Multicarrier Waveform Candidates for Beyond 5G

To fulfil the requirements of 5G vision of “everything everywhere and always connected”, a new waveform must contain the features to support a greater number of users on high data rate. Although Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) has been widely used in the 4th generation, but it can hardly meet the needs of 5G vision. However, many waveforms have been proposed to cope with new challenges. In this paper, we have presented a comparative analysis of several waveform candidates (FBMC, GFDM, UFMC, F-OFDM) on the basis of complexity, hardware design and other valuable characteristics. Filter based waveforms have much better Out of Band Emission (OoBE) as compared to OFDM. However, F-OFDM has smaller filter length compared to filter-based waveforms and provides better transmission with multiple antenna system without any extra processing, while providing flexible frequency multiplexing, shorter latency and relaxed synchronization as compared to other waveforms.This work is funded by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) ITN TeamUp5G (813391), ORCIP, CONQUEST (CMU/ECE/0030/2017), by UIDB/EEA/50008/2020, and by COST CA 15104. TeamUp5G project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie project number 813391.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Deployment of Beyond 4G Wireless Communication Networks with Carrier Aggregation

With the growing demand for new blend of applications, the user’s dependency on the Internet is increasing day by day. Mobile Internet users are giving more attention to their own experience, especially in terms of communication reliability, high data rate and service stability on the move. This increase in the demand is causing saturation of existing radio frequency bands. To address these challenges, many researchers are finding the best approach, Carrier Aggregation (CA) is one of the newest innovations which seems to fulfil the demands of future spectrum, CA is one the most important feature for Long Term Evolution - Advanced. In direction to get the upcoming International Mobile Telecommunication Advanced (IMT-Advanced) mobile requirements 1 Gb/s peak data rate, the CA scheme is presented by 3GPP to sustain high data rate using widespread frequency bandwidth up to 100 MHz. Technical issues containing the aggregation structure, its implementation, deployment scenarios, control signal technique and challenges for CA technique in LTE-Advanced, with consideration backward compatibility are highlighted. Performance evaluation in macrocellular scenarios through a simulation approach shows the benefits of applying CA and low-complexity multi-band schedulers in service quality and system capacity enhancement. The Enhanced multi-band scheduler is less complex than the General multi-band scheduler and performs better for cell radius longer than 1800 m (and a PLR threshold of 2%).This work is funded by FCT/MCTES through national funds and when applicable co-funded EU funds under the project UIDB/EEA/50008/2020, COST CA 15104 IRACON, ORCIP and CONQUEST (CMU/ECE/0030/2017), TeamUp5G project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie project number 813391.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

An Extensive Study on the Performance Evaluation and Scheduling of HeNBs

Since the dawn of mobile communication systems, reducing the cell size has been one option to increase the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) in both links. The impact of this reduction can be perfectly understood by considering Shannon’s law. This work studies in detail the performance of Home eNBs (HeNBs), nodes with a smaller coverage area. After a detailed theoretical study of the SINR, a simulation approach is used to extract performance results in small cell indoor scenarios. Results corresponding to the goodput, delay and packet loss ratio are analyzed. Based on an improved version of LTE-Sim, the proportional fair, frame level scheduler (FLS) and exponential rule are tested in an indoor environment. With the saturation conditions taken into consideration, the FLS performs better than the other schedulers. This work shows that with the considered applications, it is possible to achieve a reduction in the transmitter power of HeNBs without compromising the small cell network performance.This work was supported by Foundation for Science and Technology/Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (FCT/MCTES) through national funds and, when applicable, co-funded EU funds under the project UIDB/50008/2020, COST CA 15104 Inclusive Radio Communication Networks for 5G and Beyond (IRACON), Optical Radio Convergence Infrastructure for Communications and Power Delivering (ORCIP, 22141-01/SAICT/2016), TeamUp5G and CONQUEST (CMU/ECE/0030/2017). The TeamUp5G project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie project number 813391.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Impact of the Two-Slope Path Loss Model in the Service Quality of 4G and 5G Small Cells

