Modern day cellular mobile networks use Massive MIMO technology to extend range and service multiple devices within a cell. This has brought tremendous improvements in the high peak data rates that can be handled. Nevertheless, one of the characteristics of this technology is large variations in the quality of service dependent on where the end user is located in any given cell. This becomes increasingly problematic when we are creating a society where wireless access is supposed to be ubiquitous. When payments, navigation, entertainment, and control of autonomous vehicles are all relying on wireless connectivity the primary goal for future mobile networks should not be to increase the peak rates, but the rates that can be guaranteed to the vast majority of the locations in the geographical coverage area. The cellular network architecture was not designed for high-rate data services but for low-rate voice services, thus it is time to look beyond the cellular paradigm and make a clean-slate network design that can reach the performance requirements of the future. This monograph considers the cell-free network architecture that is designed to reach the aforementioned goal of uniformly high data rates everywhere. The authors introduce the concept of a cell-free network before laying out the foundations of what is required to design and build such a network. They cover the foundations of channel estimation, signal processing, pilot assignment, dynamic cooperation cluster formation, power optimization, fronthaul signaling, and spectral efficiency evaluation in uplink and downlink under different degrees of cooperation among the access points and arbitrary linear combining and precoding. This monograph provides the reader with all the fundamental information required to design and build the next generation mobile networks without being hindered by the inherent restrictions of modern cellular-based technology.
The fifth generation of mobile communication systems (5G) is nowadays a reality. 5G networks are been deployed all over the world, and the first 5G-capable devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets, wearable, etc.) are already commercially available. 5G systems provide unprecedented levels of connectivity and quality of service (QoS) to cope with the incessant growth in the number of connected devices and the huge increase in data-rate demand. Massive MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) technology plays a key role in 5G systems. The underlying principle of this technology is the use of a large number of co-located antennas at the base station, which coherently transmit/receive signals to/from multiple users. This signal co-processing at multiple antennas leads to manifold benefits: array gain, spatial diversity and spatial user multiplexing. These elements enable to meet the QoS requirements established for the 5G systems. The major bottleneck of massive MIMO systems as well as of any cellular network is the inter-cell interference, which affects significantly the cell-edge users, whose performance is already degraded by the path attenuation. To overcome these limitations and provide uniformly excellent service to all the users we need a more radical approach: we need to challenge the cellular paradigm. In this regard, cell-free massive MIMO constitutes the paradigm shift. In the cell-free paradigm, it is not the base station surrounded by the users, but rather it is each user being surrounded by smaller, simpler, serving base stations referred to as access points (APs). In such a system, each user experiences being in the cell-center, and it does not experience any cell boundaries. Hence, the terminology cell-free. As a result, users are not affected by inter-cell interference, and the path attenuation is significantly reduced due to the presence of many APs in their proximity. This leads to impressive performance. Although appealing from the performance viewpoint, the designing and implementation of such a distributed massive MIMO system is a challenging task, and it is the object of this thesis. More specifically, in this thesis we study: Paper A) The large potential of this promising technology in realistic indoor/outdoor scenarios while also addressing practical deployment issues, such as clock synchronization among APs, and cost-efficient implementations. We provide an extensive description of a cell-free massive MIMO system, emphasizing strengths and weaknesses, and pointing out differences and similarities with existing distributed multiple antenna systems, such as Coordinated MultiPoint (CoMP). Paper B) How to preserve the scalability of the system, by proposing a solution related to data processing, network topology and power control. We consider a realistic scenario where multiple central processing units serve disjoint subsets of APs, and compare the spectral efficiency provided by the proposed scalable framework with the canonical