Documente Academic
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2)
Year III
D2.1.3: Report on Dissemination and
Exploitation Activities
Project acronym:
Project full title:
Grant agreement no.:
HARP
High capacity network Architecture with Remote
radio heads & Parasitic antenna arrays
318489
Version number: 1
Date of preparation of scientific report (latest version): 16/11/2015
Date of approval of scientific report by Commission: ......................................
Authors:
Tharmalingam Ratnarajah, Faheem Khan, Jiang Xue, Constantinos Papadias, George Alexandropoulos,
Vlasis Barousis, Konstantinos Georgakilas David Gesbert, Laura Cottatellucci, Haifan Yin, Bruno
Clerckx, Borzoo Rasouli, Yueping Wu, Ralf Mller, Mohammad Ali Sedaghat, Lars Dittmann, Henrik
Christiansen, Bjarne Skak Bossen, Aleksandra Chacko, Laurent Roullet, Jean-Marc Kelif , Stephane
Senecal.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 4
2. Dissemination Activities ...................................................................................................................... 5
2.1 Journal Papers ............................................................................................................................... 5
2.2 Conference Papers ........................................................................................................................ 6
2.3 Industry White Papers ................................................................................................................ 11
2.4 Papers Submitted or in Preparation ........................................................................................... 11
2.5 Invited Talks, Tutorials, Poster Presentations............................................................................. 12
2.6 Workshops .................................................................................................................................. 14
2.7 Special Sessions........................................................................................................................... 15
2.8 PhD Students and Post Docs ....................................................................................................... 15
2.8.1 PhD students ........................................................................................................................ 15
2.8.2 Post Docs and Researchers .................................................................................................. 16
2.8.3 Student benefitting from HARP ........................................................................................... 16
2.8
2.9.1
2.9.2
2.9.3
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1. Introduction
HARP (High capacity network Architecture with Remote radio heads & Parasitic antenna arrays) is an
EU FP7 project (Grant No. 318489, Project duration: Dec. 2012 Nov. 2015). It aims at bringing
distributed multi-antenna wireless access to reality by combining two powerful emerging
technologies: 1) radio remote heads (RRHs), which allow for widely geographically distributed access
via radio-over-fibre connections to a central base station; and 2) electronically steerable passive array
radiators ESPARs, which provide multi-antenna-like functionality with a single active RF chain only.
The proposed combined network design concept is expected to yield the benefits of high capacity
multi-antenna multi-cell cooperative wireless access while doing so in a realistic, low-cost and, equally
importantly, environmentally-friendly manner.
The Consortium partners are:
University of Edinburgh (UEDIN) (UK, Co-ordinator)
Athens Information Technology (AIT) (Greece, Technical Leader)
Eurecom (EUR) (France)
Imperial College London (IMPERIAL) (UK)
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) (Norway)
Technical University Denmark (DTU) (Denmark)
MTI RadioComp (RADIOCOMP) (Denmark)
Alcatel Bell Lucent France (ALBLF) (France)
Orange SA, France (ORANGE) (France)
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2. Dissemination Activities
2.1 Journal Papers
1. A. Checko, H. L. Christiansen, Y. Yan, L. Scolari, G. Kardaras, M. S. Berger, and L. Dittmann,
"Cloud RAN for Mobile Networks - a Technology Overview". IEEE Communications Surveys
and Tutorials Journal, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 405-426, Mar. 2015.
2. B. Rassouli, C. Hao, and B. Clerckx, A New Proof for the DoF Region of the MIMO Networks
with No CSIT, IEEE Communications Letters, vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 763-766, May 2015.
3. B. Clerckx and D. Gesbert, Space-Time Encoded MISO Broadcast Channel with Outdated
CSIT: An Error Rate and Diversity Performance Analysis IEEE Trans. on Communications, vol.
63, no. 5, pp. 1661-1675, May 2015.
4. M. Dai and B. Clerckx, Transmit Beamforming for MISO Broadcast Channels with Statistical
and Delayed CSIT, IEEE Trans. On Communications, vol. 63, no. 4, pp. 1202-1215, Apr. 2015.
5. P. Aquilina and T. Ratnarajah, Performance analysis of IA techniques in the MIMO IBC with
imperfect CSI, IEEE Trans. On Communications, vol. 63, no. 4, pp. 1259-1270, Apr. 2015.
