Flexible Radio for 5G Industrial IoT

5G通信的演进是当前产业界和学术界的热门话题。然而，目前，在寻求实现无线通信新标准的过程中，还有很多工作要做。我们知道5G将提供更高的数据速率，支持更密集的网络，以及更低的延迟操作，但不知道它将如何实施，运营和管理，也不知道它将提供哪些性能和功能。对5G的大部分关注都集中在传统的移动用例上，以及在容量方面要求最高的场景——即在人口密集的城市，用户通过智能手机和其他连接设备消耗大量数据。然而，5G旨在成为一种保护伞技术，不仅可以满足高数据速率、消费者移动需求，还可以满足物联网（IoT）应用（通常具有低数据速率），以及那些要求非常低延迟、可靠通信的应用，如交通基础设施和车辆。还会有其他新兴用途。5G基础设施和最终用户无线电设备将需要固有的灵活性，以支持所需的操作模式频谱。另一项挑战是确保每个人都受益，而不仅仅是那些生活在城市和建成区的人，因此，5G无线电必须能够实现广泛的地理覆盖。重要的是，农村社区目前没有得到4G和之前的连接标准的服务；具有讽刺意味的是，这些地区通常是可用的未使用无线电频谱最多的地区，而这本身就为创新解决方案提供了潜力。在偏远社区提供互联网连接（包括人和物），在涉及到的距离、地形、电力、基础设施、维护等方面提出了挑战。5G是一个广泛的研究领域，高度热门，对英国和全球经济社会发展至关重要。这个拟议的研究项目将专注于一个特定的主题，即开发灵活的无线电，使物联网在农村和小型社区场景中的应用成为可能，并考虑网络切片、动态频谱管理和其他新兴方法的策略。项目内的研究领域最初可确定为：1。农村/小型社区工业物联网（RSCIIoT）应用的需求可能是什么？研究用例和场景、性能需求等。RSCIIoT的候选通信——考虑网络切片的物理层通信方案的仿真与评估，授权和非授权频谱的动态频谱管理。与其他系统的互操作性，包括现有的物联网候选技术，如LoRa， SigFox等，以及将物联网无线电纳入功能更全面的5G无线电的潜力。使用fpga / soc和SDR前端硬件的无线电实现和原型设计（这方面的研究将集中在MathWorks设计工具，Xilinx嵌入式设备和Lime Microsystems SDR无线电上）。发展农村和小型社区应用的低成本使用模式。当然，在研究过程中可能会出现其他副主题。

The evolution of 5G communications is currently a hot topic in both industry and academic research. At the current time, however, much is yet to be established in the quest to realise this new standard in wireless communications. We know that 5G will offer higher data rates, support denser networks, and lower latency operation - but not how it will be implemented, operated and managed, nor in detail what performance and features it will offer.Much of the focus on 5G has been on traditional mobile use cases, and the most demanding scenarios in terms of capacity - i.e. in densely populated cities, with users consuming significant amounts of data via smartphones and other connected devices. However, 5G is intended to be an umbrella technology that serves not just high data rate, consumer-mobile requirements, but also Internet of Things (IoT) applications (often with low data rates), as well as those demanding very low latency, reliable communications, such as transport infrastructure and vehicles. There will also be other emerging uses. 5G infrastructure and end-user radio equipment will require an inherent aspect of flexibility, in order to support the spectrum of operating modes required. One of the additional challenges is to ensure that everyone benefits - not just those living in cities and built-up areas - and therefore, 5G radios must be capable of enabling wide geographical coverage. It is significant that rural communities are currently underserved by 4G and preceding connectivity standards; ironically, these are usually the areas where the most unused radio spectrum is available, and this in itself provides potential for innovative solutions. Providing internet connectivity (for both people and things) in remote communities presents challenges in terms of the distances involved, as well as terrain, power, infrastructure, maintenance, and so on. 5G is an expansive research area, highly topical, and crucial to economic and social development in the UK and globally. This proposed research project will focus on one specific theme, namely the development of flexible radios for enabling IoT applications in rural and small community scenarios and consider strategies for network slicing, dynamic spectrum management, and other new and emerging methods. Research areas within the project can initially be identified as:1. What are the requirements of Rural / Small Community industrial IoT (RSCIIoT) applications likely to be? Research into use-cases and scenarios, performance needs etc. 2. Candidate communications for RSCIIoT - simulation and evaluation of physical layer communications schemes considering network slicing, dynamic spectrum management on licensed and unlicensed spectrum.3. Inter-operability with other systems, including existing IoT candidate technologies like LoRa, SigFox, etc., and the potential to incorporate IoT radio into more fully functional 5G radios.4. Implementation and prototyping of radios using FPGAs / SoCs, and SDR front-end hardware (this aspect of the research will focus on MathWorks design tools, Xilinx embedded devices, and Lime Microsystems SDR radios.)5. Development of low-cost use models for rural and small community applications. Other sub-themes may of course emerge during the course of the research.