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Angle Estimation for Terahertz Ultra-Massive MIMO-Based Space-to-Air Communications

TL;DR: In this article, a grouping true-time delay unit module was designed to mitigate the impact of delay-beam squint effects to establish the space-to-air THz link.
Abstract: This paper investigates terahertz ultra-massive (UM)-MIMO-based angle estimation for space-to-air communications, which can solve the performance degradation problem caused by the dual delay-beam squint effects of terahertz UM-MIMO channels. Specifically, we first design a grouping true-time delay unit module that can significantly mitigate the impact of delay-beam squint effects to establish the space-to-air THz link. Based on the subarray selection scheme, the UM hybrid array can be equivalently considered as a low-dimensional fully-digital array, and then the fine estimates of azimuth/elevation angles at both UAVs and satellite can be separately acquired using the proposed prior-aided iterative angle estimation algorithm. The simulation results that close to Cramer-Rao lower bounds verify the effectiveness of our solution.
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TL;DR: In this article, a phase-delay focusing method was proposed to mitigate the near-field beam split effect and a new metric called effective Rayleigh distance was defined to distinguish the far-field and nearfield regions for practical communications.
Abstract: Extremely large antenna array for wideband communications is a promising technology to achieve a Tbps data rate for next-generation communications. However, due to the extremely large bandwidth and antenna array aperture, the near-field beam split effect will severely decrease the actual transmission rates, which has not been investigated in existing works. To solve this challenging problem, we first reveal the near-field beam split effect and analyze the corresponding array gain loss. Then, a piecewise-far-field model with piecewise-linear phase property is proposed to approximate the near-field channel, based on which we propose a phase-delay focusing method to effectively mitigate the near-field beam split effect. Moreover, a new metric called effective Rayleigh distance is defined, which is more accurate than the classical Rayleigh distance to distinguish the far-field and near-field regions for practical communications. Finally, theoretical and numerical results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of our methods.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A number of key technical challenges as well as the potential solutions associated with 6G, including physical-layer transmission techniques, network designs, security approaches, and testbed developments are outlined.
Abstract: With the fast development of smart terminals and emerging new applications (e.g., real-time and interactive services), wireless data traffic has drastically increased, and current cellular networks (even the forthcoming 5G) cannot completely match the quickly rising technical requirements. To meet the coming challenges, the sixth generation (6G) mobile network is expected to cast the high technical standard of new spectrum and energy-efficient transmission techniques. In this article, we sketch the potential requirements and present an overview of the latest research on the promising techniques evolving to 6G, which have recently attracted considerable attention. Moreover, we outline a number of key technical challenges as well as the potential solutions associated with 6G, including physical-layer transmission techniques, network designs, security approaches, and testbed developments.

731 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Significant technological breakthroughs to achieve connectivity goals within 6G include: a network operating at the THz band with much wider spectrum resources, intelligent communication environments that enable a wireless propagation environment with active signal transmission and reception, and pervasive artificial intelligence.
Abstract: 6G and beyond will fulfill the requirements of a fully connected world and provide ubiquitous wireless connectivity for all. Transformative solutions are expected to drive the surge for accommodating a rapidly growing number of intelligent devices and services. Major technological breakthroughs to achieve connectivity goals within 6G include: (i) a network operating at the THz band with much wider spectrum resources, (ii) intelligent communication environments that enable a wireless propagation environment with active signal transmission and reception, (iii) pervasive artificial intelligence, (iv) large-scale network automation, (v) an all-spectrum reconfigurable front-end for dynamic spectrum access, (vi) ambient backscatter communications for energy savings, (vii) the Internet of Space Things enabled by CubeSats and UAVs, and (viii) cell-free massive MIMO communication networks. In this roadmap paper, use cases for these enabling techniques as well as recent advancements on related topics are highlighted, and open problems with possible solutions are discussed, followed by a development timeline outlining the worldwide efforts in the realization of 6G. Going beyond 6G, promising early-stage technologies such as the Internet of NanoThings, the Internet of BioNanoThings, and quantum communications, which are expected to have a far-reaching impact on wireless communications, have also been discussed at length in this paper.

595 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, four directions to tackle the crucial problem of distance limitation are investigated, namely, a distance-aware physical layer design, ultra-massive MIMO communication, reflectarrays, and intelligent surfaces.
Abstract: In the millimeter-wave (30-300 GHz) and terahertz (0.1-10 THz) frequency bands, the high spreading loss and molecular absorption often limit the signal transmission distance and coverage range. In this article, four directions to tackle the crucial problem of distance limitation are investigated, namely, a distance-aware physical layer design, ultra-massive MIMO communication, reflectarrays, and intelligent surfaces. Additionally, the potential joint design of these solutions is proposed to combine the benefits and further extend the communication distance. Qualitative and quantitative evaluations are provided to illustrate the benefits of the proposed solutions. The feasibility of mmWave and THz band communications up to 100 m in both line-of-sight and nonline- of-sight areas are demonstrated.

320 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work investigates certain resolution issues that take the fact that the source is bandlimited into account and exploits a new subspace-based high-resolution method for simultaneous estimation of the angle/delay parameters from multiple estimates of the channel impulse response.
Abstract: In a parametric multipath propagation model, a source is received by an antenna array via a number of rays, each described by an arrival angle, a delay, and a fading parameter. Unlike the fading, the angles and delays are stationary over long time intervals. This fact is exploited in a new subspace-based high-resolution method for simultaneous estimation of the angle/delay parameters from multiple estimates of the channel impulse response. A computationally expensive optimization search can be avoided by using an ESPRIT-like algorithm. Finally, we investigate certain resolution issues that take the fact that the source is bandlimited into account.

270 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An adaptive access scheme is proposed, which adapts the access latency to guarantee reliable massive access for practical systems with unknown channel sparsity level and the state evolution of the proposed GMMV-AMP algorithm is derived to predict its performance.
Abstract: This paper considers massive access in massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems and proposes an adaptive active user detection and channel estimation scheme based on compressive sensing. By exploiting the sporadic traffic of massive connected user equipments and the virtual angular domain sparsity of massive MIMO channels, the proposed scheme can support massive access with dramatically reduced access latency. Specifically, we design non-orthogonal pseudo-random pilots for uplink broadband massive access, and formulate the active user detection and channel estimation as a generalized multiple measurement vector compressive sensing problem. Furthermore, by leveraging the structured sparsity of the uplink channel matrix, we propose an efficient generalized multiple measurement vector approximate message passing (GMMV-AMP) algorithm to realize joint active user detection and channel estimation based on a spatial domain or an angular domain channel model. To jointly exploit the channel sparsity present in both the spatial and the angular domains for enhanced performance, a Turbo-GMMV-AMP algorithm is developed for detecting the active users and estimating their channels in an alternating manner. Finally, an adaptive access scheme is proposed, which adapts the access latency to guarantee reliable massive access for practical systems with unknown channel sparsity level. Additionally, the state evolution of the proposed GMMV-AMP algorithm is derived to predict its performance. Simulation results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed active user detection and channel estimation schemes compared to several baseline schemes.

262 citations