Periodic Reporting for period 2 - RECENT (Ultra-Dense Unsupervised Heterogeneous Wireless Cloud Coded Networks for 5G/B5G)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2020-11-01 do 2023-10-31
Beyond 5G (B5G) networks will feature far greater density and scale than current systems, creating massive node interaction. Their topology may often be unknown and rapidly changing, making centralized coordination impractical and leaving networks largely unsupervised. In such conditions, conventional networking will be hampered by interference and declining efficiency.
Wireless physical-layer network coding (WPNC) has shown theoretical and practical promise in countering this, enabling relays to extract useful data from overlapping signals instead of treating them as interference. Yet, large-scale, unsupervised, and secure dynamic networks remain unaddressed. Ensuring physical-layer security is also crucial to conceal network structure and waveforms, limiting risks such as denial-of-service attacks and location exposure.
RECENT addressed such networks by developing new theory and technology for asynchronous and dynamic WPNC, coupled with physical layer security approaches. The developed technologies were deployed and validated in a system level simulator and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) platform. Running in parallel to the technical activities, a rigorously crafted innovation management programme assessed business opportunities of RECENT technologies, taking into consideration standards and regulation, and hence ensured that they achieved their full industrial and societal impact.
Wireless physical-layer network coding (WPNC) has shown theoretical and practical promise in countering this, enabling relays to extract useful data from overlapping signals instead of treating them as interference. Yet, large-scale, unsupervised, and secure dynamic networks remain unaddressed. Ensuring physical-layer security is also crucial to conceal network structure and waveforms, limiting risks such as denial-of-service attacks and location exposure.
RECENT addressed such networks by developing new theory and technology for asynchronous and dynamic WPNC, coupled with physical layer security approaches. The developed technologies were deployed and validated in a system level simulator and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) platform. Running in parallel to the technical activities, a rigorously crafted innovation management programme assessed business opportunities of RECENT technologies, taking into consideration standards and regulation, and hence ensured that they achieved their full industrial and societal impact.
- Novel Architecture Defined: builds on current 5G architecture to cater for WPNC and unsupervised networks. The architecture design was use-case driven based on i) Cell-free Massive MIMO network with NURA (Non-Uniform Rectangular Array) by using WPNC; ii) Secure Physical Layer Coding for Massive MIMO networks; iii) Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications with WPNC; and iv) Adaptive Multi-Connectivity (AMC) using Hybrid Data Duplication and WPNC.
- User Selection for MIMO-NOMA aided WPNC: combined NOMA-MIMO systems with
WPNC to exchange information among selected IoT pairs efficiently.
- Multi-helpers NOMA for Cooperative Edge Computing: developed a general formulation for a multi-helper scenario, where an efficient framework is developed to maximize total offloading data subject to latency constraints.
- User Selection for Millimetre Wave FD (Fully Dimensional) - MIMO with NURA: user selection was extended for NURA technology based on mmWave communication with both digital and hybrid transceivers.
- Delay Minimization for Massive MIMO based Cooperative MEC System: A multi-helper cooperative MEC system based on NOMA was proposed to maximize total offloading data given latency and power constraints.
- Advanced Low Complexity WPNC Transceiver Framework: a reduced complexity WPNC framework including downlink/uplink phases was proposed, where baseline LLR (log-likelihood ratio) based detection has inherent computational complexity cost.
- Adaptive NOMA based WPNC: combination of WPNC and multiple antennas were examined to enhance system performance via a sum difference matrix and LLR after performing ZF (Zero Forcing) or MMSE (Minimum Mean Square Error) equalization. The WPNC scheme was further extended to the multi-user massive MIMO by using M-QAMs.
- Reflected Intelligent Surface (RIS) assisted WPNC: a WPNC system with only two users was extended to multi-user massive MIMO system, to include RIS, to improve performance of wireless communications systems by reducing BER.
