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

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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.