arXiv subjects

Robert W. Heath, Jr.

Publications and source records attributed to Robert W. Heath, Jr..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

The Tri-Hybrid MIMO Architecture

We present an evolution of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communications known as the tri-hybrid MIMO architecture. In this framework, the traditional operations of linear precoding at the transmitter are distributed across digital beamforming, analog beamforming, and reconfigurable antennas. Compared with the hybrid MIMO architecture, which combines digital and analog beamforming, the tri-hybrid approach introduces a third layer of electromagnetic beamforming through antenna reconfigurability. This added layer offers a pathway to scale MIMO spatial dimensions, important for 6G systems operating in centimeter-wave bands, where the tension between larger bandwidths and infrastructure reuse necessitates ultra-large antenna arrays. We introduce the key features of the tri-hybrid architecture by (i)~reviewing the benefits and challenges of communicating with reconfigurable antennas, (ii)~examining tradeoffs between spectral and energy efficiency enabled by reconfigurability, and (iii)~exploring configuration challenges across the three layers. Overall, the tri-hybrid MIMO architecture offers a new approach for integrating emerging antenna technologies in the MIMO precoding framework.

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arXiv2015

Millimeter Wave Power Transfer and Information Transmission

Compared to the existing lower frequency wireless power transfer, millimeter wave (mmWave) power transfer takes advantage of the high-dimensional multi-antenna and narrow beam transmission. In this paper we introduce wireless power transfer for mmWave cellular networks. Here, we consider users with large energy storage that are recharged by the mmWave base stations prior to uplink information transmission, and analyze the average harvested energy and average achievable rate. Numerical results corroborate our analysis and show that the serving base station plays a dominant role in wireless power transfer, and the contribution of the interference power from the interfering base stations is negligible, even when the interfering base stations are dense. By examining the average achievable rate in the uplink, when increasing the base station density, a transition from a noise-limited regime to an interference-limited regime is observed.

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arXiv2010

Spatial Interference Cancellation for Multi-Antenna Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Interference between nodes is a critical impairment in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). This paper studies the role of multiple antennas in mitigating such interference. Specifically, a network is studied in which receivers apply zero-forcing beamforming to cancel the strongest interferers. Assuming a network with Poisson distributed transmitters and independent Rayleigh fading channels, the transmission capacity is derived, which gives the maximum number of successful transmissions per unit area. Mathematical tools from stochastic geometry are applied to obtain the asymptotic transmission capacity scaling and characterize the impact of inaccurate channel state information (CSI). It is shown that, if each node cancels L interferers, the transmission capacity decreases as the outage probability to the power of 1/(L+1) as the outage probability vanishes. For fixed outage probability, as L grows, the transmission capacity increases as L to the power of (1-2/alpha) where alpha is the path-loss exponent. Moreover, CSI inaccuracy is shown to have no effect on the transmission capacity scaling as the outage probability vanishes, provided that the CSI training sequence has an appropriate length, which we derived. Numerical results suggest that canceling merely one interferer by each node increases the transmission capacity by an order of magnitude or more, even when the CSI is imperfect.

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arXiv2007

Hybrid-ARQ in Multihop Networks with Opportunistic Relay Selection

This paper develops a contention-based opportunistic feedback technique towards relay selection in a dense wireless network. This technique enables the forwarding of additional parity information from the selected relay to the destination. For a given network, the effects of varying key parameters such as the feedback probability are presented and discussed. A primary advantage of the proposed technique is that relay selection can be performed in a distributed way. Simulation results find its performance to closely match that of centralized schemes that utilize GPS information, unlike the proposed method. The proposed relay selection method is also found to achieve throughput gains over a point-to-point transmission strategy.

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arXiv2007

Opportunistic Relay Selection with Limited Feedback

It has been shown that a decentralized relay selection protocol based on opportunistic feedback from the relays yields good throughput performance in dense wireless networks. This selection strategy supports a hybrid-ARQ transmission approach where relays forward parity information to the destination in the event of a decoding error. Such an approach, however, suffers a loss compared to centralized strategies that select relays with the best channel gain to the destination. This paper closes the performance gap by adding another level of channel feedback to the decentralized relay selection problem. It is demonstrated that only one additional bit of feedback is necessary for good throughput performance. The performance impact of varying key parameters such as the number of relays and the channel feedback threshold is discussed. An accompanying bit error rate analysis demonstrates the importance of relay selection.

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