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
Satyanarayana K
(2019)
Multi-User Hybrid Beamforming Relying on Learning-Aided Link-Adaptation for mmWave Systems
in IEEE Access
Huo Y
(2019)
Unequal Error Protection Aided Region of Interest Aware Wireless Panoramic Video
in IEEE Access
Zhang X
(2019)
Robust Beamforming for Multibeam Satellite Communication in the Face of Phase Perturbations
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Zhang H
(2019)
Linear Precoded Index Modulation
in IEEE Transactions on Communications
Xu C
(2019)
"Near-Perfect" Finite-Cardinality Generalized Space-Time Shift Keying
in IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications
Gong S
(2019)
Robust Energy Efficiency Optimization for Amplify-and-Forward MIMO Relaying Systems
in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications
Kong Z
(2019)
Robust Beamforming and Jamming for Enhancing the Physical Layer Security of Full Duplex Radios
in IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security
Xiang L
(2019)
Arbitrarily Parallel Turbo Decoding for Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication in 3GPP LTE
in IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications
Gupta S
(2019)
Performance Analysis of Device-to-Device Communication Underlaying Dense Networks (DenseNets)
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Xiao L
(2019)
Compressive Sensing Assisted Generalized Quadrature Spatial Modulation for Massive MIMO Systems
in IEEE Transactions on Communications
Chen Y
(2019)
Cooperative Full Duplex Content Sensing and Delivery Improves the Offloading Probability of D2D Caching
in IEEE Access
Yuan W
(2019)
Expectation-Maximization-Based Passive Localization Relying on Asynchronous Receivers: Centralized Versus Distributed Implementations
in IEEE Transactions on Communications
Guo H
(2019)
Joint Optimization of Power Splitting and Beamforming in Energy Harvesting Cooperative Networks
in IEEE Transactions on Communications
Miao X
(2019)
On the Energy Efficiency of Interference Alignment in the $K$ -User Interference Channel
in IEEE Access
Xu C
(2019)
Constant-Envelope Space-Time Shift Keying
in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing
Li Y
(2019)
Analogue Radio Over Fiber Aided MIMO Design for the Learning Assisted Adaptive C-RAN Downlink
in IEEE Access
Bai T
(2019)
Impulsive Noise Mitigation in Digital Subscriber Lines: The State-of-the-Art and Research Opportunities
in IEEE Communications Magazine
Zhang X
(2019)
Multi-Class Coded Layered Asymmetrically Clipped Optical OFDM
in IEEE Transactions on Communications
Sun H
(2019)
Robust Beamforming Design in a NOMA Cognitive Radio Network Relying on SWIPT
in IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications
Liu X
(2019)
Signal Characterization and Achievable Transmission Rate of VLC Under Receiver Nonlinearity
in IEEE Access
Li X
(2019)
A Near-Optimal UAV-Aided Radio Coverage Strategy for Dense Urban Areas
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Lu S
(2019)
Compressed Sensing-Aided Multi-Dimensional Index Modulation
in IEEE Transactions on Communications
Lu S
(2019)
Two-Dimensional Index Modulation for the Large-Scale Multi-User MIMO Uplink
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Rajashekar R
(2019)
Transmit Antenna Subset Selection in Generalized Spatial Modulation Systems
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Xu C
(2019)
Sixty Years of Coherent Versus Non-Coherent Tradeoffs and the Road From 5G to Wireless Futures
in IEEE Access
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
Satyanarayana K
(2019)
Multi-User Full Duplex Transceiver Design for mmWave Systems Using Learning-Aided Channel Prediction
in IEEE Access
Satyanarayana K
(2019)
Deep Learning Aided Fingerprint-Based Beam Alignment for mmWave Vehicular Communication
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Yang J
(2019)
Dynamic Resource Allocation for Streaming Scalable Videos in SDN-Aided Dense Small-Cell Networks
in IEEE Transactions on Communications
Ahmed A
(2019)
Primitive Polynomials for Iterative Recursive Soft Sequential Acquisition of Concatenated Sequences
in IEEE Access
Cai Y
(2019)
Robust Joint Hybrid Transceiver Design for Millimeter Wave Full-Duplex MIMO Relay Systems
in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications
Chen Y
(2019)
Millimeter-Wave Massive MIMO Systems Relying on Generalized Sub-Array-Connected Hybrid Precoding
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Cui F
(2019)
Peak-to-Average Power Ratio Reduction Based on Penalty-CCCP for Filter Bank Multicarrier Systems
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Duan R
(2019)
The Transmit-Energy vs Computation-Delay Trade-Off in Gateway-Selection for Heterogenous Cloud Aided Multi-UAV Systems
in IEEE Transactions on Communications
Zhao G
(2019)
Mobile-Traffic-Aware Offloading for Energy- and Spectral-Efficient Large-Scale D2D-Enabled Cellular Networks
in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications
Bai T
(2019)
Performance of HARQ-Assisted OFDM Systems Contaminated by Impulsive Noise: Finite-Length LDPC Code Analysis
in IEEE Access
Tan L
(2019)
Heterogeneous Networks Relying on Full-Duplex Relays and Mobility-Aware Probabilistic Caching
in IEEE Transactions on Communications
Xu C
(2019)
Adaptive Coherent/Non-Coherent Spatial Modulation Aided Unmanned Aircraft Systems
in IEEE Wireless Communications
Liang K
(2019)
Performance Analysis of Cellular Radio Access Networks Relying on Control- and User-Plane Separation
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Feng S
(2019)
Multiple Access Design for Ultra-Dense VLC Networks: Orthogonal vs Non-Orthogonal
in IEEE Transactions on Communications
Chen Y
(2019)
Channel-Covariance and Angle-of-Departure Aided Hybrid Precoding for Wideband Multiuser Millimeter Wave MIMO Systems
in IEEE Transactions on Communications
Rajashekar R
(2019)
Subcarrier Subset Selection-Aided Transmit Precoding Achieves Full-Diversity in Index Modulation
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Ishikawa N
(2019)
Differential-Detection Aided Large-Scale Generalized Spatial Modulation is Capable of Operating in High-Mobility Millimeter-Wave Channels
in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing
Xiang L
(2019)
CRC-Aided Logarithmic Stack Decoding of Polar Codes for Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication in 3GPP New Radio
in IEEE Access
Bai T
(2019)
Energy-Efficient Computation Offloading for Secure UAV-Edge-Computing Systems
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Tan L
(2019)
Twin-Timescale Artificial Intelligence Aided Mobility-Aware Edge Caching and Computing in Vehicular Networks
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Ding X
(2019)
The Security-Reliability Tradeoff of Multiuser Scheduling-Aided Energy Harvesting Cognitive Radio Networks
in IEEE Transactions on Communications
Satyanarayana K
(2019)
Hybrid Beamforming Design for Full-Duplex Millimeter Wave Communication
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Pan C
(2019)
Weighted Sum-Rate Maximization for the Ultra-Dense User-Centric TDD C-RAN Downlink Relying on Imperfect CSI
in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications
Li Y
(2019)
Analogue Wireless Beamforming Exploiting the Fiber-Nonlinearity of Radio Over Fiber-Based C-RANs
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 |