Comparação do desempenho de arquiteturas híbridas para comunicações na banda das ondas milimétricas

Mestrado em Engenharia Electrónica e TelecomunicaçõesA proliferação massiva das comunicações sem os faz prever que o número de utilizadores aumente exponencialmente até 2020, o que tornar a necessário um suporte de tráfego milhares de vezes superior e com ligações na ordem dos Gigabit por segundo. Este incremento exigir a um aumento significativo da e ciência espectral e energética. Impõe-se portanto, uma mudança de paradigma dos sistemas de comunicação sem os convencionais, imposta pela introdução da 5a geração. Para o efeito, e necessário desenvolver novas e promissoras técnicas de transmissão, nomeadamente a utilização de ondas milimétricas em sistemas com um número massivo de antenas. No entanto, consideráveis desafios emergem ao adotar estas técnicas. Por um lado, este tipo de ondas sofre grandes dificuldades em termos de propagação. Por outro lado, a adoção de arquiteturas convencionais para sistemas com um número massivo de antenas e absolutamente inviável, devido ao custo e ao nível de complexidade inerentes. Isto acontece porque o processamento de sinal ao nível da camada f sica e maioritariamente feito em banda base, ou seja, no domínio digital requerendo uma cadeia RF por cada antena. Neste contexto as arquiteturas híbridas são uma proposta relativamente recente que visa simplificar a utilização de um grande número de antenas, dividindo o processamento entre os domínios analógico e digital. Para além disso, o número de cadeias RF necessárias e bastante inferior ao número total de antenas do sistema, contribuindo para obvias melhorias em termos de complexidade, custo e energia consumida. Nesta dissertação e implementada uma arquitetura híbrida para ondas milimétricas, onde cada cadeia RF está apenas conectada a um pequeno conjunto de antenas. E considerado um sistema contendo um transmissor e um recetor ambos equipados com um grande número de antenas e onde, o número de cadeias RF e bastante inferior ao número total de antenas. Pré-codificadores híbridos analógico/digital, recentemente propostos na literatura são utilizados e novos equalizadores híbridos analógico/digital são projetados. E feita uma avaliação de performance à arquitetura implementada e posteriormente comparada com uma outra arquitetura, onde todas as antenas estão conectadas a todas as cadeias RF.The expected massive proliferation of wireless systems points out an exponential increase in the number of users until 2020, which is needed to support up to one thousand times more tra c and connections in order of Gigabit per second. However, these goals require a signi cantly improvement in the spectral and energy e ciency. As a result, it is essential to make a paradigm shift in conventional wireless systems, imposed by the introduction of fth generation (5G). For this purpose, new and promising transmission techniques will be needed, namely the use of millimeter Waves (mmWave) in systems with a massive number of antenna elements. Nevertheless, considerable challenges emerge in the adoption of these techniques. On one hand, mmWave su er great di culties in terms of propagation. On the other hand, the using of conventional architectures for systems with a large number of antennas is absolutely impracticable because of the costs and the level of complexity. This happens because the signal processing in physical layer is mostly done in baseband, which means, that one RF chain for each antenna is required. In this context the hybrid architectures are a relatively recent proposal where the aim is to simplify the use of a large number of antenna elements, dividing the processing between the analog and digital domains. Moreover, the number of RF chains needed are much lower than the total number of antenna elements of the system, which contribute to obvious improvements in terms of complexity, costs and energy consumption. In this Dissertation a hybrid mmWave based architecture, where each RF chain is only connected to a small set of antennas, is implemented. It is considered a system comprising a transmitter and a receiver both equipped with a massive number of antennas and where the number of RF chains is much lower than the number of antennas. Hybrid analog/digital precoders recently proposed in the literature are used and a new hybrid analog/digital equalizer is designed. The implemented architecture is then evaluated and compared with other architecture, where all the antennas are connected to all RF chains

