3,647 research outputs found
A Light Signalling Approach to Node Grouping for Massive MIMO IoT Networks
Massive MIMO is a promising technology to connect very large numbers of
energy constrained nodes, as it offers both extensive spatial multiplexing and
large array gain. A challenge resides in partitioning the many nodes in groups
that can communicate simultaneously such that the mutual interference is
minimized. We here propose node partitioning strategies that do not require
full channel state information, but rather are based on nodes' respective
directional channel properties. In our considered scenarios, these typically
have a time constant that is far larger than the coherence time of the channel.
We developed both an optimal and an approximation algorithm to partition users
based on directional channel properties, and evaluated them numerically. Our
results show that both algorithms, despite using only these directional channel
properties, achieve similar performance in terms of the minimum
signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio for any user, compared with a reference
method using full channel knowledge. In particular, we demonstrate that
grouping nodes with related directional properties is to be avoided. We hence
realise a simple partitioning method requiring minimal information to be
collected from the nodes, and where this information typically remains stable
over a long term, thus promoting their autonomy and energy efficiency
Random Access Protocols for Massive MIMO
5G wireless networks are expected to support new services with stringent
requirements on data rates, latency and reliability. One novel feature is the
ability to serve a dense crowd of devices, calling for radically new ways of
accessing the network. This is the case in machine-type communications, but
also in urban environments and hotspots. In those use cases, the high number of
devices and the relatively short channel coherence interval do not allow
per-device allocation of orthogonal pilot sequences. This article motivates the
need for random access by the devices to pilot sequences used for channel
estimation, and shows that Massive MIMO is a main enabler to achieve fast
access with high data rates, and delay-tolerant access with different data rate
levels. Three pilot access protocols along with data transmission protocols are
described, fulfilling different requirements of 5G services
Enhancing Coexistence in the Unlicensed Band with Massive MIMO
We consider cellular base stations (BSs) equipped with a large number of
antennas and operating in the unlicensed band. We denote such system as massive
MIMO unlicensed (mMIMO-U). We design the key procedures required to guarantee
coexistence between a cellular BS and nearby Wi-Fi devices. These include:
neighboring Wi-Fi channel covariance estimation, allocation of spatial degrees
of freedom for interference suppression, and enhanced channel sensing and data
transmission phases. We evaluate the performance of the so-designed mMIMO-U,
showing that it allows simultaneous cellular and Wi-Fi transmissions by keeping
their mutual interference below the regulatory threshold. The same is not true
for conventional listen-before-talk (LBT) operations. As a result, mMIMO-U
boosts the aggregate cellular-plus-Wi-Fi data rate in the unlicensed band with
respect to conventional LBT, exhibiting increasing gains as the number of BS
antennas grows.Comment: To appear in Proc. IEEE ICC 201
Enhancing massive MIMO: A new approach for Uplink training based on heterogeneous coherence time
Massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) is one of the key technologies
in future generation networks. Owing to their considerable spectral and energy
efficiency gains, massive MIMO systems provide the needed performance to cope
with the ever increasing wireless capacity demand. Nevertheless, the number of
scheduled users stays limited in massive MIMO both in time division duplexing
(TDD) and frequency division duplexing (FDD) systems. This is due to the
limited coherence time, in TDD systems, and to limited feedback capacity, in
FDD mode. In current systems, the time slot duration in TDD mode is the same
for all users. This is a suboptimal approach since users are subject to
heterogeneous Doppler spreads and, consequently, different coherence times. In
this paper, we investigate a massive MIMO system operating in TDD mode in
which, the frequency of uplink training differs among users based on their
actual channel coherence times. We argue that optimizing uplink training by
exploiting this diversity can lead to considerable spectral efficiency gain. We
then provide a user scheduling algorithm that exploits a coherence interval
based grouping in order to maximize the achievable weighted sum rate
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