Novel Digital Radio over Fiber (DRoF) System with Data Compression for Neutral-Host Fronthaul Applications

© 2013 IEEE. Digital radio-over-fibre transmission has been studied extensively as a way of providing seamless last-mile wireless connectivity by carrying digitised radio frequency (RF) services over broadband optical infrastructures. With the growing demand on wireless capacity and the number of wireless services, a key challenge is the enormous scale of the digital data generated after the digitisation process. In turn, this leads to optical links needing to have very large capacity and hence, high capital expenditure (CAPEX). In this paper, we firstly present and then experimentally demonstrate a multiservice DRoF system for a neutral-host fronthaul link where both forward and reverse links use data compression, multiband multiplexing and synchronisation algorithms. The effect of a novel digital automatic gain control (DAGC) is comprehensively analysed to show an improved RF dynamic range alongside bit rate reduction. In this case, the system allows all cellular services from the three Chinese mobile network operators (MNOs) to be converged onto a single fiber infrastructure. We successfully demonstrate 14 wireless channels over a 10Gbps 20km optical link for indoor and outdoor wireless coverage, showing a minimum error value magnitude (EVM) of 60dB RF dynamic range. It is believed that the technology provides an ideal solution for last-mile wireless coverage in 5G and beyond

Towards efficient and reconfigurable next-generation optical fronthaul networks for massive MIMO

This paper summaries our recent research on digital radio over fibre (DRoF) based optical fronthaul links and experimentally demonstrates a novel last-mile wireless coverage system incorporating data compression, time-division multiplexing (TDM) based packetization, and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) based optical transmission. Compression reduces the fronthaul data rate required per service by a factor of 3 when compared with the common public radio interface (CPRI) standard, enabling efficient radio resource distribution over optical fibre infrastructure. The new packetization mechanism and WDM architecture enable fully reconfigurable resource allocation in a fronthaul network for 20MHz-bandwidth RF inputs with 64x64 MIMO carried over an aggregated compressed optical data rate of 32Gbps using 4 wavelengths. The experimental results show over 40dB RF dynamic range with < 8% error value magnitude (EVM) for the 64 quadrature amplitude modulation (64-QAM) input signals across all the WDM channels while the lowest EVM is less than 2%. Meanwhile, this field-programmable gate array (FPGA) based DRoF system allows flexible, software definable and easy-scalable dynamic antenna resource allocatio

Multi-service Digital Radio over Fibre System with Millimetre Wave Bridging

© 2018 IEEE. This paper demonstrates a novel digital radio over fibre (DRoF) architecture that is able to transport multiple compressed digitised RF services using both optical fibre and wireless millimetre wave (mmW) links. This solution has advantages as a cost effective indoor wireless infrastructure where flexible transmission schemes are required. Experimental results indicate wide RF dynamic range for two LTE services transmitted simultaneously, showing its capability for creating a neutral-host radio access network (RAN) with good spectral efficiency and cost effectiveness

Real-time Experimental Demonstration of Timestamped Digitised Radio over Switched Optical Ethernet Fronthaul

This paper experimentally demonstrates a novel digitised RF service transmission with data compression over switched 10Gbps optical Ethernet fronthaul showing low latency (<2.4µs), high transmission efficiency (~1/3 that of CPRI) and wide dynamic range (40dB)

Diseño y simulacion de un sistema de radio-sobre-fibra incluyendo demodulación basada en machine learning

RESUMEN: El enfoque de este trabajo se centra en las redes hibridas con el propósito de aumentar las tasas de transmisión, extender el alcance y reducir la tasa de error de bit (BER); para ello se caracterizó un sistema de red híbrido de Radio Sobre Fibra, operando en las frecuencias, 60, 75 y 82 GHz; siendo la de 60 GHz banda de uso libre y las de 75 y 82 GHz bandas estandarizadas para las redes 5G, de este modo se logró determinar la viabilidad del modelo y su alcance, además se implementó técnicas de Machine Learning que mejoraron el desempeño de la red, en términos de la BER. Esta propuesta se dividió en dos etapas, en la primera etapa se desarrolló un esquema de simulación en el software VPI photonicsDesignSuite en el que se desarrolló un sistema de Radio sobre Fibra, se caracterizaron parámetros del sistema tales como: ancho de línea del láser, frecuencia de operación de la portadora, tasa de transmisión, longitud de la fibra de óptica operando en la banda de ondas milimétricas, lo que determinó el alcance y desempeño del sistema. Por otro lado, se logró evidenciar el comportamiento cíclico debido a la dispersión cromática muy notable en la banda de ondas milimétricas que limitó el alcance y desempeño del sistema, para mitigar sus efectos se implementaron técnicas de ecualización y de Machine Learning los cuales mejoraron el desempeño de la red obteniendo una reducción en la BER de hasta dos órdenes de magnitud para algunos casos. En la segunda etapa del trabajo se caracterizó la etapa eléctrica de una red de comunicación utilizando un sistema de radio definido por software (SDR), el esquema se desarrolló utilizando el software de simulación GNU Radio en el cual se implementó para la transmisión un formato de modulación en fase conocido como QPSK. Por otro lado, se determinó el desempeño del sistema midiéndolo a través de la BER, además de utilizar algoritmos de ecualización y de Machine Learning que permiten compensar el ruido que está inmerso en un sistema de comunicación

