This paper discusses key technologies specific for fifth generation (5G) cellular systems which are expected to connect internet of things (IoT) based vertical sectors. Because services for 5G will be expanded drastically, from information transfer services to mission critical and massive connection IoT connection services for vertical sectors, and requirement for cellular systems becomes quite different compared to that of fourth generation (4G) systems, after explanation for the service and technical trends for 5G, key wireless access technologies will be discussed, especially, from the view point of what is new and how import. In addition to the introduction of new technologies for wireless access, flexibility of networking is also discussed because it can cope with QoS support services, especially to cope with end-to-end latency constraint conditions. Therefore, this paper also discuss flexible network configuration using mobile edge computing (MEC) based on software defined network (SDN) and network slicing.

This letter is concerned with cellular controlled short-range communication (CCSRC) systems, which can provide a significant performance gain over the traditional cellular systems as shown in the literature. However, to obtain such a gain, CCSRC systems need perfect channel state information (CSI) of all users and the complexity of setting up the optimal cooperative clusters is factorial with respect to the number of potentially cooperative users, which is very unrealistic in practical systems. To solve this problem, we propose a novel cooperative strategy, where CCSRC systems only need the distances between all user pairs and the complexity of setting up the cooperative clusters is relatively low. Simulation results show that the performance of the proposed strategy is close to optimal.

This paper presents a newly developed small-sized shaped beam base station antenna in order to reduce inter-sector interference for next generation high speed wireless data communication systems. The developed antenna realizes polarization diversity as a single small-sized antenna without decreasing the 3 dB main beamwidth compared with the conventional antenna by applying a newly designed beam shaping method. Furthermore, side sub-reflectors are newly installed in the radome to reduce the antenna beam gain in the direction toward the edge region neighboring the other sectors of the horizontal antenna pattern. By adopting this type of reflector, the diameter of the radome can be minimized at 0.65 λ, which is slightly longer than that of the conventional antenna. Both a computer simulation and a field measurement test based on an actual cellular network were conducted for the purpose of clarifying the validity of the shaped beam antenna. In the results, the CINR at the service area by the shaped beam antenna was 1 dB and 3.5 dB better than that of the conventional antenna at the median and 10% of CDF, respectively. The developed antenna will be expected to contribute to the enhancement of the quality of cellular radio systems in the future.

This paper investigates the gain of inter-Node B macro diversity for a scheduled-based shared channel using single-carrier FDMA radio access in the Evolved UTRA (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access) uplink based on system-level simulations. More specifically, we clarify the gain of inter-Node B soft handover (SHO) with selection combining at the radio frame length level (=10 msec) compared to that for hard handover (HHO) for a scheduled-based shared data channel, considering the gains of key packet-specific techniques including channel-dependent scheduling, adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), hybrid automatic repeat request (ARQ) with packet combining, and slow transmission power control (TPC). Simulation results show that the inter-Node B SHO increases the user throughput at the cell edge by approximately 10% for a short cell radius such as 100-300 m due to the diversity gain from a sudden change in other-cell interference, which is a feature specific to full scheduled-based packet access. However, it is also shown that the gain of inter-Node B SHO compared to that for HHO is small in a macrocell environment when the cell radius is longer than approximately 500 m due to the gains from hybrid ARQ with packet combining, slow TPC, and proportional fairness based channel-dependent scheduling.

We address the problem of multiuser co-channel interference scheduling in multicell interference-limited networks. Our target is to optimize the network capacity under the SIR-balanced power control policy. Since it's difficult to optimize the original problem, we derive a new problem which maximizes the lower bound of the network capacity. Based on the analysis of this new problem, we propose an interference matched scheduling algorithm. This algorithm considers the caused co-channel interference and the channel conditions to schedule the "matched" users at the same time. We prove that this interference matched scheduling algorithm optimizes the lower bound of the network capacity for any arbitrary numbers of cells and users. Moreover, this scheduling method is low-complexity and can be implemented in a fully distributed fashion. Simulation results reveal that the performance of the proposed algorithm achieves near optimal capacity, even though it does not optimize the network capacity directly. Finally, the proposed algorithm holds a great gain over formerly proposed round robin and power matched scheduling method, especially when the scale of the network is large.

