Next Generation broadband wireless access Employing Fibre-connected massively distributed antennas

下一代宽带无线接入(BWA)系统正朝着分布式结构发展，成为满足日益增长的无线连接需求的一种有前途的解决方案。以毫微微和微微蜂窝基站/接入点部署和网状网络解决方案为代表的分布式架构可以通过缩短链路、利用协作方案和利用认知机制来降低功耗和提高频谱利用率，但可能会产生巨大的协调开销。提出了一种新的基于光纤连接大规模分布式天线的下一代宽带无线接入的分布式无线体系结构(BWA-FMDA)，它使用大量的分布式天线通过光纤连接到一个集中的处理实体，以最小化系统协调的通信开销。拟议的BWA-FMDA系统的覆盖范围从家庭和办公室环境中的几十米(通过IEEE 802.11a/g/n和毫微微小区热点解决方案提供)到支持WiMAX、LTE、LTE-A等最后一英里技术的几公里。我们的目标是了解和描述这种集中控制的分布式天线系统的基本性能限制，开发接近性能限制的实用资源分配技术，并提供低成本的实用实施解决方案，以促进BWA-FMDA的及时市场适应。为了实现这一目标，我们建议研究大规模分布式天线系统的基本性能限制，并开发(A)改进的涉及大规模分布式天线的基于测量的信道模型，(B)在现实传播环境中接近性能限制的先进的无线资源管理和接入控制方案，以及(C)适用于RFoF应用的低成本有源光缆的改进的光电收发器设计。我们将开发一个试验台，并在试验台上实施上述结果，用于向我们的行业合作伙伴进行实验评估和概念验证演示，以促进研究成果的商业化。

Next generation broadband wireless access (BWA) systems are evolving towards distributed architectures as a promising solution to meet the ever increasing demand for wireless connectivity. Distribution architectures, exemplified by femto- and pico-cell base-stations/access points deployments and mesh networking solutions, can reduce power consumption and enhancing spectrum utilization by shortening the links, exploiting cooperative schemes and utilizing cognitive mechanisms but may incur large overhead for co-ordinations. We propose a novel distributed wireless architecture for next generation broadband wireless access with fibre-connected massively distributed antennas (BWA-FMDA), which employs a large number of distributed antennas connected via optical fibres to a centralized processing entity to minimize the communication overheads of system co-ordination. The coverage area of the proposed BWA-FMDA system can range from a few tens of meters in homes and office environments, delivered via IEEE 802.11a/g/n and femto-cell hotspot solutions, to several kilometers supporting last-mile technologies such as WiMAX, LTE, LTE-A. Our goal is to understand and characterize the fundamental performance limits of such a centrally-controlled distributed antenna system, develop practical resource allocation techniques that approach the performance limits, and deliver low-cost practical implementation solutions to facilitate timely market adaptation of BWA-FMDA. To achieve this goal, we propose to investigate the fundamental performance limits of massively distributed antenna systems, and develop (a) improved measurement-based channel models involving massively distributed antennas, (b) advanced radio resource management and access control schemes that approach the performance limits in realistic propagation environments, and (c) improved opto-electronic transceivers designs for low cost active optical cables suitable for RFoF applications. We shall develop a testbed and implement the above results over the testbed for experimental evaluations and proof-of-concept demonstrations to our industry partners to facilitate commercialization of the research results.