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Optical true time delay pool based hybrid beamformer enabling centralized beamforming control in millimeter-wave C-RAN systems

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Abstract

Effectively supporting millimeter-wave (mmWave) beamforming is still a major challenge in 5G cloud radio access network (5G C-RAN) systems with evolved common public radio interface-based (eCPRI-based) fronthaul. Herein, an optical true time delay pool based hybrid beamforming (OTTDP-HBF) scheme, enabling centralized beamforming control, is proposed for mmWave 5G C-RAN systems. The weight control of the OTTDP-HBF is physically implemented by a pre-designed optical wavelength matrix which is mapped from a series of optical carriers. After introducing optical true time delay, this optical wavelength matrix then maps to the defined OTTDP. In this scheme, all physical implementation and the computational processing of analog beamforming can be centrally deployed into a centralized unit or distributed unit (CU/DU). Each active antenna unit (AAU) therefore becomes very simple. For single-user and multi-user scenarios, the OTTDP-based hybrid precoders are formulated respectively. In the developed OTTDP-based multi-user hybrid precoder, the spectral efficiency is improved by making use of all RF chains. For a 9-element uniform planar array deployed at an AAU, a designed example of the OTTDP-HBF is presented, where spectral efficiency curves obtained via different precoding schemes for single-user and multi-user scenarios are compared and discussed respectively.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2018YFB1801302) and Project for Zhongshan Social Public Welfare Science (Grant No. 2019B2007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Information and Communication Engineering, Zhongshan Institute, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 611731, China

    Huan Huang, Chongfu Zhang, Muchuan Yang, Wei Zheng, Jie Peng & Kun Qiu

  2. School of Electronic Information, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Zhongshan Institute, Zhongshan, 528402, China

    Chongfu Zhang

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  1. Huan Huang
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  2. Chongfu Zhang
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  3. Muchuan Yang
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  4. Wei Zheng
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  5. Jie Peng
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  6. Kun Qiu
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Correspondence to Chongfu Zhang.

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Huang, H., Zhang, C., Yang, M. et al. Optical true time delay pool based hybrid beamformer enabling centralized beamforming control in millimeter-wave C-RAN systems. Sci. China Inf. Sci. 64, 192304 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-020-2991-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-020-2991-1

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