cell-free massive MIMO and CoMP. Paper C) How to improve the spectral efficiency (SE) in the downlink (DL), by devising two distributed precoding schemes, referred to as local partial zero-forcing (ZF) and local protective partial ZF, that provide an adaptable trade-off between interference cancelation and boosting of the desired signal, with no additional front-haul overhead, and that are implementable by APs with very few antennas. We derive closed-form expressions for the achievable SE under the assumption of independent Rayleigh fading channel, channel estimation error and pilot contamination. These closed-form expressions are then used to devise optimal max-min fairness power control. Paper D) How to further improve the SE by letting the user estimate the DL channel from DL pilots, instead of relying solely on the knowledge of the channel statistics. We derive an approximate closed-form expression of the DL SE for conjugate beamforming (CB), and assuming independent Rayleigh fading. This expression accounts for beamformed DL pilots, estimation errors and pilot contamination at both the AP and the user side. We devise a sequential convex approximation algorithm to globally solve the max-min fairness power control optimization problem, and a greedy algorithm for uplink (UL) and DL pilot assignment. The latter consists in jointly selecting the UL and DL pilot pair, for each user, that maximizes the smallest SE in the network. Paper E) A precoding scheme that is more suitable when only the channel statistics are available at the users, referred to as enhanced normalized CB. It consists in normalizing the precoding vector by its squared norm in order to reduce the fluctuations of the effective channel seen at the user, and thereby to boost the channel hardening. The performance achieved by this scheme is compared with the CB scheme with DL training (described in Paper D). Paper F) A maximum-likelihood-based method to estimate the channel statistics in the UL, along with an accompanying pilot transmission scheme, that is particularly useful in line-of-sight operation and in scenarios with resource constraints. Pilots are structurally phase-rotated over different coherence blocks to create an effective statistical distribution of the received pilot signal that can be efficiently exploited by the AP when performing the proposed estimation method. The overall conclusion is that cell-free massive MIMO is not a utopia, and a practical, distributed, scalable, high-performance system can be implemented. Today it represents a hot research topic, but tomorrow it might represent a key enabler for beyond-5G technology, as massive MIMO has been for 5G. La quinta generazione dei sistemi radiomobili cellulari (5G) è oggi una realtà. Le reti 5G si stanno diffondendo in tutto il mondo e i dispositivi 5G (ad esempio smartphones, tablets, indossabili, ecc.) sono già disponibili sul mercato. I sistemi 5G garantiscono livelli di connettività e di qualità di servizio senza precedenti, per fronteggiare l’incessante crescita del numero di dispositivi connessi alla rete e della domanda di dati ad alta velocità. La tecnologia Massive MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) riveste un ruolo fondamentale nei sistemi 5G. Il principio alla base di questa tecnologia è l’impiego di un elevato numero di antenne collocate nella base station (stazione radio base) le quali trasmettono/ricevono segnali, in maniere coerente, a/da più terminali utente. Questo co-processamento del segnale da parte di più antenne apporta molteplici benefici: guadagno di array, diversità spaziale e multiplazione degli utenti nel dominio spaziale. Questi elementi consentono di raggiungere i requisiti di servizio stabiliti per i sistemi 5G. Tuttavia, il limite principale dei sistemi massive MIMO, così come di ogni rete cellulare, è rappresentato dalla interferenza inter-cella (ovvero l’interferenza tra aree di copertura gestite da diverse base stations), la quale riduce in modo significativo le performance degli utenti a bordo cella, già degradate dalle attenuazioni del segnale dovute alla considerevole distanza dalla base station. Per superare queste limitazioni e fornire una qualità del servizio uniformemente eccellente a tutti gli utenti, è necessario un approccio più radicale e guardare oltre il classico paradigma cellulare che caratterizza le attuali architetture di rete. A tal proposito, cell-free massive MIMO (massive MIMO senza celle) costituisce un cambio di paradigma: ogni utente è circondato e servito contemporaneamente da numerose, semplici e di dimensioni ridotte base stations, denominate access points (punti di accesso alla rete). Gli access points cooperano per servire tutti gli utenti nella loro area di copertura congiunta, eliminando l’interferenza inter-cella e il concetto stesso di cella. Non risentendo più dell’effetto “bordo-cella”, gli utenti possono usufruire di qualità di servizio e velocità dati