ABSTRACT. Broadcasting companies have been providing more and more services over the last decades. In addition to traditional linear TV and radio programmes on-demand offers have been made available using every conceivable Internet platform. Social media support has been crucial to reach in particular the younger generation. With the help of new telecommunication technologies branded as “5G” broadcasters hope to integrate all services to offer a holistic user experience. Delivery of these highly personalized services shall be completely transparent to users. This poses very stringent requirements on distribution technologies with regards to performance, flexibility and availability. However, key for success will be win-win business arrangements between all stakeholders along the entire value chain.

ABSTRACT. This presentation will provide an overview of the Rel-14 enTV features. In particular, we will discuss the motivation for this new design and will provide an overview of the relevant features, both from the inside as well as from the usage and interop perspective. The nodular design and the individual components will be explained, providing also relation to established and emerging other broadcast technologies as for example developed in DVB and ATSC.

ABSTRACT. The 5G standardization program in 3GPP moves swiftly to wrap up the first phase while at the same time identifying the focus of work on targets for the second phase – which will wrap up at the end of 2019 and culminate in the IMT-2020 submission by 3GPP OPs. 5G embraces and extends 4G technologies while adding significantly in each area. We will consider the overall program as well as the specific advances already achieved in phase 1 and under consideration for phase 2.

ABSTRACT. The rapid adoption of cutting edge media services such as ultra-high definition (UHD/4K) video and immersive media i.e, virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), will demand large investments in a scalable, ubiquitous, and robust communication infrastructure and services. The H2020 5GCity project aims to solve such issues and beyond while designing, developing, and deploying a sliceable, distributed cloud & edge and radio 5G-platform with neutral hosting capability to support the sharing between information technology (IT) infrastructure owners and media service providers i.e., vertical media actors. In this paper we discuss how 5G technology will facilitate the rise of highly demanding media use cases and its implication on how service providers typically operate (in terms of business model). In this paper, a brief introduction to 5GCity’s architecture is provided, while presenting how three media-related use cases will be deployed in different European Cities (Barcelona, Bristol and Lucca) given the project’s architecture and underlying neutral host paradigm as to understand the benefits of such model for infrastructure owners and media service providers. 

ABSTRACT. Satellite communication has recently been included as one of the enabling technologies for 5G backhauling, in particular for the delivery of bandwidth-demanding enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) application data in 5G. In this paper we introduce a 5G-oriented network architecture empowered by satellite communications for supporting emerging mobile video delivery, which is investigated in the EU 5GPPP Phase 2 SaT5G Project. Two complementary use cases are introduced, including (1) the use of satellite links to support offline multicasting and caching of popular video content at 5G mobile edge, and (2) real-time prefetching of DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP) video segments by 5G mobile edge through satellite links. In both cases, the objective is to localize content objects close to consumers in order to achieve assured Quality of Experiences (QoE) in 5G content applications. In the latter case, in order to circumvent the large end-to-end propagation delay of satellite links, testbed based experiments have been carried out to identify specific prefetching policies to be enforced by the Multiaccess computing server (MEC) for minimizing user perceived disruption during content consumption sessions.

ABSTRACT. Network slicing has emerged as a major new networking paradigm for meeting the diverse requirements of various vertical businesses in virtualised and softwarised 5G networks. SliceNet is a project of the EU 5G Infrastructure Public Private Partnership (5G PPP) and focuses on network slicing as a cornerstone technology in 5G networks, and addresses the associated challenges in managing, controlling and orchestrating the new services for users especially vertical sectors, thereby maximising the potential of 5G infrastructures and their services by leveraging advanced software networking and cognitive network management. This paper presents the vision of the SliceNet project, highlighting the gaps in existing work and challenges, the proposed overall architecture, proposed technical approaches, and use cases.

ABSTRACT. The 5G ESSENCE project context is based on the concept of Edge cloud computing and Small Cell-as-a-Service (SCaaS) and further “promotes” their role and/or influences within the related 5G vertical markets. 5G ESSENCE’s core innovation is focused upon the development/provision of a highly flexible and scalable platform, offering benefits to the involved market actors. This paper gives an overview of the 5G ESSENCE ecosystem and use cases, as well as maps the project pilots to the key addressed 5G functionalities and KPIs.

ABSTRACT. This paper presents a novel concept for enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) communication using millimeter- wave radio technologies enhanced by mobile edge computing to support a new class of applications requiring low latency and high data rates at the same time. The concept developed in the joint European/Japanese collaboration project 5G-MiEdge [1] builds on meshed backhaul topologies using millimeter wave links with beam forming capabilities and smart routing units for dynamic route, link and power management to be orchestrated by SDN. It is shown that dynamic changes in the topology at run time can be realized without experiencing losses in latency or throughput.