This paper proposes an asymmetric traffic accommodation scheme using a multihop transmission technique for CDMA/FDD cellular communication systems. The proposed scheme exploits the multihop transmission to downlink packet transmissions, which require the large transmission power at their single-hop transmissions, in order to increase the downlink capacity. In these multihop transmissions, vacant uplink band is used for the transmissions from relay stations to destination mobile stations, and this leads more capacity enhancement in the downlink communications. The relay route selection method and power control method for the multihop transmissions are also investigated in the proposed scheme. The proposed scheme is evaluated by computer simulation and the results show that the proposed scheme can achieve better system performance.

Cognitive Radios (CRs) are expected to perform more significant role in the view of efficient utilization of the spectrum resources in the future wireless communication networks. In this paper, a cognitive radio coexisting with cellular systems is proposed. In the case that a cellular system adopts Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) as a multiplexing scheme, the proposed CR terminals communicate in local area on uplink channels of the cellular system with transmission powers that don't interfere with base stations of the cellular system. Alternatively, in the case that a cellular system adopts Time Division Duplex (TDD), the CR terminals communicate on uplink slots of the cellular system. However if mobile terminals in the cellular system are near the CR network, uplink signals from the mobile terminals may interfere with the CR communications. In order to avoid interference from the mobile terminals, the CR terminal performs carrier sense during a beginning part of uplink slot, and only when the level of detected signal is below a threshold, then the CR terminal transmits a signal during the remained period of the uplink slot. In this paper, both the single carrier CR network that uses one frequency channel of the cellular system and the multicarrier CR network that uses multiple frequency channels of the cellular system are considered. The probabilities of successful CR communications, the average throughputs of the CR communications according to the positions of the CR network, and the interference levels from cognitive radio network to base stations of the cellular system are evaluated in the computer simulation then the effectiveness of the proposed network is clarified.

We introduce an adaptive subchannel, bit, and power allocation (ASBPA) algorithm to maximize the bandwidth efficiency of the mobile communication system that use orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). We propose a suboptimal rate adaptive ASBPA algorithm that guarantees fairness in resource allocation and overcomes inherent co-channel interference (CCI) in the cellular system. Furthermore, we evaluate the maximum possible bandwidth efficiency of the cellular OFDM system achieved by the ASBPA algorithm which is practical to implement. Our simulation results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the existing ones and achieves the cellular bandwidth efficiency of up to 5 b/s/Hz/cell. We also investigate some of the conditions that govern the bandwidth efficiency of the cellular OFDM system using the proposed ASBPA algorithm.

A general method for generating multiple two-dimensional frequency-hopping pilot signals with limited mutual interference, for propagation channel estimation in time and frequency with equidistant sampling, is presented. Each pilot signal uses a different generic frequency-hopping pilot pattern that is repeated in frequency domain, with repetition period equal to the desired sampling interval in frequency domain. Some interesting special cases of the general construction are considered as well. The practical applicability and usefulness of the proposed solution are demonstrated by the numerical evaluation of a set of frequency-hopping pilot patterns in a typical multi-cell scenario of the future evolved third generation cellular systems.

During devastating natural disasters, numerous people want to make calls to check on their families and friends in the stricken areas, but many call attempts on mobile cellular systems are blocked due to limited radio frequency resources. To reduce call blocking and enable as many people as possible to access mobile cellular systems, placing a limit on the holding time for each call has been studied [1],[2]. However, during a catastrophe, emergency calls, e.g., calls to fire, ambulance, or police services are also highly likely to increase and it is important that the holding time for these calls is not limited. A method of limiting call holding time to make provision for emergency calls while considering the needs of ordinary callers is proposed. In this method, called the HTL-E method, all calls are classified as emergency calls or other according to the numbers that are dialed or the terminal numbers that are given in advance to the particular terminals making emergency calls, and only the holding time of other calls is limited. The performance characteristics of the HTL-E method were evaluated using computer simulations. The results showed that it reduced the rates of blocking and forced call termination at handover considerably, without reducing the holding time for emergency calls. The blocking rate was almost equal for emergency and other calls. In addition, the HTL-E method handles fluctuations in the demand for emergency calls flexibly. A simple method of estimating the holding-time limit for other calls, which reduces the blocking rate for emergency and other calls to the normal rate for periods of increased call demand is also presented. The calculated results produced by this method agreed well with the simulation results.

