Converged Optical and Wireless Access Networks (COALESCE)
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Electronic and Electrical Engineering
Abstract
For most users today, connecting to the Internet ("access") is done wirelessly, either by WiFi or mobile data networks. Yet the unseen high-speed backbone of the Internet depends almost exclusively on fibre optic networks. To provide the higher data rate wireless access demanded by users to support increasingly sophisticated services and applications, wireless cell sizes must be reduced, presenting numerous challenges.
One such challenge is how to distribute the signals to each radio access point. This problem will be exacerbated in future wireless networks operating at higher carrier frequencies in the millimetre-wave or sub-terahertz bands, due to greatly reduced propagation distances at these frequencies. One solution is to use radio-over-fibre techniques, using optical fibre to connect the central office or base station to the access points. Thus, the optical fibre will be pushed closer to the user, with radio providing only the final, short hop. As an alternative to radio, an optical signal could be used to make that last wireless link (optical wireless access), producing a scenario where the interconnection between the optical network and the wireless access is even more seamless.
Another challenge brought about by the increased number of access points is that of energy consumption. Indeed, the biggest - and growing - contribution to energy consumption in the communications network is in the area of wireless access. Connecting the optical and wireless networks together in as seamless a manner as possible would offer advantages by reducing the energy lost in converting optical signals into wireless transmissions.
This project aims to bring together key groups already carrying out work on various aspects of wireless access and optical networking. It will create a physical network to interconnect existing test-beds at the different universities, using an established research optical network - the National Dark Fibre Infrastructure Service. This will foster collaboration between the groups with their complementary expertise and encourage cross-fertilisation of ideas, with the aim of finding optimal solutions for different wireless access scenarios. Beyond the physical network of test-beds, it is planned that this consortium will form the core of a Network of Excellence of researchers working in this area, which will encourage and promote collaboration with and between other university and industrial groups, both in the UK and internationally.
One such challenge is how to distribute the signals to each radio access point. This problem will be exacerbated in future wireless networks operating at higher carrier frequencies in the millimetre-wave or sub-terahertz bands, due to greatly reduced propagation distances at these frequencies. One solution is to use radio-over-fibre techniques, using optical fibre to connect the central office or base station to the access points. Thus, the optical fibre will be pushed closer to the user, with radio providing only the final, short hop. As an alternative to radio, an optical signal could be used to make that last wireless link (optical wireless access), producing a scenario where the interconnection between the optical network and the wireless access is even more seamless.
Another challenge brought about by the increased number of access points is that of energy consumption. Indeed, the biggest - and growing - contribution to energy consumption in the communications network is in the area of wireless access. Connecting the optical and wireless networks together in as seamless a manner as possible would offer advantages by reducing the energy lost in converting optical signals into wireless transmissions.
This project aims to bring together key groups already carrying out work on various aspects of wireless access and optical networking. It will create a physical network to interconnect existing test-beds at the different universities, using an established research optical network - the National Dark Fibre Infrastructure Service. This will foster collaboration between the groups with their complementary expertise and encourage cross-fertilisation of ideas, with the aim of finding optimal solutions for different wireless access scenarios. Beyond the physical network of test-beds, it is planned that this consortium will form the core of a Network of Excellence of researchers working in this area, which will encourage and promote collaboration with and between other university and industrial groups, both in the UK and internationally.
Planned Impact
The research enabled by this project is expected to have impact in the following areas:
Knowledge will be created as a direct result of the research, and this will be disseminated through publication in high-quality, high-impact scientific journals and at major international conferences in the subject area, as well as through annual workshops organised as part of the project. These routes will allow us to engage with other academic researchers in the field, both from the UK and internationally, and with industry, for instance mobile network operators, with an interest in the topic. It is through this route that we expect to attract other researchers to collaborate with and become users of the network of interconnected test-beds formed by the project. Major findings and developments will be publicised through media channels directed at a wider audience, such as specialist magazines, and a website for the consortium will be set up and regularly updated.
People will be trained and developed as a result of the project, particularly PhD students and post-doctoral researchers, helping to create a skilled workforce in this important area for the future. In addition, a major aim of the project is to encourage formal and informal collaborations and networks to be formed in the area of wireless and optical access networks, bringing together researchers from both academia and industry, and resulting in the development of future projects and products.
Society will benefit through the provision of an improved communication infrastructure for private customers and businesses, with potential impacts on e-commerce, entertainment, healthcare and government services. It is anticipated that the outcomes of the project will help inform standards activities. The UK will also benefit from the development of skilled workers through training enabled by the consortium and associated projects.
