Multi-gigabit microwave and millimeter-wave communications research at CSIRO

© 2014 IEEE. High speed and long range wireless backhauls are cost-effective alternatives to fibre networks and becoming more and more attractive as the demand for broadband wireless services grows rapidly in recent years. However, current commercially available wireless backhaul systems neither provide sufficiently high speed nor meet the requirements to achieve both high speed and long range at the same time with sufficiently low latency for targeted applications. Traditional microwave systems can achieve long transmission range, but the data rates are limited to a few hundred Mega bits per second only. Multi-Gigabit wireless communications can be achieved using millimetre-wave (mm-wave) frequency bands, especially the E-bands, but the practical transmission range is still a major weakness. In this paper, the state-of-the-art microwave and mm-wave technologies developed at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) are introduced to demonstrate CSIRO's technology leadership in multi-Gigabit wireless communications research and development. The technology trends in multi-Gigabit wireless communications are also discussed and various recently developed microwave and mm-wave systems are compared. It is hoped that this paper will stimulate further research interest and industry development

Implementation of wideband digital beam forming in the E-band

This paper reports the test results of a small-scale prototype that implements a digitally beam-formed phased antenna array in the E-band. A four-channel dual-conversion receive RF module for 71â€"76 GHz frequency band has been developed and integrated with a linear end-fire antenna array. Wideband frequency-domain angle-of-arrival estimation and beam-forming algorithms were developed and implemented using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) with Quadrature Phase-Shift Keying (QPSK) at 1 Gbps. Measured performance is very close to the simulated results and experimental data for an analogue-beam-formed array. This work is a stepping stone toward practical realization of larger hybrid arrays in the E-band. © 2011 Cambridge University Press and the European Microwave Association

Adaptive Antenna Arrays for Ad-Hoc Millimetre-Wave Wireless Communications

New technologies that employ millimetre-wave frequency bands to achieve high speed wireless links are gaining more attention (Dyadyuk et. al., 2007, 2009b, 2010a; Hirata et. al., 2006; Lockie & Peck, 2009; Kasugi et. al., 2009; Wells, 2009) due to increasing demand for wideband wireless communications. Very wide uncongested spectrum is available in the E—bands (71-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz) recently allocated for wireless communications in USA, Europe, Korea, Russia and Australia. The E-band provides an opportunity for line-of – sight (LOS) links with higher data rates, well suited for fibre replacement and backhaul applications. Future mobile and ad-hoc communications networks will require higher bandwidth and longer range. An ad-hoc or mobile (e.g. inter-aircraft) network that relies on high gain antennas also requires beam scanning. Adaptive antenna arrays have found a wide rage of applications and are becoming essential parts of wireless communications systems (Abbaspour-Tamijani & Sarabandi, 2003; Do-Hong & Russer, 2004; Gross, 2005; Guo, 2004; Krim & Viberg, 1996; Mailloux, 2005, 2007; Rogstad et al., 2003; Singh et al., 2008). While the spectrum available in the millimetre-wave frequency bands enables multi-gigabit-per second data rates, the practically achievable communication range is limited by several factors. These include the higher atmospheric attenuation at these frequencies and limited output power of monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC) (Doan et al., 2004; Dyadyuk et al., 2008a; Kasper et al., 2009; Floyd et al., 2007; Reynolds et. al., 2006; Vamsi et. al., 2005, Zirath et al., 2004) due to physical constraints. Therefore, the performance of the ad-hoc or mobile millimetre-wave networks requires enhancement by using spatial power combining antenna arrays

Multi-Gigabit Wireless Link Development

CSIRO ICT Centre is developing millimetre wave point-to-point links suitable for multi-gigabit wireless connectivity. Suitable spectrum for this purpose is allocated at the 60 GHz band and above. This paper reports a new point-to-point link that will be installed at Marsfield site to demonstrate multi-gigabit operation and performance of its key components. The link will operate at the 81-86 GHz band incorporating CSIRO designed millimetre wave MMICs and multi-gigabit modems

Low-complexity multiuser receiver for massive hybrid array mmwave communications

© 1972-2012 IEEE. In this paper, we study the low complexity reception of multiuser signals in uplink millimeter wave (mmWave) communications using a partially connected hybrid antenna array. Exploiting the mmWave channel property, we propose a low-complexity user-directed multiuser receiver with three novel schemes for allocating subarrays to users. This receiver only requires the knowledge of angles-of-Arrival (AoAs) for dominating paths and a small amount of equivalent channel information instead of perfect channel state information. For comparison, we also derive a successive interference cancellation-based solution as a performance benchmark. We design two types of reference signals with the channel estimation method to enable efficient and simple estimation for AoA and equivalent baseband channel. Also, we provide analytical results for the performance of the AoA estimation, using the lower bounds of mean square errors in line-of-sight dominated mmWave channels. The simulation results validate that the proposed channel estimation method is effective when employed in combination with a zero-forcing equalizer