ABSTRACT. This paper presents ATSC 3.0 physical (PHY) layer modulation and coding performance under AWGN channel through computer simulations, laboratory tests, and field trials. Analysis results show that the measured results in laboratory and field are less than 1 dB away from computer simulation results. The ATSC 3.0 PHY layer performance covers ultra-robust reception (negative SNR operation with QPSK and 2/15 LDPC code) to very high-throughput (over 50 Mbps with 4096-NUC with 13/15 LDPC code) in real field environment.

ABSTRACT. Min-sum (MS) algorithm is a low-complexity approximation of belief propagation (BP) algorithm, but has a severe decline in decoding performance. To reduce this degradation, Normalized min-sum (NMS) algorithm and offset min-sun (OMS) algorithm of a fixed correction factor were proposed. In the literature, extensive empirical results have been provided on NMS and OMS for ATSC 3.0 LDPC codes. It indicates that NMS is approaching BP’s performance, though NMS may have error floors for some codes. Meanwhile, OMS have better performance than NMS in most cases under perfect estimation assumptions. However, in real cases, due to OMS’s sensitivity to channel estimation which is imperfect, it suffers from performance loss. In this paper, the variable correction MS (VCMS) algorithm is introduced, based on which we run extensive simulations for all ATSC 3.0 LDPC codes. Results of frame error rate show that VCMS algorithm not only has a noticeable gain in waterfall region over NMS, but can also eliminate any possible error floors occurred. This algorithm is also better than OMS in many cases. Although in some cases OMS seems to be a little bit better than the VCMS, the VCMS is not sensitive to the imperfect channel estimation. The study of this paper aims to give more options and advice for the implementation of the ATSC 3.0 LDPC decoders.

ABSTRACT. This paper presents a low-complexity demapping method for demodulating M-ary one-dimensional non-uniform constellations. For uniform constellations, there are several algorithms for searching the closest point to the received observation. However, for non-uniform constellations these techniques are not valid. We propose a novel technique based on dividing the non-uniform constellation into lattices of identical dimensions. The value of the received symbol is modified in order to provide an entry to a look-up table where the closest point is stored. This solution provides low complexity for demodulation of the in-phase and quadrature PAMs of the non-uniform constellation. The complexity is O(2+log2M) while the exhaustive search is O(M). The complexity implications in terms of memory and computations and the system performance are analyzed. 

ABSTRACT. In this paper, we introduce a joint satellite and terrestrial broadcasting system which is called Next Generation Broadcasting-Wireless and Satellite (NGB-WS) and will be adopted in Greater China area and some other parts of Asia. This system requires good performance particularly for combined decoding. Under this requirement, we propose an algorithm to globally design a series of QC-IRA LDPC codes based on mother code via punctured GADE(Gaussian Approximate Density Evolution) theory to facilitate the combined decoding. However, in the case of joint decoding, if the satellite and terrestrial broadcasting system uses the same punctured pattern, the combined performance is far away from optimal. To this end, we specially propose an algorithm to select the punctured patterns to better the combined performance based on protograph GADE. Compared with the LDPC codes in DVB-S2, the designed punctured based QC-IRA LDPC codes have a comparable performance in single code rate, and have significant gain when two codes with same/different rates are combined decoded in AWGN and Rayleigh channels.

ABSTRACT. In this paper, to further approach the maximum transmission rate of terrestrial broadcasting return channel, interleave division multiple access (IDMA) is utilized for terrestrial broadcasting return channel rather than conventional orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA). Extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) chart is employed to analyze the loss of maximum transmission rate for the conventional IDMA scheme. Due to the advantages of quasi-cyclic low density parity check (QC-LDPC) codes, such as the large degree of freedom and the convenience to extent into multiple code rates, the adopted convolutional codes (CCs) in the conventional IDMA scheme are replaced by QC-LDPC codes. The simulation results show when the code rate is 1/2 and QPSK is adopted, the signal to noise ratio (SNR) thresholds of CC and QC-LDPC code are 1.7 dB, and 0.85 dB away from the theoretical Shannon limit, respectively. Thus, the proposed IDMA scheme based on QC-LDPC codes has the maximum transmission rate approaching capability for terrestrial broadcasting return channel.

ABSTRACT. We have proposed a media-unifying platform capable of automatically selecting the appropriate medium to facilitate consistent end-user experience, irrespective of the content distribution medium. This paper describes a distribution status management system in which three types of servers operate for public, private, and temporarily provided content. We demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed system, which flexibly responds to more diverse user situations, such as handling recorded videos at home and the automatic playback of content available in a restricted space. We also verified that the system addressed issues associated with quality-of-service degradation, security, and service availability during emergency situations when internet connectivity is lost.

ABSTRACT. We propose a model that manages a distribution status of same content distributed via various media such as broadcasts, internet simulcasts, and video-on-demand for a media-unifying platform (MUP). We have proposed the MUP to address the difficulties for a content viewer to select appropriate media in accordance with the functions of the viewing device and the viewer’s situation. In the proposed model, multiple operator servers respectively manage the distribution statuses of the content. When a content viewer taps an MUP link associated with a content, the distribution status management server (DSMS) specifies the content by parameters contained in the link and creates a distribution status list of the content by coordinating with the operator servers. Consequently, the viewer can view the desired content via an appropriate media selected from the list. We implemented the prototype and verified the feasibility of the proposed model.

