Hydra Radio Access Network (H-RAN): Multi-Functional Communications and Sensing Networks, Initial Access Implementation, Task-1 Approach

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Abstract
Next-generation sensor and radio access networks (NG-SRANs) namely, Hydra radio access networks (H-RANs) represent a significant evolution in the telecommunications and sensor ecosystem landscape in anticipation of 6G deployment and beyond. H-RAN’s vision derives its strength from integrating various technologies and networks into a single central network with the widespread incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies throughout the network. As a result, H-RAN’s unique features and characteristics can serve as a baseline for innovating new applications and significantly enhance the overall functions of conventional open radio access networks (O-RANs). However, among the many improvements and innovations that the H-RAN architecture promises in its functionality, this paper focuses on the initial access implementation "Task1" approach. Our solution contains several novelties that enhance both overhead and model accuracy. To this end, we define a novel intelligent perception network inspired by the knowledge distribution idea for collaborative H-RAN networks. We develop sparse multi-task learning (SMTL) as part of the AI/ML D-engine for federated learning to perform multiple tasks simultaneously. The SMTL is designed to select the optimal solution from a list of recommended solutions, namely "Tasks". In the simulation, figures of merit include metrics such as top-k validation accuracy, beam selection accuracy, throughput ratios, beam sweep time, latency, and initial access times, which are used to evaluate the performance and efficiency of the proposed technologies. Simulation results demonstrate that by exploiting contextual information from distributed collaborative SRUs, and UE sends its own sensing information via a physical random-access channel in addition to using SMTL, our H-RAN-based initial access scheme can achieve 82.9% throughput of an exhaustive beam search (EBS) based-O-RAN network without any beam search overhead and 96.7% by searching among as few as 5 beams. Compared to the conventional MMW 5G-NR solution, our proposed method significantly minimizes the beam search time needed to reach the desired throughput.
Funding Information
  • Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation
  • Korea government (MSIT) (Development of the Upper-mid Band Extreme massive MIM (RS-2024-00397216)
  • National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (2022R1A5A1027646)

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