Peak to average power ratio reduction and error control in MIMO-OFDM HARQ System

Currently, multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMOOFDM) systems underlie crucial wireless communication systems such as commercial 4G and 5G networks, tactical communication, and interoperable Public Safety communications. However, one drawback arising from OFDM modulation is its resulting high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). This problem increases with an increase in the number of transmit antennas. In this work, a new hybrid PAPR reduction technique is proposed for space-time block coding (STBC) MIMO-OFDM systems that combine the coding capabilities to PAPR reduction methods, while leveraging the new degree of freedom provided by the presence of multiple transmit chairs (MIMO). In the first part, we presented an extensive literature review of PAPR reduction techniques for OFDM and MIMO-OFDM systems. The work developed a PAPR reduction technique taxonomy, and analyzed the motivations for reducing the PAPR in current communication systems, emphasizing two important motivations such as power savings and coverage gain. In the tax onomy presented here, we include a new category, namely, hybrid techniques. Additionally, we drew a conclusion regarding the importance of hybrid PAPR reduction techniques. In the second part, we studied the effect of forward error correction (FEC) codes on the PAPR for the coded OFDM (COFDM) system. We simulated and compared the CCDF of the PAPR and its relationship with the autocorrelation of the COFDM signal before the inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) block. This allows to conclude on the main characteristics of the codes that generate high peaks in the COFDM signal, and therefore, the optimal parameters in order to reduce PAPR. We emphasize our study in FEC codes as linear block codes, and convolutional codes. Finally, we proposed a new hybrid PAPR reduction technique for an STBC MIMO-OFDM system, in which the convolutional code is optimized to avoid PAPR degradation, which also combines successive suboptimal cross-antenna rotation and inversion (SS-CARI) and iterative modified companding and filtering schemes. The new method permits to obtain a significant net gain for the system, i.e., considerable PAPR reduction, bit error rate (BER) gain as compared to the basic MIMO-OFDM system, low complexity, and reduced spectral splatter. The new hybrid technique was extensively evaluated by simulation, and the complementary cumulative distribution function (CCDF), the BER, and the power spectral density (PSD) were compared to the original STBC MIMO-OFDM signal

Deep Learning Designs for Physical Layer Communications

Wireless communication systems and their underlying technologies have undergone unprecedented advances over the last two decades to assuage the ever-increasing demands for various applications and emerging technologies. However, the traditional signal processing schemes and algorithms for wireless communications cannot handle the upsurging complexity associated with fifth-generation (5G) and beyond communication systems due to network expansion, new emerging technologies, high data rate, and the ever-increasing demands for low latency. This thesis extends the traditional downlink transmission schemes to deep learning-based precoding and detection techniques that are hardware-efficient and of lower complexity than the current state-of-the-art. The thesis focuses on: precoding/beamforming in massive multiple-inputs-multiple-outputs (MIMO), signal detection and lightweight neural network (NN) architectures for precoder and decoder designs. We introduce a learning-based precoder design via constructive interference (CI) that performs the precoding on a symbol-by-symbol basis. Instead of conventionally training a NN without considering the specifics of the optimisation objective, we unfold a power minimisation symbol level precoding (SLP) formulation based on the interior-point-method (IPM) proximal ‘log’ barrier function. Furthermore, we propose a concept of NN compression, where the weights are quantised to lower numerical precision formats based on binary and ternary quantisations. We further introduce a stochastic quantisation technique, where parts of the NN weight matrix are quantised while the remaining is not. Finally, we propose a systematic complexity scaling of deep neural network (DNN) based MIMO detectors. The model uses a fraction of the DNN inputs by scaling their values through weights that follow monotonically non-increasing functions. Furthermore, we investigate performance complexity tradeoffs via regularisation constraints on the layer weights such that, at inference, parts of network layers can be removed with minimal impact on the detection accuracy. Simulation results show that our proposed learning-based techniques offer better complexity-vs-BER (bit-error-rate) and complexity-vs-transmit power performances compared to the state-of-the-art MIMO detection and precoding techniques

On the Road to 6G: Visions, Requirements, Key Technologies and Testbeds

Fifth generation (5G) mobile communication systems have entered the stage of commercial development, providing users with new services and improved user experiences as well as offering a host of novel opportunities to various industries. However, 5G still faces many challenges. To address these challenges, international industrial, academic, and standards organizations have commenced research on sixth generation (6G) wireless communication systems. A series of white papers and survey papers have been published, which aim to define 6G in terms of requirements, application scenarios, key technologies, etc. Although ITU-R has been working on the 6G vision and it is expected to reach a consensus on what 6G will be by mid-2023, the related global discussions are still wide open and the existing literature has identified numerous open issues. This paper first provides a comprehensive portrayal of the 6G vision, technical requirements, and application scenarios, covering the current common understanding of 6G. Then, a critical appraisal of the 6G network architecture and key technologies is presented. Furthermore, existing testbeds and advanced 6G verification platforms are detailed for the first time. In addition, future research directions and open challenges are identified for stimulating the on-going global debate. Finally, lessons learned to date concerning 6G networks are discussed

