Scalable, Decentralised &

Distributed Massive MIMO for

IoT and 5G Rural Connectivity
Gerard Borg, Michael Blacksell, Jean-Christophe Lonchampt,
Luke Materne, Paul Redman and Daniel Tempra
Research School of Physics and Engineering
Australian National University
Gerard.borg@anu.edu.au
http://users.cecs.anu.edu.au/~Gerard.Borg

Motivation

Only one third of the world has access to the

Internet . How do we connect the next 4
billion?
Penetration low Indonesia-20%, Vietnam52%, Philipines-44%, Malaysia-68%

The digital divide is widening

Infrastructure problem?

Low cost massive connectivity building block for

5G that everyone can use?
2

Current approaches

Wireline fibre optic. Expensive infrastructure

cost.
However, fibre is a realistic option for short
range (city wide), massive capacity
CAN WE EXPLOIT THIS??

Satellite. Expensive last choice for remote.

Can cellular wireless work?

3

Simple picture of the cell

design impairments...
Spectrum
sharing

Backhaul fixed

range
Data centre
5

Is there another way?

Decentralise electricity supply

with solar...

Can we decentralise wireless

Internet in a similar way?

?
8

What should wireless do?

serve an arbitrary number of clients on the same radio

spectrum

RF power scales with the size of the network

use low complexity, distributed signal processing

the aggregate data of the network must never pass

through a single node.

No centralised processing, no centralised

routing, no cloud, no data centres!

How to do it?: two parts

WIRELESS: scalable massive MIMO

M service nodes, K clients: M>Kinfinity.

capacity per client fixed

distributed, each node has fixed RF power

decentralised, all nodes do signal processing

BACKHAUL: IP at each service node

pair clients to service nodes for routing

sharing of client data & MIMO side information

Network Architecture

11

Physics (I)

Given M service and K remotes for a conjugate precoder,

capacity is given by

C K log 2 ( 1+SINR )

SINR = signal to noise plus interference

Let

be average SNR for one service and one client

Physics (II)

For a power limited base station array

M f
SINR=
0 C 0
K ( f +1 )
as

f 0

SHORT RANGE

For a distributed network of base stations,

M 2 f
M
SINR=
CConstant
K ( M f +1 ) K

for

M f Constant as f 0

LONG RANGE

14

Massive connectivity regional USA (I)

59MHz, 4096 service, 2048 clients, 8MHz BW, 100km range,
Vertical file antennas, QPSK signalling, 40dB ambient NF

15

Massive connectivity regional USA (II)

<0.2% FER

16Gbps of aggregate throughput

Spectral efficiency ~ 2000bps/Hz

Service nodes radiate on average 83.1mW

Clients radiate 28.5 493mW

Total network RF power ~783W

16

Link test (I)

36kms
5kms

200m
17

Link test (II)

Compare to regional USA simulation

Measure: 20W for 36kms and 2MHz BW

Compute: 617W for 100kms and 8MHz BW

In the MIMO simulation,

2

M
0.0831W =681 W
K
18

Network Architecture
Internet /
backhaul network
backhaul links
radio service
nodes
wireless links
remote clients
19

Internet of Things

Can build such a network with low cost

hardware...

synchronisation by GPS

fixed wireless now. Mobile later

either TDD or FDD

pair clients to service nodes for routing

beam-forming and strong FEC (conjugate match)

use client multiplexing instead of multilevel-QAM for

higher per client data rate
low cost development toward a silicon implementation
21

Developing a 8x4 Laboratory demonstrator (I)

Developing 8x4 Laboratory demonstrator (II)

Internet connectivity over the wireless link

simple carrier synchronisation OK to
920MHz
up and downlink symbol synchronisation
and acquisition works
MIMO side information and data
distribution algorithm functioning
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Conclusion

ANU-MIMO is a minimal infrastructure wireless network

for massive broadband connectivity and IoT backhaul

a low cost massive connectivity building block for 5G?

Solve the digital divide within the 5G vision

Democratise the Internet

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