Multiservice Ethernet Digital Distributed Antenna Systems

Over 90% of wireless communications traffic occurs indoors and in-building wireless coverage is still one of the biggest obstacles for wireless users. As the growing demands on wireless capacity, coverage and connectivity have led to 4G and 5G standards, it has also become increasingly important to design and implement future-proof indoor wireless services in a cost effective manner. This thesis introduces a novel multi-service digital distributed antenna systems (DDAS) for indoor wireless coverage, which not only is able to transport multiple wireless carriers from different vendors and mobile operators, but also allows a converged architecture to integrate indoor wireless system with existing Ethernet infrastructures. The Cloud Radio Access Networks (C-RAN) has been suggested by major telecom vendors as the main architecture for last-mile coverage in 5G. However, the digital fronthaul interface defined in common public radio interface (CPRI), which is most widely adopted standard for C-RAN, requires very expensive infrastructures to be built due to the high data rate generated after digitisation. A solution has been introduced at the University of Cambridge previously to remove the digital redundancy by using a data compression technique which has shown 3-times higher transmission efficiency than CPRI. This thesis extends the concept to a more robust architecture allowing multiple wireless services to be transmitted simultaneously as well as being carried over standard Ethernet without losing the Quality of End-user Experience (QoE) and the Quality of Service (QoS) of in-building mobile network. A two-channel DDAS system with data compression algorithm is experimentally demonstrated, showing wide RF dynamic range for both 4G LTE service and 3G WCDMA service simultaneously carried over a single fibre-based infrastructure. The system leads to the design and implementation of full-service DDAS system allowing 14 channels (all 2/3/4G service from three major mobile operators) to be carried over single 10Gbps network. Typically, the system using CPRI will need over 30Gbps network to be installed for wireless coverage. Another key aspect covered in this thesis is the design and implementation of the multi-service DDAS over Ethernet (Eth-DDAS). Due to the stringent latency requirement in wireless services, mitigation of delays and errors in frame ordering has become a key challenge for putting DDAS over Ethernet. To overcome these problems, a special Eth-DDAS frame structure is proposed in this thesis. After digitisation, digital signal bearing RF information is packetised onto Ethernet-compatible frames with additional timestamps and sequence numbers before transported via fibre to the receiver. Three latency scenarios are tested with different payload sizes of the proposed frame structure and real-time RF performance is measured to prove the capability of implementation of such system in real-life using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) ADC/DAC and FPGAs

MIMO RADIO-OVER-FIBRE DISTRIBUTED ANTENNA SYSTEM FOR NEXT GENERATION WIRELESS COMMUNICATION

This thesis introduces low-cost implementations for the next generation distributed antenna system (DAS) using analogue radio over fibre. A multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) enabled radio over fibre (RoF) system using double sideband (DSB) frequency translation system is proposed. In such a system, the 2x2 MIMO signals can be transmitted to the remote antenna units (RAUs) from the base station via a single optical link. By using the DSB frequency translation, the original single-input-single-output (SISO) DAS can be upgraded into the MIMO DAS without implementing parallel optical links. Experimentally, the DSB frequency translation 2x2 MIMO RoF system transmits 2x2 LTE MIMO signals with 20MHz bandwidth in each channel via a 300m MMF link. The condition number of the system is <10dB within the power equaliser bandwidth which means the MIMO system is well-conditioned and the crosstalk between the channels can be compensated by the MIMO signal processing. To install the DSB frequency translation system in a wideband service-agnostic DAS, the original MIMO signals need to be translated into unoccupied frequency bands over the DAS, which are usually occupied by specific applications that are not to be transmitted over the DAS. The frequency spectrum allocation of the wireless services is analysed showing that by choosing a particular LO frequency (2.2GHz in the UK), in the DSB frequency translation system, the original MIMO signals can always be translated into unoccupied frequency bands so that the same infrastructure can support multiple services. The idea of DSB frequency translation system can not only support MIMO radio over fibre but can also improve the SFDR of a general radio over fibre system. Because when the upper sideband and the lower sideband of the signal after translation are converted back to the original frequency band, the noise adds incoherently but the signals add-up coherently, this gives the system theoretically 2dB 3rd order SFDR improvement. If the idea of the DSB frequency translation is extended into a higher number of sidebands, the system SFDR can be further improved. Experimentally, the system 3rd order SFDR can be improved beyond the intrinsic optical link by 2.7dB by using quadruple sideband (QSB) frequency translation. It means the optical bandwidth in a general RoF system can be traded for the electrical SFDR. By integrating the analogue and the digital RoF systems, a hybrid DAS has been demonstrated, showing that the EVM dynamic range for the 4G LTE service (using digital RoF link) can be improved to be similar to the 3G UMTS service (using analogue RoF link), so that fewer number of RAUs for the LTE services are needed

