The research objective of MyWave is to develop radically new concepts for mm-wave wireless communications. Especially the power consumption of current mm-wave base-station concepts is prohibitively high. Moreover, the communication robustness is too low for many applications and does not support moving users. To achieve the required breakthroughs, mm-wave communications specialists are needed. Therefore, we propose a research and training programme in form of a graduate school. The goal of the MyWave Graduate School is to provide a large team of early-stage researchers (ESRs) with the necessary in-depth background in antennas, radio electronics and signal processing. This training programme will add to their specialisation they have obtained during their MSc studies and will enable out-of-the-box thinking. This, in turn, will allow them to analyse and solve complex problems in a system context. The Graduate School is accompanied by individual research projects. These projects provide the starting ground for the ESR’s PhD studies. As such, they must be focussed on a specific part of the system. However, their multi-disciplinary knowledge obtained during the MyWave Graduate School will enable them to explore radically new concepts and true innovation in the broad field of future wireless systems. All ESR projects are defined around a set of societal and technical challenges. A proposed system-level solution to meet these challenges is provided in order to expose them to a realistic research situation within a system context and to foster collaboration between the ESRs. In this way, the ESRs will be equipped with an attractive set of transferable skills relevant for innovation, long-term employability and leadership in the domain of mm-wave wireless communications.
The targeted societal challenges (SCs) and technical challenges (TCs) are highlighted in the figure below. The SCs and TCs result in five research lines (RL) which will be addressed as work packages within the context of the MyWave research and training programme. A more detailed description of the SC and TC is provided below.
SC1: Establish Europe as leader in mm-wave telecommunications
Wireless communication is one of the fastest growing technologies worldwide. The mobile data traffic is expected to grow by a factor 100 each decade. As a consequence, higher frequencies in the mm-wave band will be required to provide sufficient bandwidth. Because of the line-of-sight nature of mm-wave propagation, distributed systems will be required in order to provide sufficient coverage and reliability at those frequencies. Such systems do not exist today. Therefore, the MyWave programme aims to establish a solid European knowledge base for distributed mm-wave communication systems and overcome the cost, size and energy related challenges by training a generation of new experts in this field. This will ensure European leadership in this field and associated job opportunities in Europe.
SC2: Relieve the shortage of well-qualified personnel in Europe’s wireless infrastructure industry
Europe has a leading position in the wireless infrastructure sector. In order to strengthen its position and to also take that role in the mm-wave domain, where traditional systems break down and existing research training shows a void, intra-European collaboration and training of new experts on this topic is essential. In MyWave, we have a unique consortium of top ranking academic organisations and world-leading semiconductor as well as wireless infrastructure companies along with their key technology providers. This network will form a basis for training urgently required new experts in this field and will further improve future collaborations across the European high-tech sector.
SC3: Extend Internet-of-Things and Smart Cities to Smart Mobility using next generation mm-wave connectivity
Current mm-wave research for 5G is mainly concentrated on fixed point-to-point and point-to-multi-point connections in order to facilitate use cases related to Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Smart Cities. However, in order to enable Smart Mobility use cases in the future, mm-wave wireless communications is also a necessity for moving users. Therefore, in MyWave we will focus on innovative distributed mm-wave base-station concepts with a particular focus on moving users.
TC1: Reduce power consumption of mm-wave antenna front-ends
State-of-the-art semiconductor technologies have maintained low costs while having reached transit frequencies well above 200 GHz [ITRS Roadmap, www.itrs.net]. However, GaAs/GaN-based processes are still superior for specific components such as low-noise and high-power amplifiers. Therefore, for 5G+ base-stations, RF power generation and amplification concepts as well as the best technology trade-offs have to be identified that ultimately allow the most energy efficient front-end solutions. In MyWave, energy efficiency is addressed in the following ways: antenna-electronics co-design, trade-offs with respect to component material efficiency (GaN vs. SiGe), energy-efficient amplifier topologies, e.g. Doherty or Envelope tracking, and low-energy antenna system level design for achieving high EIRP. The ESRs will develop essential new IP blocks and co-design concepts that also facilitate the integration of radiating elements.
TC2: Facilitate energy-efficient, real-time system adaptability for robust mm-wave communication with mobile users
The high path loss of mm-wave signals results in small cell sizes of typically much less than 150 m. Even for those distances, the radiated energy has to be concentrated in a narrow beam to achieve a sufficient signal strength. Hence, this beam has to follow a moving user in real-time in order to maintain a robust communication link. Therefore, in MyWave the fellows will focus on innovative radio-over-fibre fed and reconfigurable active antenna arrays along with their associated calibration techniques. The gained knowledge and innovative concepts will shape the upcoming decades of mm-wave wireless infrastructure and strengthen not only the European wireless industry, but also the employability of the ESRs within that industry.
TC3: Enable reliable connections of mobile users by Distributed Massive-MIMO with synchronous cooperation of several base-stations
At mm-wave frequencies, blockage by buildings and other obstacles is much higher than at currently used frequency bands and requires a higher base-station density to ensure sufficient coverage. Signal hand-overs from one base-station to the next would result in a large overhead, limiting the effective net data-rate per user. Therefore, we target distributed RRHs that are connected by radio-over-fibre front-haul links to a central processing unit. For this, RF synchronisation between the RRHs is essential and will be investigated within MyWave. Moreover, DM-MIMO signal processing techniques and system-level design guidelines and test-systems will be developed within the project. The ESRs will be trained from a system-level perspective and will experience the benefits of multi-disciplinary research programmes, supporting excellent career prospects in the European high-tech sector.