In this paper, we use the percentage blockage as a metric when an opaque disc obstructs the Line-of-Sight link from the access point to the receiver in an optical wireless indoor communication system. The effect of the different parameters of the obstructing object are studied, these are the radius, the height, and the horizontal distance from the receiver in the positive y direction. The percentage of blocked room locations to the total number of room locations when varying the disc parameters is studied assuming a single serving link. It was found that depending on the dimensions of the obstructing object and the distance from the receiver in addition to which access point is serving the user, that blockage can vary between 0% up to 100%. Furthermore, the service received by a user, in terms of beam blockage depends on the access point they are connected to. The resulting fairness challenges will be addressed in resource allocation optimization in future work.
High reliability and availability of communication services is a key requirement that needs to be ensured by service providers. Since the direct line-of-sight (LOS) beam is prone to blockage in indoor optical wireless communication systems, a backup link needs to be at hand in case of blockage, and hence channel allocation algorithms should be blockage-aware. In this paper, the impact of beam blockage due to a disc with varying size and distance from the receiver is studied where blockage is quantitatively evaluated using percentage blockage for 512 room locations at 25 cm separation. It was f…
The proliferation of wireless devices in recent years has caused a spectrum shortage, which led the scientific community to explore the potential of using terahertz (THz) communications. However, THz systems suffer from severe path attenuation, blockage, and antenna misalignment. In this paper, we present a relay-based blockage and antenna misalignment mitigation approach. In more detail, two relay selection policies are employed, namely best and random relay selection. The system performance under both policies is evaluated and compared in terms of average throughput and the probability that …
School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University（亚利桑那州立大学电气、计算机与能源工程学院）
The sensitivity to blockages is a key challenge for the high-frequency (5G millimeter wave and 6G sub-terahertz) wireless networks. Since these networks mainly rely on line-of-sight (LOS) links, sudden link blockages highly threaten the reliability of the networks. Further, when the LOS link is blocked, the network typically needs to hand off the user to another LOS basestation, which may incur critical time latency, especially if a search over a large codebook of narrow beams is needed. A promising way to tackle the reliability and latency challenges lies in enabling proaction in wireless net…
Overcoming the link blockage challenges is essential for enhancing the reliability and latency of millimeter wave (mmWave) and sub-terahertz (sub-THz) communication networks. Previous approaches relied mainly on either (i) multiple-connectivity, which under-utilizes the network resources, or on (ii) the use of out-of-band and non-RF sensors to predict link blockages, which is associated with increased cost and system complexity. In this paper, we propose a novel solution that relies only on in-band mmWave wireless measurements to proactively predict future dynamic line-of-sight (LOS) link bloc…
Unlocking the full potential of millimeter-wave and sub-terahertz wireless communication networks hinges on realizing unprecedented low-latency and high-reliability requirements. The challenge in meeting those requirements lies partly in the sensitivity of signals in the millimeter-wave and sub-terahertz frequency ranges to blockages. One promising way to tackle that challenge is to help a wireless network develop a sense of its surrounding using machine learning. This paper attempts to do that by utilizing deep learning and computer vision. It proposes a novel solution that proactively predic…
Human blockage is one of the main challenges for mmWave communication networks in dynamic environments. The shadowing by a human body results in significant received power degradation and could occur abruptly and frequently. A shadowing period of hundred milliseconds might interrupt the communication and cause significant data loss, considering the huge bandwidth utilized in mmWave communications. An even longer shadowing period might cause a long-duration link outage. Therefore, a blockage prediction mechanism has to be taken to detect the moving blocker within the vicinity of mmWave links. B…
The upsurge in wireless devices and real-time service demands force the move to a higher frequency spectrum. Millimetre-wave (mmWave) and terahertz (THz) bands combined with the beamforming technology offer significant performance enhancements for ultra-dense networks (UDNs). Unfortunately, shrinking cell coverage and severe penetration loss experienced at higher spectrum render mobility management a critical issue in UDNs, especially optimizing beam blockages and frequent handover (HO). Mobility management challenges have become prevalent in city centres and urban areas. To address this, we p…
A fundamental challenge for millimeter wave (mmWave) communications lies in its sensitivity to the presence of blockages, which impact the connectivity of the communication links and ultimately the reliability of the entire network. In this paper, we analyze a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided mmWave communication system for enhancing the network reliability and connectivity in the presence of random blockages. To enhance the robustness of hybrid analog-digital beamforming in the presence of random blockages, we formulate a stochastic optimization problem based on the minimization…
In this paper, we propose an environment semantics aided wireless communication framework to reduce the transmission latency and improve the transmission reliability, where semantic information is extracted from environment image data, selectively encoded based on its task-relevance, and then fused to make decisions for channel related tasks. As a case study, we develop an environment semantics aided network architecture for mmWave communication systems, which is composed of a semantic feature extraction network, a feature selection algorithm, a task-oriented encoder, and a decision network. W…
Non-Diffracting Beams for Near-Field Millimeter-Wave Communications: Advantage Regimes Under Aperture and Blockage Constraints
Peng Cheng Laboratory（鹏城实验室）；State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves, School of Information Science and Engineering, Southeast University（东南大学信息科学与工程学院毫米波国家重点实验室）；Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore（新加坡国立大学电气与计算机工程系）；National Mobile Communication Research Laboratory and the School of Information Science and Engineering, Southeast University（东南大学信息科学与工程学院移动通信国家重点实验室）；Purple Mountain Laboratories（紫金山实验室）
5G millimeter wave (mmWave) technology is envisioned to be an integral part of next-generation vehicle-to-everything (V2X) networks and autonomous vehicles due to its broad bandwidth, wide field of view sensing, and precise localization capabilities. The reliability of mmWave links may be compromised due to difficulties in beam alignment for mobile channels and due to blocking effects between a mmWave transmitter and a receiver. In this paper, we study the channel characteristics for mmWave and sub-6 GHz V2X communications using ray-tracing simulations. We present results for time-varying path…
Predicting the millimeter wave (mmWave) beams and blockages using sub-6GHz channels has the potential of enabling mobility and reliability in scalable mmWave systems. These gains attracted increasing interest in the last few years. Prior work, however, has focused on extracting spatial channel characteristics at the sub-6GHz band first and then use them to reduce the mmWave beam training overhead. This approach has a number of limitations: (i) It still requires a beam search at mmWave, (ii) its performance is sensitive to the error associated with extracting the sub-6GHz channel characteristic…
In this letter, the mmAlert system, predicting millimeter wave (mmWave) link blockage during data communication, is elaborated and demonstrated. The passive sensing method is adopted for mobile blocker detection, where two receive beams with separated radio frequency (RF) chains are equipped at the data communication receiver. One receive beam is aligned to the direction of line-of-sight (LoS) path, and the other one periodically sweeps the region close to the LoS path. By comparing the signals received by the above two beams, the Doppler frequencies of the signal scattered from the mobile blo…
This paper investigates a novel research direction that leverages vision to help overcome the critical wireless communication challenges. In particular, this paper considers millimeter wave (mmWave) communication systems, which are principal components of 5G and beyond. These systems face two important challenges: (i) the large training overhead associated with selecting the optimal beam and (ii) the reliability challenge due to the high sensitivity to link blockages. Interestingly, most of the devices that employ mmWave arrays will likely also use cameras, such as 5G phones, self-driving vehi…
Many operators have been bullish on the role of millimeter-wave (mmWave) communications in fifth-generation (5G) mobile broadband because of its capability of delivering extreme data speeds and capacity. However, mmWave comes with challenges related to significantly high path loss and susceptibility to blockage. Particularly, when mmWave communication is applied to a mobile terminal device, communication can be frequently broken because of rampant hand blockage. Although a number of mobile phone companies have suggested configuring multiple sets of antenna modules at different locations on a m…
Mobility may degrade the performance of next-generation vehicular networks operating at the millimeter-wave spectrum: frequent loss of alignment and blockages require repeated beam training and handover, thus incurring huge overhead. In this paper, an adaptive and joint design of beam training, data transmission and handover is proposed, that exploits the mobility process of mobile users and the dynamics of blockages to optimally trade-off throughput and power consumption. At each time slot, the serving base station decides to perform either beam training, data communication, or handover when …
mm-Wave communication systems use narrow directional beams due to the spectrum's characteristic nature: high path and penetration losses. The mobile and the base station primarily employ beams in line of sight (LoS) direction and when needed in non-line of sight direction. Beam management protocol adapts the base station and mobile side beam direction during user mobility and to sustain the link during blockages. To avoid outage in transient pedestrian blockage of the LoS path, the mobile uses reflected or NLoS path available in indoor environments. Reflected paths can sustain time synchroniza…
WM4ISAC: World Model for Proactive ISAC Under Dynamic Blockage
Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT), University of Luxembourg（卢森堡大学安全、可靠与信任跨学科中心（SnT））；School of Information and Communication Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China（电子科技大学信息与通信工程学院）
Leveraging higher frequencies up to THz band paves the way towards a faster network in the next generation of wireless communications. However, such shorter wavelengths are susceptible to higher scattering and path loss forcing the link to depend predominantly on the line-of-sight (LOS) path. Dynamic movement of humans has been identified as a major source of blockages to such LOS links. In this work, we aim to overcome this challenge by predicting human blockages to the LOS link enabling the transmitter to anticipate the blockage and act intelligently. We propose an end-to-end system of infra…
Millimeter-wave communication with high throughput and high reliability is poised to be a gamechanger for V2X and VR applications. However, mmWave links are notorious for low reliability since they suffer from frequent outages due to blockage and user mobility. We build mmReliable, a reliable mmWave system that implements multi-beamforming and user tracking to handle environmental vulnerabilities. It creates constructive multi-beam patterns and optimizes their angle, phase, and amplitude to maximize the signal strength at the receiver. Multi-beam links are reliable since they are resilient to …
Mobility may degrade the performance of next-generation vehicular networks operating at the millimeter-wave spectrum: frequent mis-alignment and blockages require repeated beam training and handover, and incur enormous overhead. Nevertheless, mobility induces temporal correlations in the communication beams and in blockage events. In this paper, an adaptive design of beam training, data transmission and handover is proposed, that learns and exploits these temporal correlations to reduce the beam training overhead and optimally trade-off throughput and power consumption. At each time-slot, the …
The fundamental challenge of the millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequency band is the sensitivity of the radio channel to blockages, which gives rise to unstable connectivity and impacts the reliability of a system. To this end, multi-point connectivity is a promising approach for ensuring the desired rate and reliability requirements. A robust beamformer design is proposed to improve the communication reliability by exploiting the spatial macro-diversity and a pessimistic estimate of rates over potential link blockage combinations. Specifically, we provide a blockage-aware algorithm for the weighte…
Millimeter wave (mmWave) communication is a key component of 5G and beyond. Harvesting the gains of the large bandwidth and low latency at mmWave systems, however, is challenged by the sensitivity of mmWave signals to blockages; a sudden blockage in the line of sight (LOS) link leads to abrupt disconnection, which affects the reliability of the network. In addition, searching for an alternative base station to re-establish the link could result in needless latency overhead. In this paper, we address these challenges collectively by utilizing machine learning to anticipate dynamic blockages pro…
Mobility and blockage are two critical challenges in wireless transmission over millimeter-wave (mmWave) and Terahertz (THz) bands. In this paper, we investigate network massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmission for mmWave/THz downlink in the presence of mobility and blockage. Considering the mmWave/THz propagation characteristics, we first propose to apply per-beam synchronization for network massive MIMO to mitigate the channel Doppler and delay dispersion effects. Accordingly, we establish a transmission model. We then investigate network massive MIMO downlink transmission …
Wireless applications that use high-reliability low-latency links depend critically on the capability of the system to predict link quality. This dependence is especially acute at the high carrier frequencies used by mmWave and THz systems, where the links are susceptible to blockages. Predicting blockages with high reliability requires a large number of data samples to train effective machine learning modules. With the aim of mitigating data requirements, we introduce a framework based on meta-learning, whereby data from distinct deployments are leveraged to optimize a shared initialization t…
The sensitivity of millimeter wave (mmWave) signals to blockages is a fundamental challenge for mobile mmWave communication systems. The sudden blockage of the line-of-sight (LOS) link between the base station and the mobile user normally leads to disconnecting the communication session, which highly impacts the system reliability. Further, reconnecting the user to another LOS base station incurs high beam training overhead and critical latency problems. In this paper, we leverage machine learning tools and propose a novel solution for these reliability and latency challenges in mmWave MIMO sy…
University of Piraeus（比雷埃夫斯大学）；RapidMiner GmbH（RapidMiner有限公司）；Nokia Standardization Department（诺基亚标准化部）；Université Paris-Saclay（巴黎萨克雷大学）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）；CentraleSupélec（巴黎中央理工-高等电力学院）
