85 research outputs found
Energy sustainable paradigms and methods for future mobile networks: A survey
In this survey, we discuss the role of energy in the design of future mobile
networks and, in particular, we advocate and elaborate on the use of energy
harvesting (EH) hardware as a means to decrease the environmental footprint of
5G technology. To take full advantage of the harvested (renewable) energy,
while still meeting the quality of service required by dense 5G deployments,
suitable management techniques are here reviewed, highlighting the open issues
that are still to be solved to provide eco-friendly and cost-effective mobile
architectures. Several solutions have recently been proposed to tackle
capacity, coverage and efficiency problems, including: C-RAN, Software Defined
Networking (SDN) and fog computing, among others. However, these are not
explicitly tailored to increase the energy efficiency of networks featuring
renewable energy sources, and have the following limitations: (i) their energy
savings are in many cases still insufficient and (ii) they do not consider
network elements possessing energy harvesting capabilities. In this paper, we
systematically review existing energy sustainable paradigms and methods to
address points (i) and (ii), discussing how these can be exploited to obtain
highly efficient, energy self-sufficient and high capacity networks. Several
open issues have emerged from our review, ranging from the need for accurate
energy, transmission and consumption models, to the lack of accurate data
traffic profiles, to the use of power transfer, energy cooperation and energy
trading techniques. These challenges are here discussed along with some
research directions to follow for achieving sustainable 5G systems.Comment: Accepted by Elsevier Computer Communications, 21 pages, 9 figure
Beamformer Design with Smooth Constraint-Free Approximation in Downlink Cloud Radio Access Networks
It is known that data rates in standard cellular networks are limited due to
inter-cell interference. An effective solution of this problem is to use the
multi-cell cooperation idea. In Cloud Radio Access Network, which is a
candidate solution in 5G and beyond, cooperation is applied by means of central
processors (CPs) connected to simple remote radio heads with finite capacity
fronthaul links. In this study, we consider a downlink scenario and aim to
minimize total power spent by designing beamformers. We consider the case where
perfect channel state information is not available in the CP. The original
problem includes discontinuous terms with many constraints. We propose a novel
method which transforms the problem into a smooth constraint-free form and a
solution is found by the gradient descent approach. As a comparison, we
consider the optimal method solving an extensive number of convex sub-problems,
a known heuristic search algorithm and some sparse solution techniques.
Heuristic search methods find a solution by solving a subset of all possible
convex sub-problems. Sparse techniques apply some norm approximation
() or convex approximation to make the objective
function more tractable. We also derive a theoretical performance bound in
order to observe how far the proposed method performs off the optimal method
when running the optimal method is prohibitive due to computational complexity.
Detailed simulations show that the performance of the proposed method is close
to the optimal one, and it outperforms other methods analyzed.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures, submitted to IEEE Access in Feb. 03, 2021. It
is a revised version of the paper submitted to IEEE Access in Nov. 23, 2020.
Revisions were made according to the reviewer comment
A Theoretical Performance Bound for Joint Beamformer Design of Wireless Fronthaul and Access Links in Downlink C-RAN
It is known that data rates in standard cellular networks are limited due to
inter-cell interference. An effective solution of this problem is to use the
multi-cell cooperation idea. In Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN), which is a
candidate solution in 5G and future communication networks, cooperation is
applied by means of central processors (CPs) connected to simple remote radio
heads with finite capacity fronthaul links. In this study, we consider a
downlink C-RAN with a wireless fronthaul and aim to minimize total power spent
by jointly designing beamformers for fronthaul and access links. We consider
the case where perfect channel state information is not available in the CP. We
first derive a novel theoretical performance bound for the problem defined.