Economically, the market for wireless access technologies is expected to be in excess of $1 billion pa within the next 15 years. In order to exploit the economic potential of the research enabled by the consortium, opportunities for patenting, intellectual property licencing, and the formation of spin-out companies will be actively pursued. Members of the project consortium have a proven track record in this area, being the inventors on over 40 patents and having founded several successful start-up companies.
Knowledge will be created as a direct result of the research, and this will be disseminated through publication in high-quality, high-impact scientific journals and at major international conferences in the subject area, as well as through annual workshops organised as part of the project. These routes will allow us to engage with other academic researchers in the field, both from the UK and internationally, and with industry, for instance mobile network operators, with an interest in the topic. It is through this route that we expect to attract other researchers to collaborate with and become users of the network of interconnected test-beds formed by the project. Major findings and developments will be publicised through media channels directed at a wider audience, such as specialist magazines, and a website for the consortium will be set up and regularly updated.
People will be trained and developed as a result of the project, particularly PhD students and post-doctoral researchers, helping to create a skilled workforce in this important area for the future. In addition, a major aim of the project is to encourage formal and informal collaborations and networks to be formed in the area of wireless and optical access networks, bringing together researchers from both academia and industry, and resulting in the development of future projects and products.
Society will benefit through the provision of an improved communication infrastructure for private customers and businesses, with potential impacts on e-commerce, entertainment, healthcare and government services. It is anticipated that the outcomes of the project will help inform standards activities. The UK will also benefit from the development of skilled workers through training enabled by the consortium and associated projects.
Economically, the market for wireless access technologies is expected to be in excess of $1 billion pa within the next 15 years. In order to exploit the economic potential of the research enabled by the consortium, opportunities for patenting, intellectual property licencing, and the formation of spin-out companies will be actively pursued. Members of the project consortium have a proven track record in this area, being the inventors on over 40 patents and having founded several successful start-up companies.
Organisations
- University College London (Lead Research Organisation)
- National Physical Laboratory (Collaboration)
- University of West Attica (Collaboration)
- Dell EMC (Collaboration)
- INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY MADRAS (Collaboration)
- Oclaro (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- BT Group (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
Publications
Liu X
(2020)
Enhancing the Fuel-Economy of V2I-Assisted Autonomous Driving: A Reinforcement Learning Approach
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Liu X
(2021)
Artificial Intelligence Aided Next-Generation Networks Relying on UAVs
in IEEE Wireless Communications
Liu Y
(2021)
Physical Layer Security of Spatially Modulated Sparse-Code Multiple Access in Aeronautical $Ad$-$hoc$ Networking
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Liu Y
(2022)
Latency Minimization for mmWave D2D Mobile Edge Computing Systems: Joint Task Allocation and Hybrid Beamforming Design
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Liu Y
(2021)
STAR: Simultaneous Transmission and Reflection for 360° Coverage by Intelligent Surfaces
in IEEE Wireless Communications
Liu Y
(2021)
Space-Time Coded Generalized Spatial Modulation for Sparse Code Division Multiple Access
in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications
Long G
(2022)
An Evolutionary Pathway for the Quantum Internet Relying on Secure Classical Repeaters
in IEEE Network
Lu S
(2023)
The Degrees-of-Freedom in Monostatic ISAC Channels: NLoS Exploitation vs. Reduction
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
Lu S
(2024)
Integrated Sensing and Communications: Recent Advances and Ten Open Challenges
in IEEE Internet of Things Journal
Lyu S
(2021)
Lattice-Based mmWave Hybrid Beamforming
in IEEE Transactions on Communications
Description | The COALESCE project brought together five research groups at four UK universities, each with their own expertise in optical and wireless communications access (i.e. "last-mile" connection to users, homes and businesses). The aim was to interconnect the extensive experimental capabilities of the individual groups to create an environment for research and innovation into converged optical and wireless access networks that was more than the sum of its parts, and to foster collaborations and build a network of excellence among researchers with complementary expertise. Over its 6-year duration (including no-cost extension), the award has supported the separate groups in developing their distinct areas of knowledge and skills and has delivered effective and fruitful collaborations in diverse areas of research. Highlight collaborative achievements include: - Development of a new generation of beam-steering terminals for optical wireless communications (OWC) (U. Oxford), leading to the demonstration of >1 Tb/s OWC over a range of 3.5 m with lateral coverage up to 1.8 m, the highest aggregate capacity at this coverage (U. Oxford, U. Southampton ORC). - Demonstration, for the first time, of novel compressed digital radio over fibre over a