ABSTRACT. This paper outlines sensor systems for situational awareness in remote and autonomous vessels. For the most demanding sensors from the point of view of processing and connectivity, order of magnitude estimates for sensor input data rates are presented based on practical requirements in relevant maritime scenarios. Related challenges for real-time signal processing and connectivity in remote and autonomous vessels are discussed.

ABSTRACT. This paper proposes a novel popular services pushing and caching scheme by using converged overlay networks. The most popular services are pushed by terrestrial broadcasting networks. And they are cached in n router-nodes with limited cache sizes. Each router-node only interconnects with its neighbor nodes. Users are served through the router’s WiFi link. If the services requested are cached in the routers, the user can be immediately responded; otherwise, the requests can be responded through the link from cellular stations to the router. In the proposed scheme, the cached size of router, the maximum number of requests each router can serve, and the whole-time delay are limited. Node-selecting and dynamic programming algorithm is adopted to maximize the equivalent throughput. Analytical and numerical results demonstrate that the proposed scheme is very effective.

ABSTRACT. As video-based services become an integral part of the end-users' lives, there is an imminent need for increase in the backhaul capacity and resource management efficiency to enable a highly enhanced multimedia experience to the end-users. The next-generation networking paradigm offers wide advantages over the traditional networks through simplifying the management layer, especially with the adoption of Software Defined Networks (SDN). However, enabling Quality of Service (QoS) provisioning still remains a challenge that needs to be optimized especially for multimedia-based applications. In this paper, we propose LearnQoS, an intelligent QoS management framework for multimedia-based SDNs. LearnQoS employs a policy-based network management (PBNM) to ensure the compliance of QoS requirements and optimizes the operation of PBNM through Reinforcement Learning (RL). The proposed LearnQoS framework is implemented and evaluated under an experimental setup environment and compared with the default SDN operation in terms of PSNR, MOS, throughput and packet loss. 

ABSTRACT. Non-uniform constellations (NUCs) have been adopted in digital broadcasting systems to reduce the shapping gap to the Shannon theoretical limit. Among NUCs, twodimensional NUCs (2D-NUCs) provide better performance than one-dimensional NUCs (1D-NUCs), but bring higher complexity at the receiver. This paper proposes a simplified demapping algorithm for 2D-NUCs from ATSC3.0 (Advanced Television Systems Committee 3rd Generation), for low to medium code rates. Theoretical analysis and simulation results prove that the complexity of the proposed simplified demapper is reduced while the performance degradation is negligible, compared with the traditional demapper.

ABSTRACT. This paper presents performance comparison between layered division multiplexing (LDM) and time division multiplexing (TDM) based mobile services in the Advanced Television System Committee (ATSC) 3.0 standard. The comparison has been performed through extensive computer simulations, leveraging full-chain simulator entirely compliant with A/322. The simulation results demonstrate that LDM can significantly lower the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) requirement compared to TDM in a given mobile scenario while maintaining the same (or analogous possible) data rate. For instance, LDM based mobile service is 6.1 dB more robust than TDM based service at a velocity of 100 km/h. In addition, even though LDM uses larger FFT size than TDM (16k-FFT for LDM and 8k-FFT for TDM), it is verified that LDM based mobile service is fully feasible under high speed condition.

ABSTRACT. The transition from ATSC 1.0 to ATSC 3.0 would probably be based on the ATSC 1.0 coverage such that ATSC 3.0 stations can provide at least one fixed service with the same or greater coverage as the ATSC 1.0. However, designed with low SNR thresholds, the ATSC 3.0 robust services embedded in the same channel can be received much further away than the enhanced layer fixed services, and their coverage areas may overlap with those of the neighboring co-channel stations transmitting different programs. Such co-channel interferences (CCI) could be very high in some areas close to the boundary between the neighboring stations. The ATSC 3.0 system is designed with only one set of pilot sequence, the low SNR thresholds are more vulnerable to CCIs due to channel mismatch. Currently two sources causing CCIs are observed, one is the pilot overlapping, another is the Bootstrap overlapping. To resolve the problem, in this paper, carrier and timing offset techniques are proposed at the transmitter side to mitigate the CCIs, which have no impact to the receivers.

ABSTRACT. Out-of-Band (OOB) emission and High Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR) are two main challenges for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems. There are many techniques that have been proposed to solve either one of the problems. Precoding plays a role in the solution of both problems, but generally a specific precoding scheme only solves one of them. In this paper, we combine two precoding schemes which solve two problems separately, and then propose an improved precoding method to solve OOB emission and high PAPR problem simultaneously. So that we can use only one precoding matrix to achieve our two goals. The simulation results show that our method reaches a balance between the two problems and has similar BER performance.