6. F. A. Khan, H. He, J. Xue and T. Ratnarajah, "Performance Analysis of Cloud Radio Access
Networks with Distributed Multiple Antenna Remote Radio Heads" IEEE Trans. on Signal
Processing, vol. 63, no. 18, pp. 4784-4799, Sept. 2015.
7. A. Papazafeiropoulos and T. Ratnarajah, "Deterministic Equivalent Performance Analysis of
Time-Varying Massive MIMO Systems", IEEE Trans. on Wireless Communications, vol. 14, no.
10, pp. 5795-5809, Oct. 2015.
8. Y. Luo and T. Ratnarajah, "Robust Stochastic Optimization For MISO Broadcasting Channel
With Delayed CSIT and Limited Transmitting Antenna," IEEE Trans. on Vehicular Technology,
vol. 64, no. 8, pp. 3547-3559, Aug. 2015.
9. Y. Wu, Y. Cui and B. Clerckx, Analysis and Optimization of Inter-tier Interference
Coordination in Downlink Multi-Antenna HetNets with Offloading IEEE Trans. on Wireless
Communications, in press.
10. C. Hao, Y. Wu and B. Clerckx, Rate Analysis of Multiuser MISO Systems with Finite Rate
Feedback: A Rate Splitting Approach, IEEE Trans. on Communications, vol. 63, no. 9, pp.
3232-3246, Sept. 2015..
11. A. L. Zhou, F. A. Khan, T. Ratnarajah and C.B. Papadias, "Achieving Arbitrary Signals
Transmission Using a Single Radio Frequency Chain, IEEE Trans. Communications, in press.
12. C. Masouros, M. Sellathurai and T. Ratnarajah, "Vector Perturbation Based on Symbol Scaling
for Limited Feedback MISO Downlinks," IEEE Trans. on Signal Processing, vol. 63, no. 3, pp.
562-571, Feb., 2014.
13. C. Zhong, T. Ratnarajah, Z. Zhang, K-K Wong and M. Sellathurai, "Performance of Rayleigh
Product MIMO Channels with Linear Receivers", IEEE Trans. on Wireless Communications,
vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 2270-2281, Apr. 2014.
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Computation and Simulation Institutre of Pierre&Marie Curie University, Paris, March 2014.
Orange internal TOOS project seminars, Paris, Dec. 2013
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13. Ralf Mller, Information Theory and Applications Workshop (ITA) San Diego, Feb 2015.
14. Ralf Mller, ``Load Modulated MIMO: A New Hardware Concept to Reduce Cost, Size, and
Amplifier Back-off', keynote speech at WONC collocated with GLOBECOM 2015, Austin, US,
Dec 2014
15. Ralf Mller, Workshop on Smart Antennas (WSA) Ilmenau, Germany, Mar. 2015.
16. M. A. Sedaghat poster presentation in SPcoding school in Campinas, Brazil (17-31 Jan. 2015):
Load Modulated Massive MIMO
17. Mohammad A. Sedaghat and Ralf Muller. A novel modulation scheme for user devices
equipped with a single-RF MIMO transmitter, In Proc. ITG Workshop on Smart Antennas
(WSA), Ilmenau, Germany, Mar. 2015.
18. M. A. Sedaghat participated in RF & Communications Round Table in Lund University, Sweden
(11-13 Nov. 2013) on massive MIMO demo
19. Aleksandra Checko, C-RAN fronthaul: Options, benefits and challenges. At http://www.ictijoin.eu/ijoin-winter-school-2015/
20. Joint Poster: Dimitrios Ntaikos, Bobby Gizas, Constantinos Papadias, Laurent Roullet, Franois
Taburet. ``Over-the-air demonstration for Remote Radio Head (RRH) based LTE access with the
use of parasitic antenna arrays: Results from the FP7 project HARP, EUCNC 2015
21. H.Chrisansen: Architectures of C-RAN, workshop at the COST 1044 training school.
Luxembourg, April 2015
22. Ralf Mller, Continuous Phase Modulation on the Hypersphere, Future of Wireless
Workshop, Stockholm, June 2015
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28. Navid Nikaein, Thrasyvoulos Spyropoulos, and Aleksandra Checko Backhaul and Fronthaul:
Principles, Challenges, and Technologies, submitted proposal to WCNC 2016
2.6 Workshops
1. WONC: Workshop on Wireless Optical Network Convergence in Support of Cloud Architectures
- Globecom 2014
Co-chairs: Laura Cottatellucci, Anna Tzanakaki
http://www.fp7-harp.eu/globecom-2014wonc.html
Contributions from HARP:
1. Keynote speech: ``Load Modulated MIMO: A New Hardware Concept to Reduce Cost, Size, and
Amplifier Back-off by Ralf Muller.
