Enabling Technologies for Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communications: From PHY and MAC Layer Perspectives

© 1998-2012 IEEE. Future 5th generation networks are expected to enable three key services-enhanced mobile broadband, massive machine type communications and ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC). As per the 3rd generation partnership project URLLC requirements, it is expected that the reliability of one transmission of a 32 byte packet will be at least 99.999% and the latency will be at most 1 ms. This unprecedented level of reliability and latency will yield various new applications, such as smart grids, industrial automation and intelligent transport systems. In this survey we present potential future URLLC applications, and summarize the corresponding reliability and latency requirements. We provide a comprehensive discussion on physical (PHY) and medium access control (MAC) layer techniques that enable URLLC, addressing both licensed and unlicensed bands. This paper evaluates the relevant PHY and MAC techniques for their ability to improve the reliability and reduce the latency. We identify that enabling long-term evolution to coexist in the unlicensed spectrum is also a potential enabler of URLLC in the unlicensed band, and provide numerical evaluations. Lastly, this paper discusses the potential future research directions and challenges in achieving the URLLC requirements

Optimized Transmission and Resource Allocation Strategies for Ultra-Reliable Communications

Abstract-Fifth generation (5G) wireless systems will provide connectivity for a wide range of new applications with diverse requirements. In part, the network needs to support ultra-reliable communications with low-latency (URLLC) for mission-critical applications. For these applications, the generated data should be delivered with a limited number of transmission attempts with high success probability. This paper considers the optimal transmission and resource allocations for URLLC in cellular systems. The resource allocations are derived for the fixed and adaptive transmission attempt assignments. The analysis results reveal that both fixed and adaptive transmission assignments, applicable to automatic repeat request (ARQ) and hybrid ARQ (HARQ) schemes, can reduce the required resources compared to the equal transmission assignment