This paper develops the first prototype hardware for a TDD two-way multi-hop relay network with MIMO network coding. Since conventional wireless multi-hop relay networks have the drawback of low data rate, TDD two-way multi-hop relay networks have been studied as a solution to realize high data rate recently. In these networks, forward and backward streams are spatially multiplexed by using interference cancellation techniques such as MIMO beamforming or MIMO network coding. In this paper, a demonstration system for the TDD two-way multi-hop relay network with MIMO network coding (called 2-way relay network hereafter) is developed using the prototype hardware. In the demonstration system, each transmitter and receiver performs network coded broadcast and MIMO multiple access, respectively. By using the demonstration system, network throughput is measured in an indoor environment to prove the realization and effectiveness of the 2-way relay network. From the results of network throughput, it is found that the 2-way relay network can achieve high network throughput approaching theoretical upper bound even in low average end-to-end SNR area where network throughput of the direct link degrades severely. From these results, the realization and effectiveness of the 2-way relay network can be proved in the real indoor environment.

Communication systems operating in the millimeter-wave (mmWave) band have the potential to realize ultra-high throughput and ultra-low latency vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications in 5G and beyond wireless networks. Moreover, because of the weak penetration nature of mmWave, one mmWave channel can be reused in all V2V links, which improves the spectrum efficiency. Although the outstanding performance of the mmWave above has been widely acknowledged, there are still some shortcomings. One of the unavoidable defects is multipath interference. Even though the direct interference link cannot penetrate vehicle bodies, other interference degrades the throughput of the mmWave V2V communication. In this paper, we focus on the multipath interference caused by signal reflections from roads and surroundings, where the interference strength varies in road scenarios. Firstly, we analyze the multipath channel models of mmWave V2V with relay in three typical road scenarios (single straight roads, horizontal curves, and slopes). Their interference differences are clarified. Based on the analysis, a novel method of ZigZag antenna configuration is proposed to guarantee the required data rate. Secondly, the performance of the proposed method is evaluated by simulation. It proves that the ZigZag antenna configuration with an optimal antenna height can significantly suppress the destructive interference, and ensure a throughput over 1Gbps comparing to the conventional antenna configuration at 60GHz band. Furthermore, the effectiveness of ZigZag antenna configuration is demonstrated on a single straight road by outdoor experiments.

Coordinated Multi-point (CoMP) transmission has long been known for its ability to improve cell edge throughput. However, in a CoMP cellular network, fixed CoMP clustering results in cluster edges where system performance degrades due to non-coordinated clusters. To solve this problem, conventional studies proposed dynamic clustering schemes. However, such schemes require a complex backhaul topology and are infeasible with current network technologies. In this paper, small power base stations (BSs) are introduced instead of dynamic clustering to solve the cluster edge problem in CoMP cellular networks. This new cell topology is called the diamond cellular network since the resultant cell structure looks like a diamond pattern. In our novel cell topology, we derive the optimal locations of small power base stations and the optimal resource allocation between the CoMP base station and small power base stations to maximize the proportional fair utility function. By using the proposed architecture, in the case of perfect user scheduling, a more than 150% improvement in 5% outage throughput is achieved, and in the case of successive proportional fair user scheduling, nearly 100% improvement of 5% outage throughput is achieved compared with conventional single cell networks.

A multiple-input multiple-output software defined radio (MIMO-SDR) platform was developed for implementation of MIMO transmission and propagation measurement systems. This platform consists of multiple functional boards for baseband (BB) digital signal processing and frequency conversion of 5 GHz-band radio frequency (RF) signals. The BB boards have capability of arbitrary system implementation by rewriting software on reconfigurable devices such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and digital signal processors (DSPs). The MIMO-SDR platform employs hybrid implementation architecture by taking advantages of FPGA, DSP, and CPU, where functional blocks with the needs for real-time processing are implemented on the FPGAs/DSPs, and other blocks are processed off-line on the CPU. In order to realize the hybrid implementation, driver software was developed as an application program interface (API) of the MIMO-SDR platform. In this paper, hardware architecture of the developed MIMO-SDR platform and its software implementation architecture are explained. As an application example, implementation of a real-time MIMO channel measurement system and initial measurement results are presented.

