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系统更高的频率和带宽，运行频率约为10倍，提供高达10倍的带宽，这将提高通信速度，这是人工智能和机器学习网络日益增长的计算复杂性所迫切需要的。但是在更高的频率下工作有许多缺点，即信道损耗更高，更容易出现阻塞和其他连接损伤。此外，由于高速数字化信号的不可行性和能量消耗，极高频率的数据调制需要新颖的信号处理技术。为了克服这些限制，提出了一种分而治之的模拟方法，以节省功率并使系统适用于移动应用。利用传输是由大量天线阵列完成的这一事实，而不是一个单一的大功率发射机，可以通过将传输分散到不同的天线来减少用户间的干扰，从而节省能源和减少干扰。最后，这种通信系统的弹性可以通过合并更密集的网络来提高，这可以形成所谓的网状网络，它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害而丢失时，这是必需的。这种网状网络还可能增加网络中的干扰和噪声，可以利用传输的方向性来实现分层网状系统。为了测试这些想法，将升级毫米波测试平台以支持这些实验。提出的目标是在6G/NextG网络的电路和系统级别增加毫米波网络的弹性。在电路层面，高吞吐量可以通过利用多个载波和有效的电路构建块架构来实现，这些构建块可以同时调制/解调非连续子带聚合上的大量带宽，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。主要的创新是增加电路的带宽，并在电路架构级别上利用系统级创新来改善性能指标，特别是噪声、相位噪声的影响、量化噪声以及输出功率和效率。提出的技术可以帮助减轻路径损耗、信号阻塞和波束跟踪，并以最小的能量消耗。在构建大规模的NextG MIMO波束形成系统时，其优势将最为明显。我们的系统研究重点是利用空间网格网络构建鲁棒和快速适应的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个载波，网络可以进一步优化可靠性和弹性。频率相关波束形成、频率选择性衰落和许多其他信道损伤可以在频域中更容易地处理。然而，30 GHz宽带信道的OFDM调制并不实用，相反，混合信号技术可以获得全数字解决方案的大部分好处，将被探索。干扰感知阵列发射机将利用阵列中的冗余来最小化用户间干扰。提出的想法将通过集成电路原型和升级的毫米波（e波段）MIMO测试平台进行验证。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。

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.