A Holistic Approach to Addressing the Unrelenting Efficiency and Linearity Challenges of 5G Transmitters

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Wireless connectivity has advanced at a frenetic rate, building from station-to-station communication (thousands of connections), through station-to-people modalities (millions of connections), to the current people-to-people connectivity (billions of connections). Incredibly, the rise in connectivity needs has been met with relatively incremental advances in wireless communication, culminating in our current fourth generation (4G) technology. However, this technology will no longer suffice to meet increasing connectivity demands. In the next decade, trillions of devices will connect people-to-people, people-to-things and things-to-things turning familiar items into so-called smart objects with built-in sensing and networking capabilities, and propelling wireless connectivity to the tera-scale. Fifth-generation (5G) wireless technologies will require completely new wireless devices, communication infrastructure and networks to meet the unprecedented challenges, which include 100-1000 times higher system capacity, data throughput of up to gigabytes per second everywhere, latency down to 1 millisecond, and 10 times longer device battery life, while lowering cost and power consumption.***Global research efforts have been focused on developing solutions for 5G network architecture, communication protocols, and signalling schemes, while investigations into the necessary underlying radio hardware have been limited. In addition, most of the existing 5G technology research is reliant on traditional assumptions about the radio hardware (e.g., antenna reciprocity, transmitter and receiver linearity, flat frequency response) that will be very difficult, if not impossible, to satisfy, given that 5G's air interface will extend to the millimeter wave (mm-wave) frequencies and will feature large-scale multi-antenna technologies. This underscores the need for low cost and energy efficient microwave and mm-wave massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) and beamforming transceivers, particularly the transmitter (M4BTx). However, the development of M4BTx is predicated on finding new ways to strike a balance between linearity and efficiency trade-offs. Hence, the proposed research program will lead to novel theories and techniques that will culminate in streamlined and efficient engineering practices and methodologies capable of attaining high-performance radio hardware. A large number of HQP will be trained through this program. The intellectual property and demonstrators generated from this work will be of value and relevance to Canadian industry and will strengthen industrial and academic collaborations and partnerships. Together, these achievements will help Canada to maintain its global leadership in wireless technologies, and to productively contribute to the advancement of 5G on an international scale.**