5G-SpaceLab

Poster (2021, April 19)

The new phase of space exploration involves a growing number of human and robotic missions with varying communication and service requirements. Continuous, maximum coverage of areas where activities are ... [more ▼]

The new phase of space exploration involves a growing number of human and robotic missions with varying communication and service requirements. Continuous, maximum coverage of areas where activities are concentrated and orbiting missions (single spacecraft or constellations) around the Earth, Moon or Mars will be particularly challenging. The standardization of the 5G Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) has already begun [1], and nothing prevents 5G from becoming a common communications standard supporting space resource missions [2]. The 5G Space Communications Lab (5G-SpaceLab) is an interdisciplinary experimental platform, funded by the Luxembourg Space Agency and is part of the Space Research Program of SnT. The lab allows users to design and emulate realistic space communications and control scenarios for the next-generation of space applications. The capabilities of the 5G-SpaceLab testbed combine the experience of different disciplines including space communications, space and satellite mission design, and space robotics. The most relevant include the demonstration of SDR 5G NTN terminals including NB-IoT, emulation of space communications channel scenarios (e.g. link budget, delay, Doppler…), small satellite platform and payload design and testing, satellite swarm flight formation, lunar rover and robotic arm control and AI-powered telerobotics. Earth-Moon communications is one of the scenarios demonstrated in the 5G-SpaceLab. Bidirectional communication for the teleoperation of lunar rovers for near real-time operations including data collection and sensors feedback will be tested. AI-based approaches for perception and control will be developed to overcome communication delays and to provide safer, trustworthy, and efficient remote control of the rovers. [1] 3GPP Release 17 Timeline. [Online]. Available: https://www.3gpp.org/release-17 [2] Nokia, Nokia selected by NASA to build first ever cellular network on the Moon. [Online]. Available: https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2020/10/19/nokia-selected-by-nasa-to-build-first-ever-cellular-network-on-the-moon/ [less ▲]

Actor‑critic learning‑based energy optimization for UAV access and backhaul networks

in EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking (2021)

In unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-assisted networks, UAV acts as an aerial base station which acquires the requested data via backhaul link and then serves ground users (GUs) through an access network. In ... [more ▼]

In unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-assisted networks, UAV acts as an aerial base station which acquires the requested data via backhaul link and then serves ground users (GUs) through an access network. In this paper, we investigate an energy minimization problem with a limited power supply for both backhaul and access links. The difficul- ties for solving such a non-convex and combinatorial problem lie at the high compu- tational complexity/time. In solution development, we consider the approaches from both actor-critic deep reinforcement learning (AC-DRL) and optimization perspectives. First, two offline non-learning algorithms, i.e., an optimal and a heuristic algorithms, based on piecewise linear approximation and relaxation are developed as benchmarks. Second, toward real-time decision-making, we improve the conventional AC-DRL and propose two learning schemes: AC-based user group scheduling and backhaul power allocation (ACGP), and joint AC-based user group scheduling and optimization-based backhaul power allocation (ACGOP). Numerical results show that the computation time of both ACGP and ACGOP is reduced tenfold to hundredfold compared to the offline approaches, and ACGOP is better than ACGP in energy savings. The results also verify the superiority of proposed learning solutions in terms of guaranteeing the feasibility and minimizing the system energy compared to the conventional AC-DRL. [less ▲]

Effective Rate Evaluation with Assistance of Mixture Gamma (MG), Mixture of Gaussian (MoG), and Fox's $H$-Function Distributions

Poster (2021, April)

Short-Packet Communications for MIMO NOMA Systems over Nakagami-m Fading: BLER and Minimum Blocklength Analysis

in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology (2021)

Recently, ultra-reliable and low-latency communications (URLLC) using short-packets has been proposed to fulfill the stringent requirements regarding reliability and latency of emerging applications in 5G ... [more ▼]

