In the present paper we introduce simultaneous multi-band measurements at sub-6 GHz and two mm-wave bands with the objective of characterizing propagation for multi-band channel modelling purposes in industry scenarios. The marginal power profiles show that the dominant scatterers are common in the different frequencies. In addition, a relation of decreasing average delay and angular spreads with increasing frequency is observed. The different measured parameters are contrasted with the 3GPP model for indoor factories.

Terahertz (THz) spectrum band has garnered a lot of interest recently, due to the advances in supporting radio electronics and the existence of hundreds of Gigahertz of available spectrum. Therefore, it is considered as one of the key enablers for the upcoming sixth generation (6G) wireless networks, which target to provide Terabit per second communication services. However, the propagation loss due to the high carrier frequency, obstacles, and the atmospheric attenuation in this frequency band need to be compensated to enable usable coverage ranges. In this paper, we investigate the potential of using Intelligent Reflecting Surface (IRS) for enhancing the coverage of Terahertz communication. We conduct a case study for an indoor cellular communication scenario with multiple Transmission and Reception Points supported by IRS. The numerical result show that the IRS can enable significant coverage extension. Besides, by optimizing the frequency resource allocation and IRS selection jointly considering the frequency-dependent atmospheric absorption, the throughput of underserved users can be improved significantly.

The ultimate goal of next-generation vehicle-toeverything (V2X) communication systems is enabling accident-free, cooperative automated driving that uses the available roadway efficiently. To achieve this goal, the communication system will need to enable a diverse set of use cases, each with a specific set of requirements. We discuss the main usecase categories, analyze their requirements, and compare them against the capabilities of currently available communication technologies. Based on the analysis, we identify a gap and indicate possible system designs for the fifth-generation (5G) V2X that could close the gap. Furthermore, we discuss an architecture of the 5G V2X radio access network (RAN) that incorporates diverse communication technologies, including current and cellular systems in centimeter wave (cm-wave) and millimeter wave (mm-wave), IEEE Standard 802.11p [1], and vehicular visible light communications (VVLC). Finally, we discuss the role of future 5G V2X systems in enabling more efficient vehicular transportation: from improved traffic flow and reduced intervehicle spacing on highways to coordinated intersections in cities (the cheapest way to increasing the road capacity) to automated smart parking (no more visits to the parking garage!), all of which will ultimately enable seamless end-to-end personal mobility.

The growing digitization of manufacturing processes requires enhanced connectivity between moving objects and machines in a factory environment. Communication for factory automation is characterized by periodicity, determinism and isochronicity, and has very different system and communication requirements compared to traditional mobile broadband for smartphones. In this paper, we analyze several industrial automation use-cases which demand the highest application requirements (ex. closed-loop motion control with < 1ms cycle time and 99.9999% service availability) and discuss the key design challenges for the upcoming 5G standard. We identify the main challenges for the 5G-NR system to support isochronous and deterministic communications for industrial automation. Finally, we provide estimated numbers of supported nodes/links for a closed-loop motion control use case with different bandwidths, which indicate the potential for 5G for industrial automation.

One of the major advantages of V2V communication for vehicle platooning system is the low latency of message transfer between the vehicles as compared to the recognition by the sensor systems. The low latency allows the following vehicles to predict the trajectory of leading vehicle and plan the required control actions in a very short time. In addition, V2V can be effectively used in scenarios where the information from vision sensors in unavailable or limited due to field-of-view or unsuitable weather conditions. In this paper, we present such a vehicle platooning system that relies only on V2V communication, without use of vision sensors. We also evaluate the effect of communication latency and reliability on the performance of the system. Vehicle tests using prototype hardware for 5G-V2X and 802.11p communications show the effectiveness of the approach.

Ubiquitous connectivity is a common requirement of many services considered in Fifth Generation (5G) communication systems. However providing network coverage or wireless connectivity becomes very challenging in deep-indoor scenarios such as underground parking lots where the total channel loss can easily exceed the maximum coupling loss (MCL) of the communication technology. Particularly, new use-cases for machine type communications (MTC) in 5G pertaining to the automotive and utilities sectors demand deep coverage and ubiquitous connectivity without the need of deploying costly new infrastructure. We motivate the importance of deep coverage by conducting a representative site-specific realistic coverage analysis using ray tracing. The results show that existing cellular-based coverage-optimized technologies cannot achieve ubiquitous coverage in deep indoor/underground areas and highlight the need for dynamic multihop relaying in 5G MTC.

The standardization for the fifth generation (5G) of mobile and wireless networks is at its early phase and has recently completed the first study item in Release 14. Nevertheless, there is a consensus that 5G will address the diverse service requirements of high-variety use cases. The network shall cope with such variation effectively and cost-efficiently even though the requirements can change over space and time. The design of the radio topology for the peak service demand is, thus, not desirable for network operators. As a consequence, the trend is towards more flexible network deployment. In this context, dynamic radio topology through vehicular nomadic nodes (VNNs) is an emerging concept towards 5G to efficiently address non-uniformly distributed traffic. VNNs are aimed to overcome the lack of flexibility induced by small cells that are deployed at fixed locations via network planning in current wireless networks. A VNN is a low-power access node with wireless selfbackhaul, which can be activated temporarily to provide additional system capacity and/or coverage on demand. VNNs can be integrated into vehicles, e. g., in car-sharing fleets. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of radio access network (RAN) moderation of VNNs in a multi-cell environment considering composite fading/shadowing environments with cochannel interference, where active VNNs are selected from a set of available candidate VNNs based on the signal-to-interferenceplus-noise ratio (SINR) on the wireless backhaul link. The results show that RAN moderation can significantly improve the end-toend rate and SINR performances along with clear amount-offading (AoF) reduction.

We explore the feasibility of 5G for enhancing cooperative automated driving. A V2X solution for enhancing road safety through connected cars based on 5G radio technology is shown. Based on a flexible, re-configurable software defined radio test-bed, we examine the benefit of ultra low latency and high reliability (URLLC) profile for enhanced emergency brake maneuver. This use case reveals the advantages and additional requirements of using 5G for automated emergency braking based on vehicle-to-vehicle communication. We analyze the impact of communication latency and reliability on the maneuver performance and associated safety aspect. The results provide insights into the joint-design of a V2X communication system for enhancing road safety through cooperative automated driving.

Ensuring low-latency and highly reliable communication between vehicles is one of the goals of 5G. We present a 5G Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) wireless testbed based on flexible and re-configurable software defined radio that is designed for cooperative automated driving. The use-cases and communication requirements for cooperative automated driving are discussed to motivate the system design and technical enablers that can achieve the most stringent link-level communication requirements of cooperative autonomous driving. The key building blocks include a re-configurable RF front-end, optimized base-band processing on standard Intel CPUs and a custom-built highpower external RF subsystem. The technical enablers include a new OFDM-like waveform based on Pulse-shaping, a flexible and self-contained frame-structure design, GNSS-aided hybrid synchronization and low-latency scheduled multiple-access. We finally present some experimental results from lab measurements.

Device-to-Device (D2D) communication underlaying cellular communications takes advantage of physical proximity of devices to improve coverage, resource utilization, data rates, QoS, and offers network operators the possibility to offload normally network-routed traffic to direct P2P links. This paper presents a novel Resource Allocation (RA) concept for D2D User Equipment (D-UEs) reusing the Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs) of the Cellular UEs (C-UEs). The RA algorithm is based on a virtual sectoring concept that relies on network assisted positioning technologies. By means of system level simulations, we show that this novel RA scheme yields significant performance and efficiency gains. To this end, we show the gains when such a RA scheme is employed along with some potential future directions.

http://www.comsoc.org/~mmc/ 1/4 Vol.x, No.x, September 2014 Building a new multi-facial Architecture of 5G Josef Eichinger, Huawei European Research Center, Germany, joseph.eichinger@huawei.com Ömer Bulakci, Huawei European Research Center, Germany, oemer.bulakci@huawei.com Gerd Zimmermann, Deutsche Telekom Innovation Laboratories, zimmermanng@telekom.de Patrick Marsch, Nokia Networks Research, Poland, patrick.marsch@nsn.com Hugo Tullberg, Ericsson, hugo.tullberg@ericsson.com

Machine Type Communication (MTC) is expected to play a significant role in fifth generation (5G) wireless and mobile communication systems. The requirements of such type of communication mainly focus on scalability (i.e., number of supported end-devices) and timing issues. Since existing cellular systems were not designed to support such vast number of devices, it is expected that they will throttle the limited network resources. In this paper, we introduce an effective solution for handling the signalling bottlenecks caused by massive machine communications in future 5G systems. The proposed approach is based on a device classification scheme using the devices’ requirements and position for forming groups of devices with the same or similar device characteristics. Our scheme is analysed, and the evaluation results indicate that the proposed solution yields significant reduction in collisions compared to the standard when MTC devices attempt to access the Random Access CHannel (RACH).

