EAGER: A Beamforming Optimization Framework for Large Scale mmWave Networks

近年来，我们见证了智能无线设备的显著增长。据领先的市场研究公司称，到2025年将有500亿至1000亿台无线设备。与此同时，移动宽带服务将继续推动消费者对更高数据速率的需求。因此，无线行业预计将面临1000倍增长的挑战。当今绝大多数无线通信系统工作在3GHz以下的微波频谱中，这正经历着严重的频谱短缺，并已成为拥挤而宝贵的资源。工作在20至300 GHz之间的毫米波（mmWave）频带是下一代无线通信系统的有希望的候选者。毫米波波段的大量未充分利用的频谱提供了支持每秒千兆比特的用户数据速率和总移动的宽带数据速率千倍增长的巨大潜力。波束成形是毫米波频段无线通信的基本实现技术。该项目探讨了大规模毫米波网络中波束成形优化的框架。如果成功完成，这项探索性研究有望推动和影响未来毫米波通信系统的设计、部署和运行，并产生重大的科学、经济和社会影响。该项目将扩大代表性不足的群体（如代表性不足的少数民族和女学生）对最先进研究的参与，并通过夏令营等外展活动促进STEM教育。为了补偿毫米波波段的高路径损耗，波束成形技术将能量集中在指向接收器的尖锐波束中，以实现高信道增益。然而，现有的波束成形方法在技术上和经济上都是非常昂贵的，并且不能扩展到用于大规模毫米波网络的波束成形。该项目探索了大规模毫米波网络中波束形成优化的框架，该网络具有多个基站、大量移动的站或用户，以及用于各种波束形成、用户关联和波束调度配置的巨大多维解决方案空间。本论文的研究是探索性的，包含四个任务：1）分簇与资源分配，2）功率控制，3）多基站分簇，4）波束成形与干扰。这四项任务是相互交织和多学科的。将探索基于集合覆盖和装箱等多种技术的创新优化公式、各种启发式算法和方案，以形成大规模毫米波网络中用户分簇、波束资源分配、功率控制和波束调度的综合框架。为该框架开发的优化模型、算法和方案使其在大规模毫米波网络的波束形成优化中具有实用价值。这将大大有助于为大规模毫米波网络铺平道路。该项目开发的技术将对广泛的应用产生重大影响，包括5G、毫米波WLAN和公共安全通信网络。

In recent years we have witnessed remarkable proliferation of intelligent wireless devices. According to leading market research firms, there will be 50 to 100 billion wireless devices by 2025. At the same time, mobile-broadband services will continue driving the demand for higher consumer data rates. As a result, the wireless industry is anticipated to meet a 1000x growth challenge. The vast majority of today's wireless communications systems operate in the microwave spectrum below 3 GHz, which is experiencing severe spectrum shortage and has become a crowded and precious resource. The millimeter wave (mmWave) band, operating at frequencies between 20 and 300 GHz, is a promising candidate for next-generation wireless communications systems. The massive underutilized spectrum at the mmWave band provides great potential to support multiple gigabit-per-second user data rates and thousand-fold increase in total mobile broadband data rate. Beamforming is a fundamental enabling technology for wireless communications at the mmWave band. This project explores a framework for beamforming optimization in large scale mmWave networks. If successfully completed, this exploratory research is expected to advance and affect the design, deployment, and operation of future mmWave communication systems, and result in significant scientific, economical, and societal impacts. The project will broaden the participation of underrepresented groups, such as underrepresented minority and female students, in the state-of-the-art research, as well as promote STEM education through outreach activities such as summer camps.To compensate the high path loss at the mmWave band, the beamforming technology concentrates energy in a sharp beam toward the receiver to achieve a high channel gain. However, the existing beamforming approaches are prohibitively costly, both technically and economically, and cannot be scaled to beamforming for large scale mmWave networks. This project explores a framework for beamforming optimization in large scale mmWave networks, with multiple base stations, a large number of mobile stations or users, and a vast, multi-dimensional solution space for various beam formation, user association, and beam scheduling configurations. The proposed research is exploratory and consists of four tasks: 1) Clustering and Resource Allocation, 2) Power Control, 3) Multi-base station Oriented Clustering, and 4) Beamforming and Interference. The four tasks are intertwined and multidisciplinary. The innovative optimization formulations, various heuristic algorithms and schemes based on multiple techniques such as set covering and bin packing will be explored, to form a comprehensive framework for user clustering, beam resource allocation, power control and beam scheduling in large scale mmWave networks. The optimization models, algorithms and schemes developed for the framework make it practical for beamforming optimization in large scale mmWave networks. This will significantly help to pave the roads for large scale mmWave networks. The techniques developed in this project will have significant impacts on a broad spectrum of applications, including 5G, mmWave WLAN, and public safety communication networks.