Uplink Signal Research Articles

Enhancing User Localization with an Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) System: An Experimental UAV Search-and-Rescue Use Case

This paper explores the potential of an Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) system to enhance search-and-rescue operations. While prior research has explored ISAC capabilities in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), our study focuses on addressing the specific challenges posed by modern communication standards (e.g., power, frequency, and bandwidth limitations) in the context of search-and-rescue missions. The paper details effective methods for processing echoed signals generated by downlink transmissions and evaluates key performance indicators, including Noise Equivalent Sigma Zero (NESZ) and channel capacity. Additionally, we utilize synchronization uplink signals transmitted by User Equipment (UE) to improve target detection and classification of possible victims by fusing SAR imagery with triangulation results from uplink signals. An experimental campaign validates the proposed setup by integrating SAR images of the environment with active localization results, both produced by a UAV equipped with a Software Defined Radio (SDR) payload. Our results demonstrate the system’s capability to detect and localize buried targets in avalanche scenarios, with localization errors ranging from centimeters to 10 m depending on environmental conditions. This successful integration highlights the practical applicability of our approach in challenging search-and-rescue missions.

Centralized full-duplex seamless photonic mmW fronthaul link based on phase modulation

We experimentally demonstrate a photonic full-duplex seamless millimeter wave fronthaul link, based on phase modulation, to address the challenges arising from the increased demands on the mobile fronthaul capacity and network densification toward 5G and beyond. The proposed system relies on phase modulation techniques, implemented at both the central office (CO) and remote radio head (RRH), to achieve optical frequency up-conversion of the downlink (DL) signal and optical modulation of the down-converted uplink (UL) signal. Furthermore, our approach includes the frequency down-conversion of the 40 GHz UL signal through an optically generated local oscillator (LO) signal in the RRH, while the laser employed for UL data transmission is situated at the CO, simplifying the remote site’s equipment. An optical waveshaper serves here as a programmable optical filter to provide signals for DL frequency up-conversion, LO generation, and also the optical carrier for UL transmission. In our experimental validation, we have tested our proposed system using 64-quadrature amplitude modulation (64-QAM) for the DL at a frequency of 41 GHz and quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) for the UL at a frequency of 40 GHz. Notably, our results demonstrate the successful transmission of up to 200 MHz bandwidth for both digital modulation schemes, all while maintaining the error vector magnitude (EVM) well below the specified threshold. Additionally, when employing 5G new radio (NR) orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) signals with the same modulation formats for both links in full-duplex communication, we achieved EVM values as low as 5.2% for the DL and 6.9% for the UL, further highlighting the efficacy and robustness of our proposed solution.

Bayesian Channel Estimation for Intelligent Reflecting Surface-Aided mmWave Massive MIMO Systems With Semi-Passive Elements

In this paper, we propose a Bayesian channel estimator for intelligent reflecting surface-aided (IRS-aided) millimeter wave (mmWave) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with semi-passive elements that can receive the signal in the active sensing mode. Ultimately, our goal is to minimize the channel estimation error using the received signal at the base station and additional information acquired from a small number of active sensors at the IRS. Unlike recent works on channel estimation with semi-passive elements that require both uplink and downlink training signals to estimate the UE-IRS and IRS-BS links, we only use uplink training signals to estimate all the links. To compute the minimum mean squared error (MMSE) estimates of all the links, we propose a novel variational inference-sparse Bayesian learning (VI-SBL) channel estimator that performs approximate posterior inference on the channel using VI with the mean-field approximation under the SBL framework. The simulation results show that VI-SBL outperforms the state-of-the-art baselines for IRS with passive reflecting elements in terms of the channel estimation accuracy and training overhead. Furthermore, VI-SBL with semi-passive elements is shown to be more spectral- and energy-efficient than the baselines with passive reflecting elements.