Mobile networks are experiencing the avalanche of data traffic, which is coupled with the billions of wirelessly connected data-intensive devices using diverse multimedia services and applications. Prospective studies suggest that traffic volume would increase a thousand-fold over the next decade. Furthermore, the users expect the utmost in quality with seamless connectivity to the broadband access. On this basis, moving networks emerge as a promising enhancement for fifth generation (5G) systems to enable flexible network deployment that goes beyond the scope of conventional fixed access nodes. Within the framework of moving networks, nomadic nodes (NNs) can enable demand-driven service provisioning to increase the network capacity or to extend the cell coverage area, and to reduce network energy consumption. NNs can be mounted on vehicles within a car-sharing fleet. In this paper, we look at the envisioned dynamic and flexible network deployment through NNs, and demonstrate analyses on the operation of nomadic networks.

During the last two years, the METIS project ("Mobile and wireless communications Enablers for the Twenty-twenty Information Society") has been conducting research on 5G-enabling technology components. This paper provides a summary of METIS work on 5G architectures. The architecture description is presented from different viewpoints. First, a functional architecture is presented that may lay a foundation for development of first novel 5G network functions. It is based on functional decomposition of most relevant 5G technology components provided by METIS. The logical orchestration & control architecture depicts the realization of flexibility, scalability and service orientation needed to fulfil diverse 5G requirements. Finally, a third viewpoint reveals deployment aspects and function placement options for 5G.

Dear MMTC colleagues: It is really a great honor for me to serve as the Asia vice-chair for this vital ComSoc Committee during the period 2014-2016! As part of my duties, I have contributed to the initial setting of the Interest Groups (IGs) and I am starting to work on the promotion of Special Issues (SIs)/symposiums/workshops with top journals/conferences. Actually, these two activities interact with each other, and the core challenge is to form attractive, active, and enthusiastic IGs. As a result, I really believe that these IGs represent the core of our networking and scientific activities and I warmly invite all of you to select one or more IG(s) to get involved by contacting the chair(s) so as to take part as key member. The activities of the IGs include, among others, the editing of special issues in major journals, the organization of workshops, sessions and conferences with the involvement of the MMTC, the setting of invited talks through conference calls that can be of interest for our community and the rest of the ComSoc members. While these are the major activities, some others can be carried out following the specific IG topics, such as the contribution to standardization activities. Essentially, these two activities will not success without strong support from our IG leaders and contributing members. At first, I will be working with all the IG Chairs to first identify a list of potential journals and conferences that are relevant to each IG. This list will be shared with all the members who have the interest to propose potential topics for a chosen venue. Then, we will socialize the topics with EiC(s) and Chair(s) to develop the full proposal on SI or symposium or workshop. It is our hope to achieve the largest efficiency via our collaborative efforts, ideally each IG can at least organize one SI or symposium or workshop per year. We also encourage multiple IGs to collaboratively propose topics that are relevant. In addition, we also hope IGs can take more constructive roles in our TC activities, for example, advertising the IG members to submit their papers to the multimedia symposium in ICC/Globecom. I would like to thank all the IG chairs and co-chairs for the work they have already done and will be doing for the success of MMTC and hope that any of you will find the proper IG of interest to get …

The METIS project is laying the foundation of 5G mobile and wireless communication systems putting together the point of view of vendors, operators, third party players and academia. In particular, METIS is developing and evaluating the key technology components of 5G systems. In this framework, a new mobile and wireless network architecture is required to accommodate those technical enablers and communication paradigms while taking into account existing and emerging architectural trends. This article provides an overview of the METIS system and architecture research into this future mobile and wireless network, discussing various alternatives and perspectives.

Next generation mobile and wireless communication systems beyond 2020, aka Fifth Generation (5G) systems, aim at providing ubiquitous user experience with the utmost in quality. One of the promising technologies targeted for 5G systems is the flexible network deployment based on nomadic nodes (NNs). An NN is a low-power movable access node that provides coverage extension and capacity improvement on demand. Yet, NNs require flexible backhaul. One possible cost-efficient realization for flexible backhaul is in-band relaying. In this context, the capacity of the wireless backhaul link between an NN and its serving base station (BS) has a crucial role in the achievable end-to-end performance. The flexible backhaul can be exploited by dynamic NN selection to overcome the limitations of the backhaul link and, thus, to enhance the system performance. To this end, dynamic NN selection is carried out via selecting the serving NN from a set of available candidates considering the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) on the backhaul link. In this regard, coarse NN selection takes into account only shadowing. Nevertheless, as NNs are stationary or slowly moving during operation, the wireless channels pertaining to NNs are usually subject to simultaneous impairments by both shadowing and multi-path fading, i.e., composite fading/shadowing. In this paper, we present the performance of coarse NN selection in composite fading/shadowing environments with co-channel interference. Further, we evaluate the performance in terms of backhaul link SINR, link rates, and end-to-end rate. Results show that coarse NN selection can yield high performance improvements.