Scalable and Efficient Machine-Type Communications for 5G Wireless Access and Beyond

随着第四代（4G）无线系统在2010年左右推出，考虑到现有每一代的历史10年周期，预计第五代（5G）无线系统将在2020年左右部署。到目前为止，从1G到4G，每一代的发展都是为了满足随时随地高速宽带无线接入不断增长的需求。但是，这种不断提高数据速率的竞争主要是由人为操作的移动设备（例如智能手机和平板电脑）的需求推动的；这种情况通常被称为人类类型通信（HTC）。5G将与这一计划不同：它的重点不仅是增强宽带服务（针对HTC的目的），还将支持机器类型通信（MTC）。MTC被视为设备之间和/或设备与一组服务器之间的一种数据通信形式，不一定需要人工交互。通过支持MTC， 5G旨在维持部署物联网（IoT）范式的长期愿景，该范式承诺许多革命性的应用，如远程医疗诊断/手术、自动驾驶汽车和工业无线自动化。

With the rollout of the fourth-generation (4G) wireless systems around 2010 and given a historical 10-year cycle for every existing generation, it is expected that fifth generation (5G) wireless systems will be deployed sometime around 2020. So far, from 1G to 4G, the evolution towards each next generation has been driven by the need to satisfy the ever-increasing demand for high-speed broadband wireless access anywhere/anytime. But, this relentless race for increasing the data rate has been mainly fueled by the need to serve human-operated mobile devices (e.g., smartphones and tablets); a scenario commonly known as human-type communications (HTC). 5G will depart from this scheme: its focus will not only be on enhanced broadband services (for HTC purposes) but also to support machine-type communications (MTC). MTC is seen as a form of data communication, among devices and/or from devices to a set of servers, that do not necessarily require human interaction. By supporting MTC, 5G aims to sustain the long-term vision of deploying the internet of things (IoT) paradigm which promises many revolutionizing applications such as remote medical diagnosis/surgery, self-driving cars, and industrial wireless automation. MTC promises huge market growth with ~50 billion connected devices by 2020. Support for such a massive number of MTC devices with different requirements in terms of power consumption, latency, reliability, and security has deep implications on the end-to-end network architecture. This proposed research aims to tackle the main technological challenges associated with the two generic modes of MTC: i) massive machine-type communications (mMTC) and ii) ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC). We aim to devise scalable and cost-effective grant-free multiple access schemes that will enable future 5G networks to accommodate the massive number of mMTC devices. We also aim to develop innovative communication schemes that meet the stringent conflicting requirements in terms of reliability and latency that are needed for a myriad of URLLC-based mission-critical applications. Towards these goals, we shall exploit the two intrinsic features of MTC, namely their intermittent access to the network and their short-packet signaling. The proposed research lies at the forefront of current 5G initiatives in major universities and industry labs worldwide. The envisaged approaches and methods are original and have the potential of leading to major advances in MTC paradigm. Moreover, my R&D vision advocates a challenging methodology that covers many aspects of communication engineering, starting from the very component level (development of new algorithmic solutions and their prototyping/testing on hardware platforms) all the way up to both the link (whole transceiver design) and system (network integration/assessment) levels. This promotes scientific impact and industrial relevance and provides unique added-value HQP training opportunities.