This paper presents a new quantitative means to measure how cellular areal network coverage is distributed over a country or region, in particular the extent to which coverage is concentrated to urban regions. We present a new Cellular Coverage Inequality (CCI) index useful as a quantitative measure of fairness in a urban-rural perspective. Necessary data to determine the index are, on one hand, a geographical rurality map, essentially derived from a population map and, on the other hand, a cellular coverage map of the kind typically published by cellular operators. Our CCI-index then allows different cellular networks to be compared in terms of their coverage fairness and urban-rural inequality. Alternatively, the urban-rural coverage divide can be monitored over time. We give examples of the use of the CCI index for public coverage maps of Sweden over the years 2013-2020.

We propose a joint polarization and spatial modulation (JPSM) scheme using reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS). In this scheme, a RIS equipped with dual-polarized (DP) reflecting elements is used to assist the communication between a transmitter of a single polarized antenna and a receiver equipped with a uniform linear array of DP antennas, while additionally encoding the reflected waves on the RIS to perform JPSM scheme. The information data is encoded in terms of the receiver DP antenna index as well as the polarization state of the received signal. Furthermore, we develop exhaustive and heuristic RIS phase shift design solutions to enable the RIS-JPSM scheme. Moreover, both an optimum maximum likelihood and a low complexity greedy detectors are formulated. The proposed scheme enhances the data rate by operating higher-order polarization modulation in comparison to the conventional RIS-based spatial modulation scheme.

Cellular communication standards have been established to ensure connectivity across most urban environments, complemented by deployment hardware and facilities tailored for city life. At the same time, numerous initiatives seek to broaden connectivity to rural and developing areas. However, with nearly half the global population still offline, there is an urgent need to drive research toward enhancing connectivity in areas and conditions that deviate from the norm. This article delves into innovative communication solutions not only for hard-to-reach and extreme environments but also introduces “hard-to-serve” areas as a crucial, yet underexplored, category within the broader spectrum of connectivity challenges.We explore the latest advancements in communication systems designed for environments subject to extreme temperatures, harsh weather, excessive dust, or even disasters such as fires. Our exploration spans the entire communication stack, covering communications on isolated islands, sparsely populated regions, mountainous terrains, and even underwater and underground settings. We highlight system architectures, hardware, materials, algorithms, and other pivotal technologies that promise to connect these challenging areas. Through case studies, we explore the application of 5G for innovative research, long range (LoRa) for audio messages and emails, LoRa wireless connections, free-space optics, communications in underwater and underground scenarios, delay-tolerant networks, satellite links, and the strategic use of shared spectrum and TV white space (TVWS) to improve mobile connectivity in secluded and remote regions. These studies also touch on prevalent challenges such as power outages, regulatory gaps, technological availability, and human resource constraints, where we introduce the concept of peri-urban hard-to-serve areas where populations might struggle with affordability or lack the skills for traditional connectivity solutions. This article provides an exhaustive summary of our research, showcasing how 6G and future networks will play a crucial role in delivering connectivity to areas that are hard-to-reach, hard-to-serve, or subject to extreme conditions (ECs).

Estimation of a radio receiver's location from single-antenna observations - the received signal strength - is well known for its limited accuracy and lack of robustness. Yet, for reasons of energy- and space efficiency, emerging IoT devices will often be equipped with a single antenna. In this paper, we show how reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) can bring robustness and precision to this estimation problem. We propose a novel RIS-assisted SISO location scheme, based on new dynamic RIS reconfiguration protocols and an associated Maximum Like-lihood location estimation. We derive the Fisher information, the Cramér- Rao bound, and evaluate through simulations the effects of various relative RIS geometries and RIS reconfiguration pro-tocols. Our results indicate that the deployment of multiple RISs in the far-field allows for centimeter-level estimator accuracy. Reconfiguring RISs in a (pseudo-) random manner outperforms a deterministic orderly protocol by about 4 dB.

In line-of-sight (LoS) environments, point-to-point (P2P) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel matrix turns out to be rank deficient such that spatial multiplexing becomes unattainable. In this paper, we propose the deployment of distributed intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRSs) to act as artificial scatterers and synthesize a sort of multi-path propagation such that additional degrees of freedom are created. We show that given the far-field deployment of the IRS, it simply resembles a full-duplex relay with a single effective reflection coefficient. However, to maximize the channel capacity both the effective reflection coefficients of all IRSs and the transmit covariance matrix should be jointly optimized, which is a nonconvex optimization problem. Thus, we develop an alternating optimization algorithm to iteratively find a sub-optimal solution. Moreover, we propose different schemes to enhance the composite channel power which would result in an improvement to the achievable rate. Our simulation results show that the deployment of distributed IRSs with P2P MIMO systems in LoS environments increases the rank of the channel matrix, and improves the achievable rate by making spatial multiplexing possible.