In this paper, a Proof-of-Concept (PoC) architecture is constructed, and the effectiveness of mmWave overlay heterogeneous network (HetNet) with mesh backhaul utilizing route-multiplexing and Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) utilizing prefetching algorithm is verified by measuring the throughput and the download time of real contents. The architecture can cope with the intensive mobile data traffic since data delivery utilizes multiple backhaul routes based on the mesh topology, i.e. route-multiplexing mechanism. On the other hand, MEC deploys the network edge contents requested in advance by nearby User Equipment (UE) based on pre-registered context information such as location, destination, demand application, etc. to the network edge, which is called prefetching algorithm. Therefore, mmWave access can be fully exploited even with capacity-limited backhaul networks by introducing the proposed algorithm. These technologies solve the problems in conventional mmWave HetNet to reduce mobile data traffic on backhaul networks to cloud networks. In addition, the proposed architecture is realized by introducing wireless Software Defined Network (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV). In our architecture, the network is dynamically controlled via wide-coverage microwave band links by which UE's context information is collected for optimizing the network resources and controlling network infrastructures to establish backhaul routes and MEC servers. In this paper, we develop the hardware equipment and middleware systems, and introduce these algorithms which are used as a driver of IEEE802.11ad and open source software. For 5G and beyond, the architecture integrated in mmWave backhaul, MEC and SDN/NFV will support some scenarios and use cases.

Implementation of Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) channel sounder is considered, taking hardware cost and realtime measurement into account. A remarkable difference between MIMO and conventional Single-Input Multi-Output (SIMO) channel sounding is that the MIMO sounder needs some kind of multiplexing to distinguish transmitting antennas. We compared three types of multiplexing TDM, FDM, and CDM for the sounding purpose, then we chose FDM based technique to achieve cost effectiveness and realtime measurement. In the framework of FDM, we have proposed an algorithm to estimate MIMO channel parameters. Furthermore the proposed algorithm was implemented into the hardware, and the validity of the proposed algorithm was evaluated through measurements in an anechoic chamber.

Infrastructure wireless mesh network has been attracting much attention due to the wide range of its application such as public wireless access, sensor network, etc. In recent years, researchers have shown that significant network throughput gain can be achieved by employing network coding in a wireless environment. For further improvement of network throughput in one dimensional (1D) topology, Ono et al. proposed to use multiple antenna technique combined with network coding. In this paper, being inspired by MIMO network coding in 1D topology, the authors establish a novel MIMO network coding algorithm for a 2D topology consisting of two crossing routes. In this algorithm, multiple network coded flows are spatially multiplexed. Owing to the efficient usage of radio resource of network coding and co-channel interference cancellation ability of MIMO, the proposed algorithm shows an 8-fold gain in network capacity compared to conventional methods in the best-case scenario.

This paper presents a spatial fading emulator for evaluating handset MIMO antennas in a cluster environment. The proposed emulator is based on Clarke's model and has the ability to control RF signals directly in spatial domain to generate an accurate radio propagation channel model, which includes both uniform and non-uniform angular power spectra (APS) in the horizontal plane. Characteristics of a propagation channel such as fading correlations, eigenvalues and MIMO channel capacities of handset antennas located in the vicinity of the emulator's ring can be evaluated. The measured results show that the fading emulator with 31 antenna probes is sufficient to evaluate fading correlation and MIMO channel capacity of handset antenna in the case of a narrow APS with the standard deviation of more than 20 degrees.

In this paper we propose a novel spatial fading simulator to evaluate the performance of an array antenna and show its spatial stochastic characteristics by computer simulation based on parameters verified by experimental data. We introduce a cavity-excited circular array (CECA) as a fading simulator that can simulate realistic mobile communication environments. To evaluate the antenna array, two stochastic characteristics are necessary. The first one is the fading phenomenon and the second is the angular spread (AS) of the incident wave. The computer simulation results with respect to fading and AS show that CECA works well as a spatial fading simulator for performance evaluation of an antenna array. We first present the basic structure, features and design methodology of CECA, and then show computer simulation results of the spatial stochastic characteristics. The results convince us that CECA is useful to evaluate performance of antenna arrays.

Setting relays can address the shadowing problem between a transmitter (Tx) and a receiver (Rx). Moreover, the Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) technique has been introduced to improve wireless link capacity. The MIMO technique can be applied in relay network to enhance system performance. However, the efficiency of relaying schemes and relay placement have not been well investigated with experiment-based study. This paper provides a propagation measurement campaign of a MIMO two-hop relay network in 5 GHz band in an L-shaped corridor environment with various relay locations. Furthermore, this paper proposes a Relay Placement Estimation (RPE) scheme to identify the optimum relay location, i.e. the point at which the network performance is highest. Analysis results of channel capacity show that relaying technique is beneficial over direct transmission in strong shadowing environment while it is ineffective in non-shadowing environment. In addition, the optimum relay location estimated with the RPE scheme also agrees with the location where the network achieves the highest performance as identified by network capacity. Finally, the capacity analysis shows that two-way MIMO relay employing network coding has the best performance while cooperative relaying scheme is not effective due to shadowing effect weakening the signal strength of the direct link.

