60 GHz MAC Standardization: Progress and Way Forward

Communication at mmWave frequencies has been the focus in the recent years. In this paper, we discuss standardization efforts in 60 GHz short range communication and the progress therein. We compare the available standards in terms of network architecture, medium access control mechanisms, physical layer techniques and several other features. Comparative analysis indicates that IEEE 802.11ad is likely to lead the short-range indoor communication at 60 GHz. We bring to the fore resolved and unresolved issues pertaining to robust WLAN connectivity at 60 GHz. Further, we discuss the role of mmWave bands in 5G communication scenarios and highlight the further efforts required in terms of research and standardization

Nouvelle méthode d'estimation des différences de temps d'arrivée pour la localisation des objets connectés haut débit

The forthcoming vision of Internet of Things (IoT) and Internet of Everything (IoE) will immerse people in so-called Smart Environments involving a great number of sectors of applications such as smart habitat, smart-cities, environment monitoring, e-health… IoT and IoE tend to make everyday objects readable, recognizable, locatable, addressable and controllable via the widespread wireless deployment and the internet. Among these capabilities, localization and more extensively the ubiquitous positioning will play, in the next future, a key role to promote another emerging vision: a spatio-temporal Internet of Places (IoP), which would be able to structure and organize, by means of wireless energy aware approaches, the spatial content of Internet. It is well known that in wireless local and personal area networks, the spectrum congestion, the low energy efficiency communications and the insufficient exploitation of the spatial resources are among the factors that may slow down its development in terms of throughput and autonomy. To overcome these unavoidable restrictions, wireless localization technology, as the mechanism for discovering spatio-temporal relationship between connected objects, appears here also as one of the key solutions. This is because dedicated localization techniques in wireless communication can help in developing more extensively the exploitation of spatial resources and allow driving optimized routing for low energy multi-hop communication and spectrum decongestion for Green ICT (Information and Communication Technology). To propose optimized systems achieving both high data rate communication and precise localization, we define a well suited TDOA (Time Difference of Arrival) based method able to perform localization based on communication signals and data only. With this technique, unlike conventional TDOA estimations, it is possible to drastically decrease the complexity of required infrastructures by using either SIMO (Single Input Multiple Output), MISO (Multiple Input Single Output) or MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) configurations in connected objects. This whole study is made within the framework of the IEEE 802.11ad standard and WiGig alliance specifications, however the proposed solutions are compatible with other standards and can be extended to other context aware applications requiring localization inputs such as robotics for example or smart shopping...La vision future de l'internet des objets (IdO) et Internet du Tout (OIE) plongera les personnes soi-disant environnements intelligents impliquant un grand nombre de secteurs d'applications telles que l'habitat intelligent, smart-villes, surveillance de l'environnement, l'e-santé ... IdO et l'OIE ont tendance à faire des objets du quotidien lisible, identifiable, localisable, adressable et contrôlable via le déploiement sans fil généralisée et l'Internet. Parmi ces capacités, la localisation et plus largement le positionnement omniprésente joueront, dans un proche avenir, un rôle clé pour promouvoir une autre vision émergente: un Internet spatio-temporelle des lieux (IoP), qui serait en mesure de structurer et d'organiser, par des moyens des approches sans fil d'énergie savez, le contenu spatial d'Internet. Il est bien connu que dans les réseaux locaux sans fil et personnelles, l'encombrement du spectre, les communications à faible efficacité énergétique et l'exploitation insuffisante des ressources spatiales sont parmi les facteurs qui peuvent ralentir son développement en termes de débit et de l'autonomie. Pour surmonter ces restrictions inévitables, la technologie de localisation sans fil, comme le mécanisme pour découvrir relation spatio-temporelle entre les objets connectés, apparaît ici aussi comme une des solutions clés. Ce est parce que les techniques de localisation dédiés à la communication sans fil peuvent aider à développer plus largement l'exploitation des ressources spatiales et de permettre la conduite routage optimisé pour une faible énergie communication multi-hop et la décongestion du spectre pour Green ICT (Information et Communication Technology). Pour proposer des systèmes optimisés atteindre à la fois la communication des taux de données élevés et la localisation précise, nous définissons un TDOA bien adapté (Time Difference of Arrival) méthode basée en mesure d'effectuer la localisation basée sur des signaux de communication et de données seulement. Avec cette technique, contrairement estimations TDOA classiques, il est possible de diminuer considérablement la complexité des infrastructures nécessaires en utilisant des configurations SIMO (Single Input Multiple Output), MISO (Multiple Input Single Output) ou MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) dans les objets connectés . Toute cette étude est faite dans le cadre de l'IEEE 802.11ad spécifications de l'alliance standard et WiGig, mais les solutions proposées sont compatibles avec d'autres normes et peuvent être étendues à d'autres applications de contexte courant nécessitant entrées de localisation tels que la robotique par exemple ou de shopping intelligent..

Der 60 GHz Indoor-Funkkanal - Herausforderungen menschlicher Abschattung

Driven by the ever increasing capacity of storage devices and HD video streaming applications, there will be a strong demand for wireless multi-Gbps consumer applications soon. Due to its large available bandwidth and the high allowed transmit power, the unlicensed frequency range around 60 GHz is proving ideal for the realization of such systems. During the development process of 60 GHz multi-gigabit wireless systems, a detailed knowledge of the radio channel is essential. Taking into account research gaps, this dissertation makes a significant contribution to knowledge in the field of 60 GHz channel characterization. The focus is on human shadowing and its influence on the channel characteristics, which leads to a high and time-variant path loss. In order to provide realistic results, sophisticated radio channel models are required for the 60 GHz range. In particular, they should include information in the spatial domain at the receiver and the transmitter as well as take into account time-varying human shadowing. The angular information is necessary in this case to evaluate smart antenna systems. Such comprehensive models are not yet available and therefore represent the major outcome of this dissertation.Wegen seiner großen verfügbaren Bandbreite und der hohen erlaubten Sendeleistung erweist sich der unlizensierte Frequenzbereich um 60 GHz als hervorragend geeignet für die Realisierung drahtloser Multi-Gigabit-Kommunikationssysteme. Während des Entwicklungsprozesses solcher Systeme ist eine detaillierte Kenntnis des Funkkanals unerlässlich. Unter Berücksichtigung offener Fragestellungen leistet die vorliegende Dissertation einen wesentlichen Beitrag zum Wissensstand auf dem Gebiet der 60-GHz-Kanalcharakterisierung. Im Vordergrund steht dabei die Abschattung durch Personen, die bei Trägerfrequenzen um 60 GHz zu einer hohen und gleichzeitig zeitvarianten Funkfelddämpfung führt. Um realistische Ergebnisse zu liefern, sind im 60-GHz-Bereich komplexe Funkkanalmodelle erforderlich, die insbesondere Winkelinformationen am Sender und Empfänger enthalten und die zeitvariante Abschattung durch Personen berücksichtigen sollten. Beides ist notwendig, um intelligente Antennensysteme evaluieren zu können. Solche umfassenden Modelle sind bisher nicht verfügbar und stellen deshalb das wesentliche Ziel dieser Dissertation dar

Der 60 GHz Indoor-Funkkanal - Herausforderungen menschlicher Abschattung

Driven by the ever increasing capacity of storage devices and HD video streaming applications, there will be a strong demand for wireless multi-Gbps consumer applications soon. Due to its large available bandwidth and the high allowed transmit power, the unlicensed frequency range around 60 GHz is proving ideal for the realization of such systems. During the development process of 60 GHz multi-gigabit wireless systems, a detailed knowledge of the radio channel is essential. Taking into account research gaps, this dissertation makes a significant contribution to knowledge in the field of 60 GHz channel characterization. The focus is on human shadowing and its influence on the channel characteristics, which leads to a high and time-variant path loss. In order to provide realistic results, sophisticated radio channel models are required for the 60 GHz range. In particular, they should include information in the spatial domain at the receiver and the transmitter as well as take into account time-varying human shadowing. The angular information is necessary in this case to evaluate smart antenna systems. Such comprehensive models are not yet available and therefore represent the major outcome of this dissertation.Wegen seiner großen verfügbaren Bandbreite und der hohen erlaubten Sendeleistung erweist sich der unlizensierte Frequenzbereich um 60 GHz als hervorragend geeignet für die Realisierung drahtloser Multi-Gigabit-Kommunikationssysteme. Während des Entwicklungsprozesses solcher Systeme ist eine detaillierte Kenntnis des Funkkanals unerlässlich. Unter Berücksichtigung offener Fragestellungen leistet die vorliegende Dissertation einen wesentlichen Beitrag zum Wissensstand auf dem Gebiet der 60-GHz-Kanalcharakterisierung. Im Vordergrund steht dabei die Abschattung durch Personen, die bei Trägerfrequenzen um 60 GHz zu einer hohen und gleichzeitig zeitvarianten Funkfelddämpfung führt. Um realistische Ergebnisse zu liefern, sind im 60-GHz-Bereich komplexe Funkkanalmodelle erforderlich, die insbesondere Winkelinformationen am Sender und Empfänger enthalten und die zeitvariante Abschattung durch Personen berücksichtigen sollten. Beides ist notwendig, um intelligente Antennensysteme evaluieren zu können. Solche umfassenden Modelle sind bisher nicht verfügbar und stellen deshalb das wesentliche Ziel dieser Dissertation dar

Real-time wireless networks for industrial control systems

The next generation of industrial systems (Industry 4.0) will dramatically transform manyproductive sectors, integrating emerging concepts such as Internet of Things, artificialintelligence, big data, cloud robotics and virtual reality, to name a few. Most of thesetechnologies heavily rely on the availability of communication networks able to offernearly–istantaneous, secure and reliable data transfer. In the industrial sector, these tasks are nowadays mainly accomplished by wired networks, that combine the speed ofoptical fiber media with collision–free switching technology. However, driven by the pervasive deployment of mobile devices for personal com-munications in the last years, more and more industrial applications require wireless connectivity, which can bring enormous advantages in terms of cost reduction and flex-ibility. Designing timely, reliable and deterministic industrial wireless networks is a complicated task, due to the nature of the wireless channel, intrinsically error–prone andshared among all the devices transmitting on the same frequency band. In this thesis, several solutions to enhance the performance of wireless networks employed in industrial control applications are proposed. The presented approaches differ in terms of achieved performance and target applications, but they are all characterized by an improvement over existing industrial wireless solutions in terms of timeliness, reliability and determinism. When possible, an experimental validation of the designed solutions is provided. The obtained results prove that significant performance improvements are already possible, often using commercially available devices and preserving compliance to existing standards. Future research efforts, combined with the availability of new chipsets and standards, could lead to a world where wireless links effectively replace most of the existing cables in industrial environments, as it is already the case in the consumer market

A Detailed Characterization of 60 GHz Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11ad)

The emergence of wireless local area network (WLAN) standards and the global system of mobile communication (GSM) in the early 1990s incited tremendous growth in the demand for wireless connectivity. Iterative technological enhancements to cellular and WLAN improved wireless capacity and created a breadth of new mobile applications. The continued increase in display resolutions and image quality combined with streaming displacing satellite/cable has created unprecedented demands on wireless infrastructure. Data-caps on cellular networks deter over consumption and increasingly shift the growing burden to Wi-Fi networks. The traditional 2.4/5 GHz Wi-Fi bands have become overloaded and the increasing number of wireless devices in the home, public, and workplace create difficult challenges to deliver quality service to large numbers of client stations. In dense urban areas, the wireless medium is subjected to increased interference due to overlapping networks and other devices communicating in the same frequency bands. Improvements to conventional Wi-Fi are approaching their theoretical limits and higher order enhancements require idealized conditions which are seldom attainable in practice. In an effort to supplant to scaling capacity requirements a very high frequency WLAN amendment has been proposed (IEEE 802.11ad). IEEE 802.11ad, also referred to as Wireless Gigabit (WiGig), operates in the globally unlicensed 60 GHz band and offers channel bandwidths nearly 100x as wide as 802.11n. The higher bandwidth facilitates multi-Gbps throughput even with the use of lower complexity modulation coding schemes (MCS). IEEE 802.11ad relies heavily on rate adaptation and high beamforming gain to mitigate interference and fading as signals in the 60 GHz band suffer from higher atmospheric ab- sorption and free space path loss (FSPL). Due to the unique nature of 60 GHz wireless there have been numerous research efforts. Many studies have been directed at simulation and modeling of the 60 GHz channel. However modeling the channel is difficult as real- world environments are highly dynamic with varying link quality and conditions which cannot be accurately predicted by conventional techniques. Some research is focused on medium access control (MAC) enhancements to improve overall capacity by coordinating concurrent links or reducing communication overhead for example. Lastly, there has been a limited amount of real world testing of 802.11ad due to lack of availability of commercial platforms and measurement instrumentation. Some researchers tested early generation devices in certain use cases such as in vehicles for media streaming, in data centers to augment the wired network, or in basic indoor and outdoor environments. This research contains two main components. In the first study, analytical models are applied to estimate line of sight (LOS) 802.11ad performance for realistic antenna param- eters. The second part contains a comprehensive evaluation of performance and reliability of early generation 802.11ad hardware. This characterization emphasizes environmen- tal performance (e.g. conference room, cubical farm, open office), multiple-client testing (multiclient), multiple network interference (spatial re-use), and stability in the presence of station mobility, physical obstructions, and antenna misalignment. In order to evaluate 802.11ad, early generation platforms from technology vendors were used in extensive test suites. The hardware tested included docks for wireless personal area networking (WPAN) applications, client laptop stations, and reference design access points (APs). Finally, a customized proof-of-concept (PoC) platform was engineered which allowed finer control over front end antenna configuration parameters such as: topology, placement and orienta- tion. The PoC also served as a suitable means to identify practical limitations and system design engineering challenges associated with supporting directional multi-Gbps (DMG) communication in the 60 GHz band

Protocolos multibanda para descoberta de vizinhança em redes ad hoc de ondas milimétricas

Propagation at millimeter waves band, i.e. up from 30 GHz, is very susceptible to path loss attenuation, which can be mitigated using highly directional antennas. Hence, the usage of millimeter waves band in ad hoc networks increases the complexity of neighbor discovery since the knowledge of neighbors’ physical location becomes essential to proceed with communication. To face these challenges, multiband protocols have been proposed, which uses an omnidirectional control channel in a different band from millimeter waves data channel. Due to unstable characteristics of millimeter waves channel, the control channel is used to transmit information concerning neighbor discovery. The two protocols proposed in this work rely on this feature and aim to build a global knowledge about nodes’ location as well as to maintain it in the case of nodes mobility or if some obstacle arises. Both protocols are compared with another protocol found in the literature in terms of delay on the neighbor discoveryA propagação na banda de ondas milimétricas, ou seja, a partir de 30 GHz, é altamente suscetível à atenuação por perda de percurso. Esta acentuada atenuação é mitigada pelo uso de antenas altamente direcionais. Assim, o uso da banda de ondas milimétricas em redes ad hoc aumenta a complexidade na descoberta de vizinhos, pois se torna essencial obter a localização física dos vizinhos para proceder com a comunicação. Para lidar com esse desafio, protocolos multibanda foram propostos na literatura, os quais fazem uso de um canal de controle omnidirecional em uma banda diferente do canal de dados em ondas milimétricas. Devido às instabilidades deste último canal, o canal de controle é usado para transmissão das informações pertinentes à realização de busca dos vizinhos. Os dois protocolos propostos neste trabalho fazem uso dessa funcionalidade e visam construir o conhecimento do posicionamento de todos os nós da rede, assim como manter esta informação em caso de mudanças de posicionamento ou surgimento de obstáculos. Ambos os protocolos são comparados com um outro protocolo da literatura em termos da latência na descoberta de vizinhança

Ondas milimétricas e MIMO massivo para otimização da capacidade e cobertura de redes heterogeneas de 5G

Today's Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) networks cannot support the exponential growth in mobile traffic forecast for the next decade. By 2020, according to Ericsson, 6 billion mobile subscribers worldwide are projected to generate 46 exabytes of mobile data traffic monthly from 24 billion connected devices, smartphones and short-range Internet of Things (IoT) devices being the key prosumers. In response, 5G networks are foreseen to markedly outperform legacy 4G systems. Triggered by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) under the IMT-2020 network initiative, 5G will support three broad categories of use cases: enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) for multi-Gbps data rate applications; ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC) for critical scenarios; and massive machine type communications (mMTC) for massive connectivity. Among the several technology enablers being explored for 5G, millimeter-wave (mmWave) communication, massive MIMO antenna arrays and ultra-dense small cell networks (UDNs) feature as the dominant technologies. These technologies in synergy are anticipated to provide the 1000_ capacity increase for 5G networks (relative to 4G) through the combined impact of large additional bandwidth, spectral efficiency (SE) enhancement and high frequency reuse, respectively. However, although these technologies can pave the way towards gigabit wireless, there are still several challenges to solve in terms of how we can fully harness the available bandwidth efficiently through appropriate beamforming and channel modeling approaches. In this thesis, we investigate the system performance enhancements realizable with mmWave massive MIMO in 5G UDN and cellular infrastructure-to-everything (C-I2X) application scenarios involving pedestrian and vehicular users. As a critical component of the system-level simulation approach adopted in this thesis, we implemented 3D channel models for the accurate characterization of the wireless channels in these scenarios and for realistic performance evaluation. To address the hardware cost, complexity and power consumption of the massive MIMO architectures, we propose a novel generalized framework for hybrid beamforming (HBF) array structures. The generalized model reveals the opportunities that can be harnessed with the overlapped subarray structures for a balanced trade-o_ between SE and energy efficiently (EE) of 5G networks. The key results in this investigation show that mmWave massive MIMO can deliver multi-Gbps rates for 5G whilst maintaining energy-efficient operation of the network.As redes LTE-A atuais não são capazes de suportar o crescimento exponencial de tráfego que está previsto para a próxima década. De acordo com a previsão da Ericsson, espera-se que em 2020, a nível global, 6 mil milhões de subscritores venham a gerar mensalmente 46 exa bytes de tráfego de dados a partir de 24 mil milhões de dispositivos ligados à rede móvel, sendo os telefones inteligentes e dispositivos IoT de curto alcance os principais responsáveis por tal nível de tráfego. Em resposta a esta exigência, espera-se que as redes de 5a geração (5G) tenham um desempenho substancialmente superior às redes de 4a geração (4G) atuais. Desencadeado pelo UIT (União Internacional das Telecomunicações) no âmbito da iniciativa IMT-2020, o 5G irá suportar três grandes tipos de utilizações: banda larga móvel capaz de suportar aplicações com débitos na ordem de vários Gbps; comunicações de baixa latência e alta fiabilidade indispensáveis em cenários de emergência; comunicações massivas máquina-a-máquina para conectividade generalizada. Entre as várias tecnologias capacitadoras que estão a ser exploradas pelo 5G, as comunicações através de ondas milimétricas, os agregados MIMO massivo e as redes celulares ultradensas (RUD) apresentam-se como sendo as tecnologias fundamentais. Antecipa-se que o conjunto destas tecnologias venha a fornecer às redes 5G um aumento de capacidade de 1000x através da utilização de maiores larguras de banda, melhoria da eficiência espectral, e elevada reutilização de frequências respetivamente. Embora estas tecnologias possam abrir caminho para as redes sem fios com débitos na ordem dos gigabits, existem ainda vários desafios que têm que ser resolvidos para que seja possível aproveitar totalmente a largura de banda disponível de maneira eficiente utilizando abordagens de formatação de feixe e de modelação de canal adequadas. Nesta tese investigamos a melhoria de desempenho do sistema conseguida através da utilização de ondas milimétricas e agregados MIMO massivo em cenários de redes celulares ultradensas de 5a geração e em cenários 'infraestrutura celular-para-qualquer coisa' (do inglês: cellular infrastructure-to-everything) envolvendo utilizadores pedestres e veiculares. Como um componente fundamental das simulações de sistema utilizadas nesta tese é o canal de propagação, implementamos modelos de canal tridimensional (3D) para caracterizar de forma precisa o canal de propagação nestes cenários e assim conseguir uma avaliação de desempenho mais condizente com a realidade. Para resolver os problemas associados ao custo do equipamento, complexidade e consumo de energia das arquiteturas MIMO massivo, propomos um modelo inovador de agregados com formatação de feixe híbrida. Este modelo genérico revela as oportunidades que podem ser aproveitadas através da sobreposição de sub-agregados no sentido de obter um compromisso equilibrado entre eficiência espectral (ES) e eficiência energética (EE) nas redes 5G. Os principais resultados desta investigação mostram que a utilização conjunta de ondas milimétricas e de agregados MIMO massivo possibilita a obtenção, em simultâneo, de taxas de transmissão na ordem de vários Gbps e a operação de rede de forma energeticamente eficiente.Programa Doutoral em Telecomunicaçõe