- Index Modulation (IM) for WPNC: by not using all available resources to transmit, communication systems can be designed at lower cost, hardware complexity, and reduced energy usage, as few resources are actively utilized at any time, simultaneously guaranteeing high SE (Spectral Efficiency) and capacity gain.
- Resilience of Massive MIMO PLNC (Physical Layer Network Coding) to Jamming Attacks in Vehicular Networks: Addressing PLNC in multi-user Massive MIMO systems, utilizing QPSK modulation scheme.
- Secure Hybrid Beamforming for mmWave MIMO: Hybrid beamforming is applied as a means of enhancing signal-to-noise ratio for a user in the desired signal direction. RECENT aims to apply AN (artificial noise) to hybrid beamforming within the context of a MU-MIMO system.
- Synchronization and Channel Estimation for multiuser WPNC framework. A novel WPNC framework solving synchronization and channel estimation for multiuser scenario is proposed.
- PLE-based Security Mechanism in Asynchronous WPNC Multi-User Communications: RECENT pursued PLE-based solution for WPNC networks based on “constellation rotation” with variable rotation phase for public nodes and semi-random phase for private nodes.
- Demonstrator: Adaptive Multi-Connectivity (AMC) using Hybrid Data Duplication and PNC considers multi-connectivity where a user is connected to more than one BS to increase system reliability whilst satisfying other stringent QoS (Quality of Service) requirement (e.g. throughput and latency) for 5G/B5G networks.
RECENT achievements:
29 scientific publications (17 journals) in prestigious venues
14 dissemination/outreaching events
2 standard contributions
1 European patent
2 practical demonstrators (practical demonstration of WPNC including multi-relay)
18 trained staff members
- User Selection for MIMO-NOMA aided WPNC: combined NOMA-MIMO systems with
WPNC to exchange information among selected IoT pairs efficiently.
- Multi-helpers NOMA for Cooperative Edge Computing: developed a general formulation for a multi-helper scenario, where an efficient framework is developed to maximize total offloading data subject to latency constraints.
- User Selection for Millimetre Wave FD (Fully Dimensional) - MIMO with NURA: user selection was extended for NURA technology based on mmWave communication with both digital and hybrid transceivers.
- Delay Minimization for Massive MIMO based Cooperative MEC System: A multi-helper cooperative MEC system based on NOMA was proposed to maximize total offloading data given latency and power constraints.
- Advanced Low Complexity WPNC Transceiver Framework: a reduced complexity WPNC framework including downlink/uplink phases was proposed, where baseline LLR (log-likelihood ratio) based detection has inherent computational complexity cost.
- Adaptive NOMA based WPNC: combination of WPNC and multiple antennas were examined to enhance system performance via a sum difference matrix and LLR after performing ZF (Zero Forcing) or MMSE (Minimum Mean Square Error) equalization. The WPNC scheme was further extended to the multi-user massive MIMO by using M-QAMs.
- Reflected Intelligent Surface (RIS) assisted WPNC: a WPNC system with only two users was extended to multi-user massive MIMO system, to include RIS, to improve performance of wireless communications systems by reducing BER.
- Index Modulation (IM) for WPNC: by not using all available resources to transmit, communication systems can be designed at lower cost, hardware complexity, and reduced energy usage, as few resources are actively utilized at any time, simultaneously guaranteeing high SE (Spectral Efficiency) and capacity gain.
- Resilience of Massive MIMO PLNC (Physical Layer Network Coding) to Jamming Attacks in Vehicular Networks: Addressing PLNC in multi-user Massive MIMO systems, utilizing QPSK modulation scheme.
- Secure Hybrid Beamforming for mmWave MIMO: Hybrid beamforming is applied as a means of enhancing signal-to-noise ratio for a user in the desired signal direction. RECENT aims to apply AN (artificial noise) to hybrid beamforming within the context of a MU-MIMO system.