This paper proposes optimal beam patterns of analog beamforming for SU (Single User) massive MIMO (Multi-Input Multi-Output) transmission systems. For hybrid beamforming in SU massive MIMO systems, there are several design parameters such as beam patterns, the number of beams (streams), the shape of array antennas, and so on. In conventional hybrid beamforming, rectangular patch array antennas implemented on a planar surface with linear phase shift beam patterns have been used widely. However, it remains unclear whether existing configurations are optimal or not. Therefore, we propose a method using OBPB (Optimal Beam Projection Beamforming) for designing configuration parameters of the hybrid beamforming. By using the method, the optimal beam patterns are derived first, and are projected on the assumed surface to calculate the achievable number of streams and the resulting channel capacity. The results indicate OBPB with a spherical surface yields at least 3.5 times higher channel capacity than conventional configurations.

Millimeter wave provides high data rates for Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communications. This paper motivates millimeter wave to support automated driving and begins by explaining V2X use cases that support automated driving with references to several standardization bodies. The paper gives a classification of existing V2X standards: IEEE802.11p and LTE V2X, along with the status of their commercial deployment. Then, the paper provides a detailed assessment on how millimeter wave V2X enables the use case of cooperative perception. The explanations provide detailed rate calculations for this use case and show that millimeter wave is the only technology able to achieve the requirements. Furthermore, specific challenges related to millimeter wave for V2X are described, including coverage enhancement and beam alignment. The paper concludes with some results from three studies, i.e. IEEE802.11ad (WiGig) based V2X, extension of 5G NR (New Radio) toward mmWave V2X, and prototypes of intelligent street with mmWave V2X.

MIMO two-way multi-hop networks are considered in which the radio resource is fully reused in all multi-hop links to increase spectrum efficiency while the adjacent interference signals are cancelled by MIMO processing. In addition, the nodes in the multi-hop network optimize their transmit powers to mitigate the remaining overreach interference. Our main contribution in this paper is to investigate an efficient relay placement method with power allocation in such networks. We present two formulations, namely QoS-constrained optimization and SINR balancing, and solve them using a sequential geometric programming method. The proposed algorithm takes advantage of convex optimization to find an efficient configuration. Simulation results show that relay placement has an important impact on the effectiveness of power allocation to mitigate the interference. Particularly, we found that an uniform relay location is optimal only in power-limited scenarios. With optimal relay locations, significant end-to-end rate gain and power consumption reduction are achieved by SINR balancing and QoS-constrained optimization, respectively. Furthermore, the optimal number of hops is investigated in power or interference-limited scenarios.

It is known that demand and supply power balancing is an essential method to operate power delivery system and prevent blackouts caused by power shortage. In this paper, we focus on the implementation of demand response strategy to save power during peak hours by using Smart Grid. It is obviously impractical with centralized power control network to realize the real-time control performance, where a single central controller measures the huge metering data and sends control command back to all customers. For that purpose, we propose a new architecture of hierarchical distributed power control network which is scalable regardless of the network size. The sub-controllers are introduced to partition the large system into smaller distributed clusters where low-latency local feedback power control loops are conducted to guarantee control stability. Furthermore, sub-controllers are stacked up in an hierarchical manner such that data are fed back layer-by-layer in the inbound while in the outbound control responses are decentralized in each local sub-controller for realizing the global objectives. Numerical simulations in a realistic scenario of up to 5000 consumers show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme to achieve a desired 10% peak power saving by using off-the-shelf wireless devices with IEEE802.15.4g standard. In addition, a small-scale power control system for green building test-bed is implemented to demonstrate the potential use of the proposed scheme for power saving in real life.

Wireless engineers and business planners commonly raise the question on where, when, and how millimeter-wave (mmWave) will be used in 5G and beyond. Since the next generation network is not just a new radio access standard, but also an integration of networks for vertical markets with diverse applications, answers to the question depend on scenarios and use cases to be deployed. This paper gives four 5G mmWave deployment examples and describes in chronological order the scenarios and use cases of their probable deployment, including expected system architectures and hardware prototypes. The first example is a 28 GHz outdoor backhauling for fixed wireless access and moving hotspots, which will be demonstrated at the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games in 2018. The second deployment example is a 60 GHz unlicensed indoor access system at the Tokyo-Narita airport, which is combined with Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) to enable ultra-high speed content download with low latency. The third example is mmWave mesh network to be used as a micro Radio Access Network (µ-RAN), for cost-effective backhauling of small-cell Base Stations (BSs) in dense urban scenarios. The last example is mmWave based Vehicular-to-Vehicular (V2V) and Vehicular-to-Everything (V2X) communications system, which enables automated driving by exchanging High Definition (HD) dynamic map information between cars and Roadside Units (RSUs). For 5G and beyond, mmWave and MEC will play important roles for a diverse set of applications that require both ultra-high data rate and low latency communications.

