Towards the Next Generation of Location-Aware Communications

This thesis is motivated by the expected implementation of the next generation mobile networks (5G) from 2020, which is being designed with a radical paradigm shift towards millimeter-wave technology (mmWave). Operating in 30--300 GHz frequency band (1--10 mm wavelengths), massive antenna arrays that provide a high angular resolution, while being packed on a small area will be used. Moreover, since the abundant mmWave spectrum is barely occupied, large bandwidth allocation is possible and will enable low-error time estimation. With this high spatiotemporal resolution, mmWave technology readily lends itself to extremely accurate localization that can be harnessed in the network design and optimization, as well as utilized in many modern applications. Localization in 5G is still in early stages, and very little is known about its performance and feasibility. In this thesis, we contribute to the understanding of 5G mmWave localization by focusing on challenges pertaining to this emerging technology. Towards that, we start by considering a conventional cellular system and propose a positioning method under outdoor LOS/NLOS conditions that, although approaches the Cram\'er-Rao lower bound (CRLB), provides accuracy in the order of meters. This shows that conventional systems have limited range of location-aware applications. Next, we focus on mmWave localization in three stages. Firstly, we tackle the initial access (IA) problem, whereby user equipment (UE) attempts to establish a link with a base station (BS). The challenge in this problem stems from the high directivity of mmWave. We investigate two beamforming schemes: directional and random. Subsequently, we address 3D localization beyond IA phase. Devices nowadays have higher computational capabilities and may perform localization in the downlink. However, beamforming on the UE side is sensitive to the device orientation. Thus, we study localization in both the uplink and downlink under multipath propagation and derive the position (PEB) and orientation error bounds (OEB). We also investigate the impact of the number of antennas and the number of beams on these bounds. Finally, the above components assume that the system is synchronized. However, synchronization in communication systems is not usually tight enough for localization. Therefore, we study two-way localization as a means to alleviate the synchronization requirement and investigate two protocols: distributed (DLP) and centralized (CLP). Our results show that random-phase beamforming is more appropriate IA approach in the studied scenarios. We also observe that the uplink and downlink are not equivalent, in that the error bounds scale differently with the number of antennas, and that uplink localization is sensitive to the UE orientation, while downlink is not. Furthermore, we find that NLOS paths generally boost localization. The investigation of the two-way protocols shows that CLP outperforms DLP by a significant margin. We also observe that mmWave localization is mainly limited by angular rather than temporal estimation. In conclusion, we show that mmWave systems are capable of localizing a UE with sub-meter position error, and sub-degree orientation error, which asserts that mmWave will play a central role in communication network optimization and unlock opportunities that were not available in the previous generation

Error Bounds for Uplink and Downlink 3D Localization in 5G mmWave Systems

Location-aware communication systems are expected to play a pivotal part in the next generation of mobile communication networks. Therefore, there is a need to understand the localization limits in these networks, particularly, using millimeter-wave technology (mmWave). Towards that, we address the uplink and downlink localization limits in terms of 3D position and orientation error bounds for mmWave multipath channels. We also carry out a detailed analysis of the dependence of the bounds of different systems parameters. Our key findings indicate that the uplink and downlink behave differently in two distinct ways. First of all, the error bounds have different scaling factors with respect to the number of antennas in the uplink and downlink. Secondly, uplink localization is sensitive to the orientation angle of the user equipment (UE), whereas downlink is not. Moreover, in the considered outdoor scenarios, the non-line-of-sight paths generally improve localization when a line-of-sight path exists. Finally, our numerical results show that mmWave systems are capable of localizing a UE with sub-meter position error, and sub-degree orientation error.Comment: This manuscripts is updated following two rounds of reviews at IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications. More discussion is included in different parts of the paper. Results are unchanged, and are still vali