Full-duplex multi-band 5G/6G coexistence mobile fronthaul network based on RoF with RF self-interference cancellation

A bidirectional multi-band mobile fronthaul network based on the radio over fiber technology is proposed, which allows three different radio frequency (RF) bands at 3.5 GHz, 26 GHz, and 60 GHz full-duplex transmission, and 2.1 GHz RF band transmission as supplementary uplink, aiming for fifth-generation (5G)/sixth-generation (6G) mobile communication coexistence. The proposed scheme uses a dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator and dual-polarization binary phase-shift keying modulator to alleviate the interference between multiple RF bands. The transmission performance of the proposed system is evaluated by the simulation. The error vector magnitude of the system conforms to the 3GPP specification when the received optical powers of downlink and uplink are above −2.2 and −4.6 dBm, respectively. The Y-polarized optical carrier in the downlink is reused as the carrier of the uplink signals. Besides, a dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator is used to realize RF self-interference cancellation at 60 GHz RF band in the uplink of the in-band full-duplex transmission. The cancellation depth of 27.08 dB is achieved by the proof-of-concept simulation.

Unidirectional Ring-Based WDM Fiber Network for Both Downlink and Uplink Signal Access

In the paper, a dual-bidirectional ring-type wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) access network with downlink and uplink signal access simultaneously using a single fiber backbone in clockwise and counterclockwise directions, respectively. The proposed network architecture is simple and easy to implement via the designed remote node (RN) and optical line termination (OLT) modules, but it also can double the downlink traffic using the original WDM downlink wavelengths. The presented ring-type WDM network can also avoid the Rayleigh backscattering (RB) beat noise when the same wavelengths are applied as downlink and uplink channels concurrently. In the measurement, 50 km long-reach and 15 km short-reach fiber transmission lengths are achieved for the symmetrical 10 and 28 Gbit/s on-off keying (OOK) data access, respectively. In addition, based on the obtained power budgets of eight downlink WDM signals and network design at the forward error correction (FEC) threshold, 16 optical network units (ONUs) can be supported simultaneously.

Research on full duplex FSO access system with hybrid 16PSK/256QAM-OFDM downlink and duobinary uplink signals

a 100Gbit/s novel full duplex free space optical (FSO) access system scheme is proposed and demonstrated. Using the downlink hybrid 16phase shift keying (PSK)/256quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM)-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and duobinary uplink signals. In downlink branch, in-phase/quadrature-phase (I/Q) modulation based on Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) and coherent detection technology are adopted. Meanwhile, 0.1Terahertz (THz) wave signal generated by two independent optical sidebands beating frequency at positive intrinsic-negative photodiodes (PIN PDs) for hybrid downlink 16PSK/256QM-OFDM signals. In uplink branch, intensity modulation and direct detection (IM/DD) can achieve reduced the communication budget cost and simplified the system configuration Simulation results show that the value of bit error ratio (BER) less than hardware decision forward error correction (HD-FEC) threshold after 300 m FSO channel transmission under the different weather conditions (such as sunny, rainy and snow).

Harmonic-Based MIMO Transceiver With Time-Modulated Arrays

A simple harmonic-based multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transceiver based on the time-modulated array (TMA) is proposed and verified, including detailed performance analysis, comparisons with state-of-the-art works and experiment verification. The essential concept is utilizing the time modulation technique to linearly map the actual multipath channels between multiple users and the antenna elements of the TMA to the equivalent virtual channels between users and harmonics with different frequencies. Models of the received and transmitted signals in both uplink and downlink transmissions based on the multi-user single-input multiple-output (SIMO) and multiple-input single-output (MISO) scenario are analyzed and derived, followed by the proposed harmonic channel estimation, detection and beamforming methods. Simulations on the performance of the proposed harmonic-based MIMO transceiver are provided and compared to the also TMA-based space division multiple access (SDMA) scheme, showing that the latter is more like a special case of the proposed scheme. An experimental 2-user wireless communication prototype based on a 4-element TMA is fabricated and tested to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of uplink signal transmission.

Wireless Signal Transmission at the 2 and 3 THz-Band Enabled by Photonics-Based Transmitter and Hot Electron Bolometer Mixer

We have demonstrated terahertz (THz) wireless transmission of quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) signals at 2 and 3 THz-bands. Despite higher atmospheric attenuation at frequencies above 1 THz, it might be applicable for short-range wireless communications. The proposed system is composed of a photonics-based transmitter using an optical comb source and a heterodyne receiver system using a hot electron bolometer mixer (HEBM). In the transmitter, THz signals are generated by photomixing of optical carriers extracted from broadband optical combs. The receiver system consists of a quasi-optical HEBM and a phase-locked THz quantum cascade laser (THz-QCL) as a local oscillator (LO). Although the emission power of the photonics-based transmitter was on the order of tens of nW, it could be received with sufficient SNRs due to high sensitivity of the HEBM. Demonstrations of signal transmission were carried out with 2 and 3 THz-band. Optical carriers were modulated with basic LTE FDD R9 uplink signals with full filled QPSK, and converted to THz signals, transmitting to the receiver system. The THz signals were successfully demodulated, in which error vector magnitude (EVM) values of the demodulated signal was about 22% and 30% for 2 and 3 THz-band, respectively.