ABSTRACT. Tone Reservation (TR) is one of the common algorithms proposed for peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) reduction in next generation American digital video broadcasting (ATSC 3.0) transmitters. Recently, a quasi-optimal TR technique with a novel kernel definition named as grouped individual carrier multiple peaks (GICMP) scheme has been proposed. In GICMP, firstly, the reserved tones are partitioned into G groups, which also equals to the number of iterations. Then, a comb-like kernel is constructed with each group and it is adjusted to cancel a given set of peaks of data signal at each iteration. This scheme not only offers good performance/complexity trade-off but also compatible with ATSC 3.0 standard. This paper is an extension of that work. Based on same kernel definition, we have proposed a new method, named as grouped carrier peak windowing (GCPW), which requires less hardware resources, compared to GICMP. Instead of choosing a set of peaks, this new method introduces a peak window to consider a given number of signal samples that exceed the predetermined threshold. This new method aims of reducing first peaks falling within the window, while leaving out higher peaks that may occur later. The simulation results show that the proposed low-complexity GCPW is implementation-friendly with less hardware memory requirements and with a good choice of threshold, window size and groups, offers same PAPR reduction performance as that of GICMP and almost same as the one offered by optimal solving procedures.

ABSTRACT. Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) is the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) standard developed in the United States of America in the 90s. Recently, the new international standard for digital multimedia broadcasting: ATSC 3.0 has been published. ATSC 3.0 is  based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). It is well-known that OFDM allows the implementation of single frequency networks (SFNs), under certain design considerations, e.g. the guard interval (GI) duration. On the contrary, the design and performance of SFNs with ATSC 1.0 mainly depends on the ability of the receiver equalizer to overcome multipath from different transmitters. In the possible, but oncoming, transition from ATSC 1.0 to ATSC 3.0 the use of SFNs will be an interesting option. In this paper, two scenarios of operating ATSC 1.0 transmitters in Mexico were studied to analyze the possible necessary trade-off in coverage probability and network requirements during the transition from ATSC 1.0 to ATSC 3.0.

ABSTRACT. Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) describes a terrestrial audio broadcast transmission system that is used widely. DAB employs Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing which allow the operation as a Single Frequency Network (SFN). The distribution of audio services in large areas via SFNs is beneficial, but SFNs do not allow local services, i.e., different services from different transmitters, without distortion. Yet some audio service providers rely on local services. In this paper a Local Service Insertion (LSI) technique for DAB SFNs that supports existing receivers is presented and first results of a field trial in Braunschweig, Germany, are shown. DAB uses differential modulation which makes it difficult to introduce local services into an SFN as other services in the ensemble will be distorted. The technique inserts an additional phase reference symbol in the DAB transmission frame which eliminates the distortion of global services introduced by local services. The reception area of a local service measured in the field trial is shown and the required signal-to-interference ratio for reception examined for different code rates.

ABSTRACT. Due to its high spectrum efficiency, the Single Frequency Network (SFN) has been widely used in digital terrestrial multimedia broadcasting (DTMB) system, which is the Chinese national digital television terrestrial broadcasting standard. In the conventional SFN realization for DTMB, the synchronization between different transmitters in the distributed network is achieved with the second initialization packet (SIP) inserted in the MPEG-2 transport stream (TS). In this paper, a novel SFN structure for DTMB without SIP insertion is proposed. The performance is shown through the simulation and Lab test results.

ABSTRACT. Broadcasting signals have been recognized as promising candidates for positioning and navigation needs thanks to its many advantages compared to signals in satellite based navigation systems. However, in most single frequency broadcasting networks, the transmitter confusion problem poses a huge obstacle. One of the key steps of the time of arrival (TOA) based positioning is to measure the transmission delay of signals transmitted from all transmitters, and to calculate the distance to all transmitters respectively. Without knowing the transmitter identities, the receiver cannot determine the distance to transmitters, and can no longer determine its own position. In this paper, a novel positioning algorithm is proposed to realize positioning in single frequency networks (SFN) with five or more transmitters. The proposed algorithm can determine the receiver position under transmitter confusion problem. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can fulfill positioning tasks in SFN with high accuracy.

ABSTRACT. Compared with Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) which has been widely applied, the systems based on digital terrestrial television broadcasting (DTTB) for positioning need to be further studied. In this paper, the localization algorithm based on digital television terrestrial multimedia broadcasting (DTMB) system is proposed. By utilizing the existing frame structure of DTMB system, the distance measurement and positioning methods are investigated in detail. The simulation experiments prove that the proposed scheme can provide accurate positioning results even under severe reception conditions.

