Cooperative backhaul aided next-generation digital subscriber loops
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Southampton
Department Name: Sch of Electronics and Computer Sci
Abstract
Cisco has recently released its traffic forecast study, which suggests that the world will enter into the Zetta-byte era in 2018. The UK alone generates and consumes approximately 10% of the entire global tele-traffic, making the UK one of the most data-dependent countries on the globe. To meet the demand of exponentially growing tele-traffic and to sustain the current level of economical growth, a high-quality digital infrastructure based on innovative and cost efficient solutions is required. The current geo-economics and building-preservation of historic cities do not favour the pervasive penetration of fibre. Hence, a lower-cost solution based on the improved exploitation of the existing copper network is essential to facilitate transformation of the digital infrastructure to support the next evolutionary step to Giga-bit/s data rates.
Since their emergence in the 80's, Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) have remained the dominant technology for broadband access with 364.1 million subscribers worldwide. Eventually fibre solutions will become ubiquitous, but given the vast copper network across the UK/EU, the pervasive penetration of fibre may be delayed for decades and copper may remain the best solution for heritage environments to prevent irreparable damage to historical street fabric. Owing to significant technology investments, DSL technology has evolved dramatically, increasing the throughput from Kilo-bit/s upto Giga-bit/s, with the aid of the newly developed G.fast solution.
However, experts from our industrial partner BT believe that the throughput achieved with the aid of the state-of-the-art copper technology may only represent less than 30% of its ultimate capacity, when we exploit the hitherto unexploited high-frequency band. Hence, the research of next-generation ultra-high-throughput DSL systems beyond G.fast becomes of crucial importance and timely, where radically new signal processing techniques have to be conceived. The challenge is to conquer the entire Very High Frequency (VHF) band and to holistically design the amalgamated wire-line and wireless system considered. Our proposed research starts from the fundamental understanding of the DSL channel over the entire 500 MHz VHF band to the design of radical signal processing techniques for tackling the critical challenges. Holistic system optimization is proposed for exploiting the full potential of copper. Thanks to BT's huge support, our proposed research has a high immediate engineering impact and a long-term scientific adventure.
Since their emergence in the 80's, Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) have remained the dominant technology for broadband access with 364.1 million subscribers worldwide. Eventually fibre solutions will become ubiquitous, but given the vast copper network across the UK/EU, the pervasive penetration of fibre may be delayed for decades and copper may remain the best solution for heritage environments to prevent irreparable damage to historical street fabric. Owing to significant technology investments, DSL technology has evolved dramatically, increasing the throughput from Kilo-bit/s upto Giga-bit/s, with the aid of the newly developed G.fast solution.
However, experts from our industrial partner BT believe that the throughput achieved with the aid of the state-of-the-art copper technology may only represent less than 30% of its ultimate capacity, when we exploit the hitherto unexploited high-frequency band. Hence, the research of next-generation ultra-high-throughput DSL systems beyond G.fast becomes of crucial importance and timely, where radically new signal processing techniques have to be conceived. The challenge is to conquer the entire Very High Frequency (VHF) band and to holistically design the amalgamated wire-line and wireless system considered. Our proposed research starts from the fundamental understanding of the DSL channel over the entire 500 MHz VHF band to the design of radical signal processing techniques for tackling the critical challenges. Holistic system optimization is proposed for exploiting the full potential of copper. Thanks to BT's huge support, our proposed research has a high immediate engineering impact and a long-term scientific adventure.
Planned Impact
o Economic/Societal Impact - The digital infrastructure plays a major role in spreading scientific, educational business and social information globally. However, the UK's growth in digital infrastructure lags behind that of its competitors, where the City Growth Commission report underlines that the existing national infrastructure is not matching the needs of sustained growth and if no investments are made to circumvent this problem, a loss of £90 billion will be encountered by 2026. The report further suggests that for every £1 invested, the UK's GDP is boosted by £1.3. Owing to the expensive roll-out of a full fibre infrastructure, a novel copper technology achieving tens of Giga bits/s throughput will be required to generate significant revenue for meeting the tele-traffic demands in a cost-effective and sustainable way. Hence, the success of this proposal is vital and lies within the primary focus of the UK's economy.
o Personal Impact - The research would make a substantial impact on the wider research community. This would help the UK to play a leading role in these transformative research areas. It would also help both the University of Southampton and Newcastle University to maintain its world-class research reputation, as well as further developing the expertise and project leadership skills of the investigators. The experience obtained under this EPSRC project would enable us to undertake more ambitious projects in the future, for the sake of making an even wider impact and contributions.
o Academic Impact - The research would make a substantial impact on the wider research community, as detailed in the Academic Beneficiaries section.