Time-Frequency Domain Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access for Power Efficient Communications

We propose a power efficient non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) scheme suitable for Internet of Things (IoT) and device-to-device (D2D) communications. OFDM-based power-domain NOMA (PD-NOMA) is one of the promising approaches to achieve simultaneous connections of massive devices. Nevertheless, the problem of high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) is a major challenge, since power amplifier (PA) efficiency is a critical factor for IoT and D2D devices consisting of low-cost hardware components. This paper overcomes this problem by introducing time-frequency domain NOMA (TF-NOMA), where OFDM and DFT-spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) are superposed over the time-frequency domain. By utilizing the low PAPR property achieved by DFT-precoding, TF-NOMA can efficiently reduce the PAPR of the downlink signal transmitted by the base station (BS) as well as the uplink signals of the devices located far from BS. As a result, the proposed TF-NOMA can operate with higher PA efficiency than the conventional OFDM-based PD-NOMA. Furthermore, the insertion of DFT-precoding with the aim of PAPR reduction also enhances the error propagation resistance due to the resulting Gaussian mixture signal property. Throughout the mathematical analysis and computer simulations, we demonstrate that TF-NOMA achieves better error rate performance than the conventional PD-NOMA with significant improvement of PA efficiency.

Opportunistic channel estimation with LTE signals of limited bandwidth for positioning applications

The positioning problem is interesting in a variety of applications, especially in indoor environments or in urban canyons, where the position information obtainable with traditional Global Navigation Satellite Systems is limited. In this paper, we deal with the problem of estimating, for the purposes of positioning, the time of arrival (TOA) and the angle of arrival (AOA) by processing LTE 3GPP signals, with particular attention to the uplink signals. The main contribution of this paper is the definition of new opportunistic methods to estimate the TOA and the AOA using the upstream demodulation reference signal (DM-RS) instead of the Sounding Reference Signal. We will show that the use of DM-RS and of estimation algorithms such as the Space-Alternating Generalized Expectation-Maximization and the Iterative Adaptive Approach for Amplitude and Phase estimation (IAA-APES) allows an efficient estimate of the parameters, in spite of the small, occupied bandwidth.

Collaborative LEO Satellites for Secure and Green Internet of Remote Things

The Internet of Remote Things (IoRT) supported by Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites is becoming indispensable for remote sensing, and it will play an important role in the forthcoming sixth generation (6G) communication network. In exploring its applications in remote mining and smart grid, etc., it is found that the implementation of IoRT faces challenges, including limited energy supplies, high mobility, and security vulnerabilities. To address these challenges, we propose employing collaborative LEO satellites to enable the implementation of secure and green IoRT. By combining the uplink signals received at collaborative LEO satellites, the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) can be significantly improved, so that relieving the transmit power requirement of the energy-limited terminal. Aiming at constructing a collaborative LEO satellite-based IoRT network, this paper introduces the system design principles regarding to frequency planning, waveform selection, collaboration strategies, and terminal design. In order to obtain optimal collaboration performance, we propose a signal coherent combining scheme to compensate Doppler shift, propagation delay, and phase differences. Furthermore, we propose a modified SUMPLE algorithm to estimate and compensate phase differences among satellites, which is applicable to Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) signal scheme. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed algorithm outperforms the traditional SUMPLE algorithm in combining gain.

