The application of wireless backhaul is widely adopted in commercial mobile networks as a cost effective alternative to fibre. However, the practical use of wireless transport to support new cloud RAN architectures is not well studied. This paper presents proof-of-concept results which extend evolving Ethernet based mobile fronthaul concepts to wireless transport solutions. The theoretical performance criteria of the 3GPP option 8 functional split is derived and experimentally verified using an Open Air Interface (OAI) base station. Wireless fronthaul performance is assessed over an Ethernet-based E-band (71-86 GHz) mmWave radio link. Experimental measurements demonstrate the viability of existing mmWave wireless transport solutions to meet the performance requirements of the most challenging Ethernet based 3GPP option 8 fronthaul interface. Findings also suggest that further advances in standardisation of alternative functional split interfaces as well as higher capacity wireless transport spectrum such as D-band (130-174.8 GHz) could further support scalable cloud RAN deployments of the future.

This paper presents a mobile network deployment analysis aimed at understanding the potential use of high frequency (mmWave) wireless ‘x-haul’ to deploy new urban street level micro cell sites. A highly detailed 3D environmental model of central London is constructed and the line-of-sight (LOS) propagation paths between real rooftop cell sites and street level lamp posts calculated in order to simulate all of the potential wireless x-haul paths across the urban environment. Analysis is subsequently carried out to quantify the number of new lamp post mounted micro cell base stations that could be x-hauled using a multi-hop wireless transport solution such as 3GPP Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB). Results highlight the viability of mmWave wireless transport in real urban environments. Findings also outline the fundamental requirements that a multi-hop wireless transport solution must meet in order to maximise its potential as a lower cost and time-to-market alternative to a fully fibred network.

A key challenge in deploying new wireless cellular technologies or architectures is accurate modelling of their impact on the wider network. In this contribution, we provide a new statistical framework and large scale analysis to characterise a real mobile network. Current industry guidelines relevant to modelling of mobile networks and their deployments are often over simplified and based on generalisation of the propagation environment and network topology. The following analysis details statistical deployment characteristics of mobile base station sites and their associated geographic environment using a highly detailed 3D topology model of large areas of the UK. High resolution LIDAR (Light Detecting and Ranging) data and cell mast properties are utilised to generate statistical descriptions of urban, suburban and rural cell site types as well as distributions for the clutter properties that can be found within each cell type's coverage area. Our findings illustrate the important distinction between traditional cell classifications using a range of attributes whilst also highlighting the unique 3D properties of urban cell types.

Transmission at 60GHz millimetre wavelengths is often prone to strong signal attenuations and disconnections when-ever objects greater than the wavelength of the propagating signal interrupts the line-of-sight. When this occurs, the network becomes unreliable and its performance is severely affected by unexpected and frequent disconnections, loss of data, retransmissions, waste resources and increased latency. In this work, using commercial 802.11ad chipsets, we show that specular reflection has the potential to circumvent and prevent non-line-of-sight link failures during 60GHz millimetre wave propagation up to distance of 8m. The data rates presented shows the effectiveness of using specular reflection since utilization is at least 94% of the total bandwidth while less than 4% was either reflected back or absorbed.

The 5G network prospect of seamlessly connected global devices with delay-tolerant communication, millisecond latency and gigabits per second data rate suggests the need for high resolution location-aware systems with new methods for positioning services. Traditional geo-positioning methods have been characterized by detection and mitigation of NLOS paths where discrimination between LOS and NLOS components are cast into a hypothesis-testing problem. This explains the focus of most related works on range measurements. It is however believed that Ultrawideband (UWB) promises better positioning methods for accuracy-critical situations expected in 5G setting. This paper outlines probable 5G wireless architecture as a road map to UWB in future wireless environments. It also proposes EULOSTECH; an algorithm for enhanced UWB LOS sufficiency positioning technique and mitigation method for cognitive 5G wireless setting. Results obtained from simulation experiments have been impressive and the highlights are presented in this paper. It is believed that the proposed solution has potential for robust and cost efficient localization in 5G setting as well as prospect to decongest licensed spectrums in 5G wireless environment with UWB.