photonically enabled THz fronthaul link at 250 GHz (U. Cambridge, UCL). - Design, simulation, and experimental verification of new modulation formats for optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (O-OFDM), and the application of machine-learning techniques which enable the throughput of O-OFDM to approach that achieved in the RF domain (U. Southampton ORC, U. Southampton ECS). - Experimental demonstration of integrated wireless-optical backhaul and fronthaul to wireless base-stations over multicore optical fibre (UCL, U. Cambridge, Universitat Politècnica de València). - Application of channel coding techniques to mitigate the effect of beam steering and tracking errors in OWC terminals in fibre-wireless-fibre optical links, showing an improvement in tolerance to misalignment of up to 50% (U. Oxford, U. Southampton ORC, U. Southampton ECS). In addition, the grant has enabled collaborations with academic and non-academic institutions from outside the COALESCE project - in the UK (National Physical Laboratory); Europe (Dell EMC; U. West Attica; Universitat Politècnica de València); and internationally (Indian Institute of Technology Madras). The effective collaborations developed during the project will be continued and expanded through the Future Communications Systems Federated Hubs announced by UKRI-EPSRC in March 2023, of which many of the COALESCE investigators are members. |
Exploitation Route | Some of the technology developed as part of the project has been licensed. Interest in other technologies has been shown by industry, leading to joint demonstrations. |
Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Electronics |
Description | The project's background IP developed at Cambridge has been licensed to an industrial partner (Beijing Institute of Aerospace Control Devices) through a technology-transfer licensing agreement. Several market-ready prototypes have been built by BIACD and were sold for evaluation purposes to Chinese telcos. |
First Year Of Impact | 2017 |
Sector | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Electronics |
Impact Types | Economic |
Description | (TERAOPTICS) - Terahertz Photonics for Communications, Space, Security, Radio-Astronomy, and Material Science |
Amount | € 3,974,527 (EUR) |
Funding ID | 956857 |
Organisation | European Commission |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start | 08/2020 |
End | 08/2024 |
Description | An ultra-fast ultra-broadband photonic measurement facility |
Amount | £2,107,782 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/X030040/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 06/2023 |
End | 03/2024 |
Description | An ultra-fast ultra-broadband photonic measurement facility |
Amount | £2,507,782 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/X030040/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2023 |
End | 12/2023 |
Description | ESA Call on Millimeter wave high power source |
Amount | € 385,000 (EUR) |
Funding ID | 4000117914/16/NL/GLC |
Organisation | European Space Agency |
Department | European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | Netherlands |
Start | 01/2017 |
End | 12/2019 |
Description | Future communications hub in all-spectrum connectivity |
Amount | £2,032,580 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/X040569/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 06/2023 |
End | 06/2026 |
Description | Future communications hub in all-spectrum connectivity: additional funds |
Amount | £8,528,424 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/Y037197/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2023 |
End | 03/2025 |
Description | Horizon 2020 |
Amount | € 3,704,800 (EUR) |
Funding ID | 761579 |
Organisation | European Commission H2020 |
Sector | Public |
Country | Belgium |
Start | 08/2017 |
End | 08/2020 |
Description | National Dark Fibre Facility |
Amount | £4,900,552 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/S028854/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2019 |
End | 05/2024 |
Description | National Dark Fibre Facility- Equipment Enhancement |
Amount | £437,481 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/V035487/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 11/2020 |
End | 05/2022 |
Description | National Dark Fibre Facility- Equipment Enhancement |
Amount | £485,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/X034879/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2023 |
End | 07/2024 |
Description | Optically controlled THz phased array antennas |
Amount | £1,178,040 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/R042578/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 08/2018 |
End | 06/2022 |
Description | PATTERN: Next generation ultra-high-speed microwave Photonic integrATed circuiTs using advancE hybRid iNtegration |
Amount | £589,667 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 10044974 |
Organisation | Innovate UK |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 08/2022 |
End | 08/2026 |
Description | Platform Driving The Ultimate Connectivity |
Amount | £2,030,861 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/X04047X/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2023 |
End | 04/2026 |
Description | TITAN Extension |
Amount | £10,612,161 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/Y037243/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2024 |
End | 03/2025 |
Title | Dataset to support the paper "Broadband Incoherent-Pumped Raman Amplification for U-band Transmission Systems" |
