Modelling and Planning Robust and Efficient Wireless Networks for Outdoor Dense Urban Coverage

拟议的研究使用创新的数学和计算技术来研究和设计系统，为密集的城市地区提供强大而有效的无线覆盖。我们使用免费提供的真实的建筑物和蜂窝塔位置，以更真实地测试我们的概念，这将使我们能够对不同技术和系统设计的成本进行更准确的评估，然后找到在复杂密集的城市环境中工作良好的系统设计。 - 小型蜂窝和毫米波频率（28-300 GHz）下的操作是未来（2020年后）蜂窝网络考虑的两项基本技术，以低成本和低功耗为密集的城市地区提供千兆无线接入。在过去的五年里，我们看到了很多关于如何在系统级部署这些技术的研究概念。通过使用城市地图研究城市中的无线传播，并设计用于在这些地图上规划大量小型小区的算法，我们将能够评估这些系统的成本和容量，并找到最优的系统设计。小型蜂窝也是可取的，因为它们减少了手持设备需要传输回其蜂窝塔的功率：这导致传输到体内的无线功率更少（大大减轻了蜂窝健康问题，特别是在语音呼叫期间），并且还延长了设备的电池充电时间。 - 小区关闭（CSO）概念一直是绿色通信中的研究主题，并且包括在低使用率期间（例如，深夜、郊区的工作时间、工业园区的晚上等）。寻找好的策略来决定何时关闭哪些细胞是一个正在进行的研究课题。CSO预计将减少运营商的能源消耗和设备磨损，节省的费用将传递给用户，并降低对环境的影响。我们的研究旨在设计简单实用的CSO策略，适用于当前和未来的蜂窝网络。这个项目的好处在未来几年就可以看到。 - 用无人机细胞增强蜂窝网络。这一想法是对民间社会组织的补充：虽然当前的系统被过度设计以在高峰使用场景中提供无线覆盖（并且因此在大多数时间是非常未充分利用的），我们希望研究是否可以使用具有较低无线容量的较小地面网络，并在短时间内将一些无人机用作蜂窝塔来增强地面网络在高峰时段（每日高峰时段;游行、节日、体育赛事期间;紧急情况下;等）。这是一个更深远的概念;我们的研究将侧重于研究在哪里以及部署多少无人机，以最大限度地提高其无线覆盖范围以及地面网络的覆盖范围。

The proposed research uses innovative mathematical and computational techniques to study and design systems for providing robust and efficient wireless coverage to dense urban areas. We use freely available real building and cellular tower locations in order to test our concepts with more realism, which will allow us to make more accurate assessments of the cost of different technologies and system designs, and then find good system designs that work well in the complex dense urban setting. - Small cells, and operation at millimeter-wave frequencies (28-300 GHz), are two essential technologies considered for future (post-2020) cellular networks to provide gigabit wireless access at low cost and power consumption to dense urban areas. The last five years have seen a lot of research concepts in how to deploy these technologies at the system level. By studying the wireless propagation in cities using urban maps, and designing algorithms for planning a large number of small cells on these maps, we will be able to assess the cost and capacity of these systems, and find the most optimal system designs . Small cells are also desirable because they reduce the power that a handheld device needs to transmit back to its cellular tower: this results in less wireless power transmitted into the body (greatly alleviating cellular health concerns, particularly during voice calls) and also prolonging the battery charge of the device. - The cell switch-off (CSO) concept has been a topic of research in green communications, and consists of switching off some cellular towers and part of the network during times of low usage (e.g., late at night, during working hours in suburban areas, in the evening in industrial parks, etc.). Finding good strategies to decide which cells to switch off when is an ongoing research topic. CSO is expected to reduce the energy consumption and equipment wear for the operator, with savings passed to the subscribers, and a lower environmental impact. Our research aims at designing simple and practical CSO strategies that apply to both current and future cellular networks. The benefits of this project could already be seen in the next few years. - Augmenting cellular networks with flying drone cells. This idea is complementary to CSO: While current systems are over-engineered to provide wireless coverage in peak usage scenarios (and thus are very under-utilized most of the time), we wish to investigate whether it is possible to use a smaller ground network with lower wireless capacity, and augment the ground network with some flying drones used as cellular towers for short durations (a few hours) during peak times (daily peak hours; during parades, festivals, sports events; in emergency situations; etc.). This is a more far-reaching concept; our research will focus on studying where and how many drones to deploy in order to maximize their wireless coverage together jointly with the coverage of the ground network.