2. Invited paper: Analytical Performance Model for Poisson Wireless Networks with Pathloss and
Shadowing Propagation, by Jean-Marc Kelif, Stephane Senecal, Marceau Coupechoux, Constant
Bridon.
3. Invited paper: "Meeting fronthaul challenges of future mobile network deployments - the HARP
approach,L. Dittmann, H. L. Christiansen, A. Checko.
2. mmW5G-WS on Emerging MIMO Technologies and Millimeter-waves for 5G Networks - VTCSpring 2015
TPC-chairs from HARP: Bruno Clerckx, Constantinos Papadias, and Tharmalingam Ratnarajah
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Dr J. Xue (UEDIN)
Dr Fahd Ahmed Khan (UEDIN)
Dr Papazafeiropoulos (UEDIN)
Dr Faheem Ahmad khan (UEDIN)
Dr Ebtihal Yousif (UEDIN)
Dr Miltiades C. Filippou (UEDIN)
Dr Satyanarayana Vuppala (UEDIN)
Dr Ali Cagatay Cirik (UEDIN)
Dr Yueping Wu (Imperial College)
Dr Dimitrios Ntaikos (AIT)
Bobby Gizas (AIT)
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3. Exploitation Activities
3.1 UEDIN
UEDIN is coordinating HARP project and has been interacting to exploit the research results by using
its links with UK regulatory authority OFCOM, QinetiQ and industries in UK, Europe and with ETRI,
Samsung in Korea. Using its good links with Mobile VCE group, UEDIN will exploit the HARP research
outputs in the practical implementation of emerging RRH and Cloud RAN standards in 5G mobile
networks. UEDIN has also participated in leading international conferences and workshops to highlight
the available technological expertise with the HARP group in the development of RRH and Cloud RAN
standards and to make future collaboration with like-minded groups across UK, Europe and beyond.
UEDIN has organised one day workshops in IEEE VTC Spring Conference at Glasgow UK in May, 2015
and EUSIPCO 2015, France.
3.2 AIT
AIT has been particularly active, in the context of HARP, in the area of parasitic antenna arrays, such
as Electronically Steerable Passive Array Radiators (ESPARs) and Load Modulated Arrays (LMAs). This
technology is, in AITs view, one of the most promising in terms of impacting the marketplace in
upcoming years. As such, AIT has made many efforts to exploit this technology that includes the
following:
-
AIT has explored the option of teaming up with a start-up company in order to commercialise the
use of parasitic antenna arrays in relevant applications. The particular application include remote
radio heads (RRHs) or other small cell units (Femto-cell base stations, WiFI Access Points, etc.),
mobile terminals, fixed point-to-point systems, etc. AIT has relocated in a building that hosts
several start-up companies in the area of Athens; in particular, we are now co-located with the
headquarters of the Hellenic Technology Clusters Initiative (Corallia cluster see
http://www.corallia.org/en/), which is a major Innovation Hub in the area. Being a Member of
Corallias Nano/Microelectronics-based Systems and Applications Cluster (mi-Cluster), AIT plans
to exploit this partnership for the exploitation of its parasitic array technology.
AIT has made efforts to team up with large companies / research centers that have already
expressed an interest in learning more about our parasitic antenna array technology. These
include Alcatel-Lucents Bell Laboratories in France (HARPs partner ALU) and the Electronics and
Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) in Korea. We are in talks with both institutions
regarding the further prototyping and eventual commercialisation of the technology.
3.3 EUR
Eurecom is a consortium of industrial and academic partners with primary interest in both applied
research and fundamental research and teaching. Therefore, its exploitation strategy is mainly related
to dissemination and academic visibility. The primary interest of Eurecom is the publication of joint
results in prestigious journals and in proceedings of highly refereed international conferences.