Together with cell-free networks, small cells enable ultra-dense networks in 5G. Although small cell networks will be part of heterogeneous networks, the comparison of service quality of urban micro (UMi) small cells between 4G and 5G second phase scenarios is still of great relevance. Usage of video (VID), is considered. Quality of service (QoS) is determined by considering a packet loss ratio (PLR) lower than 2%, for different sub-6 GHz frequency bands. The aim is to compare the system capacity between 4G and 5G enhanced mobile broadband in different bands. ITU defined two UMi cell scenarios for urban micro cells that consider two-slope (TS) path loss models (PLMs). In this work, we have included TS-PLMs into the LTESim (4G) and 5G-air-simulator. The service quality and system performance bands have then been evaluated. Results shows that it is possible to support more user terminals (UTs) with 5G (up to 26 UTs) than with 4G (10 UTs only). When PLR<2%, the average delay decreases and the average goodput increases when 5G is considered. The maximum average goodput also increases with 5G.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Hybrid Matched Filter Detection Spectrum Sensing

The radio frequency spectrum is getting more congested day by day due to the growth of wireless devices, applications, and the arrival of fifth generation (5G) mobile communications. This happens because the radio spectrum is a natural resource that has a restricted existence. Access to all devices can be granted, but in a more efficient way. To resolve the issue, cognitive radio technology has come out as a way, because it is possible to sense the radio spectrum in the neighboring. Spectrum sensing has been recognized as an important technology, in cognitive radio networks, to allow secondary users (SUs) to detect spectrum holes and opportunistically access primary licensed spectrum band without harmful interference. This paper considers the Energy Detection (ED) and Matched Filter Detection (MFD) spectrum sensing techniques as the baseline for a study where the so-called Hybrid Matched Filter Detection (Hybrid MFD) was proposed. Apart from an analytical approach, Monte Carlo simulations have been performed in MATLAB. These simulations aimed at understanding how the variation of parameters like the probability of false alarm, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the number of samples, can affect the probability of miss-detection. Simulation results show that i) higher probability of miss-detection is achieved for the ED spectrum sensing technique when compared to the MFD and Hybrid MFD techniques; ii) More importantly, the proposed Hybrid MFD technique outperforms MFD in terms of the ability to detect the presence of a primary user in licensed spectrum, for a probability of false alarm slightly lower than 0.5, low number of samples and low signal-to-noise ratio.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Study of Indoor Small Cell Deployments

This work aims at studying the indoor deployment of small cells, also known as femtocells, to provide coverage to a 5 × 5 grid geometry. The number of deployed HeNBs is 4, 5, or 6. An updated version of LTE-Sim is considered to extract values for Exponential Effective SINR Mapping (EESM), Packet Loss Ratio (PLR), maximum number of supported users, goodput and delay. Results reveal that the use of four HeNBs corresponds to the highest values of EESM. For the considered geometry, 3GPP suggested a maximum of five HeNBs. However, this deployment shows worser performance compared to the topology with four HeNBs. The geometry with six HeNBs is the one with the best overall performance results for the 5 × 5 grid of apartments.COST CA 15104 IRACON, ORCIP (22141-01/SAICT/2016), TeamUp5G and CONQUEST (CMU/ECE/0030/2017)info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Fractal Patch Antenna based on Crystal Photonic applied to Intelligent Transportation Systems in the 40 GHz Millimeter Waveband