- Synchronization and Channel Estimation for multiuser WPNC framework. A novel WPNC framework solving synchronization and channel estimation for multiuser scenario is proposed.
- PLE-based Security Mechanism in Asynchronous WPNC Multi-User Communications: RECENT pursued PLE-based solution for WPNC networks based on “constellation rotation” with variable rotation phase for public nodes and semi-random phase for private nodes.
- Demonstrator: Adaptive Multi-Connectivity (AMC) using Hybrid Data Duplication and PNC considers multi-connectivity where a user is connected to more than one BS to increase system reliability whilst satisfying other stringent QoS (Quality of Service) requirement (e.g. throughput and latency) for 5G/B5G networks.
RECENT achievements:
29 scientific publications (17 journals) in prestigious venues
14 dissemination/outreaching events
2 standard contributions
1 European patent
2 practical demonstrators (practical demonstration of WPNC including multi-relay)
18 trained staff members
The key RECENT outcome is a demonstrator providing a comprehensive and mature technology analysis on key schemes addressed. In particular, the key innovations related to WPNC and AMC were simulated and demonstrated within a relevant environment based on real network signals within a HIL (Hardware-in-the-Loop) testbed, illustrating their potential to enhance wireless communication by addressing various QoS guarantees and security concerns.
RECENT outcomes suggests that WPNC and AMC offer substantial advantages, particularly in scenarios with significant Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) headroom. Therefore, these techniques might be useful for small cell deployments or users showing close relay proximity (for e.g. device-to-device communications).
In addition to SNR, various other limitations exist with WPNC that were highlighted in this research. Attempting to undertake network coding while simultaneously addressing Carrier Frequency Offset (CFO) concerns presents a very significant challenges, where no network coding processing may begin before all CFO errors are removed. Achieving production-grade, real-time CFO tracking and compensation, in parallel with channel estimation, is an intricate task that demands dedicated hardware design and HDL implementation that will be addressed as further research.
RECENT simulation results and HIL verification directly boost competitiveness of European industry, both through major companies and their influence in forming future global standards and regulations and for SMEs rapidly exploiting first-hand results, especially in small specialized markets.
This area of study holds immense importance as it is critical to harness the full potential of WPNC in practical, real-world scenarios, providing a step towards secure and reliable communications targeting potential 6G scenarios. The wider societal implications of this work can be far reaching, taking a step towards enabling future emerging B5G/6G scenarios, such as enabling close proximity services (for e.g. V2V for intelligent transportation systems) and delivering lower cost services, whilst having profound economic impact for network operators through traffic offloading and reducing capital expenditure/investments.
RECENT outcomes suggests that WPNC and AMC offer substantial advantages, particularly in scenarios with significant Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) headroom. Therefore, these techniques might be useful for small cell deployments or users showing close relay proximity (for e.g. device-to-device communications).
In addition to SNR, various other limitations exist with WPNC that were highlighted in this research. Attempting to undertake network coding while simultaneously addressing Carrier Frequency Offset (CFO) concerns presents a very significant challenges, where no network coding processing may begin before all CFO errors are removed. Achieving production-grade, real-time CFO tracking and compensation, in parallel with channel estimation, is an intricate task that demands dedicated hardware design and HDL implementation that will be addressed as further research.
RECENT simulation results and HIL verification directly boost competitiveness of European industry, both through major companies and their influence in forming future global standards and regulations and for SMEs rapidly exploiting first-hand results, especially in small specialized markets.
This area of study holds immense importance as it is critical to harness the full potential of WPNC in practical, real-world scenarios, providing a step towards secure and reliable communications targeting potential 6G scenarios. The wider societal implications of this work can be far reaching, taking a step towards enabling future emerging B5G/6G scenarios, such as enabling close proximity services (for e.g. V2V for intelligent transportation systems) and delivering lower cost services, whilst having profound economic impact for network operators through traffic offloading and reducing capital expenditure/investments.