An optimization of the smoothing preprocessing for the correlated signal parameter estimation was considered. Although the smoothing factor (the number of subarrays) is a free parameter in the smoothing preprocessing, a useful strategy to determine it has not yet been established. In this paper, we investigated thoroughly about the smoothing factor and also proposed a new scheme to optimize it. The proposed method, using the smoothed equivalent diversity profile (SED profile), is able to evaluate the effect of smoothing preprocessing without any a priori information. Therefore, this method is applicable in the real multipath parameter estimation.

This paper proposes a concept for a new technical field called wireless distributed network (WDN) as a strategic technical field to enable flexible networking and radio resource management (RRM) to cope with dynamic variation of spatially distributed traffic demands. As the core technical subject areas for the WDN, this paper identifies distributed networking for flexible network creation, cooperative transmission and reception for flexible link creation, and dynamic spectrum access for flexible radio resource management, and explains their technical features and challenges for constructing the WDN. This paper also discusses some already being studied application fields as well as potential future directions of the WDN applications.

This paper proposes a new methodology to design optimal antennas for MIMO (Multi-Input Multi-Output) communication systems by using spherical mode expansion. Given spatial channel properties of a MIMO channel, such as the angular profile at both sides, the optimal MIMO antennas should provide the largest channel capacity with a constraint of the limited implementation space (volume). In designing a conventional MIMO antenna, first the antenna structure (current distribution) is determined, second antenna directivity is calculated based on the current distribution, and thirdly MIMO channel capacity is calculated by using given angular profiles and obtained antenna directivity. This process is repeated by adjusting the antenna structure until the performance satisfies a predefined threshold. To the contrary, this paper solves the optimization problem analytically and finally gives near optimal antenna structure (current distribution) without any greedy search. In the proposed process, first the optimal directivity of MIMO antennas is derived by applying spherical mode expansion to the angular profiles, and second a far-near field conversion is applied on the derived optimal directivity to achieve near optimal current distributions on a limited surface. The effectiveness of the proposed design methodology is validated via numerical calculation of MIMO channel capacity as in the conventional design method while giving near optimal current distribution with constraint of an antenna structure derived from proposed methodology.

Millimeter-wave (mmw) frequency bands, especially 60GHz unlicensed band, are considered as a promising solution for gigabit short range wireless communication systems. IEEE standard 802.11ad, also known as WiGig, is standardized for the usage of the 60GHz unlicensed band for wireless local area networks (WLANs). By using this mmw WLAN, multi-Gbps rate can be achieved to support bandwidth-intensive multimedia applications. Exhaustive search along with beamforming (BF) is usually used to overcome 60GHz channel propagation loss and accomplish data transmissions in such mmw WLANs. Because of its short range transmission with a high susceptibility to path blocking, multiple number of mmw access points (APs) should be used to fully cover a typical target environment for future high capacity multi-Gbps WLANs. Therefore, coordination among mmw APs is highly needed to overcome packet collisions resulting from un-coordinated exhaustive search BF and to increase total capacity of mmw WLANs. In this paper, we firstly give the current status of mmw WLANs with our developed WiGig AP prototype. Then, we highlight the great need for coordinated transmissions among mmw APs as a key enabler for future high capacity mmw WLANs. Two different types of coordinated mmw WLAN architecture are introduced. One is distributed antenna type architecture to realize centralized coordination, while the other is autonomous coordination with the assistance of legacy Wi-Fi signaling. Moreover, two heterogeneous network (HetNet) architectures are also introduced to efficiently extend the coordinated mmw WLANs to be used for future 5th Generation (5G) cellular networks.

Conventional localization techniques such as triangulation and multilateration are not reliable in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) environments such as dense urban areas. Although fingerprint-based localization techniques have been proposed to solve this problem, we may face difficulties because we do not know the parameters of the illegal radio when creating the fingerprint database. This paper proposes a novel technique to localize illegal radios in an urban environment by interpolating the channel impulse responses stored as fingerprints in a database. The proposed interpolation technique consists of interpolation in the bandwidth (delay), frequency and spatial domains. A localization algorithm that minimizes the squared error criterion is employed in this paper, and the proposed technique is evaluated through Monte Carlo simulations using location fingerprints obtained from ray-tracing simulations. Results show that utilizing an interpolated fingerprint database is advantageous in such scenarios.