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3.4 IMPERIAL
IMPERIAL is active in designing transmission strategies and identifying the fundamental benefits of the
investigated RRH-ESPAR-load modulated arrays enabled wireless access and coordination techniques.
IMPERIAL is also very well connected to industrial partners active in 3GPP standardization. In
particular, Dr Clerckx has extensive experience of contributing to standardization of communications
technologies, having taken on leadership of standards groups for 3GPP CoMP. Building on those
current experience and past activities, the exploitation activities of IMPERIAL include:
-
Advertising the fundamental advances made in HARP on the design and performance benefits of
RRH-ESPAR-load modulated arrays enabled wireless access and coordination techniques
Organising workshop related to HARP concepts and scientific objectives (IEEE VTC Spring 2015)
3.5 NTNU
NTNU has investigated fundamental theoretical limits of single-RF MIMO systems in single and also
multi-user applications considering hardware limitations. These results have shown how a MIMO
system equipped with an efficient single-RF MIMO can compete with the other candidates in future
generations of wireless systems such as massive MIMO. The main contribution of NTNU in this part is
that efficient load-modulated transmitters can achieve a performance comparable to the
performance of conventional MIMO transmitters.
Furthermore, designing appropriate transmission techniques in a MIMO system with efficient singleRF transmitters such as precoding and modulation design is another aspect for NTNU. This part is
about designing efficient signalling for MIMO systems with load modulated transmitters in uplink and
downlink of a wireless system.
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3.6 DTU
DTU has utilized the results obtained through HARP and the cooperation within the HARP consortium
in the following ways: All partners in the HARP consortium have contributed to offering new insights
on methods and results that DTU can leverage in their ongoing research in the related areas. As an
example of a direct output from HARP is a computer model that DTU has developed within HARP and
are likely to benefit from it in many years to come. Another example is the Ph.D. students who have
done much of their Ph.D. work within the HARP project. The cooperation with the industrial partners
within the consortium throughout the HARP project gives DTU an invaluable opportunity to revitalize
teaching. Using knowledge about how research and theoretical results feed into real life products
enables them to incorporate also this facet into the teaching.
3.7 RADIOCOMP
Cloud RAN is seen as one of the key technologies for 5G mobile networks. It changes the nature of the
connection between RRH and BBU, from synchronous and point to point link (CPRI) towards possibly
asynchronous, multipoint to multipoint new network segment fronthaul network. Industry is highly
interested in enabling Ethernet transport for fronthaul network, hence the following activities in
standardization bodies:
-
IEEE 1904.3 Standard for Radio Over Ethernet Encapsulations and Mappings that aims to define
encapsulation of fronthaul data, independent on the functional split, to Ethernet frames
IEEE 802.1Qbv Bridges and Bridged NetworksAmendment: Enhancements for Scheduled
Traffic standardizes source scheduling in order to reduce jitter of fronthaul streams in Ethernet
switches by preventing other streams from transmission when fronthaul traffic needs to be
transmitted
IEEE 802.1Qbu Bridges and Bridged NetworksAmendment: Frame Preemption standardizes
preemption which can suspend the transmission of the lower priority traffic when fronthaul
traffic needs to be transmitted
IEEE 802.1CM Time-Sensitive Networking for Fronthaul profiles that select features, options,
configurations, defaults, protocols and procedures of switches and stations for a fronthaul
application.
IEEE 1588 Standard for a Precision Clock Synchronization Protocol for Networked Measurement
and Control Systems v3 is under preparation to improve accuracy of timing delivery
IEEE Next Generation Fronthaul Interface (NGFI) that aims to define a functional split between
RRH and BBU.
Research conducted by MTI Radiocomp together with HARP partners helps the company to leverage
its expertise on RRH towards understanding challenges of future mobile networks and positioning
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CPRI consortium on standard updates organizing transport between RRH and BBU
IEEE NGFI
IEEE 802.1Qbu, IEEE 802.1Qbv and IEEE 802.1CM
IEEE 1588 Working Group preparing v3 of synchronization protocol applicable to C-RAN
fronthaul.
The C-RAN concept invites to more open standards for BBU/RRH communication. This is an interesting
concept from Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) point of view and MTI Radiocomp can engage in
defining such open standards.