The shared time division multiplexing (shared-TDD) scheme has been proposed to accommodate asymmetric communications between uplink and downlink. The accommodation of connection-less services in Shared-TDD systems causes a difficulty of TDD boundary control. This paper proposes a TDD boundary control (resource assignment) scheme, which can optimize a position of the TDD boundary based on the ratio of uplink to downlink traffic in code division multiple access (CDMA)/shared-TDD systems with connection-less services. The proposed scheme controls the TDD boundary based on the estimated uplink and downlink traffic. Computer simulations show that the proposed scheme effectively controls the radio resource, and thus improves total system throughput performance.

A routing algorithm, utilizing two-hop relaying when necessary, is proposed to enhance the system capacity of code division multiple access (CDMA) cellular systems. Up to now, multihop relaying is applied to cellular systems mainly with the aim of decreasing the transmit power of each mobile station or extending the cell coverage area. Here, in this paper, potential benefit of multihop relaying is studied so as to increase the system capacity. A condition for the interference to be reduced by changing single-hop connections to two-hop connections is analyzed. In addition, a new route selection criterion maximizing the amount of interference reduction is proposed. Simulation results reveal that the proposed criterion is superior to the conventional criterion minimizing the total transmit power in respect of the amount of interference reduction. By using this criterion, an efficient routing algorithm for two-hop CDMA cellular systems is proposed to enhance the system capacity. Simulation results also indicate that by using the proposed routing algorithm in combination with a call admission control, the system capacity is increased even under heavy traffic conditions.

This paper presents time slot assignment algorithms applicable to uplink of space division multiple access (SDMA)/time division multiple access (TDMA) systems with adaptive antennas. In the time slot assignment process for a new terminal in a cell, we consider not only the signal quality of the new terminal but also that of active terminals in the same cell. Intra-cell hand over is performed for an active terminal when its signal quality deteriorates. We evaluate the blocking and forced termination probabilities for pure TDMA systems, sectorized systems, and SDMA/TDMA systems in cellular environments by computer simulations. The simulation results show that the SDMA/TDMA systems have much better performance than the pure TDMA and sectorized systems.

Interference Cancellation (IC) receivers can be used in CDMA cellular systems to improve the capacity. The IC receivers can be divided into two main categories, Single-User Detectors (SUD) and Multi-User Detectors (MUD). They have different characteristics in terms of intra-cell and inter-cell interference cancellation ratios. In this paper we first introduce the Normalized Griffiths' algorithm, a SUD receiver, and compare its basic performance with the well-known Serial IC. Next we examine the multi-cell performance of SUD and MUD receivers by using multi-cell link-level simulations. The results show that even though MUD receiver has clearly better single-cell performance, the SUD receiver will gain in performance in the multi-cell cases. In the three-sector multi-cell case, their performance even becomes very similar. These results are obtained using ideal conditions to be able to study the receivers' basic properties related to intra-cell and inter-cell interference.

Power control error is well known for its negative effects on CDMA system capacity. In this Letter, an analytical model is developed to estimate the uplink capacity for a SIR-based power controlled CDMA cellular system. The voice capacity reduction due to power control error is numerically examined with this model.