eccellenti. Sebbene attraente dal punto di vista delle performance, l’implementazione di un tale sistema distribuito è una operazione impegnativa ed è oggetto di questa tesi. Piu specificatamente, questa tesi di dottorato tratta: Articolo A) L’enorme potenziale di questa promettente tecnologia in scenari realistici sia indoor che outdoor, proponendo anche delle soluzioni di implementazione flessibili ed a basso costo. Articolo B) Come preservare la scalabilità del sistema, proponendo soluzioni distribuite riguardanti il processamento e la condivisione dei dati, l’architettura di rete e l’allocazione di potenza, ovvero come ottimizzare i livelli di potenza trasmessa dagli access points per ridurre l’interferenza tra utenti e migliorare le performance. Articolo C) Come migliorare l’efficienza spettrale in downlink (da access point verso utente) proponendo due schemi di pre-codifica dei dati di trasmissione, denominati local partial zero-forcing (ZF) e local protective partial ZF, che forniscono un perfetto compromesso tra cancellazione dell’interferenza tra utenti ed amplificazione del segnale desiderato. Articolo D) Come migliorare l’efficienza spettrale in downlink permettendo al terminale utente di stimare le informazioni sulle condizioni istantanee del canale da sequenze pilota, piuttosto che basarsi su informazioni statistiche ed a lungo termine, come convenzionalmente previsto. Articolo E) In alternativa alla soluzione precedente, uno schema di pre-codifica che è più adatto al caso in cui gli utenti hanno a disposizione esclusivamente informazioni statistiche sul canale per poter effettuare la decodifica dei dati. Articolo F) Un metodo per permettere agli access points di stimare, in maniera rapida, le condizioni di canale su base statistica, favorito da uno schema di trasmissione delle sequenze pilota basato su rotazione di fase. Realizzare un sistema cell-free massive MIMO pratico, distribuito, scalabile e performante non è una utopia. Oggi questo concept rappresenta un argomento di ricerca interessante, attraente e stimolante ma in futuro potrebbe costituire un fattore chiave per le tecnologie post-5G, proprio come massive MIMO lo è stato per il 5G. Den femte generationens mobilkommunikationssystem (5G) är numera en verklighet. 5G-nätverk är utplacerade på ett flertal platser världen över och de första 5G-kapabla terminalerna (såsom smarta telefoner, surfplattor, kroppsburna apparater, etc.) är redan kommersiellt tillgängliga. 5G-systemen kan tillhandahålla tidigare oöverträffade nivåer av uppkoppling och servicekvalitet och är designade för en fortsatt oavbruten tillväxt i antalet uppkopplade apparater och ökande datataktskrav. Massiv MIMO-teknologi (eng: multiple-input multiple-output) spelar en nyckelroll i dagens 5G-system. Principen bakom denna teknik är användningen av ett stort antal samlokaliserade antenner vid basstationen, där alla antennerna sänder och tar emot signaler faskoherent till och från flera användare. Gemensam signalbehandling av många antennsignaler ger ett flertal fördelar, såsom hög riktverkan via lobformning, vilket leder till högre datatakter samt möjliggör att flera användare utnyttjar samma radioresurser via rumslig användarmultiplexering. Eftersom en signal kan gå genom flera olika, möjligen oberoende kanaler, så utsätts den för flera olika förändringar samtidigt. Denna mångfald ökar kvaliteten på signalen vid mottagaren och förbättrar radiolänkens robusthet och tillförlitlighet. Detta gör det möjligt att uppfylla de höga kraven på servicekvalitet som fastställts för 5G-systemen. Den största begränsningen för massiva MIMO-system såväl som för alla cellulära mobilnätverk, är störningar från andra celler som påverkar användare på cellkanten väsentligt, vars prestanda redan begränsas av sträckdämpningen på radiokanalen. För att övervinna dessa begränsningar och för att kunna tillhandahålla samma utmärkta servicekvalitet till alla användare behöver vi ett mer radikalt angreppssätt: vi måste utmana cellparadigmet. I detta avseende utgör cellfri massiv-MIMO teknik ett paradigmskifte. I cellfri massive-MIMO är utgångspunkten inte att basstationen är omgiven av användare som den betjänar, utan snarare att varje användare omges av basstationer som de betjänas av. Dessa basstationer, ofta mindre och enklare, kallas accesspunkter (AP). I ett sådant system upplever varje användare att den befinner sig i centrum av systemet och ingen användare upplever några cellgränser. Därav terminologin cellfri. Som ett resultat av detta påverkas inte användarna av inter-cellstörningar och sträckdämpningen reduceras kraftigt på grund av närvaron av många accesspunkter i varje användares närhet. Detta leder till imponerande prestanda. Även om det är tilltalande ur ett prestandaperspektiv så är utformningen och implementeringen av ett sådant distribuerat massivt MIMO-system en utmanande uppgift, och det är syftet med denna avhandling att studera detta. Mer specifikt studerar vi i denna avhandling: A) den mycket stora potentialen med denna teknik i realistiska inomhus- såväl som utomhusscenarier, samt hur man hanterar praktiska implementeringsproblem, såsom klocksynkronisering bland accesspunkter och kostnadseffektiva implementeringar; B) hur man ska uppnå skalbarhet i systemet genom att föreslå lösningar relaterade till databehandling, nätverkstopologi och effektkontroll; C) hur man ökar datahastigheten i nedlänken med hjälp av två nyutvecklade distribuerade överföringsmetoder som tillhandahåller en avvägning mellan störningsundertryckning och förstärkning av önskade signaler, utan att öka mängden intern signalering till de distribuerade accesspunkterna, och som kan implementeras i accesspunkter med mycket få antenner; D) hur man kan förbättra prestandan ytterligare genom att låta användaren estimera nedlänkskanalen med hjälp av nedlänkspiloter, istället för att bara förlita sig på kunskap om kanalstatistik; E) en överföringsmetod för nedlänk som är mer lämpligt när endast kanalstatistiken är tillgänglig för användarna. Prestandan som uppnås genom detta schema jämförs med en utökad variant av den nedlänk-pilotbaserade metoden (beskrivet i föregående punkt); F) en metod för att uppskatta kanalstatistiken i upplänken, samt en åtföljande pilotsändningsmetod, som är särskilt användbart vid direktvägsutbredning (line-of-sight) och i scenarier med resursbegränsningar. Den övergripande slutsatsen är att cellfri massiv MIMO inte är en utopi, och att ett distribuerat, skalbart, samt högpresterande system kan implementeras praktiskt. Idag representerar detta ett hett forskningsämne, men snart kan det visa sig vara en viktig möjliggörare för teknik bortom dagens system, på samma sätt som centraliserad massiv MIMO har varit för de nya 5G-systemen.
The fifth generation of mobile communication systems (5G) promises unprecedented levels of connectivity and quality of service (QoS) to satisfy the incessant growth in the number of mobile smart devices and the huge increase in data demand. One of the primary ways 5G network technology will be accomplished is through network densification, namely increasing the number of antennas per site and deploying smaller and smaller cells. Massive MIMO, where MIMO stands for multiple-input multiple-output, is widely expected to be a key enabler of 5G. This technology leverages an aggressive spatial multiplexing, from using a large number of transmitting/receiving antennas, to multiply the capacity of a wireless channel. A massive MIMO base station (BS) is equipped with a large number of antennas, much larger than the number of active users. The users are coherently served by all the antennas, in the same time-frequency resources but separated in the spatial domain by receiving very directive signals. By supporting such a highly spatially-focused transmission (precoding), massive MIMO provides higher spectral and energy efficiency, and reduces the inter-cell interference compared to existing mobile systems. The inter-cell interference is however becoming the major bottleneck as we densify the networks. It cannot be removed as long as we rely on a network-centric implementation, since the inter-cell interference concept is inherent to the cellular paradigm. Cell-free massive MIMO refers to a massive MIMO system where the BS antennas, herein referred to as access points (APs), are geographically spread out. The APs are connected, through a fronthaul network, to a central processing unit (CPU) which is responsible for coordinating the coherent joint transmission. Such a distributed architecture provides additional macro-diversity, and the co-processing at multiple APs entirely suppresses the inter-cell interference. Each user is surrounded by serving APs and experiences no cell boundaries. This user-centric approach, combined with the system scalability that characterizes the massive MIMO design, constitutes a paradigm shift compared to the conventional centralized and distributed wireless communication systems. On the other hand, such a distributed system requires higher capacity of back/front-haul connections, and the signal co-processing increases the signaling overhead. In this thesis, we focus on some signal processing aspects of cell-free massive MIMO. More specifically, we firstly investigate if the downlink channel estimation, via downlink pilots, brings gains to cell-free massive MIMO or the statistical channel state information (CSI) knowledge at the users is enough to reliably perform data decoding, as in conventional co-located massive MIMO. Allocating downlink pilots is costly resource-wise, thus we also propose resource saving-oriented strategies for downlink pilot assignment. Secondly, we study further fully distributed and scalable precoding schemes in order to outperform cell-free massive MIMO in its canonical form, which consists in single-antenna APs implementing conjugate beamforming (also known as maximum ratio transmission).
