As of today, the fifth generation (5G) mobile communication system has been rolled out in many countries and the number of 5G subscribers already reaches a very large scale. It is time for academia and industry to shift their attention towards the next generation. At this crossroad, an overview of the current state of the art and a vision of future communications are definitely of interest. This article thus aims to provide a comprehensive survey to draw a picture of the sixth generation (6G) system in terms of drivers, use cases, usage scenarios, requirements, key performance indicators (KPIs), architecture, and enabling technologies. First, we attempt to answer the question of "Is there any need for 6G?" by shedding light on its key driving factors, in which we predict the explosive growth of mobile traffic until 2030, and envision potential use cases and usage scenarios. Second, the technical requirements of 6G are discussed and compared with those of 5G with respect to a set of KPIs in a quantitative manner. Third, the state-of-the-art 6G research efforts and activities from representative institutions and countries are summarized, and a tentative roadmap of definition, specification, standardization, and regulation is projected. Then, we identify a dozen of potential technologies and introduce their principles, advantages, challenges, and open research issues. Finally, the conclusions are drawn to paint a picture of "What 6G may look like?". This survey is intended to serve as an enlightening guideline to spur interests and further investigations for subsequent research and development of 6G communications systems.

The Road Towards 6G: A Comprehensive Survey

This paper reviews the theories and the results of numerical calculations of interactions between hydrometeors and microwaves or millimeter waves propagating in media containing these hydrometeors. At frequencies above about 5 GHz, rain, snow, or ice crystals in high altitudes cause various degrading effects on the performance of communication links. The attenuation of the transmitted signals is a well-known example of such effects. Because of the demand for more communication channels, operating frequencies of both terrestrial and earth--scace communication systems become increasingly higher, and the communication technology becomes more and more sophisticated with the use of digital techniques, or the use of both orthogonaly polarized channels. These have given rise to the need of acquiring more detailed knowledge of interactions between hydrometeors and waves than is necessary for the calculation of attenuation. To obtain such knowledge, we have to know the detailed microphysical properties of hydrometeors, such as shape, size distributions, or the motion of hydrometeors while they are falling. These properties, some obtained previously by meteorolgists and some obtaianed recently by radio engineers to meet the requirements of present radio problems, are reviewed first. Various methods of calculations, and the detailed knowledge obtained from calculations of the single scattering properties of hydrometeors, whose sizes are generally comparable to wavelength, are then reviewed. With the information of these scattering properties, various propagation phenomena are discussed from a theoretical point of view. Specific subjects treated include attenuation, cross polarization due to rain or ice crystals in high altitudes, the methods of depolarization cancellation, rain scattering other then forward and backward which is necessary in the estimation of rain scatter interference between two communication links operating at the same frequency, various multiple or incoherent scattering effects on copolar and cross-polar signals, pulse shape, channel transfer characteristics, etc. The aim of this review is to provide fundamental background informations on the interactions between hydrometeors and radio waves, and hence the more practical investigations, such as long-term statistics of attenuation, are beyond the scope of this review.

Electromagnetic wave propagation and scattering in rain and other hydrometeors

Millimeter wave (mmWave) communication has raised increasing attentions from both academia and industry due to its exceptional advantages. Compared with existing wireless communication techniques, such as WiFi and 4G, mmWave communications adopt much higher carrier frequencies and thus come with advantages including huge bandwidth, narrow beam, high transmission quality, and strong detection ability. These advantages can well address difficult situations caused by recent popular applications using wireless technologies. For example, mmWave communications can significantly alleviate the skyrocketing traffic demand of wireless communication from video streaming. Meanwhile, mmWave communications have several natural disadvantages, e.g., severe signal attenuation, easily blocked by obstacles, and small coverage, due to its short wavelengths. Hence, the major challenge is how to overcome its shortcomings while fully utilizing its advantages. In this paper, we present a taxonomy based on the layered model and give an extensive review on mmWave communications. Specially, we divide existing efforts into four categories that investigate: physical layer, medium access control (MAC) layer, network layer, and cross layer optimization, respectively. First, we present an overview of some technical details in physical layer. Second, we summarize available literature in MAC layer that pertains to protocols and scheduling schemes. Third, we make an in-depth survey of related research work in network layer, providing brain storming and methodology for enhancing the capacity and coverage of mmWave networks. Fourth, we analyze available research work related to cross layer allocation/optimization for mmWave communications. Fifth, we make a review of mmWave applications to illustrate how mmWave technology can be employed to satisfy other services. At the end of each section described above, we point out the inadequacy of existing work and identify the future work. Sixth, we present some available resources for mmWave communications, including related books about mmWave, commonly used mmWave frequencies, existing protocols based on mmWave, and experimental platforms. Finally, we have a simple summary and point out several promising future research directions.

Millimeter Wave Communication: A Comprehensive Survey

As of today, the fifth generation (5G) mobile communication system has been rolled out in many countries and the number of 5G subscribers already reaches a very large scale It is time for academia and industry to shift their attention towards the next generation At this crossroad, an overview of the current state of the art and a vision of future communications are definitely of interest This article thus aims to provide a comprehensive survey to draw a picture of the sixth generation (6G) system in terms of drivers, use cases, usage scenarios, requirements, key performance indicators (KPIs), architecture, and enabling technologies First, we attempt to answer the question of “Is there any need for 6G?” by shedding light on its key driving factors, in which we predict the explosive growth of mobile traffic until 2030, and envision potential use cases and usage scenarios Second, the technical requirements of 6G are discussed and compared with those of 5G with respect to a set of KPIs in a quantitative manner Third, the state-of-the-art 6G research efforts and activities from representative institutions and countries are summarized, and a tentative roadmap of definition, specification, standardization, and regulation is projected Then, we identify a dozen of potential technologies and introduce their principles, advantages, challenges, and open research issues Finally, the conclusions are drawn to paint a picture of “What 6G may look like?” This survey is intended to serve as an enlightening guideline to spur interests and further investigations for subsequent research and development of 6G communications systems

/pdf/the-road-towards-6g-a-comprehensive-survey-3nn3fa5zjs.pdf

A simple attenuation model (SAM) is presented for estimating rain-induced attenuation along an earth-space path. The rain model uses an effective spatial rain distribution which is uniform for low rain rates and which has an exponentially shaped horizontal rain profile for high rain rates. When compared to other models, the SAM performed well in the important region of low percentages of time, and had the lowest percent standard deviation of all percent time values tested.

A simple model for the estimation of rain‐induced attenuation along earth‐space paths at millimeter wavelengths

This paper presents a review of the most recent information on the effects of the earth's atmosphere on space communications systems. The design and reliable operation of satellite systems which provide the many applications in space and rely on the transmission of radio waves for communications and scientific purposes are dependent on the propagation characteristics of the transmission path. The presence of atmospheric gases, clouds, fog, precipitation, and turbulence cause uncontrolled variations in the signal characteristics which can result in a reduction of the quality and reliability of the transmitted information. Models and techniques used in the prediction of atmospheric effects as influenced by frequency, geography, elevation angle, and type of transmission are discussed. Recent data on performance characteristics obtained from direct measurements on satellite links operating to above 30 GHz are reviewed. Particular emphasis is placed on the effects of precipitation on the earth-space path, including rain attenuation, and rain and ice-particle depolarization. Sky noise, antenna gain degradation, scintillations, and bandwidth coherence are also discussed. The impact of the various propagation factors on communications system design criteria is presented. These criteria include link reliability, power margins, noise contributions, modulation and polarization factors, channel crosstalk, error-rate, and bandwidth limitations.

L.J. Ippolito

Papers

Radio propagation for space communications systems