Network-listening-based synchronization is recently attracting attention as an effective timing synchronization method for indoor small-cell base stations as they cannot utilize GPS-based synchronization. It uses only the macro-cell downlink signal to establish synchronization with the overlaying macro cell. However, the loop-back signal from the small-cell base station itself interferes with the reception of the macro-cell downlink signal in the deployment of co-channel heterogeneous networks. In this paper, we investigate a synchronization method that avoids loop-back interference by muting small-cell data transmission and shifting small-cell transmission timing. Our proposal enables to reduce the processing burden of the network listening and mitigate the throughput degradation of the small cell caused by the data-transmission mutation. In addition to this, the network-listening system enables the network listening in dense small cell deployments where a large number of neighboring small cells exist. We clarify the performance of our proposal by computer simulations and laboratory experiments on actual equipment.

Fifth-generation (5G) mobile communication systems employ beamforming technology using massive multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) to improve the reception quality and spectrum efficiency within a cell. Meanwhile, coordinated beamforming among multiple base stations is an effective approach to improving the spectrum efficiency at the cell edges, in which massive MIMO is deployed at geographically distant base stations and beamforming control is conducted in a cooperative manner. Codebook-based beamforming is a method for realizing multi-cell coordinated beamforming, in which each base station selects one of multiple beams that are predefined in a codebook. In codebook-based beamforming, it is important to design an efficient codebook that takes into account the beam allocation and the number of beams. In general, the larger the number of beams defined in a codebook, the more finely tuned the beam control can be and a greater improvement in spectrum efficiency can be expected. However, it requires a huge signal processing to optimize the beam combinations with a large number of beams by coordinated beamforming. This paper proposes a novel codebook design that efficiently assigns beam directions and widths in a vertical plane. Computer simulations showed that the proposed codebook performs as well as the conventional method while requiring fewer beam combinations.

This paper presents the summarized achievements of "Study Group on Software Technology for Radio Equipment" held at TELEC from April 2000 to March 2003. The Study Group specified the essential issues on Software Defined Radio (SDR), and discussed desirable methods to evaluate conformity to technical regulations in radios that can change RF characteristics only by changing software. The biggest objective in SDR is to build the architecture to allow users to install software exclusively in the combination of hardware and software that have passed the certification test. The Study Group has reached a solution by introducing the idea of "tally." This paper explains the concept of tally, and proposes two types of systems to use tallies in checking adaptability in combinations of hardware and software.

This paper presents almost rigorous Wiener-Hopf solutions to the plane wave scattering by a conducting finite thin plate. The final field expressions are given in an analytically compact form and the results are accurate as long as the plate width is greater than the wavelength. Numerical examples are given for the near and far field distributions. A criterion is also proposed to estimate under what condition the ray tracing method holds.

Multi-user MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) systems, in which multiple Mobile Stations (MSs) equipped with multiple antennas simultaneously communicate with a Base Station (BS) equipped with multiple antennas, at the same frequency, are attracting attention because of their potential for improved transmission performance in wireless communications. In the uplink of Space Division Multiplexing based multi-user MIMO (multi-user MIMO/SDM) systems that do not require full Channel State Information (CSI) at the transmitters, selecting active MS antennas, which corresponds to scheduling transmit antennas, is an effective technique. The Full search Selection Algorithm based on exhaustive search (FSA) has been studied as an optimal active MS antenna selection algorithm for multi-user MIMO systems. Unfortunately, FSA suffers from extreme computational complexity given large numbers of MSs. To solve this problem, this paper introduces the Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization based Selection Algorithm (GSSA) to uplink multi-user MIMO/SDM systems. GSSA is a suboptimal active MS antenna selection algorithm that offers lower computational complexity than the optimal algorithm. This paper evaluates the transmission performance improvement of GSSA in uplink multi-user MIMO/SDM systems under realistic propagation conditions such as spatially correlated BS antennas and clarifies the effectiveness of GSSA.

