RINGS: Wideband NextG Tb/s mm-Wave Communication and Networking

拟议的第六代(6G)无线连接可能涉及比当前5G系统高得多的频率和带宽，以大约十倍的频率运行，并提供高达十倍的带宽，这将实现更高的通信速度，这是人工智能和机器学习网络日益增长的计算复杂性迫切需要的。但在更高的频率下操作有许多缺点，即通道中的更高损耗，以及更多的机会阻塞和连接的其他损害。此外，由于以如此高的速度数字化信号的不可行性和能量消耗，数据调制的极高频率需要新的信号处理技术。为了克服这些限制，将寻求一种拟议的模拟方法，即划分和征服频段，以节省功率并使系统适用于移动应用。利用利用大型天线阵列而不是单个高功率发射机来完成传输的事实，可以通过将传输划分到各种天线以引起更少的用户间干扰来节省能量和减少干扰。最后，这种通信系统的弹性可以通过结合更密集的网络来改进，这可以形成所谓的网状网络，其允许从源到目的地的多条路径，当一条路径由于阻塞或其他损伤而丢失时需要这样做。这种网状网络还潜在地增加了网络中的干扰和噪声，传输的方向性可以用来实现分级网状系统。为了测试这些想法，将升级毫米波测试床以支持这些实验。建议的目标是增加毫米波网络在电路和系统级对6G/NextG网络的弹性。在电路级，可以通过利用多个载波和用于电路构建块的高效架构来实现高吞吐量，这些架构可以在不连续的子带的聚合上同时调制/解调大量带宽，类似于ofdm和ofdm-A，但使用混合信号和模拟技术来减少对ADC、DAC和DSP的要求。主要的创新在于增加了电路中的带宽，并利用电路体系结构级别的系统级创新来改善性能指标，特别是噪声、相位噪声、量化噪声的影响以及输出功率和效率。所提出的技术可以帮助以最小的能量消耗减少路径损耗、信号阻塞和波束跟踪。在构建大规模的NextG MIMO波束形成系统时，这种好处将最为明显。我们的系统研究重点是通过利用空间网状网来构建健壮和快速适应的NextG网络。通过利用更多的自由度，特别是更宽的信道带宽和多载波，可以进一步优化网络的可靠性和弹性。频率相关波束形成、频率选择性衰落和许多其他信道损害可以在频域中更容易地处理。然而，30 GHz宽带信道的ofdm调制是不实际的，相反，我们将探索能够获得全数字解决方案的大部分好处的混合信号技术。干扰感知阵列发射机将通过利用阵列中的冗余将用户间干扰降至最低。建议的想法将通过集成电路原型进行测试，并使用升级的毫米波(E波段)MIMO测试台进行演示。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The proposed sixth generation (6G) of wireless connectivity may involve much higher frequencies and bandwidths than current 5G systems, operating at approximately ten times higher frequency and offering up to ten times higher bandwidth, which will enable increased communication speed, sorely needed by the growing computational complexity of artificial intelligence and machine learning networks. But operating at higher frequencies has many shortcomings, namely higher loss in the channel, and more opportunity for blockages and other impairments to the connection. Additionally, the extremely high frequency of the data modulation requires novel signal processing techniques due to the infeasibility and energy expense of digitizing signals at such high speeds. To overcome these limits, a proposed analog approach that divide and conquer the frequency bands to save power and to make the systems feasible for mobile applications will be pursued. Taking advantage of the fact that transmission is accomplished with a large array of antennas, rather than a single high-power transmitter, can lead to energy savings and interference reduction by dividing the transmissions to various antennas to cause less inter-user interference. Finally, the resilience of such communication systems can be improved by incorporating more dense networks, which can form so-called mesh networks, which allows multiple paths from source to destination, which is needed when one path is lost due to blockages or other impairments. Such mesh networks also potentially increase interference and noise in the network, the directional nature of the transmissions can be utilized to realize a hierarchical mesh system. To test these ideas, a mm-wave testbed will be upgraded to support these experiments.The proposed goal is to increase the resilience of mm-wave networks both at the circuit and system level for 6G/NextG networks. At the circuit level, high throughput can be achieved by utilizing multiple carriers and efficient architectures for circuit building blocks that can simultaneously modulate/demodulate a large swath of bandwidth over an aggregation of non-contiguous sub-bands, similar to OFDM and OFDM-A, but using mixed-signal and analog techniques to reduce requirements on ADCs, DACs, and DSP. The main innovations are in increasing the bandwidth in the circuitry and exploiting system level innovations at the circuit architecture level to improve performance metrics, in particular noise, impact of phase noise, quantization noise, and output power and efficiency. The techniques proposed can help alleviate path loss, signal blockage, and beam tracking with minimal energy consumption. The benefits will be most pronounced when building large-scale NextG MIMO beamforming systems. Our systems research vector focuses on building robust and rapidly adaptable NextG networks by utilization of spatial mesh networking. By utilizing more degrees of freedom, in particular a wider channel bandwidth, and multiple carriers, the network can be further optimized for reliability and resilience. Frequency dependent beamforming, frequency selective fading, and many other channel impairments can be handled more easily in the frequency domain. However, OFDM modulation of a 30 GHz wide-band channel is not practical, instead mixed-signal techniques that can garner most of the benefits of a fully digital solution will be explored. Interference aware array transmitters will minimize inter-user interference by exploiting redundancies in the array. The proposed ideas will be tested both with integrated circuit prototypes and by demonstration using an upgraded mm-wave (E-band) MIMO testbed.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.