Optimization of 5G Second Phase Heterogeneous Radio Access Networks with Small Cells

Due to the exponential increase in high data-demanding applications and their services per coverage area, it is becoming challenging for the existing cellular network to handle the massive sum of users with their demands. It is conceded to network operators that the current wireless network may not be capable to shelter future traffic demands. To overcome the challenges the operators are taking interest in efficiently deploying the heterogeneous network. Currently, 5G is in the commercialization phase. Network evolution with addition of small cells will develop the existing wireless network with its enriched capabilities and innovative features. Presently, the 5G global standardization has introduced the 5G New Radio (NR) under the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). It can support a wide range of frequency bands (<6 GHz to 100 GHz). For different trends and verticals, 5G NR encounters, functional splitting and its cost evaluation are well-thought-out. The aspects of network slicing to the assessment of the business opportunities and allied standardization endeavours are illustrated. The study explores the carrier aggregation (Pico cellular) technique for 4G to bring high spectral efficiency with the support of small cell massification while benefiting from statistical multiplexing gain. One has been able to obtain values for the goodput considering CA in LTE-Sim (4G), of 40 Mbps for a cell radius of 500 m and of 29 Mbps for a cell radius of 50 m, which is 3 times higher than without CA scenario (2.6 GHz plus 3.5 GHz frequency bands). Heterogeneous networks have been under investigation for many years. Heterogeneous network can improve users service quality and resource utilization compared to homogeneous networks. Quality of service can be enhanced by putting the small cells (Femtocells or Picocells) inside the Microcells or Macrocells coverage area. Deploying indoor Femtocells for 5G inside the Macro cellular network can reduce the network cost. Some service providers have started their solutions for indoor users but there are still many challenges to be addressed. The 5G air-simulator is updated to deploy indoor Femto-cell with proposed assumptions with uniform distribution. For all the possible combinations of apartments side length and transmitter power, the maximum number of supported numbers surpassed the number of users by more than two times compared to papers mentioned in the literature. Within outdoor environments, this study also proposed small cells optimization by putting the Pico cells within a Macro cell to obtain low latency and high data rate with the statistical multiplexing gain of the associated users. Results are presented 5G NR functional split six and split seven, for three frequency bands (2.6 GHz, 3.5GHz and 5.62 GHz). Based on the analysis for shorter radius values, the best is to select the 2.6 GHz to achieve lower PLR and to support a higher number of users, with better goodput, and higher profit (for cell radius u to 400 m). In 4G, with CA, from the analysis of the economic trade-off with Picocell, the Enhanced multi-band scheduler EMBS provide higher revenue, compared to those without CA. It is clearly shown that the profit of CA is more than 4 times than in the without CA scenario. This means that the slight increase in the cost of CA gives back more than 4-time profit relatively to the ”without” CA scenario.Devido ao aumento exponencial de aplicações/serviços de elevado débito por unidade de área, torna-se bastante exigente, para a rede celular existente, lidar com a enormes quantidades de utilizadores e seus requisitos. É reconhecido que as redes móveis e sem fios atuais podem não conseguir suportar a procura de tráfego junto dos operadores. Para responder a estes desafios, os operadores estão-se a interessar pelo desenvolvimento de redes heterogéneas eficientes. Atualmente, a 5G está na fase de comercialização. A evolução destas redes concretizar-se-á com a introdução de pequenas células com aptidões melhoradas e características inovadoras. No presente, os organismos de normalização da 5G globais introduziram os Novos Rádios (NR) 5G no contexto do 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). A 5G pode suportar uma gama alargada de bandas de frequência (<6 a 100 GHz). Abordam-se as divisões funcionais e avaliam-se os seus custos para as diferentes tendências e verticais dos NR 5G. Ilustram-se desde os aspetos de particionamento funcional da rede à avaliação das oportunidades de negócio, aliadas aos esforços de normalização. Exploram-se as técnicas de agregação de espetro (do inglês, CA) para pico células, em 4G, a disponibilização de eficiência espetral, com o suporte da massificação de pequenas células, e o ganho de multiplexagem estatística associado. Obtiveram-se valores do débito binário útil, considerando CA no LTE-Sim (4G), de 40 e 29 Mb/s para células de raios 500 e 50 m, respetivamente, três vezes superiores em relação ao caso sem CA (bandas de 2.6 mais 3.5 GHz). Nas redes heterogéneas, alvo de investigação há vários anos, a qualidade de serviço e a utilização de recursos podem ser melhoradas colocando pequenas células (femto- ou pico-células) dentro da área de cobertura de micro- ou macro-células). O desenvolvimento de pequenas células 5G dentro da rede com macro-células pode reduzir os custos da rede. Alguns prestadores de serviços iniciaram as suas soluções para ambientes de interior, mas ainda existem muitos desafios a ser ultrapassados. Atualizou-se o 5G air simulator para representar a implantação de femto-células de interior com os pressupostos propostos e distribuição espacial uniforme. Para todas as combinações possíveis do comprimento lado do apartamento, o número máximo de utilizadores suportado ultrapassou o número de utilizadores suportado (na literatura) em mais de duas vezes. Em ambientes de exterior, propuseram-se pico-células no interior de macro-células, de forma a obter atraso extremo-a-extremo reduzido e taxa de transmissão dados elevada, resultante do ganho de multiplexagem estatística associado. Apresentam-se resultados para as divisões funcionais seis e sete dos NR 5G, para 2.6 GHz, 3.5GHz e 5.62 GHz. Para raios das células curtos, a melhor solução será selecionar a banda dos 2.6 GHz para alcançar PLR (do inglês, PLR) reduzido e suportar um maior número de utilizadores, com débito binário útil e lucro mais elevados (para raios das células até 400 m). Em 4G, com CA, da análise do equilíbrio custos-proveitos com pico-células, o escalonamento multi-banda EMBS (do inglês, Enhanced Multi-band Scheduler) disponibiliza proveitos superiores em comparação com o caso sem CA. Mostra-se claramente que lucro com CA é mais de quatro vezes superior do que no cenário sem CA, o que significa que um aumento ligeiro no custo com CA resulta num aumento de 4-vezes no lucro relativamente ao cenário sem CA

