5,719 research outputs found
Massive MIMO is a Reality -- What is Next? Five Promising Research Directions for Antenna Arrays
Massive MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) is no longer a "wild" or
"promising" concept for future cellular networks - in 2018 it became a reality.
Base stations (BSs) with 64 fully digital transceiver chains were commercially
deployed in several countries, the key ingredients of Massive MIMO have made it
into the 5G standard, the signal processing methods required to achieve
unprecedented spectral efficiency have been developed, and the limitation due
to pilot contamination has been resolved. Even the development of fully digital
Massive MIMO arrays for mmWave frequencies - once viewed prohibitively
complicated and costly - is well underway. In a few years, Massive MIMO with
fully digital transceivers will be a mainstream feature at both sub-6 GHz and
mmWave frequencies. In this paper, we explain how the first chapter of the
Massive MIMO research saga has come to an end, while the story has just begun.
The coming wide-scale deployment of BSs with massive antenna arrays opens the
door to a brand new world where spatial processing capabilities are
omnipresent. In addition to mobile broadband services, the antennas can be used
for other communication applications, such as low-power machine-type or
ultra-reliable communications, as well as non-communication applications such
as radar, sensing and positioning. We outline five new Massive MIMO related
research directions: Extremely large aperture arrays, Holographic Massive MIMO,
Six-dimensional positioning, Large-scale MIMO radar, and Intelligent Massive
MIMO.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Digital Signal Processin
Robotic Wireless Sensor Networks
In this chapter, we present a literature survey of an emerging, cutting-edge,
and multi-disciplinary field of research at the intersection of Robotics and
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) which we refer to as Robotic Wireless Sensor
Networks (RWSN). We define a RWSN as an autonomous networked multi-robot system
that aims to achieve certain sensing goals while meeting and maintaining
certain communication performance requirements, through cooperative control,
learning and adaptation. While both of the component areas, i.e., Robotics and
WSN, are very well-known and well-explored, there exist a whole set of new
opportunities and research directions at the intersection of these two fields
which are relatively or even completely unexplored. One such example would be
the use of a set of robotic routers to set up a temporary communication path
between a sender and a receiver that uses the controlled mobility to the
advantage of packet routing. We find that there exist only a limited number of
articles to be directly categorized as RWSN related works whereas there exist a
range of articles in the robotics and the WSN literature that are also relevant
to this new field of research. To connect the dots, we first identify the core
problems and research trends related to RWSN such as connectivity,
localization, routing, and robust flow of information. Next, we classify the
existing research on RWSN as well as the relevant state-of-the-arts from
robotics and WSN community according to the problems and trends identified in
the first step. Lastly, we analyze what is missing in the existing literature,
and identify topics that require more research attention in the future
A Tutorial on Environment-Aware Communications via Channel Knowledge Map for 6G
Sixth-generation (6G) mobile communication networks are expected to have
dense infrastructures, large-dimensional channels, cost-effective hardware,
diversified positioning methods, and enhanced intelligence. Such trends bring
both new challenges and opportunities for the practical design of 6G. On one
hand, acquiring channel state information (CSI) in real time for all wireless
links becomes quite challenging in 6G. On the other hand, there would be
numerous data sources in 6G containing high-quality location-tagged channel
data, making it possible to better learn the local wireless environment. By
exploiting such new opportunities and for tackling the CSI acquisition
challenge, there is a promising paradigm shift from the conventional
environment-unaware communications to the new environment-aware communications
based on the novel approach of channel knowledge map (CKM). This article aims
to provide a comprehensive tutorial overview on environment-aware
communications enabled by CKM to fully harness its benefits for 6G. First, the
basic concept of CKM is presented, and a comparison of CKM with various
existing channel inference techniques is discussed. Next, the main techniques
for CKM construction are discussed, including both the model-free and
model-assisted approaches. Furthermore, a general framework is presented for
the utilization of CKM to achieve environment-aware communications, followed by
some typical CKM-aided communication scenarios. Finally, important open
problems in CKM research are highlighted and potential solutions are discussed
to inspire future work
Spectrum cartography techniques, challenges, opportunities, and applications: A survey
The spectrum cartography finds applications in several areas such as cognitive radios, spectrum aware communications, machine-type communications, Internet of Things, connected vehicles, wireless sensor networks, and radio frequency management systems, etc. This paper presents a survey on state-of-the-art of spectrum cartography techniques for the construction of various radio environment maps (REMs). Following a brief overview on spectrum cartography, various techniques considered to construct the REMs such as channel gain map, power spectral density map, power map, spectrum map, power propagation map, radio frequency map, and interference map are reviewed. In this paper, we compare the performance of the different spectrum cartography methods in terms of mean absolute error, mean square error, normalized mean square error, and root mean square error. The information presented in this paper aims to serve as a practical reference guide for various spectrum cartography methods for constructing different REMs. Finally, some of the open issues and challenges for future research and development are discussed.publishedVersio
Hybrid Satellite-Terrestrial Communication Networks for the Maritime Internet of Things: Key Technologies, Opportunities, and Challenges
With the rapid development of marine activities, there has been an increasing
number of maritime mobile terminals, as well as a growing demand for high-speed
and ultra-reliable maritime communications to keep them connected.
Traditionally, the maritime Internet of Things (IoT) is enabled by maritime
satellites. However, satellites are seriously restricted by their high latency
and relatively low data rate. As an alternative, shore & island-based base
stations (BSs) can be built to extend the coverage of terrestrial networks
using fourth-generation (4G), fifth-generation (5G), and beyond 5G services.
Unmanned aerial vehicles can also be exploited to serve as aerial maritime BSs.
Despite of all these approaches, there are still open issues for an efficient
maritime communication network (MCN). For example, due to the complicated
electromagnetic propagation environment, the limited geometrically available BS
sites, and rigorous service demands from mission-critical applications,
conventional communication and networking theories and methods should be
tailored for maritime scenarios. Towards this end, we provide a survey on the
demand for maritime communications, the state-of-the-art MCNs, and key
technologies for enhancing transmission efficiency, extending network coverage,
and provisioning maritime-specific services. Future challenges in developing an
environment-aware, service-driven, and integrated satellite-air-ground MCN to
be smart enough to utilize external auxiliary information, e.g., sea state and
atmosphere conditions, are also discussed
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