The CDMA/NC-PRMA protocol has been proposed to deal with multimedia traffic flexibly in mobile communications systems. The Load-Balancing (LB) method has been investigated for information slot assignment in CDMA/NC-PRMA systems. However, the LB method may be not effective in multi-cell environments due to inter-cell interference although this method is effective for single cell environments. In this paper, we propose new information slot assignment methods for multi-cell environments; a total reception power based assignment method and a signal to interference ratio (SIR) based assignment method. The former one assigns information slots based on the total reception power from both inside and outside the cell for each slot in the previous frame. The latter one predicts the SIR of receiving packets and assigns information slots to MSs only when predicted SIR exceeds the target SIR. The results of computer simulation show that the proposed schemes have superior transmission performance to the conventional scheme.

This paper addresses the system throughput maximization problem for HAPS third generation cellular systems. We assume that the Stratospheric Platform is able to perform a perfect link gain estimation for all mobile terminals, such that a centralized resource allocation strategy is made possible. A classical 3G wireless scenario is considered, where traffics characterized by different bit rates coexist with Best Effort Traffic services without stringent bit rate constraints. In this scenario, we firstly envisage three Rate Assignment schemes for best effort terminals which aim at achieving the maximum system throughput subject to different bit rate constraints. For the second envisaged rate assignment scheme, which represents the best compromise between service fairness and throughput, we then propose a simplified approach that allows to noticeably decrease the implementation complexity with a slight performance degradation.

Interference Cancellation (IC) receivers can be used in CDMA cellular systems to improve the capacity. The IC receivers can be divided into two main categories, Single-User Detectors (SUD) and Multi-User Detectors (MUD). They have different characteristics in terms of intra-cell and inter-cell interference cancellation ability. In this paper we propose two new IC receivers that combines the properties of SUD and MUD receivers. The first one is a Serial IC receiver followed by the Normalized Griffiths' algorithm (SING). The second one is an Integrated Serial IC and Normalized Griffiths' algorithm (iSING). We first compare their basic single-cell performance with the conventional RAKE receiver, the Serial IC and the Normalized Griffiths' Algorithm. Next, we examine their multi-cell performance by doing multi-cell link-level simulations. The results show that even though the Serial IC receiver has good single-cell performance, the proposed receivers have as much as 35-40% higher capacity than the Serial IC receiver in the multi-cell case under the ideal conditions assumed in this paper.

Call demand suddenly and greatly increases in the aftermath of a major disaster, because people want to check on their families and friends in the stricken area. Many call attempts in mobile cellular systems are blocked due to the limited radio frequency resources. In this paper, as a solution to this problem, limiting the holding time of calls is investigated and a dynamic holding time limit (DHTL) method, which varies the holding time limit dynamically based on the number of call attempts, is proposed. The effect of limiting the holding time is investigated first using a computer simulation with a constant and heavy traffic load model. This simulation shows that the average holding time of calls is decreased as the holding time limit is reduced. But it also shows limiting the holding time decreases the number of calls blocked and forced call terminations at handover considerably. Next, a simple estimation method for the holding time limit, which reduces the blocking rate to the normal rate for increasing call demand, is described. Finally, results are given of a simulation, which show that the DHTL method keeps good performance for a sudden and great traffic load fluctuation condition.

In this work, distributed dynamic channel assignment strategies with violation to the reuse pattern using vehicular mobility information for highway microcellular environments are proposed. It is shown that, when vehicular mobility information is included in the acquisition channel policy, the outage probability degradation because of the use of channels with one violation to the reuse pattern is negligible. Also, it is shown that, using different moving direction strategies it is possible to control the tradeoff between capacity and quality of service. The local packing algorithm (LP), was modified to allow the use of two different moving direction strategies with violation to the reuse pattern, resulting the VDLP1 and VDLP2 algorithms. The characteristics of user mobility are considered and a free-flowing vehicular traffic is assumed. Simulation results show that the use of vehicular mobility information in the distributed dynamic channel algorithms with violation to the reuse pattern, produce a considerable increase in the system capacity at the expense of an insignificant degradation of the quality of service. For a grade of service (GOS) of 0.1, the VDLP1 and VDLP2 carry 4% and 1.5% more traffic than the maximum packing algorithm, respectively. For the same GOS, the VDLP1 and VDLP2 carry 68% and 64% more traffic than the fixed channel assignment algorithm, respectively.