31‐1: Active Stylus Application Using Self‐Capacitive Touch with OLED TDDI

In this work, we propose active stylus application using selfcapacitive touch with OLED TDDI. Active stylus application using self‐capacitive touch sensor has several benefits in comparison to using mutual‐capacitive touch sensor, such as “Smaller RC Loading in Active Stylus Sensing”, “Uplink Signal Partially Driving”, and “Downlink Signal Through Palm Removing”. With these benefits, active stylus application can get better writing experience and accuracy using self‐capacitive on OLED On‐Cell product. Finally, we propose the word wide first OLED TDDI (Touch and Display Driver Integration) NT38770 passed Wacom LV1 certification with 6.67” OLED module.

Evolution towards Coordinated Multi-Point Architecture in Self-Organizing Networks for Small Cell Enhancement Systems

This paper explores applications of the coordinated multi-point (CoMP) architecture operation of enhanced node B (eNB) in wireless communication networks featuring device-to-device (D2D) signaling. This is applied to cellular phone coverage for rapid mass transit systems, such as the Taiwan high speed rail transport system, and indoor public environments. The paper is based on formulas pertaining to the link between budget design and guidelines, as well as principles and theories of engineering practice, allowing designers to analyze and fully control the uplink and downlink signals and output power of fiber repeaters linking cellular phones to base stations. Finally, we employ easily installed cellular-over-fiber optic solutions for a small cell enhancement (SCE) system with novel architecture based on a leakage coaxial cable system using LTE-A technology. As a result, we successfully applied enhanced coverage designs for distributed antenna systems. These can be used to create self-organizing networks (SoN) for an Internet of Things.

Remote mmW photonic local oscillator delivery for uplink down-conversion in DML-based optical hybrid C-RAN fronthaul

In this work, we propose and demonstrate the remote delivery of a photonically generated local oscillator (LO) signal for uplink down-conversion in photonically generated millimeter-wave (mmW) signals over duplex centralized radio access network fronthaul. The technique, based on carrier-suppressed external modulation in a single Mach–Zehnder modulator, is employed for generating the mmW signals, which are distributed over hybrid optical links composed of fiber and free-space optics (FSO) prior to the radio wireless link at 42 GHz, and also for the uplink (UL) LO generation enabling the 38 GHz UL signal down-conversion. A 5G new radio (NR) quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) and 64-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signal transmission is successfully demonstrated using low-frequency directly modulated lasers for both the downlink and the UL mmW transmission, and thus a low-cost and simple intermediate frequency over fiber and FSO UL deployment are presented. The lowest achieved error vector magnitudes with the 5G NR signals at 100 MHz bandwidth in the proposed mmW UL schemes, including 10 km of optical fiber and a 1.1 m long FSO link, are 5.8% and 6% for QPSK and 64-QAM, respectively.

Bi-Directional Free-Space Visible Light Communication Supporting Multiple Moveable Clients Using Light Diffusing Optical Fiber.

In this work, we put forward and demonstrate a bi-direction free-space visible light communication (VLC) system supporting multiple moveable receivers (Rxs) using a light-diffusing optical fiber (LDOF). The downlink (DL) signal is launched from a head-end or central office (CO) far away to the LDOF at the client side via a free-space transmission. When the DL signal is launched to the LDOF, which acts as an optical antenna to re-transmit the DL signal to different moveable Rxs. The uplink (UL) signal is sent via the LDOF towards the CO. In a proof-of-concept demonstration, the LDOF is 100 cm long, and the free space VLC transmission between the CO and the LDOF is 100 cm. 210 Mbit/s DL and 850 Mbit/s UL transmissions meet the pre-forward-error-correction bit error rate (pre-FEC BER = 3.8 × 10-3) threshold.

Efficient Battery Usage in Wireless-Powered Cell-Free Systems With Self-Energy Recycling

This paper investigates wireless-powered cell-free systems, in which the users send their uplink data signal while simultaneously harvesting energy from network nodes and user terminals – including the transmitting user terminal itself – by performing self-energy recycling. In this rather general setting, a closed-form lower bound of the amount of harvested energy and the achieved signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio expressions are derived. Then, to improve the energy efficiency, we formulate the problem of minimizing the users' battery energy usage while satisfying minimum data rate requirements. Due to the non-convexity of the problem, a novel alternating optimization algorithm is proposed, and its proof of convergence is provided. Finally, numerical results show that the proposed method is more efficient than a state-of-art algorithm in terms of battery energy usage and outage rate.

On the Design of Optimal One-Shot Distributed Combining for Cooperative Multi-UAV Systems

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) networks will become one of the key components of the future mobile communication systems, especially suitable for on-demand coverage extension and prompt capacity enhancement. However, UAV networks, detached from the ground infrastructure, are usually constrained for traffic-intensive network-wide signal processing. This paper tackles this issue by considering the multi-user signal detection at the UAV swarm, where the uplink signals of multiple ground users are cooperatively recovered. In particular, to reduce the signaling exchange and the coordination latency, a two-stage distributed minimum mean squared error (MMSE) detection is proposed for the UAV swarm, which merges the local MMSE detections at each UAV with one-shot weighted combining at a central station. The combining weights only depend on the long-term statistical channel state informations (CSIs) and therefore, are suitable for distributed network with limited signaling exchange. Numerical results show that the proposed distributed MMSE detection achieves similar performance to the centralized MMSE detection.

Demonstration of High Capacity Bidirectional A-RoF System Using Wavelength Reuse and Frequency Multiplexing

We demonstrate a practical wavelength reuse bidirectional analog radio-over-fiber (A-RoF) system served by a single distributed feedback (DFB) laser. Frequency interleaving of downlink and uplink signals is proposed to ameliorate the spectral efficiency and mitigate the interference raised by the bidirectional transmission. Pre-emphasis is exploited to counteract the performance impairment brought about by the interaction between laser chirp and fiber chromatic dispersion. Through employing 64-QAM modulated 16 bands and 16-QAM modulated 12 bands filtered orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (f-OFDM) signals with 200 MHz bandwidth, asymmetric transmission with superior flexibility over 25 km fiber is attained, with an aggregate capacity of 20 Gb/s for downlink and 10 Gb/s for uplink. The mutual interference between the downlink and uplink is explored by overlapping the downlink and uplink signal spectra to varying degrees. Using the optimum frequency configuration, system performance is evaluated in terms of EVM and phase noise. To further investigate the effects caused by the Rayleigh backscattering and the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS), simulations are conducted on the proposed architecture, validating the conclusion from the experiment that the bidirectional transmission is primarily limited by the Rayleigh backscattering than the stimulated Brillouin scattering.

Remote Interference Discrimination Testbed Employing AI Ensemble Algorithms for 6G TDD Networks.

The Internet-of-Things (IoT) massive access is a significant scenario for sixth-generation (6G) communications. However, low-power IoT devices easily suffer from remote interference caused by the atmospheric duct under the 6G time-division duplex (TDD) mode. It causes distant downlink wireless signals to propagate beyond the designed protection distance and interfere with local uplink signals, leading to a large outage probability. In this paper, a remote interference discrimination testbed is originally proposed to detect interference, which supports the comparison of different types of algorithms on the testbed. Specifically, 5,520,000 TDD network-side data collected by real sensors are used to validate the interference discrimination capabilities of nine promising AI algorithms. Moreover, a consistent comparison of the testbed shows that the ensemble algorithm achieves an average accuracy of 12% higher than the single model algorithm.

User Scheduling and Trajectory Optimization for Energy-Efficient IRS-UAV Networks With SWIPT

This paper investigates user scheduling and trajectory optimization for a network supported by an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The IRS is powered via the simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) technique. The IRS boosts users uplink signals to improve the network longevity and energy efficiency. It simultaneously harvests energy with a non-linear energy harvesting circuit and reflects the incident signals by controlling its reflection coefficients and phase shifts. The trajectory of the UAV impacts the efficiency of these operations. We minimize the maximum energy consumption of all users by joint optimization of user scheduling, UAV trajectory/velocity, and IRS phase shifts/reflection coefficients while guaranteeing each user minimum required data rate and harvested energy of the IRS. We first derive a closed-form solution for the IRS phase shifts and then address the non-convexity of the critical problem. Finally, we propose an alternating optimization (AO) algorithm to optimize the remaining variables iteratively. We demonstrate the gains over several benchmarks. For instance, with a 50-element IRS, min-max energy consumption can be as low as 0.0404 (Joule), a 7.13% improvement over the No IRS case (achieving 0.0435 (Joule)). We also show that IRS-UAV without EH performs best at the cost of circuit power consumption of the IRS (a 20% improvement over the No IRS case).