The work performed within each objective is as follows:
O1:
- Developed SECRET scenario, system architecture and requirements to accommodate research challenges (output “Secure Virtual Mobile Small Cells: A Stepping Stone Towards 6G” to be published in IEEE Comms Standards)
O2:
-Energy efficient content distribution mechanism over small cells based on NCC.
-Game theory for cooperative radio resource management for 5G small cell networks
-Novel tasks resource allocation methods for task offloading based on cooperative small cells and task dependency
-Novel Uplink reference signal (UL RS) based HO (handover) scheme proposed where measurement reports are eliminated and replaced by sounding signaling messages
-Characterising ultra-dense small cell network performance based on stochastic geometry to provide new insights towards creation, placement, management of MSC networks within an urban area.
O3:
-Lightweight blockchain-based integrity schemes to guard against data pollution attacks for network-coded small cell networks
-Novel key management design (DISTANT) for securing NC-MSC technology based on decentralised trust authority. Performance evaluation showed DISTANT is highly competitive with 50% reduction in communication complexity overhead compared to legacy baseline schemes.
-Novel IDLP mechanism for NC-MSC applications, that not only detects pollution attacks at the earliest possible opportunity but is able to locate attacker's exact position and isolate them from the network
O4:
-2-stage MMIC Class-AB Power Amplifier design based on 0.25-μm InGaAs/GaAs pHEMT technology suited for 5G mobile handsets operating over 11-12.4 GHz frequency ban
-Two compact load modulation Doherty amplifiers (12W,70W) for 5G base stations fabricated, targeting 3.4-3.8 GHz bandwidth where both amplifiers achieve high efficiency at back-off.
-Tunable and reconfigurable compact filters for next generation multimode handsets (4G,5G-3.4-3.7 GHz) including Combline technology; trisection and 4-pole microstrip; mixed-coupled quint-wideband ASIR bandpass; Open Ring and Trisection Resonators, including microstrip design; varactor-based tuneable bandpass filter.
-Advanced massive MIMO antennas (18-30 GHz) including simultaneous tuning; 8×8 MIMO with dual-polarization, coupled with radiation pattern diversity; beam-steerable array; phased array designs by employing eight dielectric-insensitive radiators, 28-element sub-arrays including horizontally polarized end-fire dipole antennas and vertically polarized end-fire slot antennas.
O5:
-Testbed for MSC integrating new architecture design with provision for multihop, cooperative clusters with multiple points of access to overlay network implemented. Two use-cases were demonstrated pertaining to energy efficient dissemination and cell offloading based on small-to-small connectivity.
-Advanced energy efficient and self-organised resource management approach (network sharing) harnessing the flexibility of virtualization and software defined networking, two prominent paradigms that will play a pivotal role in 5G networking. Two energy efficient resource allocation (EE-RA) solutions were addressed: i) group based RRH (Remote Radio Head)-BBU (Base Band Unit) mapping (RGBM) considering the level of interference in the network, meeting the user QoS (Quality of Service) requirements within the C(Cloud)-RAN deployment; ii) EE-RA from a holistic resource management perspective, considering a 2-stage resource allocation process that covers both admission control and RRH-BBU mapping. Simulation results have provided viable evidence the 2 proposed solutions are able to inject significant power saving and energy efficiency gain within the C-RAN architecture coupled with improvement in users' desired signal.
Efforts in fully achieving SECRET objectives have resulted in: 180 peer-reviewed papers (103 conf., 77 journal); 22 exploitation items incl. 2 project grants, 4 experimental testbeds, 5 potential products, 3 new liaisons.
