amb diferent sistemes distribuïts d'antenes.Postprint (published version

Five Facets of 6G: Research Challenges and Opportunities

Whilst the fifth-generation (5G) systems are being rolled out across the globe, researchers have turned their attention to the exploration of radical next-generation solutions. At this early evolutionary stage we survey five main research facets of this field, namely {\em Facet~1: next-generation architectures, spectrum and services, Facet~2: next-generation networking, Facet~3: Internet of Things (IoT), Facet~4: wireless positioning and sensing, as well as Facet~5: applications of deep learning in 6G networks.} In this paper, we have provided a critical appraisal of the literature of promising techniques ranging from the associated architectures, networking, applications as well as designs. We have portrayed a plethora of heterogeneous architectures relying on cooperative hybrid networks supported by diverse access and transmission mechanisms. The vulnerabilities of these techniques are also addressed and carefully considered for highlighting the most of promising future research directions. Additionally, we have listed a rich suite of learning-driven optimization techniques. We conclude by observing the evolutionary paradigm-shift that has taken place from pure single-component bandwidth-efficiency, power-efficiency or delay-optimization towards multi-component designs, as exemplified by the twin-component ultra-reliable low-latency mode of the 5G system. We advocate a further evolutionary step towards multi-component Pareto optimization, which requires the exploration of the entire Pareto front of all optiomal solutions, where none of the components of the objective function may be improved without degrading at least one of the other components

5G evaluation platform for connected and autonomous vehicles

Connected vehicles are the next frontier in massive mobile communications. The field of vehicular communications has undergone a significant transformation and is interested in getting more vehicles connected to exchange essential information between vehicles and road infrastructure in order to improve traffic efficiency and safety. The introduction of the millimeter-wave (mmWave) region in 5G New Radio (NR), together with the latest release of 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 16 (Rel. 16) to achieve higher data rates, autonomous vehicles are expected to push the limits of the cellular network by exploiting novel technologies, such as beamforming and massive MultipleInput Multiple-Output (MIMO). This potentially enables several Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) use cases for cooperative automated driving and enhanced information services. The project proposes an approach of beam-based interference assessment for Vehicle-toVehicle (V2V) communications at mmWave. The perceived interference level is evaluated for a given beamset covering the full azimuthal range. This information provides useful insights on the quality of communications and the potential re-use rate of scheduled resources. In addition, the performance of 5G V2X physical-layer is evaluated by means of scheduling implementation

Smart Pattern V2I Handover Based on Machine Learning Vehicle Classification

The mmwave frequencies will be widely used in future vehicular communications. At these frequencies, the radio channel becomes much more vulnerable to slight changes in the environment like motions of the device, reflections or blockage. In high mobility vehicular communications the rapidly changing vehicle environments and the large overheads due to frequent beam training are the critical disadvantages in developing these systems at mmwave frequencies. Hence, smart beam management procedures are desired to establish and maintain the radio channels. In this thesis, we propose that using the positions and respective velocities of the vehicles in the dynamic selection of the beam pair, and then adapting to the changing environments using machine learning algorithms, can improve both network performance and communication stability in high mobility vehicular communications

Generalized Coordinated Multipoint Framework for 5G and Beyond

The characteristic feature of 5G is the diversity of its services for different user needs. However, the requirements for these services are competing in nature, which impresses the necessity of a coordinated and flexible network architecture. Although coordinated multipoint (CoMP) systems were primarily proposed to improve the cell edge performance in 4G, their collaborative nature can be leveraged to support the diverse requirements and enabling technologies of 5G and beyond networks. To this end, we propose generalization of CoMP to a proactive and efficient resource utilization framework capable of supporting different user requirements such as reliability, latency, throughput, and security while considering network constraints. This article elaborates on the multiple aspects, inputs, and outputs of the generalized CoMP (GCoMP) framework. Apart from user requirements, the GCoMP decision mechanism also considers the CoMP scenario and network architecture to decide upon outputs such as CoMP technique or appropriate coordinating clusters. To enable easier understanding of the concept, popular use cases, such as vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication and eHealth, are studied. Additionally, interesting challenges and open areas in GCoMP are discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure