Publication: Large-scale MIMO textile technology for enhanced terminals
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2019-07
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2019-07-16
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Abstract
The increasing demand for higher data rates imposed by the next generation of wireless
communication networks has postulated Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO)
systems as one of the main technological solutions. While the development of a large
number of antennas is relatively feasible at the base station (BS) side due to the available
space, it is not so viable at the end user side. Therefore, the user end can be
considered as a clear bottle–neck of the communication since in MIMO systems the
throughput gains are limited by the minimum number of antennas existing at the transmitter
or the receiver. With the aim of overcoming this limitation, in this Thesis textile
multi–antenna based terminals are presented. Specifically, the textile solution based on
large–scale MIMO technology explored in this work allows to provide the energy and
spectral efficiency benefits offered by MIMO technology directly to the end user (e.g.
exploiting their own garments or accessories) without compromising the size, weight
and, ultimately the portability of the user equipment (UE).
Motivated with the aforementioned target, the main results provided by this Thesis can
be classified in three.
First, the design, fabrication and experimental characterization of different textile antenna
arrays is performed. Concretely, one design is developed to be integrated at the
backside of a jacket operating at 3.5 GHz, while the other design is developed to be
conformed in a helmet operating at 4.9 GHz. Additionally, due to the fact that the
textile solution is developed to work in the very close proximity of the human body, offering
information regarding the human exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) seems
to be relevant. Thus, an study to quantify the specific absorption rate (SAR) is also
performed. It should be noted that these designs can be applied to emergency scenarios,
where first responders can improve their communication capabilities with the
deployment of a large number of antennas in their garments.
Second, carrying out the experimental characterization of the performance in terms of
achievable rates for a textile multi–antenna terminal in order to show the real advantages of deploying a large number of antennas at the user end. With that objective, a measurement
campaign that allows to model the wireless channel in relevant Outdoor-to-Indoor
(O2I) propagation environments was performed in Valpara´ıso (Chile).
Finally, the third part of this Thesis pretends to evaluate the role that textile multi–
antenna terminals might play as a part of future public safety network solutions. To
this end, a two–hop link network proposal based on advanced long–term evolution (LTE)
standard is also proposed. Among other things, the device technology and the network
elements required to implement such a network concept, as well as, a possible design
principle based on the reliable connectivity principle required by emergency communications, are presented.
Description
Mención Internacional en el título de doctor
Keywords
Massive MIMO, Textile technology, LTE