5G (and beyond) has very high bandwidth, short latency, better quality of service, and the right amount of capacity. Technological breakthroughs in mobile communication systems user equipments operating in the millimeter wavebands imply a high gain to compensate the effect of path loss. In this work, a novel photonic crystal-based microstrip patch antenna array with high gain is designed to be used in the next generation intelligent transportation ssytems, e.g., V2X, and other exciting applications. The Photonic Band Gap (PBG) structure and Finite Element Method were considered. By using the High Frequency Structure Simulation (HFSS) software, a fractal microstrip patch antenna operating in the U-band of the electromagnetic spectrum is conceived and modeled on a two-dimensional photonic crystal. The use of the PBG structure improves the antenna’s gain and bandwidth, while the antenna’s fractal form decreases its size and improves its input impedance. The operational frequency range is 41.72-45.12 GHz with a resonant band centered at 43.26 GHz. The proposed antenna is comprised of a 0.45 mm thick copper ground plane, a 0.9 mm thick FR-4 epoxy substrate with a relative transmittance of 4.4, and a 0.45 mm thick copper antenna patch. The achieved frequency band gain is 8.95 dBi.This work was supported by FCT/MCTES through national funds and when applicable co-funded EU funds under the project UIDB/50008/2020. It was also supported by COST CA20120 INTERACT and TeamUp5G. TeamUp5G project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie project number 813391.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

A Study on Cross-Carrier Scheduler for Carrier Aggregation in Beyond 5G Networks

Carrier Aggregation (CA) allows the network and User Equipment (UE) to aggregate carrier frequencies in licensed, unlicensed, or Shared Access (SA) bands of the same or different spectrum bands to boost the achieved data rates. This work aims to provide a detailed study on CA techniques for 5G New Radio (5G NR) networks while elaborating on CA deployment scenarios, CA-enabled 5G networks, and radio resource management and scheduling techniques. We analyze cross-carrier scheduling schemes in CA-enabled 5G networks for Downlink (DL) resource allocation. The requirements, challenges, and opportunities in allocating Resource Blocks (RBs) and Component Carriers (CCs) are addressed. The study and analysis of various multi-band scheduling techniques are made while maintaining that high throughput and reduced power usage must be achieved at the UE. Finally, we present CA as the critical enabler to advanced systems while discussing how it meets the demands and holds the potential to support beyond 5G networks, followed by discussing open issues in resource allocation and scheduling techniques.This work was supported by FCT/MCTES through national funds and, when applicable, cofounded EU funds under the project UIDB/50008/2020, ORCIP (22141-01/SAICT/2016), COST CA 20120 INTERACT, SNF Scientific Exchange - AISpectrum (project 205842) and TeamUp5G. TeamUp5G has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie ETN TeamUp5G, grant agreement No. 813391.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Trends in Standardization Towards 6G

Mobile networks have always been an indispensable part of a fully connected digital society. The industry and academia have joined hands to develop technologies for the anticipated future wireless communication. The predicted Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and use cases for the 6G networks have raised the bar high. 6G networks are developing to provide the required infrastructure for many new devices and services. The 6G networks are conceptualized to partially inherit 5G technologies and standards but they will open the ground for innovations. This study provides the vision and requirements for beyond 5G (B5G) networks and emphasizes our vision on the required standards to reach a fully functional and interoperable 6G era in general. We highlight various KPIs and enabling technologies for the B5G networks. In addition, standardization activities and initiatives concerning challenges in the se of spectrum are diuscussed in detail.This work was supported by FCT/MCTES through national funds and when applicable cofounded EU funds under the project UIDB/50008/2020, ORCIP (22141-01/SAICT/2016) and TeamUp5G. TeamUp5G has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie ETN TeamUp5G, grant agreement No. 813391.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Overview of Network Slicing: Business and Standards Perspective for Beyond 5G Networks

The deployment of fifth-generation wireless communications (5G) networks brought a significant difference in the data rate and throughput to the wireless systems. It ensures ultra-low latency and high reliability. In particular, Network Slicing (NS), one of the enablers for the 5G phase-II and beyond, has opened enormous opportunities for the Communications Service Provider (CSPs). NS allows CSPs to create independent virtual networks in the same physical network to guarantee high service levels. This paper provides an overview of the advances in NS from the perspective of the business opportunities and associated standardization activities. Standardization is critical in research as it intends to maintain interoperability among multi-vendor scenarios in telcos. We emphasize highlighting the technical facets of slicing within the business implementation and industry standardization process. Additionally, we address the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to NS-enabled future networks deployments. A set of use cases and the underlying specific requirements challenges are discussed as well. Finally, future research directions are addressed in detail.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio