Standardization and System integration of Smart Antennas intoWireless Networks

Adrian Boukalov Helsinki University of Technology Communications Lab ETSI/MESA meeting 18.09.2001
adrian.boukalov@hut.fi

Content
1.Smart antennas. Benefactors. Operators perspective. User perspective. 2. Overview of communication systems with Smart Antennas (SA). 3. Basics of Smart Antennas Techniques. SA types, classification. 4. Integrated receiver design with SA. 5. Impact of mobility, propagation environment and interference on SA applicability and performance. 6. Air interface spec and SA compatibility/performance.Standardization related issues 7. Wireless network performance and planning with SA. 8. Current status and future evolution of SA techniques.

9. SA system integration: Problems Solutions

10. SA system integration research at ComLab/HUT

"Spatial Processing remains as the most promising, if not the last frontier, in the evolution of multiple access systems"

Andrew Viterbi
There are very few techniques proposed today, which are able to improve radio network performance dramatically - Spatial processing - Multi-user detection - Channel reuse based on polarization - Advanced network control Spatial processing is among them and can be effectively combined with others techniques How smart should be Smart Antennas techniques ?

Smart Antenna Technology: Benfactors

Network capacity, coverage, less internetwork interference, filling Operator dead spots, fewer BSs,QoS, new services...-> revenues

OEM

New market for more advanced BSs, flexible radio network control...

User

Higher QoS, more reliable, secure communication, new services, longer battery life...

Smart Antenna Technology: Motivation

Link level improvements - Interference cancellation at the up and down links System improvements

capacity coverage Quality of service (QoS), bit rate, mobility rate

- SNR improvement due to antenna gain

- Multipath mitigation

Smart Antennas might be used at:

- A. BS only up-link..coverage (HSR) &down-link..coverage + capacity, spectrum efficiency due to reuse: between cells (SFIR), due to reuse inside cell (SDMA), both SDMA+SFIR

- B. MS/subscriber only up-linkcapacity/. due to the tighter channel reuse &down-link....coverage (WLL applications) - C. Both ends MS and BS simultaneously..coverage + capacity (A+B) + higher bit rate up-link & due to spatially multiplexed parallel channels and down-link split high bit rate data streams between them or .....higher transmission quality with ST coded diversity

ArrayComm (USA) - installations in WLL - tests for GSM 1800

Smart Antennas in Mobile Communications on the Globe

GigabitWireless(USA) WLL Ericsson (SW) first system system solution with SA GSM (commercially available) Radio Design AB (SW) NMT-450 NTT DoCoMo (Japan) Testbed for UTRA

IntelliWave Wireless Local Loop System

Raytheon (USA) Commercially available Fully Adaptive Smart Antenna System

UMTS ?
TSUNAMI-SUNBEAMSATURN/METRA Projects (EU) ARPA (USA )/GloMo project Metawave (USA) Commercially available IntelliCell Switched Beam System
- Wide range of R&D activity - Recommendations for standardization - Field Trials GSM/DCS 1800 system Coordinator ERA Technology (UK) Participants:
Motorola European Cellular Infrastructure Division UK France Telecom CNET France University of Aalborg Denmark Bosch Telecom GmbH Germany Orange Personal Communication Systems Ltd. UK DETyCOM Spain University of Bristol UK Polytechnic University of Catalonia Spain

Improvements achievable with spatial processing techniques

- Improvement in SNR due to beamforming/combining array gain. (Improved coverage. ) - Reduced ISI. - Enhanced spatial diversity. Path diversity. - Interference cancellation. In Trx. and Rx. Capacity. => Improved transmission rate with link adaptation techniques. These goals may be conflicting. Need balancing to achieve synergy with propagation environment, offered traffic, infrastructure !

Spatial Processing Approaches

- Sectorization - Macro-diversity with: * Combining (MRC,IRC,OC) * Prefiltering/Coding
(Trx. Coding, V-BLAST,...)
Sectorization

Macro-diversity

- Beamforming (BF)
Switched-beam Smart Antenna Adaptive beamforming

Switched-beam ant.

Adaptive BF

These approaches can be/should be applied together !

Improved SNR
SNR CCI Diversity ISI Time domain diversity

Beamforming

Combining. MRC

=
BS MS ~1/M
Spatial domain

Co-phased signals weighted proportionally to noise level/antenna Signal Domain

Improved SNR due to SA antenna gain.

- Gain=10 log M (M-number of antenna elements) - directional BF or switched BF can add 10-12 dB to link budget - can be controlled dynamically

BF Combiner BF

- Multi-path => diversity combining and/or matched beamforming. More complex algorithms.
- BF + combining techniques

System level improvements=> - increased coverage - possible reduction amount of BS - Penetration into buildings....

Improvements in system performance with SA

HSR
0.9 0.8 3.0

Reduction of the number of BS sites with HSR

2.5

0.6

2.0

0.4

1.5

0.2

1.0

Range extension with HSR

0.5 0 5 10 15 Number of elements 20

Improved SNR - diversity (space,path)

SNR CCI Diversity ISI Time domain diversity

Beamforming

Combining

Multi-path MS BS

.Path. Div. ~M

Space Div. M

Improved SNR - diversity (space,path)

- Spatial diversity combining techniques: Selection diversity, equal gain combining, Maximum Ratio (MRC),... - Spatial diversity requires 10 - 20 wavelength interelement spacing - Path diversity. Paths identification problem. - Combinations with other diversity techniques. polarization, frequency,..modulation diversity in multicast transmission

BF

Combiner
BF

Combiner

System level improvements=> - More reliable communication - Higher Bit Rate - Reduced power consumption for PC systems

Co-Channel Interference (CCI) Cancellation

SNR CCI Diversity ISI Time domain diversity

Beamforming

Combining

Interfering MS 2

BS MS 1

M-1

M-1 interferers cancellation. independent of the propagation environment

Co-Channel Interference (CCI) Cancellation

- might improve capacity in 3- 8 times - might require more complex algorithms in multipath - Combinations with other interference cancellation techniques: MUD * Multi-user detection (knowledge of other users waveforms, adaptive) * Power control * Error correction coding * Temporal domain interference cancellation is limited (oversampling)v * network control based techniques - IC is more important in cellular networks (GSM,3GPP)

BF

System level improvements=> - higher spectrum efficiency/capacity - can be translated to higher BER due to higher SIR or with more ch. - antijamming possibilities

ISI cancellation
SNR CCI Diversity ISI Time domain diversity

Beamforming
Path with ISI

Combining
Delayed Signals

Multipath
BS

M-1

M-1 delayed signals cancellation (M-1)/2 symbols due to delay spread

System performance improvement with SA

SFIR
10.0

SDMA
25

Spectrum efficiency gain of SFIR

Spectrum efficiency gain of SDMA

8.0

20

Efficiency gain

4.0

Efficiency gain

6.0

15

10

2.0

- 25% load, optimized --- 50% load , optimized

0 5 10 15 Number of elements 20

- N= M-1 - N= M/2 .-..-.. N=4

0 5 10 15 Number of elements 20

0.0

0.0

M -number of array elements N - number of parallel beams

ISI cancellation
- spatial domain - only interference cancellation is possible - preferably to combine with temporal domain techniques (preserves signal energy, diversity,more efficient)

Equalizer ZF,MMSE, MLSE

BF w BF w

- decoupled/joint space time processing

- ZF, MMSE, MLSE joint/decoupled S-T equalizers

System level improvements=> - Higher BER - Improved reliability - Improved performance in Multipath

S-T Equalizer ZF,MMSE, MLSE

Optimal Spatial Algorithms

SNR CCI Diversity ISI Time domain diversity

Beamforming
BS

Multi-path

Combining
Delayed Signals

Interfering MS 2

MS 1

Path with ISI, uncorrelated paths

Optimal S-T Algorithms

SNR CCI Diversity ISI Time domain diversity

Beamforming Multi-path
BS Interfering MS 1 Combining MS 2 Delayed Path withSignals ISI, uncorrelated paths

Equalisation
Delayed Signals

Time

Spatial domain processing

Temporal domain processing

Degrees of freedom
- Number of SA elements (M) can be considered as a resource, i.e. degrees of freedom which can be spent for SNR, CCI, diversity, ISI, either separately or jointly (optimum)

number of SA elements
SNR
~1/M

CCI
(M-1)

Diversity
~M ang. div

ISI
(M-1)

Optimum BF
(M-1) interferers M spat div. (M-1)/2 gain del. symb.

Optimum Combining - M determines spatial selectivity of SA

=> Integrated transceiver design

ST processing. Optimization Criteria.

- Based on cost function maximization/minimization (max SINR,)-> difficult to obtain in practice - Based on Statistical Estimation. MAP. ML (Likelihood function)-> treats interference as temporally and spatially white Gaussian. Balance effect of noise. Complexity. MSE -> more attractive in presence of correlated CCI. ZF force could not balance effect of noise. MMSE partly solves this problem. Algorithms complexity spectrum efficiency. Blind methods.

Spatial -only and S-T Techniques. Classification

by Reference Type
- Spatial reference based BF-direction of arrival based beamforming (DoABF) Spatial Eigenstructure based BF - Reference signal based/time reference BF (TRB) and/or optimum combining (OC) , MMSE in BF and channel est. S-T processing

- Signal structure (temporal /spectral) based beamforming, SSBF/property restored BF blind methods , MSE-like BF and ch. est in STP - Blind - Decision Directed (DD) techniques

Direction of Arrival Based Beamformers (DoABF )

- require angle of arrival (AoA) estimation - estimates output power at the output or input correlation matrix - sensitive to AoA estimation errors, calibration problem - problem with coherent multipath - Angular spread to array resolution ratio should be low - FDD applications - some methods of AoA estimation might be problematic in CDMA

Array

Processor

Array Output

Time-Reference Signal Based Beamformers and/or optimal combiner (TRB)

- requires reference signal or the replica correlated with desired signal - reference signal multiplexed with desired signal or reconstructed from detected symbols - better for varying radio channel - provide diversity - may be more processing extensive - receiver is simpler at expense spectral efficiency - synchronization problem - Delay spread (Ds) to frame length (T) ratio should be low - TDD applications Control algorithm

1 X1(t) 2 X2(t)

LS Beamformer

W1 W2

Array output

y(t)

Xn(t)

Wn

- + Signal processor +
Adaptive processor

Error Ref.

Signal Structure Based Beamforming (SSBF). Blind BF techniques.

- Does not require reference signal, thus increase spectral efficiency - constant modulus (CM)property of phase modulated signals, - finite alphabet (FA) property of digitally modulated signals , - spectral coherence restoral SCORE (only information needed - bit rate)

- useful method for tracking between references intervals

- convergence properties ? - methods based on partial information are usually non-linear - performance from robustness point of view similar to reference signal based methods, DD technique

BF (W)

CMA

Spatial processing: Summary

DoABF
- better perform in environments with low angular spread - require AoA estimation and calibration - can work in higher Doppler spread - feasible with FDD applications - macrocell environment

TRB or/and OC (Blind Algorithms)

- well perform in environments with high angular spread - require reference signal (spectrum efficiency), synchronization - well suit for TDD (micro/pico cells), FDD is more problematic micro and picocell - temporal structure based algorithms can better handle delay spread, but higher speed can be problem - more robust methods in changing environment (adaptive algorithms)

MIMO systems with SA at the MS& BS

Spatial multiplexing - Spatial multiplexing=>Data Rate

- Layered Architecture (BLAST)

- ST Coding => Diversity=>BER - Mutiplexing or Diversity ? - M</>N - Sub-arraying M or ST Coding

- MIMO CDMA with SA

- Iterated receiver design

MIMO techniques<=> different propagation environment

WLL

LOS
BS

MSC

Urban area
BS

NLOS Rural area

BS MSC
multiple antennas at MS

Possible combinations of spatial processing with other techniques

Time domain processing (Equalization, RAKE, ) Diversity (polarization, additional macro,..) Channel and ST coding MU detection Link adaptation

Spatial processing

&

Integrated Receiver Design with SA

Radio Channel - Integrated Temporal Spatial Frequency domains receiver - More coupled with detection (DD, Joint Channel est.) - Integrated with MUD/IC - Integrated with coding Doppler Spatial Time

Factors to be considered in SA system integration

A. Environment - propagation environment=> spreading in space-time, fading - interference environment - mobility
B. System parameters/air interface type C. Operator requirements/services requirements

SA Integration into Cellular Networks

Network Planning
- Capacity, coverage, interference planning - Joint fixed and radio network optimization, planning - System upgrade, economical issues

1G- analog systems 2G- digital systems 2.5G- digital+packet +.. (GPRS,.. 3G - W-CDMA 4G- cellular+ gigabit WLAN

Radio Network Management

Services -> MS location
Smart Ant. Tech.

Radio Interface
Receiver structure, Tx, Rx algorithms - Spatial proc.
- Time domain proc. - Coding - Detection - Diversity - ..

Network control
- R.resource management - call control

Cell control

- admission control - broadcast channel control - handover control - macro-diversity control

1G
2G 2.5G 3G 4G

DSP tech.
SW Radio

Link level control

- Power Control - Quality Control - Tracking

Air Interface
- Multiple access - Duplexing - Modulation - Framing - Availability of pilots

Macrocell and Microcell Channel Response

1800

Microcell

Macrocell

1800
Scatters local to BS Remote scatters

0
Delay (microsec)

1
-1800

0
Scatters local to MS

Delay (microsec)

20

After A.Paulraj

- Smart Antennas algorithms should be optimized according to the propagation environment based on the cell by cell principle

Spatial Processing: Integration with Air Interface

Antennas elements geometry, numbers of elements - M.

MS
Physical Channel Definition, Multiplexing Frame Structure Duplexing Technology

Radio Transmission Technologies

Internetworking

RF- Channel parameters

Multiple Access Technology

Modulation Technology

Channel Coding

Source Coding

Mapping control, traffic channels

Availability of the training signal Frame length -T

FDD TDD

Bandwidth-B Carrier frequency o

FDMA CDMA

Modulation type CM... Finite Alphabet Linearity

Combination with Space Processing

Ref. Signal based BF, S-T

UL->DL link

Wide/narrow band SA rec, BF, AoA est

Blind methods SSBF, ST

CDMA SA Receivers
- In non-multiuser case users are seen as interference to each other and there are many weaker CCI in the uplink. Capacity is improved due to reduction of TRX power - Multipath gives rise to the MAI due to the losses of codes orthogonality. Can be improved with SA. - Code can be seen as a free reference signal - Wideband beamforming realization and methods of AoA estimation are different from narrowband - Channel estimations can be based on spreading codes and it presumes introduction of novel techniques - Narrowband systems are more feasible with SA..... (coherence nature of array processing)

Spatial processing: Summary

- M degrees of freedom should be carefully spent according to the expected propagation and interference environment taking into consideration availability of other techniques(interference cancellation,diversity,..)
- Environment (spreading) complexity <=> receiver and algorithmic complexity (How modelling in algorithms corresponds to reality ?)

Spatial processing: Summary

Best solutions: Combine trade-offs between: - Beamforming <---> combining - Algorithms (ML<---> MSE) , subspace - Optimum <---> Data independent approaches - Base band beamforming <---> RF/or IF beamforming - Combination with other methods like multi-user detection (MUD), diversity, ST coding, adaptive modems
- Air interfaces should be not only friendly for S-T processing but flexible / adaptive to be able to exploit advantages of spatial processing in variable environments - Integrated S-T MUD .... transceiver design...

Spatial processing: Summary

Smart Antennas might be not very smart (Complexity) Integrated but relatively simple system design can provide considerable improvement with low level of complexity

Three Stages of Introduction Smart Antennas in Cell Planning Process of 2-2.5 G Networks

1. High Sensitivity Reception (HSR) 2. Spatial Filtering for Interference Reduction (SFIR)

3. Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA)

HSR concept
- SA at the up-link only
- Gain approximately 10logM - with 8 elements reduction of number of BS by factor of 0.3 only by factor of 0.5 with diversity

BS

MS

- revolving beam technique improve coverage of BCH

SFIR concept
- CCI cancellation + SA at the down-link - capacity improvement of 2.5 require 6dB CIR improvement (already achieved by Ericsson with simple SA algorithms) - the same range extension as with HSR - simulations shows that approximately the same capacity gain can be achieved with SFIR and SDMA while SFIR require considerable less network control upgrade

SFIR concept
- it was found reasonable to combine in GSM SFIR with random slow frequency hopping to benefit from interference and frequency diversity - reuse factor 1/3 seems reasonable 1/1 possible but too complex since dynamic RR management based on CCI measurements is required - frequency re-planning, but network control (RR) less affected

SDMA concept
- expected up to 8 times capacity improvement - power classes concept (can be dynamic or static) - with ref. signal BF MSs can be separated even when they have the same angular position to BS !
PCH 1 PCH 1 PCH 1

PCH 1

- for DoABF MSs angular distribution is important (macrocell)

- network planning (frequency) is simpler, but larger cell size can require new planning, more smooth migration into existing network - more network management upgrade required

Impact on the network control

Service layer Layer 3 U C
Geolocation based on AoA estimation RR management interference averaging DCA..., combined with user specific info (color codes, AoAs )

*
Layer 2

*
* * *

Initial access , HO control

Layer 1

signal *ReferenceAccess ,availability , Multiple Duplexing PN, DTX.

* Broadcast channels control

Layer 1. Power control. Quality monitoring. Tracking.

- power control at up and down links is beneficial (60% more capacity ) (Downlink in SDMA can be problematic due to furthest mobile) - dynamic behavior of tracking & power control ?

- user identification problem to support SDMA individual color codes needed to support each SDMA traffic channel channel, also for admission control ..
- for rescue purposes omni directional channel for call recovery is proposed - power classes concept (SDMA, others ..? )< -->RR management( tradeoff needed to avoid trunking effects)

Layer 2. Initial access. Handover.

- location aware HO or through omni-directional channel ?
- initial access with omni directional channel=> narrow beam or transition wide beam =>narrow beam - to setup beamformer just before user dedicated channel is allocated (access procedure modification or increased access time )
Initial access

t
BS
BS BS

- delayed handover while new BS has not been localized

- how to make down-link BF when channel info. at the up-link is not available yet (temporal omnidirectional downlink or longer access)? - to allow different synchronization sequences - packet capturing by SA can improve packet transmission via random access channel

Layer 3. Resource management.

- new functions: physical channel allocation based on angular information and or link quality monitoring - dynamic channel allocation (DCA) (localization with different precision... ?? needed) => precise localization - centralized DCA or => no DCA with SFIR and interference averaging approach or => subdivision on sectors and create list of forbidden sectors

- joint power control , beamforming and BS assignment

- centralized or distributed control (bunch concept) ? - smoothing of spatial traffic distribution - more benefit we expect to get (capacity,flexibility)- more RR management should be aware of spatial characteristics

Broadcast channels control with SA

- Coverage revolving beam concept in TDMA (more feasible for coverage extension) neighboring cell monitoring can be more problematic . Frame structure... - Adaptation to traffic variations Traffic control cell coverage by reshaping transmitted antenna pattern (sectorized and non-sectorized) - Network Planning need to split carefully beamformed and omni-directional channels ..

Network Control with SA. Higher layers. Geolocation.

New service (991, transport control) Combined DOA measurements and time delay based approach Raytheon introduced commercial available geolocation

system (SA option is included)

Network issues. Summary

- More benefits with SA- > more :

Resource management should be aware of: - > User location (AoA,..)and/or - > Power (power classes ,...)and/or - > Channel quality (and spatial properties ?)
Co-ordination between BSs -> at least loose form of synchronization for time reference BF (Layer 1) -> exchange information about user location and /or - > channel quality (and spatial properties ?) -> exchange information about cells traffic load

Network issues => Standardization

- It is need to incorporate more user dedicated information into channels (user dedicated pilots, color codes, different synchronization sequences) to separate/identify users (implemented in new air interfaces cdma- 2000,UTRA) - Channels structure should be more carefully divided between beamformed and omnidierctional. Minimize blanket coverage in terms of frequency/time

- DTX(comfort level?), HO, initial protocol perhaps should be slightly modified, but it can increase signaling overhead=> more interference in CDMA
- combination with link adaptation (since at the beginning channel history is not available). This combination will increase soft capacity limit - some changes can be expected at the MS (receiver, ant., protocols)

Achievable improvements with SA in the existing and future cellular networks.

PMR ?

SA System Integration Research at ComLab/HUT

- Integrated receiver design with SA
- MIMO system (CDMA/3G) - Joint Spatial Domain Processing =>.... - Advanced Simulation Tool Development. Parallel Computing- Programming

System<=>Signal Level Simulation.

3S Simulator (Signal, System, Services)

Smart Antennas Model

Two Users LOS propagation scenario
300
MS1 160

Center of Helsinki

120

-75 dB 60 -80 dB -85 dB

250 250
180

30

200
150

BS
210 240 300 270

330

100 50 0 0 50 100
MS2

- incoming impulses from the MS1 - amplitude and AOA - incoming impulses from the MS2 - amplitude and AOA, considered as interference for MS1 (and vs) - Smart Antennas radiation pattern antenna main lobe locked on the signals coming from MS1

150

200

250

300

basis X-coordinate

PMR-SA. New research Problems.

- Basic research on applicability/optimization of SA techniques taking into consideration TETRA system - Performance with different SA techniques and receivers structures. Coverage, BER,.. - Achievable improvement with SA and link adaptation techniques - Transceiver complexity study - Performance in multi-service environment(simulation) - SA at the MS/vehicle as a relaying platform

Publications
1.Edward Mutafungwa, Lauri Halme, Viktor Nssi, Adrian Boukalov A study of the Jrvenp-Lahti motorway's IT link alternatives for the connection of control stations, Espoo, Otaniemi: TKK Tietoliikennelaboratorio technology reports, 1998. 2. Adrian Boukalov "The impact of a non-uniform spatial traffic distribution on the CDMA cellular networks system parameters", URSI/Remote Sensing Club of Finland/IEEE XXIII Convention on Radio Science and Remote Sensing Symposium, Otaniemi 24-25 August, 1998, Helsinki University of Technology Laboratory of Space tech. Report 35, p.29-30 3. Boukalov Adrian, Sven-Gustav Hggman and Antti Pietil "The Impact of a Non-uniform Spatial Traffic Distribution on the CDMA Cellular Network System Parameters", ICPWC'99, Jaipur, India, February 1999, pp. 394 -398. 4. Boukalov Adrian, Sven-Gustav Hggman "UMTS Radio Network Simulation with Smart Antennas ", Proceedings of the Virginia Tech Symposium on Wireless Personal Communications, June 2-4, 1999, Blacksburg , USA , pp. 95-102. 5. Boukalov Adrian, "System Aspects of Smart Antennas Technology" Presentation at Radio Communication Systems Department / School of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (EIT) at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden. Available at: http://www.s3.kth.se/radio/seminars/sa.pdf. 6. Boukalov Adrian, Sven-Gustav Hggman "An overview. System aspects of Smart Antennas Technology in Wireless Communications" (Invited) , Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Wireless Communications vol. 2, 12-14 July 1999 Calgary , Canada, pp.1-14.

7.Boukalov Adrian, Sven-Gustav Hggman " UMTS Radio Network Simulation with Smart Antennas" to be published in book Wireless Personal Communications, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000. 8. Boukalov Adrian, Sven-Gustav Hggman "System Aspects of Smart Antennas Technology in Cellular Wireless Communications " (Invited) IEEE Radio and Wireless Conference (RAWCON 99), Denver, Colorado, USA, August 1-4, 1999, pp. 17-22.
9.Boukalov Adrian, "Introduction to Smart Antennas Techniques and Algorithms" Workshop on Smart Antennas Technology and Applications at RAWCON 99, 1st August 1999. 10. Boukalov Adrian, Sven-Gustav Hggman System Aspects of Smart Antennas Technology in Wireless Communications to appear in Journal IEEE Transaction in Microwave Theory and Techniques 11. Boukalov Adrian, Integration of Smart Antennas into Wireless Network (Invited paper), book Global Wireless Communications for World. Markets Research Centre's Business Briefing Series. Wireless Technology 2000. 12. (also see at http://www.comlab.hut.fi/thesispub.htm)