Communication at millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies is defining a new era of wireless communication. The mmWave band offers higher bandwidth communication channels versus those presently used in commercial wireless systems. The applications of mmWave are immense: wireless local and personal area networks in the unlicensed band, 5G cellular systems, not to mention vehicular area networks, ad hoc networks, and wearables. Signal processing is critical for enabling the next generation of mmWave communication. Due to the use of large antenna arrays at the transmitter and receiver, combined with radio frequency and mixed signal power constraints, new multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication signal processing techniques are needed. Because of the wide bandwidths, low complexity transceiver algorithms become important. There are opportunities to exploit techniques like compressed sensing for channel estimation and beamforming. This article provides an overview of signal processing challenges in mmWave wireless systems, with an emphasis on those faced by using MIMO communication at higher carrier frequencies.

An Overview of Signal Processing Techniques for Millimeter Wave MIMO Systems

A system is presented providing content to a plurality of handheld devices (including musical selections). The devices can access a server over the Internet via a WIFI or other similar wireless interconnection and can download songs requested by a user from the server or from other users using, e.g., a P2P protocol. All downloads are governed by applicable DRM rules. Content and playlists may also be pushed by a server from other sources and means including, e.g., podcasting, based on predetermined rules, favorite preferences of users, and other criteria.

Audio visual player apparatus and system and method of content distribution using the same

With the explosive growth of mobile data demand, the fifth generation (5G) mobile network would exploit the enormous amount of spectrum in the millimeter wave (mmWave) bands to greatly increase communication capacity. There are fundamental differences between mmWave communications and existing other communication systems, in terms of high propagation loss, directivity, and sensitivity to blockage. These characteristics of mmWave communications pose several challenges to fully exploit the potential of mmWave communications, including integrated circuits and system design, interference management, spatial reuse, anti-blockage, and dynamics control. To address these challenges, we carry out a survey of existing solutions and standards, and propose design guidelines in architectures and protocols for mmWave communications. We also discuss the potential applications of mmWave communications in the 5G network, including the small cell access, the cellular access, and the wireless backhaul. Finally, we discuss relevant open research issues including the new physical layer technology, software-defined network architecture, measurements of network state information, efficient control mechanisms, and heterogeneous networking, which should be further investigated to facilitate the deployment of mmWave communication systems in the future 5G networks.

A survey of millimeter wave communications (mmWave) for 5G: opportunities and challenges

According to Edholm’s law, the demand for point-to-point bandwidth in wireless short-range communications has doubled every 18 months over the last 25 years It can be predicted that data rates of around 5–10 Gb/s will be required in ten years In order to achieve 10 Gb/s data rates, the carrier frequencies need to be increased beyond 100 GHz Over the past ten years, several groups have considered the prospects of using sub-terahertz (THz) and THz waves (100–2000 GHz) as a means to transmit data wirelessly Some of the reported advantages of THz communications links are inherently higher bandwidth compared to millimeter wave links, less susceptibility to scintillation effects than infrared wireless links, and the ability to use THz links for secure communications Our goal of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of wireless sub-THz and THz communications

Review of terahertz and subterahertz wireless communications

This tutorial presents an overview of the technological advances in millimeter-wave (mm-wave) circuit components, antennas, and propagation that will soon allow 60-GHz transceivers to provide multigigabit per second (multi-Gb/s) wireless communication data transfers in the consumer marketplace. Our goal is to help engineers understand the convergence of communications, circuits, and antennas, as the emerging world of subterahertz and terahertz wireless communications will require understanding at the intersections of these areas. This paper covers trends and recent accomplishments in a wide range of circuits and systems topics that must be understood to create massively broadband wireless communication systems of the future. In this paper, we present some evolving applications of massively broadband wireless communications, and use tables and graphs to show research progress from the literature on various radio system components, including on-chip and in-package antennas, radio-frequency (RF) power amplifiers (PAs), low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs), mixers, and analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). We focus primarily on silicon-based technologies, as these provide the best means of implementing very low-cost, highly integrated 60-GHz mm-wave circuits. In addition, the paper illuminates characterization techniques that are required to competently design and fabricate mm-wave devices in silicon, and illustrates effects of the 60-GHz RF propagation channel for both in-building and outdoor use. The paper concludes with an overview of the standardization and commercialization efforts for 60-GHz multi-Gb/s devices, and presents a novel way to compare the data rate versus power efficiency for future broadband devices.