Recently, ultra-reliable and low-latency communications (URLLC) using short-packets has been proposed to fulfill the stringent requirements regarding reliability and latency of emerging applications in 5G and beyond networks. In addition, multiple-input multiple-output non-orthogonal multiple access (MIMO NOMA) is a potential candidate to improve the spectral efficiency, reliability, latency, and connectivity of wireless systems. In this paper, we investigate short-packet communications (SPC) in a multiuser downlink MIMO NOMA system over Nakagami-m fading, and propose two antenna-user selection methods considering two clusters of users having different priority levels. In contrast to the widely-used long data-packet assumption, the SPC analysis requires the redesign of the communication protocols and novel performance metrics. Given this context, we analyze the SPC performance of MIMO NOMA systems using the average block error rate (BLER) and minimum blocklength, instead of the conventional metrics such as ergodic capacity and outage capacity. More specifically, to characterize the system performance regarding SPC, asymptotic (in the high signal-to-noise ratio regime) and approximate closed-form expressions of the average BLER at the users are derived. Based on the asymptotic behavior of the average BLER, an analysis of the diversity order, minimum blocklength, and optimal power allocation is carried out. The achieved results show that MIMO NOMA can serve multiple users simultaneously using a smaller blocklength compared with MIMO OMA, thus demonstrating the benefits of MIMO NOMA for SPC in minimizing the transmission latency. Furthermore, our results indicate that the proposed methods not only improve the BLER performance, but also guarantee full diversity gains for the respective users. [less ▲]

Automotive Squint-forward-looking SAR: High Resolution and Early Warning

in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing (2021)

Forward-looking automotive radars can sense long-distant targets to enable early warning, but the lateral resolution is limited. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) techniques can achieve very high azimuth ... [more ▼]

Forward-looking automotive radars can sense long-distant targets to enable early warning, but the lateral resolution is limited. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) techniques can achieve very high azimuth resolution but cannot resolve targets in the forward direction. As a trade-off, squint-forward-looking SAR (SFL-SAR) can perform 2D imaging on a distant area squint to the moving direction, providing both high resolution and early warning. In this paper, we analyzed and derived the constraints of automotive SFL-SAR to satisfy both the required resolution and braking distance. Simulations and imaging results verified the analysis. [less ▲]

Joint Symbol Level Precoding and Combining for MIMO-OFDM Transceiver Architectures Based on One-Bit DACs and ADCs

in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications (2021), 20(7), 4601-4613

Herein, a precoding scheme is developed for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems that use one-bit digital-to-analog converters ... [more ▼]

Herein, a precoding scheme is developed for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems that use one-bit digital-to-analog converters (DACs) and analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) at the transmitter and receiver, respectively, as a means to reduce the power consumption. Two different one-bit architectures are presented. In the first, a single user MIMO system is considered where the DACs and ADCs of the transmitter and the receiver are assumed to be one-bit and in the second, a network of analog phase shifters is added at the receiver as an additional analog-only processing step with the view to mitigate some of the effects of coarse quantization. The precoding design problem is formulated and then split into two NP-hard optimization problems, which are solved by an algorithmic solution based on the Cyclic Coordinate Descent (CCD) framework. The design of the analog post-coding matrix for the second architecture is decoupled from the precoding design and is solved by an algorithm based on the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). Numerical results show that the proposed precoding scheme successfully mitigates the effects of coarse quantization and the proposed systems achieve a performance close to that of systems equipped with full resolution DACs/ADCs. [less ▲]

Energy-Efficient Hybrid Symbol-Level Precoding for Large-Scale mmWave Multiuser MIMO Systems

in IEEE Transactions on Communications (2021), 69(5), 3119-3134

We address the symbol-level precoding design problem for the downlink of a multiuser millimeter wave (mmWave) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless system where the transmitter is equipped with a ... [more ▼]

We address the symbol-level precoding design problem for the downlink of a multiuser millimeter wave (mmWave) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless system where the transmitter is equipped with a large-scale antenna array. The high cost and power consumption associated with the massive use of radio frequency (RF) chains prohibit fully-digital implementation of the precoder, and therefore, we consider a hybrid analog-digital architecture where a small-sized baseband precoder is followed by two successive networks of analog on-off switches and variable phase shifters according to a fully-connected structure. We jointly optimize the digital baseband precoder and the states of the switching network on a symbol-level basis, i.e., by exploiting both the channel state information (CSI) and the instantaneous data symbols, whereas the phase-shifting network is designed only based on the CSI due to practical considerations. Our approach to this joint optimization is to minimize the Euclidean distance between the optimal fully-digital and the hybrid symbol-level precoders. Remarkably, the use of a switching network allows for power-savings in the analog precoder by switching some of the phase shifters off according to the instantaneously optimized states of the switches. Our numerical results indicate that, on average, up to 50 percent of the phase shifters can be switched off. We provide an analysis of energy efficiency by adopting appropriate power dissipation models for the analog precoder, where it is shown that the energy efficiency of precoding can substantially be improved thanks to the phase shifter selection approach, compared to the fully-digital and the state-of-the-art hybrid symbol-level schemes. [less ▲]

