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

Hybrid Spectrum Sharing in mmWave Cellular Networks

While spectrum at millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies is less scarce than at traditional frequencies below 6 GHz, still it is not unlimited, in particular if we consider the requirements from other services using the same band and the need to license mmWave bands to multiple mobile operators. Therefore, an efficient spectrum access scheme is critical to harvest the maximum benefit from emerging mmWave technologies. In this paper, we introduce a new hybrid spectrum access scheme for mmWave networks, where data is aggregated through two mmWave carriers with different characteristics. In particular, we consider the case of a hybrid spectrum scheme between a mmWave band with exclusive access and a mmWave band where spectrum is pooled between multiple operators. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study proposing hybrid spectrum access for mmWave networks and providing a quantitative assessment of its benefits. Our results show that this approach provides major advantages with respect to traditional fully licensed or fully unlicensed spectrum access schemes, though further work is needed to achieve a more complete understanding of both technical and non technical implications

Study on 3GPP Rural Macrocell Path Loss Models for Millimeter Wave Wireless Communications

Little research has been done to reliably model millimeter wave (mmWave) path loss in rural macrocell settings, yet, models have been hastily adopted without substantial empirical evidence. This paper studies past rural macrocell (RMa) path loss models and exposes concerns with the current 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) TR 38.900 (Release 14) RMa path loss models adopted from the International Telecommunications Union - Radiocommunications (ITU-R) Sector. This paper shows how the 3GPP RMa large-scale path loss models were derived for frequencies below 6 GHz, yet they are being asserted for use up to 30 GHz, even though there has not been sufficient work or published data to support their validity at frequencies above 6 GHz or in the mmWave bands. We present the background of the 3GPP RMa path loss models and their use of odd correction factors not suitable for rural scenarios, and show that the multi-frequency close-in free space reference distance (CI) path loss model is more accurate and reliable than current 3GPP and ITU-R RMa models. Using field data and simulations, we introduce a new close-in free space reference distance with height dependent path loss exponent model (CIH), that predicts rural macrocell path loss using an effective path loss exponent that is a function of base station antenna height. This work shows the CI and CIH models can be used from 500 MHz to 100 GHz for rural mmWave coverage and interference analysis, without any discontinuity at 6 GHz as exists in today's 3GPP and ITU-R RMa models.Comment: To be published in 2017 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), Paris, France, May 201

Metal surface tolerant conformal low-profile plastic embedded antennas for automotive applications

Mit der rasanten Zunahme drahtloser Dienste und dem Einsatz von Antennendiversitätstechniken zur Erzielung höherer Datenraten oder Dienstzuverlässigkeit ist die Zahl der in Pkw zu installierenden Antennen nicht mehr unbedeutend und nimmt weiter zu. Gleichzeitig wird es immer schwieriger, geeignete Montageplätze für diese Antennen zu finden, da die Zahl der Montageplätze im Auto nicht parallel zur Zahl der zu installierenden Antennen gewachsen ist; Autos sind nach wie vor meist Metallkästen, mit einigen wenigen Kunststoffteilen und Glasscheiben die die Integration von Antennen ermöglichen. Die meisten dieser Teile wurden bereits zu diesem Zweck verwendet, die B-Säulen-Kunststoffabdeckungen wurden jedoch bisher nicht für die Antennenintegration berücksichtigt. In dieser Arbeit werden nicht nur die Vorteile der B-Säulen-Kunststoffabdeckungen als Antenneneinbauort gegenüber anderen Orten hervorgehoben, sondern auch die damit verbundenen Herausforderungen untersucht, insbesondere der begrenzte Platz für die Antennenintegration und die unmittelbare Nähe der eingebauten Antenne zum Metallchassis des Fahrzeugs. Letzteres führt zu einer starken elektromagnetischen Kopplung zwischen der Antenne und der Fahrzeugkarosserie, was sich auf die Antenneneigenschaften wie Impedanzanpassung und realisierten Gewinn auswirkt. In den folgenden Kapiteln werden die zugrundeliegenden Entwurfsprinzipien, die Theorie und die Messungen neuartiger, flacher, konformer und metalloberflächentoleranter Mobilfunkantennen vorgestellt, nämlich die Einzelband-Di-Patch-Antenne und eine koplanar gestapelte, mit Mikrostreifenleitungen gekoppelte Multibandantenne, die die oben genannten Herausforderungen adressieren und überwinden. Zusätzlich wird in der zweiten Hälfte dieser Arbeit eine high impedance surface basierte Dipolantennenlösung vorgestellt. Die Simulations- und Messergebnisse der nicht integrierten und der integrierten Versionen der vorgestellten Antennen, einschließlich der LTE-MIMO-Datenratenmessungen, die im vorletzten Kapitel vorgestellt werden, sprechen nicht nur für die Eignung dieser Antennen für flache, metallnahe Oberflächenanwendungen im Allgemeinen, sondern zeigen auch, dass die B-Säulen- Kunststoffabdeckungen einen sehr geeigneten neuen Antennenintegrationsort für mobile Kommunikationsanwendungen im Automobil darstellen.With a rapid increase in the number of wireless services, and the utilization of antenna diversity techniques to achieve enhanced data rates or service reliability, the number of antennas that need to be installed in passenger cars is not insignificant any more, and only sees a rising trend. At the same time, finding suitable mounting locations for these antennas has become ever more challenging, because the number of such locations on a car has not grown parallelly to the number of antennas that need to be installed; cars are still mostly metal boxes, with a few plastic parts and the glass windows that allow for antenna integration. While most of these parts have already been utilized for embedding antennas, the plastic parts that were overlooked till now were the B-column plastic covers. In addition to highlighting the advantages of using the B-column plastic covers as an antenna embedding location over other locations, this work takes a comprehensive look into the challenges associated with the same, specifically the limited space for antenna integration and the close proximity of the embedded antenna to the car metal chassis. The latter introduces a strong electro- magnetic coupling between the antenna and the car body, consequently impacting antenna properties like impedance matching and realized gain. The upcoming chapters present the underlying design principles, theory, and measurements of novel, low-profile, conformal and metal surface tolerant mobile communications antennas, namely, the single band di-patch antenna and a co-planar stacked microstrip line coupled multi-band antenna, that suitably address and overcome the aforementioned challenges. Additionally, a high impedance surface based dipole antenna solution is also presented in the later half of this thesis. The simulation and measurement results of the bare and the integrated versions of the presented antennas, including LTE-MIMO data rate measurements presented in the penultimate chapter, not only speak for the suitability of these antennas for low-profile, close-to-metal surface applications in general, but also show that the B-column plastic covers present a highly suitable new antenna integration location for automotive mobile communications applications

Communication Subsystems for Emerging Wireless Technologies

The paper describes a multi-disciplinary design of modern communication systems. The design starts with the analysis of a system in order to define requirements on its individual components. The design exploits proper models of communication channels to adapt the systems to expected transmission conditions. Input filtering of signals both in the frequency domain and in the spatial domain is ensured by a properly designed antenna. Further signal processing (amplification and further filtering) is done by electronics circuits. Finally, signal processing techniques are applied to yield information about current properties of frequency spectrum and to distribute the transmission over free subcarrier channels

5G and beyond networks

This chapter investigates the Network Layer aspects that will characterize the merger of the cellular paradigm and the IoT architectures, in the context of the evolution towards 5G-and-beyond, including some promising emerging services as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or Base Stations, and V2X communications