Then we propose four algorithms with different complexities to show the
tightness of the bound. The first two algorithms apply successive convex
optimizations with semi-definite relaxation idea where other two are adapted
from well-known beamforming design methods. The detailed simulations under
realistic channel conditions show that as the complexity of the algorithm
increases, the corresponding performance becomes closer to the bound.Comment: 30 pages, single column, 11 figures, submitted to Transactions on
Wireless Communications in Oct. 20, 2020. Major Revision decision was made in
Jan. 16, 2021. After the revision, it will be resubmitted to the same journal
until the end of February, 202
Integrated Data and Energy Communication Network: A Comprehensive Survey
OAPA In order to satisfy the power thirsty of communication devices in the imminent 5G era, wireless charging techniques have attracted much attention both from the academic and industrial communities. Although the inductive coupling and magnetic resonance based charging techniques are indeed capable of supplying energy in a wireless manner, they tend to restrict the freedom of movement. By contrast, RF signals are capable of supplying energy over distances, which are gradually inclining closer to our ultimate goal – charging anytime and anywhere. Furthermore, transmitters capable of emitting RF signals have been widely deployed, such as TV towers, cellular base stations and Wi-Fi access points. This communication infrastructure may indeed be employed also for wireless energy transfer (WET). Therefore, no extra investment in dedicated WET infrastructure is required. However, allowing RF signal based WET may impair the wireless information transfer (WIT) operating in the same spectrum. Hence, it is crucial to coordinate and balance WET and WIT for simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT), which evolves to Integrated Data and Energy communication Networks (IDENs). To this end, a ubiquitous IDEN architecture is introduced by summarising its natural heterogeneity and by synthesising a diverse range of integrated WET and WIT scenarios. Then the inherent relationship between WET and WIT is revealed from an information theoretical perspective, which is followed by the critical appraisal of the hardware enabling techniques extracting energy from RF signals. Furthermore, the transceiver design, resource allocation and user scheduling as well as networking aspects are elaborated on. In a nutshell, this treatise can be used as a handbook for researchers and engineers, who are interested in enriching their knowledge base of IDENs and in putting this vision into practice
Energy-Sustainable IoT Connectivity: Vision, Technological Enablers, Challenges, and Future Directions
Technology solutions must effectively balance economic growth, social equity,
and environmental integrity to achieve a sustainable society. Notably, although
the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm constitutes a key sustainability enabler,
critical issues such as the increasing maintenance operations, energy
consumption, and manufacturing/disposal of IoT devices have long-term negative
economic, societal, and environmental impacts and must be efficiently
addressed. This calls for self-sustainable IoT ecosystems requiring minimal
external resources and intervention, effectively utilizing renewable energy
sources, and recycling materials whenever possible, thus encompassing energy
sustainability. In this work, we focus on energy-sustainable IoT during the
operation phase, although our discussions sometimes extend to other
sustainability aspects and IoT lifecycle phases. Specifically, we provide a
fresh look at energy-sustainable IoT and identify energy provision, transfer,
and energy efficiency as the three main energy-related processes whose
harmonious coexistence pushes toward realizing self-sustainable IoT systems.
Their main related technologies, recent advances, challenges, and research
directions are also discussed. Moreover, we overview relevant performance
metrics to assess the energy-sustainability potential of a certain technique,
technology, device, or network and list some target values for the next
generation of wireless systems. Overall, this paper offers insights that are
valuable for advancing sustainability goals for present and future generations.Comment: 25 figures, 12 tables, submitted to IEEE Open Journal of the
Communications Societ
Total Cost of Ownership of Digital vs. Analog Radio-Over-Fiber Architectures for 5G Fronthauling
The article analyzes the total cost of ownership (TCO) of 5G fronthauling solutions based on analog and digital radio-over-fiber (RoF) architectures in cloud radio access networks (C-RANs). The capital and operational expenditures (CAPEX, OPEX) are assessed, for a 10-year period, considering three different RoF techniques: intermediate frequency analog RoF (IF-A-RoF), digital signal processing (DSP) assisted analog RoF (DSP-A-RoF), and digital RoF (D-RoF) based on the common public radio interface (CPRI) specifications. The greenfield deployment scenario under exam includes both fiber trenching (FT) and fiber leasing (FL) options. The TCO is assessed while varying (i) the number of aggregated subcarriers, (ii) the number of three-sector antennas located at the base station, and (iii) the mean fiber-hop length. The comparison highlights the significance that subcarrier aggregation has on the cost efficiency of the analog RoF solutions. In addition, the analysis details the contribution of each cost category to the overall CAPEX and OPEX values. The obtained results indicate that subcarrier aggregation via DSP results in high cost efficiency for a mobile fronthaul network, while a CPRI-based architecture together with FL brings the highest OPEX value
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