Photonics Based Techniques for Millimeter-Wave Generation, Transmission, and Multiplexing

Millimeter-waves have found wide application in various fields. In this research, MMW generation, transmitting and receiving, multiplexing techniques are investigated. Three ways of MMW generation based on photonics are discussed. By modeling these three techniques and applying different situations of transmission links up to 100 km and fixed bit rate of 2.5 Gb/s, different results were found and compared to each other. Also, the effect of chromatic dispersion is discussed in addition to the phase conjugation way of dispersion compensation. Dispersion compensation based on phase conjugation was also simulated and applied to OSSB millimeter-wave generator in order to transmit the generated signals through 100 km of fiber and data rate of 10 Gb/s without dispersion effect

Advanced Trends in Wireless Communications

Physical limitations on wireless communication channels impose huge challenges to reliable communication. Bandwidth limitations, propagation loss, noise and interference make the wireless channel a narrow pipe that does not readily accommodate rapid flow of data. Thus, researches aim to design systems that are suitable to operate in such channels, in order to have high performance quality of service. Also, the mobility of the communication systems requires further investigations to reduce the complexity and the power consumption of the receiver. This book aims to provide highlights of the current research in the field of wireless communications. The subjects discussed are very valuable to communication researchers rather than researchers in the wireless related areas. The book chapters cover a wide range of wireless communication topics

SiGe Millimeter-Wave (W-Band) Down-Converter for Phased Focal Plane Array

A millimeter-wave (W-Band) down-converter for Phased Focal Plane Arrays (PFPAs) has been designed and fabricated using the IBM Silicon-Germanium (SiGe) BiCMOS 8HP process technology. The radio frequency (RF) input range of the down-converter chip is from 70 95GHz. The intermediate frequency (IF) range is from 5 30GHz. The local oscillator (LO) frequency is fixed at 65GHz. The down-converter chip has been designed to achieve a conversion gain greater than 20dB, a noise figure (NF) below 10dB and input return loss greater than 10dB. The chip also has novel LO circuitry facilitating LO feed-through among down-converters chips in parallel. This wide bandwidth down-converter will be part of millimeter-wave PFPA receiver designed and fabricated in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Department of Astronomy. This PFPA receiver will be installed on Green Bank Telescope (GMT) / Large millimeter wave telescope (LMT) in Q2 of 2014. This project is collaboration between the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (UMass), Brigham Young University (BYU) and National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is first wide bandwidth down-converter at W-band to achieve this high gain and low noise figure among Si/SiGe based systems

mm-Wave Systems for High Data Rate Wireless Consumer Applications

ISM spectrum at 60GHz has attracted attention for possible high-speed applications in wireless communications for well over ten years. However, no high volume applications have emerged. Despite progress in mm-wave ICs, the power and cost of these efforts have not reached the level needed for mass deployment. This paper summarises the ARC funded GLIMMR project which aims to remedy this situation by designing systems on silicon that have both low cost and low power. In particular, the paper presents design work done to date that indicate that silicon (particularly SiGe) is on the cusp of being able to provide economical mm-wave systems

Wireless Applications of Radio Frequency Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems

With mass proliferation of wireless communication technologies, there is a continuous demand on fast data transmission rate and efficient use of frequency spectrum. As a result, reconfigurable systems are of significant importance and research is being conducted in numerous universities. The purpose of this research is to develop novel RF MEMS based reconfigurable wireless systems. By utilizing the RF MEMS switches as a basic building block, this thesis focus on developing a unique design technique for the design and development of RF MEMS delay line phase shifter, frequency reconfigurable antennas and pattern reconfigurable antennas. This thesis work is divided into four parts: 1. Investigation and development of nano-electro-mechanical systems (NEMS) based 3-bit phase shifter. Analyzing the slow wave structure to further reduce the size of delay line phase shifter. 2. Development of frequency reconfigurable antennas to compete with broadband and multi-band antennas. Two novel MEMS-loaded frequency reconfigurable antennas were designed with spectrum switchable between WPAN band (57 to 66 GHz) and the whole E-band (71 to 86 GHz). 3. Investigation of microstrip-to-coplanar striplines (CPS) transition balun used for antennas to explain the inherent phase delay of this type of structure. Based on the discovery, a pattern reconfigurable quasi-Yagi antenna was designed. The antenna exhibits excellent RF performance, compact size and switchable end-fire radiation pattern with the goal to replacing existing phased array antennas. It has the full functionality of a multi-antenna phased array plus phase shifting network while its size is same as a fixed single Yagi antenna. 4. Development of full seven masks all metal fabrication process of the RF MEMS integrated reconfigurable antennas. The fabrication processes are optimized based on Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF) New South Wales node’s equipment