The layered cell configuration, in which a large number of small cells are set in a macro-cell coverage area, is attracting much attention recently as a promising approach to handle the rapidly increasing mobile data traffic. In this configuration, cells of various sizes, from macro to small, are placed in various locations, so that the variation in the number and the distribution of the users among cells becomes much wider than in conventional macro-cell homogeneous networks. Therefore, even in the layered cell configuration, the users in the cell with many users and low received signal quality may experience low throughput especially at cell edge. This is because such users experience both low spectral efficiency and few radio resources. In order to resolve this issue, a lot of techniques have been proposed such as load balancing and cooperative multi-point transmission. In this paper, we focus on scheduling priority control as a simple solution that can also be used in combination with load balancing and coordinated multi-point transmission. We propose an adaptive scheduling priority control scheme based on the congestion and user distribution of each cell and clarify the effect of the proposed method by computer simulations.

This paper is concerned with Wiener-Hopf solutions to the electromagnetic wave scattering by a conducting finite thin plate when the incident wave is not a plane wave. The incident wave is approximated in terms of a piece-wise plane wave on a divided small section of the conducting plate. The final expressions are given in an analytically compact form and the results are accurate as long as the plate width is greater than the wavelength and the divided section is so small that we can expand the incident wave by a piece-wise plane wave. A criterion for the ray tracing method is also proposed.

It is important to improve a cell-edge throughput of next generation mobile communication systems. Frequency reuse schemes such as three-cell reuse or fractional frequency reuse are suitable for achieving this goal. Another candidate is multi-link transmission; signals on different sub-carriers from adjacent base stations are received by a mobile. However, the orthogonality of these signals can collapse if a frequency offset between adjacent base stations is excessive; this loss triggers adjacent-channel interference. This paper proposes an interference canceller to solve this problem and confirms the effectiveness of the method through numerical analysis and computer simulations.

In next-generation mobile communications, it is important to improve the throughput of the cell edge as well as that of the whole cell. Multi-link transmission from two adjacent BSs has been studied for improving the throughput at the cell edge in OFDM-based cellular systems, which are major candidates for next-generation mobile communication systems. In multi-link transmission, an MS at a cell edge receives signals from both adjacent BSs by orthogonally multiplexing those signals in the frequency domain. Therefore, the cell-edge MS can utilize the frequency and power resources of both adjacent BSs, which improves the cell-edge throughput. However, when the received timing difference between the signals from both BSs exceeds the maximum permissible value, adjacent-channel interference is caused by the collapse of the orthogonality. In this paper, to resolve this issue, we propose a novel timing-offset interference canceller. To clarify the performance of the proposed canceller, this paper evaluates its performance with respect to the residual interference power and the BER by computer simulation.

Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, which is specified in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 8 and employs downlink multiple input multiple output (MIMO) transmission, is drawing attention as a promising next generation cellular mobile radio system due to its high spectral efficiency compared to the current High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) system. The authors performed a field trial of an LTE system that complies with 3GPP Release 8 in Kitakyushu-city, Fukuoka, Japan, as a specified ubiquitous district project promoted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan. This paper first summarizes the field trial. Next, it describes the overview of the field trial system and reports the field experiment results on the downlink 22 MIMO wireless transmission. Finally, it compares the field experimental results to laboratory experimental results obtained with a hardware channel simulator using the channel model based on Recommendation ITU-R P.1816.

The radio wave shadowing by a two-dimensional human body is examined numerically as the scattering problem by using the Method of Moments (MoM) in order to verify the equivalent human body diameter. Three human body models are examined: (1) a circular cylinder, (2) an elliptical cylinder, and (3) an elliptical cylinder with two circular cylinders are examined. The scattered fields yields by the circular cylinder are compared with measured data. Since the angle of the model to an incident wave affects scattered fields in models other than a circular cylinder, the models of an elliptical cylinder and an elliptical cylinder with two circular cylinders are converted into a circular cylinder of equivalent diameter. The frequency characteristics for the models are calculated by using the equivalent diameter.

As a candidate for the transmission technology of next generation mobile communication systems, time-domain spreading MC-CDMA systems have begun to attract much attention. In these systems, data and pilot symbols are spread in the time domain and code-multiplexed. To combat fading issues, we need to conduct channel estimation by using the code-multiplexed pilot symbols. Especially in next generation systems, frequency bands higher than those of current systems, which raise the maximum Doppler frequency, are expected to be used, so that a more powerful channel estimation method is expected. Considering this, we propose a channel estimation method for highly accurate channel estimation; it is a combination of a two-dimensional channel estimation method and an impulse response-based channel estimation method. We evaluate the proposed method by computer simulations.