ABSTRACT. This paper studies the shielded screening attenuation of consumer-grade digital terrestrial television (DTT) antenna coaxial cables to determine their vulnerability to interference originating from uplink traffic of a nearby Long Term Evolution (LTE) terminal operating on the 700 MHz frequency band. The interference scenario is novel as the LTE uplink traffic on the 700 MHz band is significantly closer in frequency to the DTT transmissions than previously.

ABSTRACT. During the last World Radiocommunication Conference it was decided that the upper frequency parts of UHF bands (700MHz and 800MHz) shall be released for mobile services, provided by Long Term Evolution (LTE) system. This decision has caused coexistence issues between the 2nd generation digital terrestrial video broadcasting (DVB-T2) and the LTE systems. In this paper, the impact of LTE-downlink (LTE-DL) RF signals on the DVB-T2 system with different configurations is explored. The most important DVB-T2 parameter set, namely code rate, modulation, OFDM mode, guard interval and pilot pattern, applicable for portable indoor TV reception, are taken into account. In addition, possible IQ-imbalances are considered. Adjacent band coexistence scenarios (different LTE signal bandwidths and data loads) are assumed, according to the first digital dividend band frequency. Overall DVB-T2 system performance, influenced by LTE-DL, is evaluated by the protection ratio (PR) parameter. The obtained laboratory results extend the current state-of-the- art knowledge in this field and show that several DVB-T2 system options from the viewpoint of interfering LTE signal have an inconsiderable impact on the DVB-T2 system performance.

ABSTRACT. Millimeter wave (mmWave) communication is a promising solution for achieving high data rates and low latency in future wireless networks. 5G systems are expected to fulfill these strict requirements using, among others, mmWaves. The nature of the communication in these bands considering human
mobility make the challenges even complex for reasons like high beam training overhead. Features like ranging and localization are becoming key to overcome these limitations. In this paper, we address the problem of device localization in the mmWave band. We propose a solution that leverages the co-existence of Sub-6 GHz and mmWave connectivity at access and mobile nodes. Our solution relies on Angle of Arrival estimation using Sub-6 signal at the access node. This information is provided to the mmWave part for subsequent beam training phase and highresolution ranging. To validate the proposed solution, a number of measurements are performed showing its feasibility.

ABSTRACT. The LTE Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) has been proven valid to support classical Vehicle-to-Anything (V2X) services such as the delivery of Cooperative Awareness Message (CAM) and Decentralized Environmental Notification Message (DENM). However, with its current specification, MBMS cannot guarantee the challenging latency and reliability requirements imposed by 5G V2X services. To decrease the communication latency, we study a solution based on the location of V2X servers and MBMS functionalities in the base stations. To support this solution, several signaling mechanism used to coordinate V2X servers of neighbor base stations are presented and analyzed in this work. The analysis shows that a periodical sharing of location information between neighbor servers can be the best option to reduce the traffic between servers. Concerning the end-to-end latency, analytical and simulation results, based on the use of Single-Cell Point-to-Multipoint (SC-PTM) transmission, show that the localization of functions can substantially reduce the latency of conventional MBMS and ensure the correct operation of more demanding 5G V2X services, such as cooperative collision avoidance.

ABSTRACT. Developed from the LTE uplink, the LTE-V2X standard, widely used as LTE-V, increases the overhead of pilot symbols in order to acquire channel information robustly. In this paper, we propose to estimate time-varying pieces of channel rays for pilot symbols based on the basis expansion model (BEM), and subsequently to reconstruct time-domain channel response for data symbols by utilizing Slepian sequences based piece-wise interpolation (SS-PWI). To demonstrate the precision of channel estimation (CE), the Cramer Rao lower bound (CRLB) is derived. The simulations are implemented on the LTE-V platform, on which we consider the extended vehicular A model (EVA) channel with 2800 Hz maximum Doppler shift. The proposed time-domain CE schemes are well capable of tracking the channel state information (CSI), and the mean squared error (MSE) of CE nearly reaches the theoretically derived CRLB.

ABSTRACT. The ability to receive broadcast content in highly mobile scenarios plays an important role in determining the success of broadcast systems in general. The second generation of Terrestrial Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB-T2) has made several technical enhancements to increase the data carrying capacity that enabled the reception of High Definition (HD) content. Due to its properties, Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is chosen as the transmission scheme in the physical layer. However, in highly mobile environments, a doubly selective or a time-varying multipath channel that exhibits selectivity in both the time as well as the frequency domain, deteriorates the performance of the receiver. Furthermore, DVB-T2 allows up to 32k carriers on the same channel raster resulting in a smaller carrier spacing that further amplifies the effects of mobility at the receiver. Thus, channel estimation and equalization techniques play a vital role in overcoming the effects of a doubly selective channel and enabling high mobility in a DVB-T2 receiver. Channel estimation schemes must not only be able to model the wireless channel accurately but also be computationally efficient in order to enable implementation on resource constrained consumer hardware. Compressed Sensing (CS) schemes like the Rake-Matching Pursuit (RMP) algorithm are proven to perform well in vehicular communication systems and the associated computational complexity is significantly smaller than competing state-of-art estimation schemes. In this paper, we show that the RMP algorithm for channel estimation is suitable to be used with DVB-T2 under varying channel conditions. The results show that the proposed schemes produce significantly better results when compared to the conventional channel estimation and equalization schemes. Furthermore, a detailed analysis on the computational complexity will further strengthen the need for the proposed scheme to estimate doubly-selective channels.