Written by pioneers of the concept, this is the first complete guide to the physical and engineering principles of Massive MIMO. Assuming only a basic background in communications and statistical signal processing, it will guide readers through key topics in multi-cell systems such as propagation modeling, multiplexing and de-multiplexing, channel estimation, power control, and performance evaluation. The authors' unique capacity-bounding approach will enable readers to carry out effective system performance analyses and develop advanced Massive MIMO techniques and algorithms. Numerous case studies, as well as problem sets and solutions accompanying the book online, will help readers put knowledge into practice and acquire the skill set needed to design and analyze complex wireless communication systems. Whether you are a graduate student, researcher, or industry professional working in the field of wireless communications, this will be an indispensable guide for years to come.
The last ten years have seen a massive growth in the number of connected wireless devices. Billions of devices are connected and managed by wireless networks. At the same time, each device needs a high throughput to support applications such as voice, real-time video, movies, and games. Demands for wireless throughput and the number of wireless devices will always increase. In addition, there is a growing concern about energy consumption of wireless communication systems. Thus, future wireless systems have to satisfy three main requirements: i) having a high throughput; ii) simultaneously serving many users; and iii) having less energy consumption. Massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology, where a base station (BS) equipped with very large number of antennas (collocated or distributed) serves many users in the same time-frequency resource, can meet the above requirements, and hence, it is a promising candidate technology for next generations of wireless systems. With massive antenna arrays at the BS, for most propagation environments, the channels become favorable, i.e., the channel vectors between the users and the BS are (nearly) pairwisely orthogonal, and hence, linear processing is nearly optimal. A huge throughput and energy efficiency can be achieved due to the multiplexing gain and the array gain. In particular, with a simple power control scheme, Massive MIMO can offer uniformly good service for all users. In this dissertation, we focus on the performance of Massive MIMO. The dissertation consists of two main parts: fundamentals and system designs of Massive MIMO. In the first part, we focus on fundamental limits of the system performance under practical constraints such as low complexity processing, limited length of each coherence interval, intercell interference, and finite-dimensional channels. We first study the potential for power savings of the Massive MIMO uplink with maximum-ratio combining (MRC), zero-forcing, and minimum mean-square error receivers, under perfect and imperfect channels. The energy and spectral efficiency tradeoff is investigated. Secondly, we consider a physical channel model where the angular domain is divided into a finite number of distinct directions. A lower bound on the capacity is derived, and the effect of pilot contamination in this finite-dimensional channel model is analyzed. Finally, some aspects of favorable propagation in Massive MIMO under Rayleigh fading and line-of-sight (LoS) channels are investigated. We show that both Rayleigh fading and LoS environments offer favorable propagation. In the second part, based on the fundamental analysis in the first part, we propose some system designs for Massive MIMO. The acquisition of channel state information (CSI) is very importantin Massive MIMO. Typically, the channels are estimated at the BS through uplink training. Owing to the limited length of the coherence interval, the system performance is limited by pilot contamination. To reduce the pilot contamination effect, we propose an eigenvalue-decomposition-based scheme to estimate the channel directly from the received data. The proposed scheme results in better performance compared with the conventional training schemes due to the reduced pilot contamination. Another important issue of CSI acquisition in Massive MIMO is how to acquire CSI at the users. To address this issue, we propose two channel estimation schemes at the users: i) a downlink "beamforming training" scheme, and ii) a method for blind estimation of the effective downlink channel gains. In both schemes, the channel estimation overhead is independent of the number of BS antennas. We also derive the optimal pilot and data powers as well as the training duration allocation to maximize the sum spectral efficiency of the Massive MIMO uplink with MRC receivers, for a given total energy budget spent in a coherence interval. Finally, applications of Massive MIMO in relay channels are proposed and analyzed. Specifically, we consider multipair relaying systems where many sources simultaneously communicate with many destinations in the same time-frequency resource with the help of a massive MIMO relay. A massive MIMO relay is equipped with many collocated or distributed antennas. We consider different duplexing modes (full-duplex and half-duplex) and different relaying protocols (amplify-and-forward, decode-and-forward, two-way relaying, and one-way relaying) at the relay. The potential benefits of massive MIMO technology in these relaying systems are explored in terms of spectral efficiency and power efficiency.
