Network Coded Modulation for Next Generation Wireless Access Networks
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Reading
Department Name: Sch of Systems Engineering
Abstract
In view of the rapid increase in demand for mobile data services, next generation wireless access networks will have to provide greatly increased capacity density, up to 10 Gbps per square kilometre. This will require a much larger density of very small, cheap and energy-efficient base stations, and will place increasing demand on the bandwidth and energy efficiency of the network, and especially the backhaul network. Recent work on network MIMO, or coordinated multipoint (CoMP) has shown that by ensuring base stations cooperate to serve users, especially those close to cell edge, rather than interferring with one another, inter-user interference can be effectively eliminated, greatly increasing the efficiency of the network, in terms of both spectrum and energy. However this tends to greatly increase the backhaul load.
This work proposes a form of wireless network coding, called network coded modulation, as an alternative to conventional CoMP. This also enables base station cooperation, but instead of sending multiple separate information flows to each base station, flows are combined using network coding, which in principle allows cooperation with no increase in backhaul load compared to non-cooperative transmission, while gaining very similar advantages to CoMP in terms of bandwidth and energy efficiency.
The objective of the proposed work is to establish the practical feasibility of this approach, and evaluate its benefits, as applied to next generation wireless access networks. To this end it will develop practical signalling schemes, network coordination and management protocols, and, with the help of industrial collaborators, will ensure compatibility with developing wireless standards.
This work proposes a form of wireless network coding, called network coded modulation, as an alternative to conventional CoMP. This also enables base station cooperation, but instead of sending multiple separate information flows to each base station, flows are combined using network coding, which in principle allows cooperation with no increase in backhaul load compared to non-cooperative transmission, while gaining very similar advantages to CoMP in terms of bandwidth and energy efficiency.
The objective of the proposed work is to establish the practical feasibility of this approach, and evaluate its benefits, as applied to next generation wireless access networks. To this end it will develop practical signalling schemes, network coordination and management protocols, and, with the help of industrial collaborators, will ensure compatibility with developing wireless standards.
People |
ORCID iD |
Fu-Chun Zheng (Principal Investigator) |
Publications

Li Y
(2015)
Low-complexity iteration-based interference cancellation in asynchronous physical-layer network coding
in IET Communications


Nie W
(2016)
User-Centric Cross-Tier Base Station Clustering and Cooperation in Heterogeneous Networks: Rate Improvement and Energy Saving
in IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications

Nie W
(2016)
HetNets With Random DTX Scheme: Local Delay and Energy Efficiency
in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology

Phan H
(2015)
Wireless Backhaul Networks With Precoding Complex Field Network Coding
in IEEE Communications Letters

Phan H
(2016)
Physical-layer network coding with multi-antenna transceivers in interference limited environments
in IET Communications
Related Projects
Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Award Value |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
EP/K040685/1 | 01/02/2014 | 31/05/2016 | £306,224 | ||
EP/K040685/2 | Transfer | EP/K040685/1 | 01/06/2016 | 31/12/2017 | £99,440 |
Description | - A new Network Coding based scheme for backhauling has been proposed and published. This results have now been cited by other authors as well. - A random geometry based model for transmission delay for ultra dense networks as well as the corresponding energy efficiency has been derived and published. |
Exploitation Route | The impact of caching will be explored to improve the bandwidth and energy efficiency of the backhauling systems for ultra dense networks. |
Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) |
Description | EPSRC responsive mode |
Amount | £99,440 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/K040685/2 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 06/2016 |
End | 12/2017 |
Description | BT |
Organisation | BT Group |
Department | BT Research |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | The research resuts provided significant insights for BT in terms of the benefits and challenges of distributed diversity for future generation wirless systems. |
Collaborator Contribution | Industry guidance for our reseach effort. |
Impact | Publications and successor projects. |
Start Year | 2006 |
Description | BT |
Organisation | University of York |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | The research resuts provided significant insights for BT in terms of the benefits and challenges of distributed diversity for future generation wirless systems. |
Collaborator Contribution | Industry guidance for our reseach effort. |
Impact | Publications and successor projects. |
Start Year | 2006 |
Description | BT |
Organisation | Vodafone |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | The research resuts provided significant insights for BT in terms of the benefits and challenges of distributed diversity for future generation wirless systems. |
Collaborator Contribution | Industry guidance for our reseach effort. |
Impact | Publications and successor projects. |
Start Year | 2006 |