MIMO Systems

In recent years, it was realized that the MIMO communication systems seems to be inevitable in accelerated evolution of high data rates applications due to their potential to dramatically increase the spectral efficiency and simultaneously sending individual information to the corresponding users in wireless systems. This book, intends to provide highlights of the current research topics in the field of MIMO system, to offer a snapshot of the recent advances and major issues faced today by the researchers in the MIMO related areas. The book is written by specialists working in universities and research centers all over the world to cover the fundamental principles and main advanced topics on high data rates wireless communications systems over MIMO channels. Moreover, the book has the advantage of providing a collection of applications that are completely independent and self-contained; thus, the interested reader can choose any chapter and skip to another without losing continuity

Signal Processing and Learning for Next Generation Multiple Access in 6G

Wireless communication systems to date primarily rely on the orthogonality of resources to facilitate the design and implementation, from user access to data transmission. Emerging applications and scenarios in the sixth generation (6G) wireless systems will require massive connectivity and transmission of a deluge of data, which calls for more flexibility in the design concept that goes beyond orthogonality. Furthermore, recent advances in signal processing and learning have attracted considerable attention, as they provide promising approaches to various complex and previously intractable problems of signal processing in many fields. This article provides an overview of research efforts to date in the field of signal processing and learning for next-generation multiple access, with an emphasis on massive random access and non-orthogonal multiple access. The promising interplay with new technologies and the challenges in learning-based NGMA are discussed

Cooperative Radio Communications for Green Smart Environments

The demand for mobile connectivity is continuously increasing, and by 2020 Mobile and Wireless Communications will serve not only very dense populations of mobile phones and nomadic computers, but also the expected multiplicity of devices and sensors located in machines, vehicles, health systems and city infrastructures. Future Mobile Networks are then faced with many new scenarios and use cases, which will load the networks with different data traffic patterns, in new or shared spectrum bands, creating new specific requirements. This book addresses both the techniques to model, analyse and optimise the radio links and transmission systems in such scenarios, together with the most advanced radio access, resource management and mobile networking technologies. This text summarises the work performed by more than 500 researchers from more than 120 institutions in Europe, America and Asia, from both academia and industries, within the framework of the COST IC1004 Action on "Cooperative Radio Communications for Green and Smart Environments". The book will have appeal to graduates and researchers in the Radio Communications area, and also to engineers working in the Wireless industry. Topics discussed in this book include: • Radio waves propagation phenomena in diverse urban, indoor, vehicular and body environments• Measurements, characterization, and modelling of radio channels beyond 4G networks• Key issues in Vehicle (V2X) communication• Wireless Body Area Networks, including specific Radio Channel Models for WBANs• Energy efficiency and resource management enhancements in Radio Access Networks• Definitions and models for the virtualised and cloud RAN architectures• Advances on feasible indoor localization and tracking techniques• Recent findings and innovations in antenna systems for communications• Physical Layer Network Coding for next generation wireless systems• Methods and techniques for MIMO Over the Air (OTA) testin

Cooperative Radio Communications for Green Smart Environments

The demand for mobile connectivity is continuously increasing, and by 2020 Mobile and Wireless Communications will serve not only very dense populations of mobile phones and nomadic computers, but also the expected multiplicity of devices and sensors located in machines, vehicles, health systems and city infrastructures. Future Mobile Networks are then faced with many new scenarios and use cases, which will load the networks with different data traffic patterns, in new or shared spectrum bands, creating new specific requirements. This book addresses both the techniques to model, analyse and optimise the radio links and transmission systems in such scenarios, together with the most advanced radio access, resource management and mobile networking technologies. This text summarises the work performed by more than 500 researchers from more than 120 institutions in Europe, America and Asia, from both academia and industries, within the framework of the COST IC1004 Action on "Cooperative Radio Communications for Green and Smart Environments". The book will have appeal to graduates and researchers in the Radio Communications area, and also to engineers working in the Wireless industry. Topics discussed in this book include: • Radio waves propagation phenomena in diverse urban, indoor, vehicular and body environments• Measurements, characterization, and modelling of radio channels beyond 4G networks• Key issues in Vehicle (V2X) communication• Wireless Body Area Networks, including specific Radio Channel Models for WBANs• Energy efficiency and resource management enhancements in Radio Access Networks• Definitions and models for the virtualised and cloud RAN architectures• Advances on feasible indoor localization and tracking techniques• Recent findings and innovations in antenna systems for communications• Physical Layer Network Coding for next generation wireless systems• Methods and techniques for MIMO Over the Air (OTA) testin