ABSTRACT. In this paper, we investigate a multi-user Raptorcoded non-coherent distributed space-time modulation scheme, which considers a dynamic decode-and-forward (DF) relaying and a non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) based scenario. The rateless feature of the proposed transmission scheme makes it well-suited for broadcasting and distributed wireless networks with multiple devises. In addition, considering distributed noncoherent space-time modulation, the channel state information (CSI) is not required at the transmitter and receiver. For the proposed NOMA-based scheme, the noncoherent signal codebooks assigned to different users have been properly designed for improving system performances. It is demonstrated that for both throughput and BER performances, the NOMA-based scheme provides improvement when compared to the OMA-based scheme, especially in the high-SNR or large-channel-use regions.

Index Terms—Multi-user, Unitary Space-time Modulation (USTM), Cooperative Communication, Raptor Code, Nonorthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA).

ABSTRACT. This paper proposes a novel services unequal error protecting (UEP) and pushing scheme by using terrestrial broadcasting network (TBN). Experiments show that the most important services (MIS) contributing to the most part of quality of experience (QoE) are only a small size of all services. Based on this fact, we duplicate several copies of the MIS firstly in the proposed scheme; then, only one copy of MIS is encoded together with the rest less important services (LIS) by LT code; the others uncoded copies are pushed with the encoded data by the TBN . Simulations show that the proposed scheme can effectively improve the QoE score of users.

ABSTRACT. The advent of the wide range of Internet connected devices is leading the audio-visual sector towards a new hybrid TV ecosystem. In this context, new trends and technologies arise, enabling the creation of multi-screen TV experiences where users are able to personalise the live TV show by using more than one device at the same time, e.g. TV and a smartphone. In order to avoid broadcasters to deal with the current complexity of developing multi-screen applications, a single application code including logic components is required. That way, the components can be dynamically distributed across the devices depending on the context of the end-user. This paper provides a proposal of componentizing hybrid broadcast-Internet media services based on a methodology that analyses different TV programmes. This componentization step is part of a more extensive research that aims at optimising the adaptation of TV programmes when using multiple devices at the same time.

ABSTRACT. In IPTV industry, the major problem faced by device manufacturers that requires to be addressed is the number of proprietary, incompatible conditional access (CA) systems that different service providers have deployed. This paper presents design and implementation of Downloadable Conditional Access System (DCAS) framework and secure media pipeline using ARM TrustZone technology that enables different CA systems in a single client device. The CA system software is dynamically downloaded in the device via network and securely executed in the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) provided by ARM TrustZone technology. This solution is as secured as any smartcard based CA system as the ARM TrustZone technology provides same level of hardware and software security.

ABSTRACT. In this paper, time-domain self-interference estimation (SIE) technique is proposed for DOCSIS 3.1 system with full duplex. In the full duplex communication environment, the transmitted signal is inserted to the reception antenna as self-interference (SI). The inserted SI signal is distorted by various distortion factors such as time/frequency offset, fading channel, and sampling time offset (STO), and so on. Furthermore, since the synchronization between received upstream and self-interference signal cannot be accomplished, the self-interference cancellation (SIC) in frequency domain is very hard. Therefore, the proposed technique executes the SI signal estimation operation in time domain. To verify the estimation performance, hardware-based SI signal which is captured by DOCSIS 3.1 hardware system with full duplex function is used.

ABSTRACT. This paper describes a proposal and implementation of dissemination system of an emergency alert protocol called CAP-PER (Common Alerting Protocol from Peru), through FM broadcasting using the RDS (Radio Data System) standard. The insertion of the emergency information uses groups 9A and 11A of the RDS, in which the bytes of the emergency protocol CAP-PER enter into the information blocks C and D of the baseband-encoded structure of the RDS, for a FM transmission. In the case of reception, we have developed a module that decodes the received signal from groups 9A and 11A of the RDS to obtain the information of the emergency protocol CAP-PER. Finally, we successfully performed laboratory tests at the INICTEL-UNI and field tests at Arequipa city with the collaboration of TV-Peru broadcasting station.

ABSTRACT. The exponential diffusion of mobile communications jointly with the advent of Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) promoted by Internet of Things (IoT) and next generation networked applications offers new opportunity for wireless communications. In this work, a new low-power network communication technology and an innovative solution are proposed to be employed in conjunction in a real-world scenario for metering and monitoring environmental conditions in a smart city environment. The paper introduces the energy-efficient multi-hop communication solution (e2McH) whichattempts to perform energy-efficient communications in multi-hop manner over LPWAN, employing narrowband technologies. Experimental testing involving deployment of the proposed solution over two licensed industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) bands shows how e2McH can be used to cover successfully an area with a radius of roughly 14 km.