Because of low potential revenue, network operators have mainly focused on providing connectivity in urban areas rather than in rural areas resulting in technology improvement in favour of urban areas; and consequently, most of remote areas suffer from poor or lack of connectivity. In this paper, we present the potential of massive‐MIMO to provide connectivity to sparse areas. We show that we can cover large rural areas with radius of tens of km using massive‐MIMO mounted on existing infrastructure of TV towers. We also show that, in contrast with common belief, higher frequencies, e.g., 3500 MHz rather than 700 MHz, can reach farther utilizing massive‐MIMO, provided that the antenna area is the same.

This work studies the joint design of spectral precoding, to avoid spectral out-of-band power emissions, and spatial precoding, to suppress spatial multiuser interference, in MIMO-OFDM systems. In current state-of-art approaches the transmit signals are precoded using two independently designed spectral and spatial precoders. In contrast this paper proposes a joint precoding of the signal to achieve a better performance. We analyse the performance of the proposed precoder in terms of spectral characteristics, system spectral efficiency and transmitter complexity. We show in particular that, interestingly, the proposed joint maximum-ratio precoder has a simple transmitter structure of two separate and consecutive banks of spectral and spatial precoders which in fact can be designed independently, while in case of zero-forcing the off-the-shelf precoders are far from the optimal. The joint zero-forcing precoder has a coupled structure and hence, we can not decompose it.

N-continuous orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a promising solution to the out-of-band (OOB) emission issue in OFDM systems where theNth-order continuity between OFDM symbols leads to lower OOB emission than the plain OFDM; however, high self-interference in such systems is an obstacle. In this paper, we propose a new class of quasi-cyclic symbol extensions, which makes the OFDM systemN-continuous. The new extension leads to low OOB emission while the additive interference is less than otherN-continuous OFDM systems. Moreover, we propose a general analysis of the spectrum and interference that occurs in a linear precoded OFDM system. The framework is applicable to manyN-continuous OFDM systems including our proposed method.

In this paper we present a joint precoded and windowed OFDM system. This new hybrid method provides flexibility to suppress the out-of band (OOB) emission in non-contiguous OFDM systems used in cognitive radio. This method also provides the possibility of shortening the cyclic prefix without sacrificing the OOB emission or increasing the additional interference which is the case in low-latency future systems.

This paper investigates the application of N-continuous spectral projection precoding design to single-carrier frequency-division multiple access (SC-FDMA). It first considers a general orthogonal projection-based precoded system with an improved iterative receiver and analyzes its ultimate performance in an additive white Gaussian noise channel, both in terms of achievable throughput and symbol-error rates. For N-continuous SC-FDMA, the distribution of the symbol errors is very much asymmetric; a few base pulses carry the lion share of the self-induced interference, resulting in a zero throughput. We show that an optimized transmission and reception scheme based on a polarized use of the base pulses can satisfactorily deal with this asymmetry, and the end-to-end throughput can be recovered to be close to optimal. Applying a similar scheme to N-continuous OFDM enables also an improved performance in the high-SNR regime, where the interference effect strikes the most.

The N-continuous precoder for the suppression of OOB emission in OFDM systems that minimizes the EVM is introduced. We show that the minimum in-band interference due to the introduced precoding approach is 3 dB less than the inband interference of existing N-continuous precoders. Moreover, we introduce a novel practical block precoder that approaches the performance of the suggested optimal precoder. We analyze the spectrum of the OFDM signal after block precoding, the inband interference due to block precoding and the effect of block precoding on the BER. The price to pay for block precoding is the computational complexity that grows linearly with the block size.

In this paper, we describe and analyze the results of a radio channel measurement campaign in an extreme industrial environment; a large open-pit copper mine targeted by next generation's highly voiced device communications. We present a practical and efficient method to perform robust and high-sensitivity impulse response measurements without a common clock reference using the widely spread USRP hardware. With this technique, we performed channel sounding on a large number of locations within the mine. One important observation is that the radio channel's impulse response in an open-pit mine can often be more than 10 μs long, and much unlike the responses normally associated with Wi-Fi and mobile cellular radio systems, which poses serious design challenges for future 5G radio systems.

In this paper, we study the availability of TV white spaces in Europe. Specifically, we focus on the 470-790 MHz UHF band, which will predominantly remain in use for TV broadcasting after the analog-to-digital switch-over and the assignment of the 800 MHz band to licensed services have been completed. The expected number of unused, available TV channels in any location of the 11 countries we studied is 56 percent when we adopt the statistical channel model of the ITU-R. Similarly, a person residing in these countries can expect to enjoy 49 percent unused TV channels. If, in addition, restrictions apply to the use of adjacent TV channels, these numbers reduce to 25 and 18 percent, respectively. These figures are significantly smaller than those recently reported for the United States. We also study how these results change when we use the Longley-Rice irregular terrain model instead. We show that while the overall expected availability of white spaces is essentially the same, the local variability of the available spectrum shows significant changes. This underlines the importance of using appropriate system models before making far-reaching conclusions.