Energy-Efficient Hybrid Symbol-Level Precoding via Phase Shifter Selection in mmWave MU-MIMO Systems

in Energy-Efficient Hybrid Symbol-Level Precoding via Phase Shifter Selection in mmWave MU-MIMO Systems (2021, January 25)

We address the symbol-level precoding design problem for the downlink of a multiuser millimeter wave (mmWave) multiple-input multiple-output wireless system. We consider a hybrid analog-digital ... [more ▼]

We address the symbol-level precoding design problem for the downlink of a multiuser millimeter wave (mmWave) multiple-input multiple-output wireless system. We consider a hybrid analog-digital architecture with phase shifter selection where a small-sized baseband precoder is followed by two successive networks of analog on-off switches and variable phase shifters according to a fully-connected structure. We jointly optimize the digital baseband precoder and the states of the switching network on a symbol-level basis, i.e., by exploiting both the channel state information (CSI) and the instantaneous data symbols, while the phase-shifting network is designed only based on the CSI. Our approach to this joint optimization is to minimize the Euclidean distance between the optimal fully-digital and the hybrid symbol-level precoders. It is shown via numerical results that using the proposed approach, up to 50 percent of the phase shifters can be switched off on average, allowing for reductions in the power consumption of the phase-shifting network. Adopting appropriate power consumption models for the analog precoder, our energy efficiency analysis further shows that this power reduction can substantially improve the energy efficiency of the hybrid precoding compared to the fully-digital and the state-of-the-art schemes. [less ▲]

Feasible Point Pursuit and Successive Convex Approximation for Transmit Power Minimization in SWIPT-Multigroup Multicasting Systems

in IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking (2021)

We consider three wireless multi-group (MG) multicasting (MC) systems capable of handling heterogeneous user types viz., information decoding (ID) specific users with conventional receiver architectures ... [more ▼]

We consider three wireless multi-group (MG) multicasting (MC) systems capable of handling heterogeneous user types viz., information decoding (ID) specific users with conventional receiver architectures, energy harvesting (EH) only users with non-linear EH module, and users with joint ID and EH capabilities having separate units for the two operations, respectively. Each user is categorized under unique group(s), which can be of MC type specifically meant for ID users, and/or an energy group consisting of EH explicit users. The joint ID and EH users are a part of both EH group and single MC group. We formulate an optimization problem to minimize the total transmit power with optimal precoder designs for the three aforementioned scenarios, under certain quality-of-service constraints. The problem may be adapted to the well-known semidefinite program and solved via relaxation of rank-1 constraint. However, this process leads to performance degradation in some cases, which increases with the rank of solution obtained from the relaxed problem. Hence, we develop a novel technique motivated by the feasible-point pursuit successive convex approximation method in order to address the rank-related issue. The benefits of proposed method are illustrated under various operating conditions and parameter values, with comparison between the three above-mentioned scenarios. [less ▲]

NOMA-Enabled Multi-Beam Satellite Systems: Joint Optimization to Overcome Offered-Requested Data Mismatches

in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology (2021), 70(1), 900-913

Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has potentials to improve the performance of multi-beam satellite systems. The performance optimization in satellite-NOMA systems could be different from that in ... [more ▼]

Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has potentials to improve the performance of multi-beam satellite systems. The performance optimization in satellite-NOMA systems could be different from that in terrestrial-NOMA systems, e.g., considering distinctive channel models, performance metrics, power constraints, and limited flexibility in resource management. In this paper, we adopt a metric, offered capacity to requested traffic ratio (OCTR), to measure the requested-offered data rate mismatch in multi-beam satellite systems. In the considered system, NOMA is applied to mitigate intra-beam interference while precoding is implemented to reduce inter-beam interference. We jointly optimize power, decoding orders, and terminal-timeslot assignment to improve the max-min fairness of OCTR. The problem is inherently difficult due to the presence of combinatorial and non-convex aspects. We first fix the terminal-timeslot assignment, and develop an optimal fast-convergence algorithmic framework based on Perron-Frobenius theory (PF) for the remaining joint power-allocation and decoding-order optimization problem. Under this framework, we propose a heuristic algorithm for the original problem, which iteratively updates the terminal-timeslot assignment and improves the overall OCTR performance. Numerical results show that the proposed algorithm improves the max-min OCTR by 40.2% over orthogonal multiple access (OMA) in average. [less ▲]