A comprehensive and invaluable guide to 5G technology, implementation and practice in one single volume. For all things 5G, this book is a must-read. Signal processing techniques have played the most important role in wireless communications since the second generation of cellular systems. It is anticipated that new techniques employed in 5G wireless networks will not only improve peak service rates significantly, but also enhance capacity, coverage, reliability , low-latency, efficiency, flexibility, compatibility and convergence to meet the increasing demands imposed by applications such as big data, cloud service, machine-to-machine (M2M) and mission-critical communications. This book is a comprehensive and detailed guide to all signal processing techniques employed in 5G wireless networks. Uniquely organized into four categories, New Modulation and Coding, New Spatial Processing, New Spectrum Opportunities and New System-level Enabling Technologies, it covers everything from network architecture, physical-layer (down-link and up-link), protocols and air interface, to cell acquisition, scheduling and rate adaption, access procedures and relaying to spectrum allocations. All technology aspects and major roadmaps of global 5G standard development and deployments are included in the book. Key Features: Offers step-by-step guidance on bringing 5G technology into practice, by applying algorithms and design methodology to real-time circuit implementation, taking into account rapidly growing applications that have multi-standards and multi-systems. Addresses spatial signal processing for 5G, in particular massive multiple-input multiple-output (massive-MIMO), FD-MIMO and 3D-MIMO along with orbital angular momentum multiplexing, 3D beamforming and diversity. Provides detailed algorithms and implementations, and compares all multicarrier modulation and multiple access schemes that offer superior data transmission performance including FBMC, GFDM, F-OFDM, UFMC, SEFDM, FTN, MUSA, SCMA and NOMA. Demonstrates the translation of signal processing theories into practical solutions for new spectrum opportunities in terms of millimeter wave, full-duplex transmission and license assisted access. Presents well-designed implementation examples, from individual function block to system level for effective and accurate learning. Covers signal processing aspects of emerging system and network architectures, including ultra-dense networks (UDN), software-defined networks (SDN), device-to-device (D2D) communications and cloud radio access network (C-RAN).
Massive MIMO Networks is the first book on the subject to cover the spatial channel correlation and consider rigorous signal processing design essential for the complete understanding by the students, practicing engineers and researchers working on modern day communication systems.
This exclusive coverage of the opportunities, technological challenges, solutions, and state of the art of large MIMO systems provides an in-depth discussion of algorithms for large MIMO signal processing, suited for large MIMO signal detection, precoding and LDPC code designs. An ideal resource for researchers, designers, developers and practitioners in wireless communications.
As the theoretical foundations of multiple-antenna techniques evolve and as these multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques become essential for providing high data rates in wireless systems, there is a growing need to understand the performance limits of MIMO in practical networks. To address this need, MIMO Communication for Cellular Networks presents a systematic description of MIMO technology classes and a framework for MIMO system design that takes into account the essential physical-layer features of practical cellular networks. In contrast to works that focus on the theoretical performance of abstract MIMO channels, MIMO Communication for Cellular Networks emphasizes the practical performance of realistic MIMO systems. A unified set of system simulation results highlights relative performance gains of different MIMO techniques and provides insights into how best to use multiple antennas in cellular networks under various conditions. MIMO Communication for Cellular Networks describes single-user, multiuser, network MIMO technologies and system-level aspects of cellular networks, including channel modeling, resource scheduling, interference mitigation, and simulation methodologies. The key concepts are presented with sufficient generality to be applied to a wide range of wireless systems, including those based on cellular standards such as LTE, LTE-Advanced, WiMAX, and WiMAX2. The book is intended for use by graduate students, researchers, and practicing engineers interested in the physical-layer design of state-of-the-art wireless systems.