In this contribution a layered radio environment map (REM) architecture is designed and applied in the framework of radio-access network optimization for heterogeneous LTE systems that comprise both macrocells and femtocells. We define layer as the hierarchical representation of a geographical area. In each layer, different instances of the same architectural block will have different spatial/temporal granularities, associated with network functionalities. The effectiveness of the proposed architecture to support LTE functions like automatic neighbor relation (ANR) and minimization of drive tests (MDT) is discussed. In addition, we present the benefits of using such architecture in the implementation of these functions along with its potential to bring performance gains.

In this paper we describe an LTE based demonstrator of the Universal Link Layer API (ULLA) and Cognitive Resource Manager (CRM) modules that are developed in ARAGORN project. The demonstrated LTE system comprises one LTE TDD eNode B and one User Equipment (UE). We first introduce ULLA and CRM framework and then demonstrate their suitability to be implemented with the existing LTE equipments. We show how, through ULLA, CRM is able to obtain PHY/MAC status information of the link between the eNode B and UE, and in turn change system parameters to achieve better resource utilization and transmission efficiency. The control logic can be implemented with simple adaptation or policy-based intelligent methods. The platform clearly shows the feasibility to use ULLA/CRM architecture for radio resource management in a LTE network. It also shows the neutrality of ULLA/CRM mechanisms towards PHY/MAC characteristics of LTE technology platform; hence the platform is viable to flexibly switch between technology platforms (e.g. between LTE access and WiFi access) under the control of ULLA/CRM.

We present sets of spreading sequences that are specifically designed to suit a belief-propagation multiuser detection structure, recently presented for overloaded system scenarios. On one hand, our sequences are of the low-density type; on the other their distance spectrum properties ensure good performance in AWGN channels. Simulations results for raw and coded bit-error probability indicate that significant performance gain is achieved over random sequences and that the loss compared to the single-user bound can be kept small.

This contribution addresses the potential of N-continuous OFDM signals in systems where the receiver is unaware of the transmitter precoder operation. First, we present a memoryless precoder rendering N-continuous signals. Second, we evaluate the effect on the magnitude of the emitted signal's error-vector. Third, we present three ad hoc precoders designed under a hard constraint on the allowed EVM still significantly suppressing out-of-band power.

Today's packet-based cellular systems typically are equipped with a channel quality reporting mechanism that supports scheduling and adaptive modulation/coding. When resources are scheduled not only in time but also in frequency the design of the return channel becomes intricate. The feedback signalling must balance improved cell-throughput with deteriorated spectral efficiency in the return link due to excessive signalling. In this contribution we examine system simulation results for the downlink of 3GPP's long-term evolution system equipped with various signalling schemes. The simulations results show that for a certain uplink load in bits/s/Hz, emphasizing the quality of the mobile's best channel instants (assigning these with more signalling bits) provides about 12% higher downlink throughput than capturing the quality of all channel instants equally well. Moreover, about 95% of the throughput provided by an ideal reference feedback scheme is obtained.

This paper presents a symbol time offset estimator for coherent orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The estimator exploits both the redundancy in the cyclic prefix and available pilot symbols used for channel estimation. The estimator is robust against frequency offsets and is suitable for use in dispersive channels. We base the estimator on the maximum-likelihood estimator for the additive white Gaussian noise channel. Simulations for an example system indicate a system performance as close as 0.6 dB to a perfectly synchronized system.

This paper presents a symbol time offset estimator for coherent OFDM systems. This estimator exploits both the redundancy in the cyclic prefix and the pilot symbols used for channel estimation. The estimator is robust against frequency offsets and is suitable for use in dispersive channels. We base the estimator on the ML estimator for the AWGN channel. Simulations of an example system indicate a system performance as close as 0.3 dB to a perfectly synchronized system. Compared to an estimator not using pilots, our estimator's performance could allow a shorter cyclic prefix and thus a more spectrally efficient system.

We present a multiuser synchronization scheme for tracking the mobile's uplink time and frequency offsets. It uses the redundancy introduced by the cyclic prefix and does not need additional pilots. We show performance results of an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based radio interface based on the universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) parameters. For a UMTS-typical mobile channel environment, the performance of a coherent system employing the scheme is virtually indistinguishable from the performance of a perfectly synchronized system. In a differentially modulated system, synchronization errors decrease the system performance by about 0.7 dB compared to a perfectly synchronized system.

We present and analyze low-rank channel estimators for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems using the frequency correlation of the channel. Low-rank approximations based on the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) have been proposed, but these suffer from poor performance when the channel is not sample spaced. We apply the theory of optimal rank-reduction to linear minimum mean-squared error (LMMSE) estimators and show that these estimators, when using a fixed design, are robust to changes in channel correlation and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The performance is presented in terms of uncoded symbol-error rate (SER) for a system using 16-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM).