Lise Aabel

Distributed multiple-input-multiple-output (D- MIMO) is a promising technology for future wireless communication systems, but it still has many implementation challenges to overcome. In this paper, we investigate a D-MIMO setup based on sigma-delta-over-fiber (SDoF) and optical up-conversion, which allows low-complexity remote radio heads (RRHs) while simultaneously exploiting the high bandwidth available in the millimeter-wave (mm-wave) spectrum. The optical up-conversion is implemented by mixing two optical frequencies separated by $26.5 \,{\mathrm{GHz}}$ with a band-pass sigma-delta modulated signal at a lower intermediate-frequency (IF) at $1.5 \,{\mathrm{GHz}}$ in a photodetector, to create a mm-wave carrier at $28 \,{\mathrm{GHz}}$. The same optical frequencies can be used for many RRHs by splitting the power and inserting optical amplification. The fact that the frequency up-conversion is done at the RRH makes it possible to lower the requirement on the central-unit (CU) sample rate, while the phase coherency among the RRHs is preserved as the optical frequencies originate from the same signal source in the CU. We demonstrate through measurements both single- and multi-user MIMO with two phase-synchronized RRHs, showing that SDoF with optical up-conversion is a promising solution for implementing D-MIMO at mm-wave bands.

We consider a distributed multiple-input multiple-output (D-MIMO) testbed in which, to enable coherent-phase transmission without over-the-air synchronization, the remote radio heads (RRHs) are connected to a central unit (CU) via a 1-bit radio-over-fiber fronthaul. Specifically, 1-bit samples of the radio frequency (RF) signal are exchanged over the fronthaul. We investigate via both measurements and simulations based on an accurate model of the testbed hardware, the capability of the proposed architecture to provide uniform quality of services over the coverage area—one of the promises of D-MIMO. Our results are encouraging: for the case in which two user equipments (UEs) communicate over the same 75-MHz signal bandwidth, the measured error-vector magnitude (EVM) meets the 3GPP New Radio specification of 12.5% for 16 QAM across all tested D-MIMO scenarios. We also determine that uplink transmission is a potential bottleneck, due to the limited dynamic range of the automatic gain controller, which prevents the 1-bit quantizer to benefit from dithering. We show that this issue can be mitigated via UE power control.

We consider a distributed multiple-input multiple-output (D-MIMO) testbed in which, to enable coherent-phase transmission without over-the-air synchronization, the remote radio heads (RRHs) are connected to a central unit via a 1-bit radio-over-fiber fronthaul. Specifically, 1-bit samples of the radio-frequency signal are exchanged over the fronthaul. We investigate via both measurements and simulations based on an accurate model of the testbed hardware, the capability of the proposed architecture to provide uniform quality of services over the coverage area--one of the promises of D-MIMO. Our results are encouraging: for the case in which two user equipments (UEs) communicate over the same 75MHz signal bandwidth, the measured error-vector magnitude meets the 3GPP New Radio specification of 12.5\% for 16QAM across all tested DMIMO scenarios. We also determine that uplink transmission is a potential bottleneck, due to the limited dynamic range of the automatic gain controller, which prevents the 1-bit quantizer to benefit from dithering. We show that this issue can be mitigated via UE power control.

In this paper, we investigate the first downlink with serially connected remote radio heads (RRHs) using sigma-delta-over-fiber (SDoF) for distributed MIMO (D-MIMO). Coarse wavelength-division multiplexing (CWDM) is used and one wavelength is assigned to each RRH. The serial connection architecture is implemented with passive off-the-shelf components. Specifically, signals are combined into one fiber cable by using an optical multiplexer (MUX) and signals are dropped at each RRH by using optical add-drop multiplexers (OADMS). The architecture implementation is scalable in terms of energy consumption and cost. We measure the sensitivity of SDoF towards the optical interference that occurs when several signals are combined into one fiber, and compare to alike measurements using analog radio-over-fiber (ARoF). We also address the challenge of different time-delays to each RRH, due to the different fiber lengths; we present a method for time-delay compensation, which makes the architecture using RRHs connected in series perform similarly to using RRHs connected in parallel. Finally, our measurements show that the architecture with serially connected RRHs can be used to serve two user equipment (UEs) simultaneously within the same time- and frequency resources, using multi-user MIMO technologies.

We analyze the uplink performance of a distributed massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) architecture in which the remotely located access points (APs) are connected to a central processing unit via a fiber-optical fronthaul carrying a dithered and 1-bit quantized version of the received radio-frequency (RF) signal. The innovative feature of the proposed architecture is that no down-conversion is performed at the APs. This eliminates the need to equip the APs with local oscillators, which may be difficult to synchronize. Under the assumption that a constraint is imposed on the amount of data that can be exchanged across the fiber-optical fronthaul, we investigate the tradeoff between spatial oversampling, defined in terms of the total number of APs, and temporal oversampling, defined in terms of the oversampling factor selected at the central processing unit, to facilitate the recovery of the transmitted signal from 1-bit samples of the RF received signal. Using the so-called error-vector magnitude (EVM) as performance metric, we shed light on the optimal design of the dither signal, and quantify, for a given number of APs, the minimum fronthaul rate required for our proposed distributed massive MIMO architecture to outperform a standard co-located massive MIMO architecture in terms of EVM.

We present the uplink and downlink of a time-division duplex distributed multiple-input multiple-output (D-MIMO) testbed, based on a 1-bit radio-over-fiber architecture, which is low cost and scalable. The proposed architecture involves a central unit (CU) that is equipped with 1-bit digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital converters, operating at 10 GS/s. The CU is connected to multiple single-antenna remote radio heads (RRHs) via optical fibers, over which a binary radio frequency (RF) waveform is transmitted. In the uplink, a binary RF waveform is generated at the RRHs by a comparator, whose inputs are the received RF signal and a suitably designed dither signal. In the downlink, a binary RF waveform is generated at the CU via bandpass sigma-delta modulation. Our measurement results show that low error-vector magnitude (EVM) can be achieved in both the uplink and the downlink, despite 1-bit sampling at the CU. Specifically, for point-to-point over-cable transmission between a single user equipment (UE) and a CU equipped with a single RRH, we report, for a 10-MBd signal using single-carrier (SC) 16 quadratic-amplitude modulation (QAM) modulation, an EVM of 3.3% in the downlink, and of 4.5% in the uplink. We then consider a CU connected to three RRHs serving over the air two UEs, and show that, after over-the-air reciprocity calibration, a downlink zero-forcing precoder designed on the basis of uplink channel estimates at the CU achieves an EVM of 6.4% and 10.9% at UE 1 and UE 2, respectively. Finally, we investigate the ability of the proposed architecture to support orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) waveforms, and its robustness against both in-band and out-of-band interference.

We present the uplink and downlink of a time-division duplex distributed multiple-input multiple-output (D-MIMO) testbed, based on a 1-bit radio-over-fiber architecture, which is low-cost and scalable. The proposed architecture involves a central unit (CU) that is equipped with 1-bit digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital converters, operating at 10 GS/s. The CU is connected to multiple single-antenna remote radio heads (RRHs) via optical fibers, over which a binary RF waveform is transmitted. In the uplink, a binary RF waveform is generated at the RRHs by a comparator, whose inputs are the received RF signal and a suitably designed dither signal. In the downlink, a binary RF waveform is generated at the CU via bandpass sigma-delta modulation. Our measurement results show that low error-vector magnitude (EVM) can be achieved in both the uplink and the downlink, despite 1-bit sampling at the CU. Specifically, for point-to-point over-cable transmission between a single user equipment (UE) and a CU equipped with a single RRH, we report, for a 10 MBd signal using single-carrier 16QAM modulation, an EVM of 3.3% in the downlink, and of 4.5% in the uplink. We then consider a CU connected to 3 RRHs serving over the air 2 UEs, and show that, after over-the-air reciprocity calibration, a downlink zero-forcing precoder designed on the basis of uplink channel estimates at the CU, achieves an EVM of 6.4% and 10.9% at UE 1 and UE 2, respectively. Finally, we investigate the ability of the proposed architecture to support orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) waveforms, and its robustness against both in-band and out-of-band interference.

Radio-over-fiber is a popular technique to establish communication links between a central location and many remote antenna units. Many different architectures are available for the downlink, i.e., for the communication link from the central unit to the remote antennas. On the contrary, the low-cost and low-complexity requirement of the remote units makes it difficult to devise architectures suitable for the uplink, i.e., for the communication link from the remote antennas to the central unit. In this article, we address this and propose a low-complexity, all-digital, time-division-duplex communication architecture. For the downlink, a band-pass sigma-delta-over-fiber is employed. In the receive mode, the uplink includes an all-digital pulse-width-modulation technique. The received radio frequency (RF) signal is quantized into a binary stream through comparison with a tailored reference signal provided by the central unit. The direct quantization of the RF signal eliminates any need for local-oscillator and mixer stages at the remote units. The performance of the proposed architecture is investigated through extensive simulations and measurements. For instance, the all-digital, time-division duplex communication link provides -30.0 dB and -25.5 dB normalized mean square error signal quality through downlink and uplink communication with 20-MHz, 64-quadrature amplitude modulation signals centered at 2.365-GHz, respectively.

A crucial challenge in the implementation of distributed massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) architectures is to provide phase coherence while, at the same time, limit the complexity of the remote-radio heads (RRHs), which is important for cost-efficient scalability. To address this challenge, we present in this paper a phase-coherent distributed MIMO architecture, based on off-the-shelf, low-cost components. In the proposed architecture, up- and down-conversion are carried out at the central unit (CU). The RRHs are connected to the CU by means of optical fibers carrying oversampled radio-frequency (RF) 1-bit signals. In the downlink, the 1-bit signal is generated via sigma-delta modulation. At the RRH, the RF signal is recovered from the 1-bit signal through a bandpass filter and a power amplifier, and then fed to an antenna. In the uplink, the 1-bit signal is generated by a comparator whose inputs are the low-noise-amplified received RF signal and a suitably designed dither signal. The performance of the proposed architecture is evaluated with satisfactory results both via simulation and measurements from a testbed.