ABSTRACT. In this paper, we attempt to explore a new spectrum sensing scheme, which involves a robust pilot detection mechanism. Conventional signal (pilot) detection approaches rely on sampling the signal time waveform or the corresponding frequency spectrum. These approaches are seriously restricted to temporal variations and high noise-levels. We propose a new paradigm to transform the original received-signal waveform to the power spectrum and then the ultimate probabilistic function. Thus robust signal processing method such as clustering can be utilized to lead to the better pilot-detection performance of frequency-modulation (FM) broadcasted signals. To demonstrate the performance of our proposed pilot-tone detection and pilot-frequency estimation scheme, the corresponding Monte Carlo simulation results are compared with those from conventional energy-based estimators. Our proposed new pilot-tone detection and pilot-frequency estimation scheme leads to a significant performance margin compared to the conventional methods, especially in low signal-to-noise ratios.

ABSTRACT. Autonomy in the shipping industry requires next level of situation awareness. By reusing IoT concepts we can address the requirements of this autonomy. IoT systems are however assuming good connectivity. In this paper we discuss challenges associated with wireless communications from IoT capable marine vessels to base stations on land. We present a review of use cases that remote controlled and autonomous ships need to be able to handle, along with their requirements on the communication. We also provide preliminary results from field measurements of channel conditions experienced aboard a vessel cruising in the Turku archipelago in Finland in winter conditions.

ABSTRACT. Broadcast and multicast represent a key opportunity in 5G for the massive consumption of multimedia services in the near future. These technologies permit to offload an important portion of this traffic in peak demand scenarios where users are consuming parallel content. An initial specification of 5G New Radio (NR) Rel'15 was delivered in December 2017 and the final version will be published in June this year. However, 3GPP has not yet defined any broadcast/multicast solution for Rel'15 NR, although some proposals will be revisited as soon as time units in Rel'16 become available. In this work, we propose and analyze the use of a mixed mode that shares multicast, broadcast and unicast resources via the same physical channel. This technology, as well as its LTE counterpart, is evaluated through link level air interface and subsequently system level simulations, providing an objective insight into the roads available to MBMS provision in 5G NR.

ABSTRACT. Point-to-Multipoint or Multicast / broadcast communication enables the delivery of common content to a multitude of users, while consuming minimal amount of radio resources. In this work, we consider the usage of unlicensed spectrum for enabling such transmissions using enhancements of the currently defined LTE-Advanced eMBMS network. Using realistic network assumptions, we also evaluate performance results of such enhancements in delivering media content to a large number of users.

ABSTRACT. This paper presents a trial on sharing spectrum between different actors in a flexible manner in 2.3 GHz band. Trial demonstrates a flexible use of shared spectrum providing means for the broadcasters and other Programme Making and Special Events (PMSE) stakeholders to gradually upgrade their equipment towards LTE/5G radio based equipment.

ABSTRACT. 5G New Radio (NR) is the wireless standard that will become the foundation for the next generation of mobile networks. NR implements different techniques that improve the performance in terms of data rate, coverage, reliability, latency or mobility. However, NR still has room for performance improvement in modulation, since it employs uniform Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) constellations to map information bits into complex symbols. Non-Uniform Constellations (NUC) are a practical solution to reduce the gap to Shannon. They are optimized by means of signal geometrical shaping for a specific signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and channel model. Non-Uniform Constellations (NUCs) are presented in this paper as a potential technique to be implemented in future releases of 5G NR. A novel algorithm is also introduced for the design of NUCs for specific Modulation and Coding Schemes (MCS), which offer high performance gains compared to QAM. The optimized constellations provide gains up to 0.8 dB for AWGN channel.

ABSTRACT. Existing IGMP/MLD proxy implementations are limited to a single upstream interface. However new service scenarios rise the need of extending the proxy functionality by enabling the support of multiple upstream interfaces. The paper introduces the use cases of interest and additional functionality required to evolve proxies in this direction.

ABSTRACT. 5G transport networks will need to accommodate a wide spectrum of services on top of the same physical infrastructure and network slicing is seen as a suitable candidate for providing the necessary quality of service (QoS). Traffic differentiation is usually enforced at the border of the network in order to ensure a proper forwarding of the traffic according to its class through the backbone. With network slicing, the traffic may now traverse many slice edges where the traffic policy needs to be enforced, discriminated and ensured, according to the service and tenants needs. The goal of this article is hence to analyze the impact of different QoS policies in case of having multiple network slices carrying fixed and mobile traffic.

