A Holistic Approach to Addressing the Unrelenting Efficiency and Linearity Challenges of 5G Transmitters

无线连接以疯狂的速度发展，从站到站的通信（数千个连接），通过站到人的模式（数百万个连接），到目前的人与人的连接（数十亿个连接）。令人难以置信的是，连接需求的增长已经得到了无线通信的相对渐进式进步的满足，并在我们目前的第四代（4G）技术中达到顶峰。然而，这项技术将不再足以满足日益增长的连接需求。在未来十年中，数万亿台设备将连接人与人，人与物，物与物，将熟悉的物品转变为具有内置传感和网络功能的所谓智能物体，并将无线连接推向万亿级。第五代（5G）无线技术将需要全新的无线设备、通信基础设施和网络来应对前所未有的挑战，包括100-1000倍的系统容量、高达每秒千兆字节的数据吞吐量、1毫秒的延迟以及10倍的设备电池寿命，同时降低成本和功耗。 全球研究工作一直专注于为5G网络架构、通信协议和信令方案开发解决方案，而对必要的基础无线电硬件的研究却很有限。此外，大多数现有的5G技术研究都依赖于关于无线电硬件的传统假设（例如，天线互易性、发射器和接收器线性度、平坦频率响应），这将是非常难以满足的，如果不是不可能的话，因为5G的空中接口将扩展到毫米波（mm波）频率，并将采用大规模多天线技术。这强调了对低成本和节能的微波和毫米波大规模多输入多输出（MIMO）和波束成形收发器的需求，特别是发射器（M4 BTx）。然而，M4 BTx的发展取决于找到新的方法来平衡线性和效率之间的权衡。因此，拟议的研究计划将导致新的理论和技术，最终将在精简和有效的工程实践和方法，能够实现高性能的无线电硬件。大量的HQP将通过该计划进行培训。这项工作产生的知识产权和示范将对加拿大工业具有价值和相关性，并将加强工业和学术合作与伙伴关系。这些成就将有助于加拿大保持其在无线技术方面的全球领导地位，并为5G在国际范围内的发展做出积极贡献。

Wireless connectivity has advanced at a frenetic rate, building from station-to-station communication (thousands of connections), through station-to-people modalities (millions of connections), to the current people-to-people connectivity (billions of connections). Incredibly, the rise in connectivity needs has been met with relatively incremental advances in wireless communication, culminating in our current fourth generation (4G) technology. However, this technology will no longer suffice to meet increasing connectivity demands. In the next decade, trillions of devices will connect people-to-people, people-to-things and things-to-things turning familiar items into so-called smart objects with built-in sensing and networking capabilities, and propelling wireless connectivity to the tera-scale. Fifth-generation (5G) wireless technologies will require completely new wireless devices, communication infrastructure and networks to meet the unprecedented challenges, which include 100-1000 times higher system capacity, data throughput of up to gigabytes per second everywhere, latency down to 1 millisecond, and 10 times longer device battery life, while lowering cost and power consumption. Global research efforts have been focused on developing solutions for 5G network architecture, communication protocols, and signalling schemes, while investigations into the necessary underlying radio hardware have been limited. In addition, most of the existing 5G technology research is reliant on traditional assumptions about the radio hardware (e.g., antenna reciprocity, transmitter and receiver linearity, flat frequency response) that will be very difficult, if not impossible, to satisfy, given that 5G's air interface will extend to the millimeter wave (mm-wave) frequencies and will feature large-scale multi-antenna technologies. This underscores the need for low cost and energy efficient microwave and mm-wave massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) and beamforming transceivers, particularly the transmitter (M4BTx). However, the development of M4BTx is predicated on finding new ways to strike a balance between linearity and efficiency trade-offs. Hence, the proposed research program will lead to novel theories and techniques that will culminate in streamlined and efficient engineering practices and methodologies capable of attaining high-performance radio hardware. A large number of HQP will be trained through this program. The intellectual property and demonstrators generated from this work will be of value and relevance to Canadian industry and will strengthen industrial and academic collaborations and partnerships. Together, these achievements will help Canada to maintain its global leadership in wireless technologies, and to productively contribute to the advancement of 5G on an international scale.