Terahertz (THz) wireless networks are expected to catalyze the beyond fifth generation (B5G) era. However, due to the directional nature and the line-of-sight demand of THz links, as well as the ultra-dense deployment of THz networks, a number of challenges that the medium access control (MAC) layer needs to face are created. In more detail, the need of rethinking user association and resource allocation strategies by incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) capable of providing "real-time" solutions in complex and frequently changing environments becomes evident. Moreover, to satisfy the ul…
This paper provides the first real-world evaluation of using visual (RGB camera) data and machine learning for proactively predicting millimeter wave (mmWave) dynamic link blockages before they happen. Proactively predicting line-of-sight (LOS) link blockages enables mmWave/sub-THz networks to make proactive network management decisions, such as proactive beam switching and hand-off) before a link failure happens. This can significantly enhance the network reliability and latency while efficiently utilizing the wireless resources. To evaluate this gain in reality, this paper (i) develops a com…
Intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) offers a cost effective solution to link blockage problem in mmWave communications, and the prerequisite of which is the accurate estimation of (1) the optimal beams for base station/access point (BS/AP) and mobile terminal (MT), (2) the optimal reflection patterns for IRSs, and (3) link blockage. In this paper, we carry out beam training design for IRSs assisted mmWave communications to estimate the aforementioned parameters. To acquire the optimal beams and reflection patterns, we firstly perform random beamforming and maximum likelihood estimation to est…
Discontinuous reception (DRX), where a user equip-ment (UE) temporarily disables its receiver, is a critical power saving feature in modern cellular systems. DRX is likely tobe particularly aggressively used in the mmWave and THzfrequencies due to the high front end power consumption. A keychallenge of DRX in these frequencies is that individual links are directional and highly susceptible to blockage. MmWave and THz UEs will therefore likely need to monitor multiple cells in multiple directions to ensure continuous reliable connectivity.This work proposes a novel, heuristic algorithm to dynam…
Line-of-sight link blockages represent a key challenge for the reliability and latency of millimeter wave (mmWave) and terahertz (THz) communication networks. To address this challenge, this paper leverages mmWave and LiDAR sensory data to provide awareness about the communication environment and proactively predict dynamic link blockages before they occur. This allows the network to make proactive decisions for hand-off/beam switching, enhancing the network reliability and latency. More specifically, this paper addresses the following key questions: (i) Can we predict a line-of-sight link blo…
Millimeter wave (mmWave) and sub-terahertz communication systems rely mainly on line-of-sight (LOS) links between the transmitters and receivers. The sensitivity of these high-frequency LOS links to blockages, however, challenges the reliability and latency requirements of these communication networks. In this paper, we propose to utilize radar sensors to provide sensing information about the surrounding environment and moving objects, and leverage this information to proactively predict future link blockages before they happen. This is motivated by the low cost of the radar sensors, their abi…
Line-of-sight link blockages represent a key challenge for the reliability and latency of millimeter wave (mmWave) and terahertz (THz) communication networks. This paper proposes to leverage LiDAR sensory data to provide awareness about the communication environment and proactively predict dynamic link blockages before they happen. This allows the network to make proactive decisions for hand-off/beam switching which enhances its reliability and latency. We formulate the LiDAR-aided blockage prediction problem and present the first real-world demonstration for LiDAR-aided blockage prediction in…
Recently, intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) assisted mmWave networks are emerging, which bear the potential to address the blockage issue of the millimeter wave (mmWave) communication in a more cost-effective way. In particular, IRS is built by passive and programmable electromagnetic elements that can manipulate the mmWave propagation channel into a more favorable condition that is free of blockage via judicious joint BS-IRS transmission design. However, the coexistence of IRSs and mmWave BSs complicates the network architecture, and thus poses great challenges for efficient beam managemen…
Second-Order Fade Statistics in Underwater Optical Wireless Communications in Air-Bubble and Turbidity-Impaired Environments
Aix-Marseille University（艾克斯-马赛大学）；CNRS, Centrale Méd, Fresnel Institute（法国国家科学研究中心，中央马德学院，费斯奈尔研究所）；University of Málaga（马拉加大学）；University Institute of Telecommunication Research (TELMA)（电信研究所（TELMA））
Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) can assist terahertz wireless communication to restore the fragile line-of-sight links and facilitate beam steering. Arbitrary reflection beam patterns are desired to meet diverse requirements in different applications. This paper establishes relationship between RIS beam pattern design with two-dimensional finite impulse response filter design and proposes a fast non-iterative algorithm to solve the problem. Simulations show that the proposed method outperforms baseline method. Hence, it represents a promising solution for fast and arbitrary beam patte…