The underlying scientific approach will shed light on radical advances in `digital signal processing' in support of `an intelligent information infrastructure', under the EPSRC priority `Information and Communication Technologies'. Moreover, our proposed research on ultra-high-throughput DSL systems will conceive the required high-capacity back-haul of small-cells in the 5G wireless networks, which is addressed under the growing EPSRC `RF and microwave communications' research area. Finally, the wire-line and wireless convergence facilitated by our proposed research provides the fundamental support for creating the next generation Internet, which is envisioned to provide £50 ~ £100 billion per year benefits for the UK according to the `UK Future Internet Strategy Group'. Hence, our proposed research will establish such a digital infrastructure for supporting `information technology as a utility', as envisioned by the `Digital Economy' theme.
o Personal Impact - The research would make a substantial impact on the wider research community. This would help the UK to play a leading role in these transformative research areas. It would also help both the University of Southampton and Newcastle University to maintain its world-class research reputation, as well as further developing the expertise and project leadership skills of the investigators. The experience obtained under this EPSRC project would enable us to undertake more ambitious projects in the future, for the sake of making an even wider impact and contributions.
o Academic Impact - The research would make a substantial impact on the wider research community, as detailed in the Academic Beneficiaries section.
The underlying scientific approach will shed light on radical advances in `digital signal processing' in support of `an intelligent information infrastructure', under the EPSRC priority `Information and Communication Technologies'. Moreover, our proposed research on ultra-high-throughput DSL systems will conceive the required high-capacity back-haul of small-cells in the 5G wireless networks, which is addressed under the growing EPSRC `RF and microwave communications' research area. Finally, the wire-line and wireless convergence facilitated by our proposed research provides the fundamental support for creating the next generation Internet, which is envisioned to provide £50 ~ £100 billion per year benefits for the UK according to the `UK Future Internet Strategy Group'. Hence, our proposed research will establish such a digital infrastructure for supporting `information technology as a utility', as envisioned by the `Digital Economy' theme.
People |
ORCID iD |
Lajos Hanzo (Principal Investigator) | |
Rong Zhang (Co-Investigator) |
Publications
Xu C
(2019)
"Near-Perfect" Finite-Cardinality Generalized Space-Time Shift Keying
in IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications
Wan L
(2018)
4G\/5G Spectrum Sharing: Efficient 5G Deployment to Serve Enhanced Mobile Broadband and Internet of Things Applications
in IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine
Ishikawa N
(2018)
50 Years of Permutation, Spatial and Index Modulation: From Classic RF to Visible Light Communications and Data Storage
in IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials
Rajashekar R
(2018)
A Beamforming-Aided Full-Diversity Scheme for Low-Altitude Air-to-Ground Communication Systems Operating With Limited Feedback
in IEEE Transactions on Communications
Rajashekar R
(2019)
A Finite Input Alphabet Perspective on the Rate-Energy Tradeoff in SWIPT Over Parallel Gaussian Channels
in IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications
Xing C
(2024)
A General Matrix Variable Optimization Framework for MIMO Assisted Wireless Communications
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Rajashekar R
(2017)
A Generalized Transmit and Receive Diversity Condition for Feedback-Assisted MIMO Systems: Theory and Applications in Full-Duplex Spatial Modulation
in IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing
Winter S
(2024)
A Lattice-Reduction Aided Vector Perturbation Precoder Relying On Quantum Annealing
in IEEE Wireless Communications Letters
Yuan W
(2018)
A Low-Complexity Energy-Minimization-Based SCMA Detector and Its Convergence Analysis
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Li X
(2019)
A Near-Optimal UAV-Aided Radio Coverage Strategy for Dense Urban Areas
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Zhu W
(2021)
A New Class of Structured Beamforming for Content-Centric Fog Radio Access Networks
in IEEE Transactions on Communications
Zhang J
(2020)
A New Frontier for IoT Security Emerging From Three Decades of Key Generation Relying on Wireless Channels
in IEEE Access
Liu M
(2024)
A Nonorthogonal Uplink/Downlink IoT Solution for Next-Generation ISAC Systems
in IEEE Internet of Things Journal
Gong S
(2021)
A Unified MIMO Optimization Framework Relying on the KKT Conditions
in IEEE Transactions on Communications
Liu D
(2021)
Accelerating Deep Reinforcement Learning With the Aid of Partial Model: Energy-Efficient Predictive Video Streaming
in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications
Zhang X
(2019)
Achievable Rate Analysis of the Generalized Spatial Modulation Uplink in Multi-Cell Multi-User Systems in the Face of Pilot Contamination
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Cheng Y
(2023)
Achievable Rate Optimization of the RIS-Aided Near-Field Wideband Uplink
in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications
Zhang J
(2018)
Adaptive Coding and Modulation for Large-Scale Antenna Array-Based Aeronautical Communications in the Presence of Co-Channel Interference
in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications
Xu C
(2019)
Adaptive Coherent/Non-Coherent Single/Multiple-Antenna Aided Channel Coded Ground-to-Air Aeronautical Communication
in IEEE Transactions on Communications
Xu C
(2019)
Adaptive Coherent/Non-Coherent Spatial Modulation Aided Unmanned Aircraft Systems
in IEEE Wireless Communications
Zhang J
(2019)
Aeronautical $Ad~Hoc$ Networking for the Internet-Above-the-Clouds
in Proceedings of the IEEE
Botsinis P
(2018)
Air-to-Ground NOMA Systems for the "Internet-Above-the-Clouds"
in IEEE Access
Huang X
(2019)
Airplane-Aided Integrated Networking for 6G Wireless: Will It Work?
in IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine
Srinivasan M
(2021)
Airplane-Aided Integrated Next-Generation Networking
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Rajashekar R
(2017)
Algebraic Differential Spatial Modulation is Capable of Approaching the Performance of its Coherent Counterpart
in IEEE Transactions on Communications
Gupta A
(2024)
An Affine Precoded Superimposed Pilot Based mmWave MIMO-OFDM ISAC System
in IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society
Le A
(2021)
Analog Least Mean Square Adaptive Filtering for Self-Interference Cancellation in Full Duplex Radios
in IEEE Wireless Communications
Li Y
(2021)
Analog Radio-over-Fiber-Aided Optical-Domain MIMO Signal Processing for High-Performance Low-Cost Radio Access Networks
in IEEE Communications Magazine
Li Y
(2019)
Analogue Radio Over Fiber Aided MIMO Design for the Learning Assisted Adaptive C-RAN Downlink
in IEEE Access
Li Y
(2019)
Analogue Wireless Beamforming Exploiting the Fiber-Nonlinearity of Radio Over Fiber-Based C-RANs
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Dutta B
(2019)
Analysis of Quantized MRC-MRT Precoder For FDD Massive MIMO Two-Way AF Relaying
in IEEE Transactions on Communications
Garg A
(2024)
Angularly Sparse Channel Estimation in Dual-Wideband Tera-Hertz (THz) Hybrid MIMO Systems Relying on Bayesian Learning
in IEEE Transactions on Communications
Zhang R
(2018)
Anticipatory Association for Indoor Visible Light Communications: Light, Follow Me!
in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications
Sui Z
(2021)
Approximate Message Passing Algorithms for Low Complexity OFDM-IM Detection
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Zhang Y
(2018)
Approximate Perturbation Aided Lattice Encoding (APPLE) for G.fast and Beyond
in IEEE Access
Xiang L
(2019)
Arbitrarily Parallel Turbo Decoding for Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication in 3GPP LTE
in IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications
Liu X
(2021)
Artificial Intelligence Aided Next-Generation Networks Relying on UAVs
in IEEE Wireless Communications
Bai R
(2017)
Asymmetrically Clipped Absolute Value Optical OFDM for Intensity-Modulated Direct-Detection Systems
in Journal of Lightwave Technology
Varshney N
(2018)
Asymptotic SER Analysis and Optimal Power Sharing for Dual-Phase and Multi-Phase Multiple-Relay Cooperative Systems
in IEEE Access
Jafri M
(2024)
Asynchronous Distributed Coordinated Hybrid Precoding in Multi-cell mmWave Wireless Networks
in IEEE Open Journal of Vehicular Technology
Xiao L
(2018)
Bayesian Compressive Sensing Assisted Space-Time Block Coded Quadrature Spatial Modulation
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Srivastava S
(2022)
Bayesian Learning Aided Simultaneous Row and Group Sparse Channel Estimation in Orthogonal Time Frequency Space Modulated MIMO Systems
in IEEE Transactions on Communications
Srivastava S
(2021)
Bayesian Learning Aided Sparse Channel Estimation for Orthogonal Time Frequency Space Modulated Systems
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Srivastava S
(2021)
Bayesian Learning-Based Doubly-Selective Sparse Channel Estimation for Millimeter Wave Hybrid MIMO-FBMC-OQAM Systems
in IEEE Transactions on Communications
Rajput K
(2021)
Bayesian Learning-Based Linear Decentralized Sparse Parameter Estimation in MIMO Wireless Sensor Networks Relying on Imperfect CSI
in IEEE Transactions on Communications
Gong S
(2021)
Beamforming Optimization for Intelligent Reflecting Surface-Aided SWIPT IoT Networks Relying on Discrete Phase Shifts
in IEEE Internet of Things Journal
Shen W
(2019)
Beamspace Precoding and Beam Selection for Wideband Millimeter-Wave MIMO Relying on Lens Antenna Arrays
in IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing
Xu S
(2023)
Blockage-Resilient Hybrid Transceiver Optimization for mmWave Communications
in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications
Zhang J
(2019)
Boosting Fronthaul Capacity: Global Optimization of Power Sharing for Centralized Radio Access Network
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Description | The new spatial modulation systems designed allow us to simplify the most costly part of mobile communications systems, namely the radio-frequency chain, which reduces the battery-drain of the new systems. We have succeeded in improving the algorithms behind the fast BT Internet connections based on telephone lines. |
Exploitation Route | The findings were lavishly documented in numerous papers and I would like to compile all results in a book, if time allows. |
Sectors | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Electronics |
URL | http://www-mobile.ecs.soton.ac.uk/newcomms/?q=node/178 |
