Scalable and Efficient Machine-Type Communications for 5G Wireless Access and Beyond

随着第四代（4G）无线系统在2010年左右的推出，并且考虑到每一代现有系统的历史10年周期，预计第五代（5G）无线系统将在2020年左右的某个时候部署。到目前为止，从1G到4G，每个下一代的演进都是由满足随时随地高速宽带无线接入不断增长的需求所驱动的。但是，这种增加数据速率的无情竞争主要是由服务人类操作的移动的设备（例如，智能手机和平板电脑）;一种通常被称为人形通信（HTC）的场景。5G将偏离这一计划：其重点不仅是增强宽带服务（用于HTC目的），而且还支持机器类型通信（MTC）。MTC被视为设备之间和/或从设备到一组服务器的数据通信的一种形式，其不一定需要人类交互。通过支持MTC，5G旨在维持部署物联网（IoT）范式的长期愿景，该范式有望实现许多革命性的应用，如远程医疗诊断/手术，自动驾驶汽车和工业无线自动化。 到2020年，MTC有望实现巨大的市场增长，连接设备将达到约500亿台。支持如此大量的在功耗、延迟、可靠性和安全性方面具有不同要求的MTC设备对端到端网络架构具有深刻的影响。这项研究旨在解决与MTC的两种通用模式相关的主要技术挑战：i）大规模机器类型通信（mMTC）和ii）超可靠低延迟通信（URLLC）。我们的目标是设计可扩展且具有成本效益的免授权多址接入方案，使未来的5G网络能够容纳大量的mMTC设备。我们还旨在开发创新的通信方案，以满足严格的相互冲突的要求，在可靠性和延迟，需要无数的基于URLLC的关键任务应用程序。为了实现这些目标，我们将利用MTC的两个固有特征，即它们对网络的间歇性访问和它们的短分组信令。 这项拟议中的研究处于全球主要大学和行业实验室当前5G计划的最前沿。设想的办法和方法是原创性的，有可能导致MTC范式的重大进展。此外，我的研发愿景倡导一种具有挑战性的方法，涵盖通信工程的许多方面，从组件级别（新算法解决方案的开发及其在硬件平台上的原型设计/测试）一直到链路（整个收发器设计）和系统（网络集成/评估）级别。这促进了科学影响力和行业相关性，并提供了独特的增值HQP培训机会。

With the rollout of the fourth-generation (4G) wireless systems around 2010 and given a historical 10-year cycle for every existing generation, it is expected that fifth generation (5G) wireless systems will be deployed sometime around 2020. So far, from 1G to 4G, the evolution towards each next generation has been driven by the need to satisfy the ever-increasing demand for high-speed broadband wireless access anywhere/anytime. But, this relentless race for increasing the data rate has been mainly fueled by the need to serve human-operated mobile devices (e.g., smartphones and tablets); a scenario commonly known as human-type communications (HTC). 5G will depart from this scheme: its focus will not only be on enhanced broadband services (for HTC purposes) but also to support machine-type communications (MTC). MTC is seen as a form of data communication, among devices and/or from devices to a set of servers, that do not necessarily require human interaction. By supporting MTC, 5G aims to sustain the long-term vision of deploying the internet of things (IoT) paradigm which promises many revolutionizing applications such as remote medical diagnosis/surgery, self-driving cars, and industrial wireless automation. MTC promises huge market growth with ~50 billion connected devices by 2020. Support for such a massive number of MTC devices with different requirements in terms of power consumption, latency, reliability, and security has deep implications on the end-to-end network architecture. This proposed research aims to tackle the main technological challenges associated with the two generic modes of MTC: i) massive machine-type communications (mMTC) and ii) ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC). We aim to devise scalable and cost-effective grant-free multiple access schemes that will enable future 5G networks to accommodate the massive number of mMTC devices. We also aim to develop innovative communication schemes that meet the stringent conflicting requirements in terms of reliability and latency that are needed for a myriad of URLLC-based mission-critical applications. Towards these goals, we shall exploit the two intrinsic features of MTC, namely their intermittent access to the network and their short-packet signaling. The proposed research lies at the forefront of current 5G initiatives in major universities and industry labs worldwide. The envisaged approaches and methods are original and have the potential of leading to major advances in MTC paradigm. Moreover, my R&D vision advocates a challenging methodology that covers many aspects of communication engineering, starting from the very component level (development of new algorithmic solutions and their prototyping/testing on hardware platforms) all the way up to both the link (whole transceiver design) and system (network integration/assessment) levels. This promotes scientific impact and industrial relevance and provides unique added-value HQP training opportunities.