Single-Anchor Two-Way Localization Bounds for 5G mmWave Systems

Recently, millimeter-wave (mmWave) 5G localization has been shown to be to provide centimeter-level accuracy, lending itself to many location-aware applications, e.g., connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs). One assumption usually made in the investigation of localization methods is that the user equipment (UE), i.e., a CAV, and the base station (BS) are {time} synchronized. In this paper, we remove this assumption and investigate two two-way localization protocols: (i) a round-trip localization protocol (RLP), whereby the BS and UE exchange signals in two rounds of transmission and then localization is achieved using the signal received in the second round; (ii) a collaborative localization protocol (CLP), whereby localization is achieved using the signals received in the two rounds. We derive the position and orientation error bounds applying beamforming at both ends and compare them to the traditional one-way localization. Our results show that mmWave localization is mainly limited by the angular rather than the temporal estimation and that CLP significantly outperforms RLP. Our simulations also show that it is more beneficial to have more antennas at the BS than at the UE.Comment: This version is accepted for publication as a paper in the IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technolog

Interference Mitigating Satellite Broadcast Receiver using Reduced Complexity List-Based Detection in Correlated Noise

The recent commercial trends towards using smaller dish antennas for satellite receivers, and the growing density of broadcasting satellites, necessitate the application of robust adjacent satellite interference (ASI) cancellation schemes. This orbital density growth along with the wider beamwidth of a smaller dish have imposed an overloaded scenario at the satellite receiver, where the number of transmitting satellites exceeds the number of receiving elements at the dish antenna. To ensure successful operation in this practical scenario, we propose a satellite receiver that enhances signal detection from the desired satellite by mitigating the interference from neighboring satellites. Towards this objective, we propose a reduced complexity list-based group-wise search detection (RC-LGSD) receiver under the assumption of spatially correlated additive noise. To further enhance detection performance, the proposed satellite receiver utilizes a newly designed whitening filter to remove the spatial correlation amongst the noise parameters, while also applying a preprocessor that maximizes the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). Extensive simulations under practical scenarios show that the proposed receiver enhances the performance of satellite broadcast systems in the presence of ASI compared to existing methods

Random-Phase Beamforming for Initial Access in Millimeter-Wave Cellular Networks

The utilization of the millimeter-wave frequency band (mm-wave) in the fifth generation (5G) of mobile communication is a highly-debated current topic. Mm-wave MIMO systems will use arrays with large number of antennas at the transmitter and the receiver, implemented on a relatively small area. With the inherent high directivity of these arrays, algorithms to help the user equipment find the base station and establish a communication link should be carefully designed. Towards that, we examine two beamforming schemes, namely, random-phase beamforming (RPBF) and directional beamforming (DBF), and test their impact on the Cramer-Rao lower bounds (CRB) of jointly estimating the ´ direction-of-arrival, direction-of-departure, time-of-arrival, and the complex channel gain, under the line-of-sight channel model. The results show that the application of RPBF is more appropriate in the considered scenario as it attains a lower CRB with fewer beams compared to DB.ARC Discovery Projects Grant DP14010113

Interference Mitigating Satellite Broadcast Receiver using Reduced Complexity List-Based Detection in Correlated Noise

The recent commercial trends towards using smaller dish antennas for satellite receivers, and the growing density of broadcasting satellites, necessitate the application of robust adjacent satellite interference (ASI) cancellation schemes. This orbital density growth along with the wider beamwidth of a smaller dish have imposed an overloaded scenario at the satellite receiver, where the number of transmitting satellites exceeds the number of receiving elements at the dish antenna. To ensure successful operation in this practical scenario, we propose a satellite receiver that enhances signal detection from the desired satellite by mitigating the interference from neighboring satellites. Towards this objective, we propose a reduced complexity list-based group-wise search detection (RC-LGSD) receiver under the assumption of spatially correlated additive noise. To further enhance detection performance, the proposed satellite receiver utilizes a newly designed whitening filter to remove the spatial correlation amongst the noise parameters, while also applying a preprocessor that maximizes the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). Extensive simulations under practical scenarios show that the proposed receiver enhances the performance of satellite broadcast systems in the presence of ASI compared to existing method