ABSTRACT. 5G technologies are taking benefit of the Network Function Virtualization to achieve more flexible deployments. This new paradigm allows the resource sharing between operators in federated environments thanks to the decomposition of services into virtual network functions connected together composing a “service function chain”. This work proposes algorithms to solve the placement of such chains in federated multi-domain scenarios satisfying imposed restrictions in terms of resource sharing. Algorithms run on top of an implemented simulator for federated scenarios where multiple operators are involved. Two of our proposed solutions reach O(N ) running times in certain scenarios. Our results also show that we achieve acceptance ratios very similar to those obtained using a tabu meta-heuristic implementation.

ABSTRACT. In the recent years, Software Defined Networking (SDN) has changed the way networks are engineered, making them more flexible, programmable and dynamic. SDN advocates for the split of the data and control planes, by centralizing the control logic to facilitate the management and decrease the complexity posed by the introduction of new services. However, this centralization constitutes a single point of failure, thus triggering the need of improving the resiliency and reliability of the connection between the control and data planes. This letter proposes a solution based on the simultaneous use of in-band and out-of-band paths for the OpenFlow control channel, and includes a first experimental evaluation of the performance gains that can be achieved.

ABSTRACT. Notably, developing an innovative architectural network paradigm is essential to address the technical challenging of 5G applications’ requirements in a unified platform. Forthcoming applications will provide a wide range of networking, computing and storage capabilities closer to the endusers. In this context, the 5G-PPP Phase two project named “5GCORAL: A 5G Convergent Virtualized Radio Access Network Living at the Edge” aims at identifying and experimentally validating which are the key technology innovations allowing for the development of a convergent 5G multi-RAT access based on a virtualized Edge and Fog architecture being scalable, flexible and interoperable with other domains including transport, core network and distant Clouds. In 5G-CORAL, an architecture is proposed based on ETSI MEC and ETSI NFV frameworks in a unified platform. Then, a set of exemplary use cases benefiting from Edge and Fog networks in near proximity of the end-user are proposed for demonstration on top of connected car, shopping mall and high-speed train platforms.

ABSTRACT. This paper provides a high-level overview of the SHINE project, whose focus is the design and implementation of an end-to-end secure infrastructure for the delivery of collaborative multimedia services over integrated satellite-terrestrial networks. The project extends to satellite-enabled scenarios the outstanding solutions available for terrestrial communication networks, while also designing innovative mechanisms for the protection from unauthorized access to content-related data, as well as for the secure distribution of real-time multimedia information across hybrid channels leveraging both the unicast and the multicast communication paradigm. The original contribution of the paper is the analysis of satellite architectures and configurations tailored to efficiently support the SHINE solution, together with the presentation of the testbed envisaged to proof the SHINE concept.

ABSTRACT. It has been proposed that the emission peak limit in the frequency band of 11.7-12.7 GHz be eliminated in a future revision of CISPR11. If the limit is eliminated and microwave ovens emitting fifth harmonics at a high peak level become widespread, 12-GHz-band satellite broadcasting reception could be disturbed. In this paper, we discuss the influence of eliminating the peak limit on current and UHDTV (4K/8K) satellite broadcast reception in Japan, estimated by using the required D/U of the broadcasting system and the directional characteristics of the dish antenna.

ABSTRACT. MC-CDM(Multi Carrier-Code Division Multiplexing) is a code of a combination of DFT and code derived from M sequence. In the PAPR reduction scheme of spreading symbols, MC-CDMC to reduce PAPR(Peak-to-Average Power Ratio) of OFDM signals has been proposed. In this paper, performance of satellite broadcasting using MC-CDM modulation for satellite transmission is evaluated by computer simulations. We obtained the result that PAPR can be reduced and out-of-band emission can be controlled by using MC-CDMC scheme. As the results, it is possible to increase the transmission rate against the required Carrier to Noise Ratio.

ABSTRACT. Recent developments of 5G PHY-layer technology have evidenced the advantages taken by Filter-Bank Multicarrier (FBMC) waveforms against state-of-the-art Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) in terms of bandwidth efficiency and spectrum sharing capabilities. In this paper, we propose the use of FBMC for drone-to-earth multicast transmission in environmental monitoring applications. In particular, we consider FBMC with Offset Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (OQAM) and Hermite polynomials-based prototype filtering in order to efficiently manage the tradeoff between performance and spectral efficiency. The weighted frequency spreading methodology has been employed in order to implement the FBMC system as a simple and computationally-affordable extension of OFDM. The FBMC-based solution has been simulated and tested in a drone-based multicast configuration and compared to the standard OFDM solution in terms of bandwidth efficiency, Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR) and link performance in presence of multipath propagation. As result, FBMC-OQAM exhibits improved throughput efficiency and dramatically decreased Out-of-Band (OOB) emissions, while PAPR and BER performance achieved by the two multicarrier solutions look overall comparable. The spectrum slicing – naturally provided by FBMC and not allowed by OFDM – and long CP avoidance seem key, positive, features, in the framework of future adoption of FBMC in drone-based multicast applications, characterized by augmented flexibility, cognitivity and throughput efficiency.