http://faculty.poly.edu/~tsr/wp-content/uploads/publications/abstract17.pdf

State of the Art in 60-GHz Integrated Circuits and Systems for Wireless Communications

A multilayer antenna includes a first layer which is a ground plane and which has a plurality of first clearance holes. A first dielectric layer is positioned over the first layer and a second layer is positioned over the first dielectric layer and has a plurality of quarter wave transformers. A second dielectric layer is positioned over the second layer and a third layer ground plane is positioned over the second dielectric layer and has a plurality of second clearance holes for a feed structure. A third dielectric layer is positioned over the third layer and a fourth layer is positioned over the third dielectric layer and has a cross shape. The first and third layers are coupled together via plated-through holes.

Planar antenna in the ISM band with an omnidirectional pattern in the horizontal plane

A computer program product for managing and rendering one or more information nodes relative to a current focus. The computer program product receives one or more principal topics from an analysis of the information nodes. The computer program product determines a topic vector from a similarity of a first information node to each of the principal topics and a map from the topic vector to a storage location of the first information node. The computer program product determines one or more current topics from a second information node that has been recently accessed by a user and a current focus vector from a similarity of the one or more current topics to the one or more principal topics. The computer program product renders the current focus vector and the first information node according to a rendering algorithm that is applied to the current focus vector and the first information node.

Access and presentation of files based on semantic proximity to current interests

This work presents the first experimental results on the effects of 63.3 MeV proton irradiation on 60 GHz monolithic point-to-point broadband space data link transceiver building blocks implemented in a 200 GHz SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) technology. A SiGe low-noise amplifier and a SiGe voltage-controlled oscillator were each irradiated to proton fluences of 5.0/spl times/10/sup 13/ p/cm/sup 2/. The device and circuit level performance degradation associated with these extreme proton fluences is found to be minimal, suggesting that such SiGe HBT transceivers should be robust from a proton tolerance perspective for space applications, without intentional hardening at either the device or circuit level.

Proton radiation response of monolithic Millimeter-wave transceiver building blocks implemented in 200 GHz SiGe technology

This paper presents a planar embedded dualband antenna for the 2.4 GHz wireless local area network (WLAN) and ultra-wideband (UWB) applications. A partial elliptic with a rectangle tail on the front side of a PCB forms the planar antenna for the UWB applications (3.1-10.6 GHz). The smooth change in the feed of the antenna achieves a good impedance match between the feed cable and the antenna. A strip on the back side of the PCB connected to the front side with a metal strip on the side or via through the PCB produces a resonance for the 2.4 GHz WLAN or Bluetooth (BT) application. The proposed antenna was simulated assuming free-space conditions, and fabricated onto a piece of a thin PCB. Both the impedance and radiation performance of the antenna embedded into the display of a laptop computer were experimentally measured and then optimized. The measurement shows that the proposed antenna is capable of providing a good impedance match and acceptable gain across the 2.4-2.5 GHz WLAN/BT band and the 3.1 -10.6 GHz UWB band. Furthermore, this antenna features a low profile and low cost solution, and can be readily embedded into the thin covers of laptop computers or other portable devices.

A Planar Dualband Antenna for 2.4 GHz and UWB Laptop Applications

Low-profile, compact UWB embedded antenna designs are provided for use with computing devices, such as laptop computers, which enable ease of integration within computing devices with limited space, while providing suitable antenna characteristics (eg, impedance matching and radiation efficiency) over an operating bandwidth of about 1 GHz to about 11 GHz

Brian P. Gaucher

Papers

Planar antenna in the ISM band with an omnidirectional pattern in the horizontal plane

Access and presentation of files based on semantic proximity to current interests

Proton radiation response of monolithic Millimeter-wave transceiver building blocks implemented in 200 GHz SiGe technology

A Planar Dualband Antenna for 2.4 GHz and UWB Laptop Applications

Low-profile embedded ultra-wideband antenna architectures for wireless devices