3.8 ALBLF
ALU has benefitted from the HARP project in several ways. First, it has been able to develop a CPRI
gateway, a promising function for connecting the RRH to datacenters in an efficient and scalable way.
Second, it has been able to develop new CoMP techniques on the uplink. Third, it has been possible
to develop a Cloud RAN prototype based on EURECOM OpenAirInterface using latest virtualization
technology (containers, openstack). Fourth, it has been able to connect the Cloud RAN solution with
parasitic antennas, validating the capabilities of the platform (as was demonstrated during EUCNC).
Fifth, a strong collaboration has been established with some of the main partners (DTU, AIT). All these
innovations have or will be presented internally for seeking industrial transfer. One on-going transfer
is the CPRI gateway that will likely find its way in the product line. On the longer run, HARP will serve
as the skeleton for new innovations for 5G such as Next Generation Fronthaul Interface and micro
services aligned eNB in H2020 projects like Superfluidity.
3.9 ORANGE
The HARP project made it possible to assess the performance and efficiency of Cloud-RAN (C-RAN)
architectures involving Remote Radio Heads (RRH) devices and ESPAR antennas.
Orange plans to exploit the HARP project results in several ways:
1) reuse of C-RAN based results and solutions in other projects related to C-RAN
2) transfer of ESPAR antennas performance assessment results to a dedicated R&D team
working in the field of antennas design and deployment issues
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5. ESPAR Prototype
Description: Electronically Steerable Parasitic Antenna Radiator (ESPAR) antennas have only one
active element that is fed with the radio frequency while the others are parasitic. These parasitic
elements are in a close vicinity to the active one, in such a topology that allows them to interact with
it. This interaction is in essence strong electromagnetic (EM) coupling between the closely spaced
elements. We can take advantage of this strong EM coupling and by varying the parasitic elements we
can steer or reshape the far-field radiation pattern (beam) of the antenna. The basic concept of ESPAR
antennas is that the active element resonates at the desired frequency (which in our case is 2.6 GHz)
while its input resistance is matched to the RF generator (50Ohm in our case for maximum power
transfer) and the parasitics are terminated with either inductive or capacitive loads. This way, by
varying the values of the loads of the parasitic elements, we can reshape or steer the beam. Our
proposed ESPAR antenna consists of five patches which form a cross. It is built on commercially
available FR-4 substrate material with dielectric constant (r = 4.4) and loss tangent (tan = 0.002).
The front side of the board is etched with the active and the four parasitic patches, while the back side
is the common ground. Each square patch is 26mm by 26mm. The distance between all patches is
2mm. The active element (which is at the center) is fed through via feeding point. It has to be noted
that in order for the active element to have input impedance equal to 50Ohms, the via feeding point
has to be off-centered downwards by 8mm. The overall FR-4 board dimensions are 100mm by 100mm.
The ESPAR antenna design is presented in Figures 1 and 2. During HARP demo, two RRHs are used.
Each one will be connected to an ESPAR antenna. Every RRH will switch between three predefined
beams. In the demo, the cooperating RRHs will each choose one of the predefined beams so that the
chosen beam combination maximizes the sum rate of the links to their intended receivers, based on
SINR feedback. Furthermore, it is possible to precode over the chosen beams, based on the fed-back
channels seen at the receivers through the beams.
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Figure 2: ESPAR antenna design (tilted view) where via hole positions are shown.
Exploitation: Incorporating ESPAR antennas in the RRH will allow transmitters (Tx) to focus more easily
on their intended receivers (Rx) while using only a single RF chain compared to conventional uniform
linear arrays ULAs. The antenna design procedure will assist to the faster integration of RRH
techniques in future C-RAN based cellular systems. The ESPAR techniques can offer, under certain
circumstances, a large improvement in spectral efficiency and boost the overall system-level capacity.
ESPARs make a very strong candidate for such systems due to their beam-shaping abilities, compact
size, and unique RF chain need.
Market: Parasitic arrays could bring in a significant improvement at the performance of future
communication systems. They could contribute to the acceleration of miniaturization of base stations
down to RRHs and, at the same time, they could equip consumer devices such as laptops or tablets
(and potentially smartphones) providing improved performance but maintaining a low manufacturing
cost. Moreover, they could be the enabling technology of future communication systems with massive
antenna arrays at the transmitter side where they would significantly reduce the total number of RF
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