CCRI: ENS: Enhancing a Millimeter-Wave Massive MIMO Platform to Support the 5G V2X Networking and Automotive Sensing Research Community

该提案旨在开发一个名为M3的开源平台，以促进5G车联网和汽车传感的研究。M3可用于毫米波（mmWave）技术的实验研究，毫米波技术是5G无线通信和汽车雷达传感的基础。毫米波无线电/雷达电子操纵定向波束，由大型天线阵列产生，作为通信/传感介质。可编程性对于毫米波实验研究至关重要，特别是在实时车辆网络/传感中。然而，到目前为止，可编程毫米波设备要么过于昂贵，要么缺乏合理尺寸的天线阵列，而这对于实时波束控制操作至关重要。M3将用具有大型天线阵列的低成本软件无线电/雷达填补这一空白。通过设计一种新颖的无线电/雷达架构，M3将每个节点的成本降低了一个数量级，并将相控阵的尺寸增加了一个数量级。研究小组将在UCSD校园内部署一个由M3无线电/雷达组成的开放式实验测试平台。研究人员还将通过在线问答论坛、实践研讨会/教程、远程访问和硬件借用/复制服务，将M3带到更广泛的研究社区。该提案旨在开发一个可编程的开源大规模多输入/多输出（MIMO）毫米波（mmWave）平台M3，以促进5G车联网和汽车传感的实验研究。该项目包括三个主要研究重点：(i)开发软件/固件，使部分可编程的802.11ad毫米波无线电具有288元相控阵，允许用户重新配置码本条目和波束模式，并访问实时每波束信道状态信息（CSI）。（ii）开发毫米波大规模MIMO软件无线电，共包括4个射频链和144个天线元件。软件无线电将集成OpenAirInterface 5G物理层和核心网络堆栈。（三）开发可编程MIMO毫米波相控阵雷达，具有4个射频链和144个天线单元，用于探索高分辨率汽车传感。与最先进的毫米波软件无线电相比，M3的成本低了一个数量级，但其相控阵的成本要高一个数量级。令人惊讶的低成本归功于一种新颖的无线电架构设计，它将商品相控阵天线重新用作可编程相控阵。该项目将通过实践研讨会/教程将M3引入更广泛的研究社区，并提供用户服务，包括硬件贷款，复制和限制远程访问由M3无线电组成的测试平台。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This proposal aims to develop an open-source platform called M3 to facilitate research in 5G vehicular networking and automotive sensing. M3 enables experimental research on millimeter-wave (mmWave) technologies--the cornerstone for 5G wireless communication and automotive radar sensing. mmWave radio/radar electronically steerable directional beams, generated by large antenna arrays, as communication/sensing medium. Programmability is critical for mmWave experimental research, especially in real-time vehicular networking/sensing. Yet, to date, programmable mmWave devices are either too costly, or lack a reasonably-sized antenna array which is critical for real-time beam-steering operations. M3 will fill this gap with a low-cost software radio/radar featuring a large antenna array. By designing a novel radio/radar architecture, M3 brings the per-node cost down by an order of magnitude, and increases the phased-array size by an order of magnitude, compared with the state-of-the-art. The research team will deploy an open-access experimental testbed on the UCSD campus comprised of the M3 radios/radars. The researchers will also bring M3 to the broader research community, through online Q&A forum, hands-on workshops/tutorials, remote access, and hardware loans/replication services. This proposal aims to develop a programmable open-source massive Multiple-Input/Multiple-Output (MIMO) millimeter-wave (mmWave) platform called M3 to facilitate experimental research in 5G vehicular networking and automotive sensing. The project comprises three major research thrusts: (i) Develop software/firmware to enable a partially programmable 802.11ad mmWave radio with 288-element phased-array, allowing users to reconfigure the codebook entries and beam patterns, and access real-time per-beam channel state information (CSI). (ii) Develop a mmWave massive MIMO software-radio, comprising 4 radio frequency (RF) chains and 144 antenna elements in total. The software radio will integrate the OpenAirInterface 5G physical layer and core network stack. (iii) Develop a programmable MIMO mmWave phased-array radar, with 4 RF chains and 144 antenna elements, used for exploring high-resolution automotive sensing. M3's cost is an order of magnitude lower compared with the state-of-the-art mmWave software-radio, but its phased-array is an order of magnitude higher. The surprisingly low cost is attributed to a novel radio architecture design, which repurposes a commodity phased-array antenna as a programmable phased-array. This project will bring M3 to the broader research community through hands-on workshops/tutorials, and provide user services including hardware loans, replication, and restricted remote access to a testbed comprised of M3 radios.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.