16,290 research outputs found
Ubiquitous Cell-Free Massive MIMO Communications
Since the first cellular networks were trialled in the 1970s, we have
witnessed an incredible wireless revolution. From 1G to 4G, the massive traffic
growth has been managed by a combination of wider bandwidths, refined radio
interfaces, and network densification, namely increasing the number of antennas
per site. Due its cost-efficiency, the latter has contributed the most. Massive
MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) is a key 5G technology that uses massive
antenna arrays to provide a very high beamforming gain and spatially
multiplexing of users, and hence, increases the spectral and energy efficiency.
It constitutes a centralized solution to densify a network, and its performance
is limited by the inter-cell interference inherent in its cell-centric design.
Conversely, ubiquitous cell-free Massive MIMO refers to a distributed Massive
MIMO system implementing coherent user-centric transmission to overcome the
inter-cell interference limitation in cellular networks and provide additional
macro-diversity. These features, combined with the system scalability inherent
in the Massive MIMO design, distinguishes ubiquitous cell-free Massive MIMO
from prior coordinated distributed wireless systems. In this article, we
investigate the enormous potential of this promising technology while
addressing practical deployment issues to deal with the increased
back/front-hauling overhead deriving from the signal co-processing.Comment: Published in EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and
Networking on August 5, 201
Distributed Multicell Beamforming Design Approaching Pareto Boundary with Max-Min Fairness
This paper addresses coordinated downlink beamforming optimization in
multicell time-division duplex (TDD) systems where a small number of parameters
are exchanged between cells but with no data sharing. With the goal to reach
the point on the Pareto boundary with max-min rate fairness, we first develop a
two-step centralized optimization algorithm to design the joint beamforming
vectors. This algorithm can achieve a further sum-rate improvement over the
max-min optimal performance, and is shown to guarantee max-min Pareto
optimality for scenarios with two base stations (BSs) each serving a single
user. To realize a distributed solution with limited intercell communication,
we then propose an iterative algorithm by exploiting an approximate
uplink-downlink duality, in which only a small number of positive scalars are
shared between cells in each iteration. Simulation results show that the
proposed distributed solution achieves a fairness rate performance close to the
centralized algorithm while it has a better sum-rate performance, and
demonstrates a better tradeoff between sum-rate and fairness than the Nash
Bargaining solution especially at high signal-to-noise ratio.Comment: 8 figures. To Appear in IEEE Trans. Wireless Communications, 201
Fronthaul-Constrained Cloud Radio Access Networks: Insights and Challenges
As a promising paradigm for fifth generation (5G) wireless communication
systems, cloud radio access networks (C-RANs) have been shown to reduce both
capital and operating expenditures, as well as to provide high spectral
efficiency (SE) and energy efficiency (EE). The fronthaul in such networks,
defined as the transmission link between a baseband unit (BBU) and a remote
radio head (RRH), requires high capacity, but is often constrained. This
article comprehensively surveys recent advances in fronthaul-constrained
C-RANs, including system architectures and key techniques. In particular, key
techniques for alleviating the impact of constrained fronthaul on SE/EE and
quality of service for users, including compression and quantization,
large-scale coordinated processing and clustering, and resource allocation
optimization, are discussed. Open issues in terms of software-defined
networking, network function virtualization, and partial centralization are
also identified.Comment: 5 Figures, accepted by IEEE Wireless Communications. arXiv admin
note: text overlap with arXiv:1407.3855 by other author
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