In this paper we employ the Shannon channel capacity theorem and classical thermodynamic Carnot's Law to derive the kT ln 2 minimum energy dissipation per bit for a communications channel. We then extend the analysis, incorporating forward error correction (FEC) to show an asymptotic energy efficiency approach to the Carnot/Shannon limit. For the first time, we derive a generalized version of the Shannon channel capacity theorem which embraces non-Gaussian noise statistics. Finally, we apply the theory to different telecommunications technologies, thus offering commonality of absolute energy efficiency assessment.

The new Xilinx Early-Access Partial-Reconfiguration (EAPR) FPGA technology exhibits a clear advantage over the former modular-based partial-reconfiguration flow. This paper compares a Handel-C implementation of the two approaches, demonstrating the limitations of the old method, which are fully addressed by the EAPR. It is argued here that the combination of Handel-C and EAPR offers a viable approach towards realization of the future Software Defined Radio (SDR) systems. Two EAPR-based SDR architectures are presented, which trade off complexity for reconfiguration speed. Finally a cost-efficient, fast mode-switching architecture, particularly suitable for Time Division Duplex (TDD) radio systems is presented. The proposed architecture utilizes this property to dynamically reconfigure the transmission and reception chain algorithms at different times.

The new TETRA Release 2 standard aims to increase the data throughput of the current TETRA 1 standard by a factor of 10. However there are serious issues with the cross-correlation based timing recovery, as specified in the standard. In this paper, we highlight the TETRA release 2 timing recovery issues in narrow-band mode as well as the adjacent channel interference (ACI). A computationally efficient method, based on low-order filtering of the adjacent channel with low peak rejection has been proposed in this paper, which not only completely removes the adjacent channel impact, but substantially reduces the dependence of timing extraction on signal to noise ratio (SNR) level in the region of interest.

In this paper the authors describe a hybrid leaky feeder, fiber-optic transmission system for use in underground transportation networks. The system described has a transmission rate of 1.6 Gb/s and features an ultra wideband, axial-slot leaky feeder, based on standard semi-rigid coaxial cable as a fixed antenna. Patch antennas with a 4 GHz center frequency and 1 GHz, -10 dB bandwidth are proposed for the rolling stock. This highest reported data rate was achieved by combining two 800 Mb/s in-phase and quadrature (I and Q) PSK modulated data streams. A specially designed carrier and data synchronization system provided a convenient interface to a 1.3/1.5 mum diplex single mode fiber-remoting network. The measured 2.4 - 6 GHz leaky feeder bandwidth allows multi-radio, multi-band wireless mesh networking and therefore low-contention gigabit rolling stock data communications.

We describe the application of subcarrier multiplexing (SCM) to enable broadband transmission beyond the modal bandwidth of multimode fiber (MMF) optical links. The application of a quadrature phase-shift keying modem featuring novel carrier and symbol-timing recovery circuits, demonstrates significant enhancement in channel capacity. By using a 2.7-GHz pilot-tone-injected phase-locked loop (PLL) and referencing subscriber data to a prescaled version of the subcarrier, zero-latency carrier and data synchronization has been achieved exhibiting 675 Mb/s bit-oriented clock extraction in network terminal equipments. The novel scheme is scalable to higher aggregate rates and upgrades to existing installed-base 50 mum MMF infrastructure to provide low-cost, high-capacity interconnects for storage area and campus network applications

Design techniques which enable the performance of subcarrier multiplexed FM broadcast optical networks to be optimized at the planning stage are described. At the transmitter node, criteria for maximizing the subscriber carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) are presented. At the subscriber node, it is shown that under the majority of circumstances, the optimum direct detection receiver consists of a low-noise III-V avalanche photodiode and high-impedance front-end preamplifier. Sensitivities approaching -40 dB (1 mW) for 16.5 dB CNR in 36 MHz subscriber bandwidth are predicted for a 60-channel system. Preliminary experimental tests on an optical-feedback subcarrier receiver showed -34 dB (1 mW) sensitivity at 1.55 mu m from 16.5 dB CNR in a 36 MHz bandwidth centered on 1.2 GHz with a 12% modulation index single-channel FM test signal.>