1,730 research outputs found
Ubiquitous Cell-Free Massive MIMO Communications
Since the first cellular networks were trialled in the 1970s, we have
witnessed an incredible wireless revolution. From 1G to 4G, the massive traffic
growth has been managed by a combination of wider bandwidths, refined radio
interfaces, and network densification, namely increasing the number of antennas
per site. Due its cost-efficiency, the latter has contributed the most. Massive
MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) is a key 5G technology that uses massive
antenna arrays to provide a very high beamforming gain and spatially
multiplexing of users, and hence, increases the spectral and energy efficiency.
It constitutes a centralized solution to densify a network, and its performance
is limited by the inter-cell interference inherent in its cell-centric design.
Conversely, ubiquitous cell-free Massive MIMO refers to a distributed Massive
MIMO system implementing coherent user-centric transmission to overcome the
inter-cell interference limitation in cellular networks and provide additional
macro-diversity. These features, combined with the system scalability inherent
in the Massive MIMO design, distinguishes ubiquitous cell-free Massive MIMO
from prior coordinated distributed wireless systems. In this article, we
investigate the enormous potential of this promising technology while
addressing practical deployment issues to deal with the increased
back/front-hauling overhead deriving from the signal co-processing.Comment: Published in EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and
Networking on August 5, 201
AirSync: Enabling Distributed Multiuser MIMO with Full Spatial Multiplexing
The enormous success of advanced wireless devices is pushing the demand for
higher wireless data rates. Denser spectrum reuse through the deployment of
more access points per square mile has the potential to successfully meet the
increasing demand for more bandwidth. In theory, the best approach to density
increase is via distributed multiuser MIMO, where several access points are
connected to a central server and operate as a large distributed multi-antenna
access point, ensuring that all transmitted signal power serves the purpose of
data transmission, rather than creating "interference." In practice, while
enterprise networks offer a natural setup in which distributed MIMO might be
possible, there are serious implementation difficulties, the primary one being
the need to eliminate phase and timing offsets between the jointly coordinated
access points.
In this paper we propose AirSync, a novel scheme which provides not only time
but also phase synchronization, thus enabling distributed MIMO with full
spatial multiplexing gains. AirSync locks the phase of all access points using
a common reference broadcasted over the air in conjunction with a Kalman filter
which closely tracks the phase drift. We have implemented AirSync as a digital
circuit in the FPGA of the WARP radio platform. Our experimental testbed,
comprised of two access points and two clients, shows that AirSync is able to
achieve phase synchronization within a few degrees, and allows the system to
nearly achieve the theoretical optimal multiplexing gain. We also discuss MAC
and higher layer aspects of a practical deployment. To the best of our
knowledge, AirSync offers the first ever realization of the full multiuser MIMO
gain, namely the ability to increase the number of wireless clients linearly
with the number of jointly coordinated access points, without reducing the per
client rate.Comment: Submitted to Transactions on Networkin
Timing and Carrier Synchronization in Wireless Communication Systems: A Survey and Classification of Research in the Last 5 Years
Timing and carrier synchronization is a fundamental requirement for any wireless communication system to work properly. Timing synchronization is the process by which a receiver node determines the correct instants of time at which to sample the incoming signal. Carrier synchronization is the process by which a receiver adapts the frequency and phase of its local carrier oscillator with those of the received signal. In this paper, we survey the literature over the last 5 years (2010–2014) and present a comprehensive literature review and classification of the recent research progress in achieving timing and carrier synchronization in single-input single-output (SISO), multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), cooperative relaying, and multiuser/multicell interference networks. Considering both single-carrier and multi-carrier communication systems, we survey and categorize the timing and carrier synchronization techniques proposed for the different communication systems focusing on the system model assumptions for synchronization, the synchronization challenges, and the state-of-the-art synchronization solutions and their limitations. Finally, we envision some future research directions
Optimal Pilot Symbols Ratio in terms of Spectrum and Energy Efficiency in Uplink CoMP Networks
In wireless networks, Spectrum Efficiency (SE) and Energy Efficiency (EE) can
be affected by the channel estimation that needs to be well designed in
practice. In this paper, considering channel estimation error and non-ideal
backhaul links, we optimize the pilot symbols ratio in terms of SE and EE in
uplink Coordinated Multi-point (CoMP) networks. Modeling the channel estimation
error, we formulate the SE and EE maximization problems by analyzing the system
capacity with imperfect channel estimation. The maximal system capacity in SE
optimization and the minimal transmit power in EE optimization, which both have
the closed-form expressions, are derived by some reasonable approximations to
reduce the complexity of solving complicated equations. Simulations are carried
out to validate the superiority of our scheme, verify the accuracy of our
approximation, and show the effect of pilot symbols ratio.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 2017 IEEE 85th Vehicular Technology Conference
(VTC Spring
5GNOW: Challenging the LTE Design Paradigms of Orthogonality and Synchronicity
LTE and LTE-Advanced have been optimized to deliver high bandwidth pipes to
wireless users. The transport mechanisms have been tailored to maximize single
cell performance by enforcing strict synchronism and orthogonality within a
single cell and within a single contiguous frequency band. Various emerging
trends reveal major shortcomings of those design criteria: 1) The fraction of
machine-type-communications (MTC) is growing fast. Transmissions of this kind
are suffering from the bulky procedures necessary to ensure strict synchronism.
2) Collaborative schemes have been introduced to boost capacity and coverage
(CoMP), and wireless networks are becoming more and more heterogeneous
following the non-uniform distribution of users. Tremendous efforts must be
spent to collect the gains and to manage such systems under the premise of
strict synchronism and orthogonality. 3) The advent of the Digital Agenda and
the introduction of carrier aggregation are forcing the transmission systems to
deal with fragmented spectrum. 5GNOW is an European research project supported
by the European Commission within FP7 ICT Call 8. It will question the design
targets of LTE and LTE-Advanced having these shortcomings in mind and the
obedience to strict synchronism and orthogonality will be challenged. It will
develop new PHY and MAC layer concepts being better suited to meet the upcoming
needs with respect to service variety and heterogeneous transmission setups.
Wireless transmission networks following the outcomes of 5GNOW will be better
suited to meet the manifoldness of services, device classes and transmission
setups present in envisioned future scenarios like smart cities. The
integration of systems relying heavily on MTC into the communication network
will be eased. The per-user experience will be more uniform and satisfying. To
ensure this 5GNOW will contribute to upcoming 5G standardization.Comment: Submitted to Workshop on Mobile and Wireless Communication Systems
for 2020 and beyond (at IEEE VTC 2013, Spring
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