Análisis de estrategias comunicacionales para la radio digital ‘Éxitos FM’

A partir del surgimiento de la radio, este medio ha evolucionado adoptando, en la actualidad, distintos formatos digitales con los que adquiere ventajas que potencian la producción de información, formación, recreación y espacios de opinión pública. En el actual contexto comunicacional, los espacios virtuales son la clave para que todo mensaje que se emita desde un medio de comunicación digital pueda ser difundido mediante el uso profesional de las herramientas necesarias para generar tendencia en las audiencias previamente estudiadas y categorizadas. De la misma forma, la radio digital crea estas preferencias utilizando contenidos relevantes para la sociedad, además, los medios de comunicación digitales tienen la posibilidad de ambientar y promocionar programas con un estilo y objetivos específicos, en base a la información especializada. Nada de esto sería posible si no existiera Internet; esta herramienta abre un sin número de posibilidades, que permiten crear, impulsar y crecer a los medios digitales. En el caso puntual de la radio digital, ésta permite inscribir y efectuar una relación directa con la gente, ya sea por la interactividad o dinamismo que se tiene en este “nuevo medio”. El presente trabajo pretende examinar las estrategias comunicacionales de las que se vale un medio digital, como ‘Éxitos FM’, sus programas, para lograr un impacto adecuado en el cumplimiento de sus objetivos.Since the emergence of radio, this medium has evolved adopting, at present, different digital formats with which it acquires advantages that enhance its broadcasting capabilities and its scope, in addition to constantly generating information, recreation and spaces for public opinion. In the current communicational context, virtual spaces are the key so that any message that is emitted from a digital communication medium can be disseminated through the professional use of the necessary tools to generate a trend in previously studied and categorized audiences. In the same way, digital radio creates these preferences using relevant content for society, in addition, digital media have the possibility of setting and promoting programs with a specific style and objectives, based on specialized information. None of this would be possible if the Internet did not exist; This tool opens up a number of possibilities that allow digital media to be created, promoted and grown. In the specific case of digital radio, it allows registering and making a direct relationship with people, either due to the interactivity or dynamism it has in this "new medium". The present work aims to examine the communicational strategies that a digital medium uses, such as ‘Éxitos FM’, its programs, to achieve an adequate impact in the fulfillment of its objectives