Description | We designed radically new so-called spatial modulation systems, which strike a flexible trade-off between the number of radio-frequency chains used by large-scale antenna systems and the attainable performance. Single-RF based MIMO systems were created for the first time. This work attracted the attention of InterDigital and they provided 100K funding for our team to develop these ideas further for commercial exploitation. There is also a joint patent with British Telecomm. Furthermore, Dr Rong Zhang was awarded a prestigious RAEng Fellowship, which allows him to spend 3 days a week with BT along with a PhD student in order to pave the way for an increased industrial, economic and societal impact. |
First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Electronics |
Impact Types | Societal,Economic |
Description | EPSRC Institutional Support Dr Rong Zhang |
Amount | £10,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 07/2016 |
End | 03/2017 |
Description | Royal Academy of Engineering Industrial Fellowship Dr Rong Zhang |
Amount | £17,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Royal Academy of Engineering |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2016 |
End | 04/2017 |
Description | BT and NCL |
Organisation | BT Group |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Contributed in the research of next generation copper technology across a range of physical layer design challanges |
Collaborator Contribution | Contributed in direct industrial steering and feedback as well as measurement data from BT Contributed in academic discussion and exploitation |
Impact | n/a |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | BT and NCL |
Organisation | Newcastle University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Contributed in the research of next generation copper technology across a range of physical layer design challanges |
Collaborator Contribution | Contributed in direct industrial steering and feedback as well as measurement data from BT Contributed in academic discussion and exploitation |
Impact | n/a |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | EU GOLD |
Organisation | EU Celtic-Plus GOLD |
Country | Germany |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Contributed in the research and development of several key WPs within the consortium. |
Collaborator Contribution | Contributed in industrial steering and academic collaboration, outreach and engagement |
Impact | n/a |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | CommNet2 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | CommNet² is an EPSRC funded network that aims to bring together the UK academic community engaged in ICT research in order to identify, discuss and address the major ICT challenges of the future. This website acts as the central hub of CommNet² and aims to provide information on the activities of its members to the ICT community at large as well as the media, industry and prospective students. Some key features of the website include events booking and calendar; user groups; and directories of members and their Institutions. Registration, which is quick and straightforward, will enable you to participate fully in the network, post articles, publicise and organise events and share material with collaborators. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017 |
URL | https://www.commnet.ac.uk/ |
Description | Copper communication workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Academic researchers from two universities and industrial engineers from BT have attended this copper communications workshop as well as engineers of BT participating in via teleconferencing. Presentations and experiment results were discussed for a whole day. Future plan about project outputs and future plan about next workshop were agreed with attended parties. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | EUSIPCO 2016 Conference Special Session |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | 5 highly prestigious research groups were invited to submit paper to the special session. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Industrial Advisory Board meeting |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Industrial Advisory Board meeting is an event involves both industrial professional practitioners, academic professors and postgraduate students. It is an opportunity for bridging academic research with the industrialization. Academic researchers and industrialists enjoyed a whole after amongst posters and discussions. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Tommy Flowers Institute |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | 'Tommy Flowers Institute' is aimed to help develop the UK's future research leaders in industry and academia. Hosted at Adastral Park, Suffolk, the Tommy Flowers Institute will provide national doctoral and post-doctoral ICT industrial researcher development, run by business and academia together, to develop industrial researcher skills in the ICT sector. This research project has received many interests from both professional practitioners and ICT students. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017 |