Description | Dataset to support the paper by N. Taengnoi, K. R. H. Bottrill, Y. Hong, L. Hanzo and P. Petropoulos, "Broadband Incoherently Pumped Raman Amplification for Ultra-Long Span U-band Transmission Systems," 2022 European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC), Basel, Switzerland, 2022, pp. 1-4. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9979265 The data demonstrate broadband incoherently pumped U-band distributed Raman amplification for ultra-long span communications. Using a transmission NZDSF as the amplifying medium, transmission of 18.4 Gb/s DP-BPSK over a single span of 285 km is demonstrated. The data contains excel files for each figure, and are contained within a directory of the same name. Data files are named after the Figure they correspond to and contain the data necessary to recreate the plots. Data for Fig-1 is not included, as Fig-1 contains only a schematic This work was supported by the UK's EPSRC under the Airguide Photonics, COALESCE, and PHOS grants (EP/P030181/1, EP/P003990/1, EP/S002871/1). |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/486738 |
Description | Collaboration with NPL on metrology for THz communication |
Organisation | National Physical Laboratory |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Co-funded a PhD student, who was collocated on both side. A particular interest in measurement and impact of phase noise on wireless THz links. This has led to important contribution to the field and developments in coherent digital THz wireless link fully transparent to optical networks. |
Collaborator Contribution | NPL funded half of the PhD fees and stipend, gave access to their laboratory for measurements of spectrum and lend an interferometer to UCL. Further, NPL co-supervised the PhD student and gave advise on measurements, metrology and traceability. |
Impact | Luis Gonzalez-Guerrero, Haymen Shams, Irshaad Fatadin, Member, IEEE, Martyn J. Fice, Member, IEEE, Mira Naftaly, Alwyn J. Seeds, Fellow, IEEE, and Cyril C. Renaud, "Single sideband signals for phase noise mitigation in wireless THz-over-fibre systems," Journal of Lightwave Technology, Vol. 35, 2018 Luis Gonzalez-Guerrero, Haymen Shams, Irshaad Fatadin, Martyn Fice, Mira Naftaly, Alwyn Seeds, Cyril Renaud, "Spectrally Efficient SSB signals for W-band Links Enabled by Kramers-Kronig Receiver," Optical Fiber Communication Conference, San Diego, 2018 L. Gonzalez-Guerrero, H. Shams, M. J. Fice, A. J. Seeds, I. Fatadin, M. Naftaly, F. Van Dijk, C. C. Renaud, "Experimental Investigation of Phase Noise Tolerance of SSB THz Signals," IEEE Topical meeting on Microwave Photonics, MWP 2017, Beijing, China, 2017 L. Gonzales-Guerrero, H. Sjams, M. J. Fice, A. J. Seeds, M. Naftaly, C. C. Renaud, "Experimental investigation for laser linewidth tolerance on photonic THz wireless systems using PE algorithms," Optical Terahertz Science and Technology, OTST 2017, London 2017 L. Gonzalez-Guerrero, H. Shams, M. J. Fice, A. J. Seeds, F. van Dijk, C. C. Renaud, "Linewidth Tolerance for THz Communication Systems Using Phase Estimation Algorithm," IEEE Topical meeting on Microwave Photonics, MWP 2016, Long Beach, US, 2016. |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Collaboration with University of West Attica |
Organisation | University of West Attica |
Country | Greece |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Experimental implementation of machine learning concepts at 1300nm. |
Collaborator Contribution | Development of machine learning algorithms for application in 1300-nm transmission systems. |
Impact | Work currently in progress. |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Demonstration of a THz wireless link integrated within an optical network in a Data Centre |
Organisation | Dell EMC |
Country | United States |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Build a THz transceiver demonstrator to create a wireless bridge within the optical network of DELL EMC research data Centre in Cork Ireland. Managed to demonstrate up to 25Gb/s demonstration in a real environment. Either in real data centre or emulated one during covid restrictions. |
Collaborator Contribution | Access to their facilities in Cork and loan of a data centre rack unit during the Covid period when travel was restricted. |
Impact | First demonstration of a THz link in a real environment. Full analysis of the fundamental limitation in achievable data rate for a THz wireless bridge. Further research funding from the EU and discussion further experiments and funding with DELL EMC. |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | Harnessing Quantum-Computing & Signal Processing in Wireless Communications |
Organisation | Indian Institute of Technology Madras |
Country | India |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We published several joint 4* papers, which contribute to the REF; |
Collaborator Contribution | Deriving closed-form equations for characterizing device-to-device communications and IoT |
Impact | mathematics, information theory, signal processing, computer science, telecommunications engineering |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | Research Outreach article. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Published outreach article in research outreach on UCL work on UTC-PDs and their application to wireless communication. The article was published both online and in a paper magazine and accompanied by a Twitter campaign. The readership so far has been above 1000 readers and it has generated a number of contact and discussion already with different industrial potential partners and academic partners in different disciplines. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://cdn.researchoutreach.org/Flipbooks/RO119/index.html# |
Description | Short course on THz photonics |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | This was the first day of a summer school on THz photonic technologies which was advertised across the world to the scientific community and graduate/doctoral schools. This first day was an introduction to THz photonics technologies and their impact on application, before the participants could engage with more focus subjects in the next few days. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |