This paper reviews the basic concepts of rays, ray tracing algorithms, and radio propagation modeling using ray tracing methods We focus on the fundamental concepts and the development of practical ray tracing algorithms The most recent progress and a future perspective of ray tracing are also discussed We envision propagation modeling in the near future as an intelligent, accurate, and real-time system in which ray tracing plays an important role This review is especially useful for experts who are developing new ray tracing algorithms to enhance modeling accuracy and improve computational speed

Ray Tracing for Radio Propagation Modeling: Principles and Applications

The application scenarios and requirements are more diverse in the fifth-generation (5G) era than before. In order to successfully support the system design and deployment, accurate channel modeling is important. Ray-tracing (RT) based deterministic modeling approach is accurate with detailed angular information and is a suitable candidate for predicting time-varying channel and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel for various frequency bands. However, the computational complexity and the utility of RT are the main concerns of users. Aiming at 5G and beyond wireless communications, this paper presents a comprehensive tutorial on the design of RT and the applications. The role of RT and the state-of-the-art RT techniques are reviewed. The features of academic and commercial RT based simulators are summarized and compared. The requirements, challenges, and developing trends of RT to enable the visions are discussed. The practices of the design of high-performance RT simulation platform for 5G and beyond communications are introduced, with the publicly available high-performance cloud-based RT simulation platform as the main reference. The hardware structure, networking, workflow, data flow and fundamental functions of a flexible high-performance RT platform are discussed. The applications of high-performance RT are presented based on two 5G scenarios, i.e., a 3.5 GHz Beijing vehicle-to-infrastructure scenario and a 28 GHz Manhattan outdoor scenario. The questions on how to calibrate and validate RT based on measurements, how to apply RT for mobile communications in moving scenarios, and how to evaluate MIMO beamforming technologies are answered. This tutorial will be especially useful for researchers who work on RT algorithms development and channel modeling to meet the evaluation requirements of 5G and beyond technologies.

The Design and Applications of High-Performance Ray-Tracing Simulation Platform for 5G and Beyond Wireless Communications: A Tutorial

Fast and reliable time and frequency synchronization is crucial for packet-based orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) systems. In this paper we compare and analyze preambles for OFDM systems based on repeated OFDM data symbols or repeated short pseudonoise sequences (PN-sequences). We make an analytical evaluation for AWGN channels and simulate the performance in oneand two-tap Rayleigh fading channels. The PN-based preamble gives better detection properties in terms of lower false detection probability and lower probability of missing the synchronization signal. The PN-based preamble has low peak-to-average power ratio and it makes it possible to use an ADC with one-bit quantization in stand-by mode. For frequency offset estimation both preambles give similar performance, but the PN-based preamble allows for a greater reduction in stand-by mode power consumption.

Time and Frequency Synchronization for BRAN using PN-sequence Preambles

The development of smart cities and the emergence of three-dimensional (3-D) urban terrain data have introduced new requirements and issues to the research on the 3-D deployment of wireless sensor networks. We study the deployment issue of heterogeneous wireless directional sensor networks in 3-D smart cities. Traditionally, studies on the deployment problem of WSNs focus on omnidirectional sensors on a 2-D plane or in full 3-D space. Based on 3-D urban terrain data, we transform the deployment problem into a multiobjective optimization problem, in which objectives of Coverage , Connectivity Quality , and Lifetime , as well as the Connectivity and Reliability constraints, are simultaneously considered. A graph-based 3-D signal propagation model employing the line-of-sight concept is used to calculate the signal path loss. Novel distributed parallel multiobjective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) are also proposed. For verification, real-world and artificial urban terrains are utilized. In comparison with other state-of-the-art MOEAs, the novel algorithms could more effectively and more efficiently address the deployment problem in terms of optimization performance and operation time.

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3-D Deployment Optimization for Heterogeneous Wireless Directional Sensor Networks on Smart City

Convolutional coding and Viterbi decoding, along with binary phase-shift keyed modulation, is presented as an efficient system for reliable communication on power limited satellite and space channels. Performance results, obtained theoretically and through computer simulation, are given for optimum short constraint length codes for a range of code constraint lengths and code rates. System efficiency is compared for hard receiver quantization and 4 and 8 level soft quantization. The effects on performance of varying of certain parameters relevant to decoder complexity and cost is examined. Quantitative performance degradation due to imperfect carrier phase coherence is evaluated and compared to that of an uncoded system. As an example of decoder performance versus complexity, a recently implemented 2-Mbit/s constraint length 7 Viterbi decoder is discussed. Finally a comparison is made between Viterbi and sequential decoding in terms of suitability to various system requirements.

Viterbi Decoding for Satellite and Space Communication

In this paper, a novel method to simulate radio propagation is presented. The method consists of two steps: automatic 3D scenario reconstruction and propagation modeling. For 3D reconstruction, a machine learning algorithm is adopted and improved to automatically recognize objects in pictures taken from target region, and 3D models are generated based on the recognized objects. The propagation model employs a ray tracing algorithm to compute signal strength for each point on the constructed 3D map. By comparing with other methods, the work presented in this paper makes contributions on reducing human efforts and cost in constructing 3D scene; moreover, the developed propagation model proves its potential in both accuracy and efficiency.

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A novel method for radio propagation simulation based on automatic 3D environment reconstruction

Multiple feature points representation in target localization of wireless visual sensor networks

In this work, a unified algorithm-architecture-circuit co-design environment for complex FPGA system development is presented. The main objective is to find an efficient methodology for designing a configurable optimized FPGA system by using as few efforts as possible in verification stage, so as to speed up the development period. A proposed high performance FFT/iFFT processor for Multiband Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Ultra Wideband (MB-OFDM UWB) system design process is given as an example to demonstrate the proposed methodology. This efficient design methodology is tested and considered to be suitable for almost all types of complex FPGA system designs and verifications.

A hardware in the loop design methodology for FPGA system and its application to complex functions

This paper discusses the target localization problem of wireless visual sensor networks. Specifically, each node with a low-resolution camera extracts multiple feature points to represent the target at the sensor node level. A statistical method of merging the position information of different sensor nodes to select the most correlated feature point pair at the base station is presented. This method releases the influence of the accuracy of target extraction on the accuracy of target localization in universal coordinate system. Simulations show that, compared with other relative approach, our proposed method can generate more desirable target localization's accuracy, and it has a better trade-off between camera node usage and localization accuracy.

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Guixuan Liang

Papers

A novel method for radio propagation simulation based on automatic 3D environment reconstruction

Multiple feature points representation in target localization of wireless visual sensor networks

A hardware in the loop design methodology for FPGA system and its application to complex functions

Improving target localization accuracy of wireless visual sensor networks

Radio propagation modeling and real test of ZigBee based indoor wireless sensor networks