Wireless Future

20. Wireless Solutions for the Internet of Things (With Liesbet Van der Perre)

Many objects around us are embedded with sensors and processors to create the Internet of Things (IoT). Wireless connectivity is an essential component for enabling these devices to exchange data without human interaction. To learn more about this development, Erik G. Larsson and Emil Björnson have invited Liesbet Van der Perre, Professor at KU Leuven, Belgium. The conversation covers IoT applications, connectivity solutions, powering, security, sustainability, and e-waste. Further details can be found in the article “The Art of Designing Remote IoT Devices—Technologies and Strategies for a Long Battery Life” (https://doi.org/10.3390/s21030913). Music: On the Verge by Joseph McDade. Visit Erik’s website https://liu.se/en/employee/erila39 and Emil’s website https://ebjornson.com/

19. Future of Multi-Antenna Technology and Spectrum (With Thomas Marzetta)

How far is the capacity of wireless networks from the limits imposed by nature? To seek an answer to this question, Erik G. Larsson and Emil Björnson invited Thomas Marzetta, Distinguished Industry Professor and originator of Massive MIMO, to this first episode of the second season. The conversation covers the history of that technology and the fundamental aspects that will always dictate the capacity of wireless networks: antenna technology, channel state information, spectral efficiency, bandwidth, spectrum bands, and link budgets. To learn more, you can read the article “Massive MIMO is a Reality – What is Next? Five Promising Research Directions for Antenna Arrays” (https://arxiv.org/pdf/1902.07678). Music: On the Verge by Joseph McDade. Visit Erik’s website https://liu.se/en/employee/erila39 and Emil’s website https://ebjornson.com/

18. Ever-Present Intelligent 6G Communications (With Magnus Frodigh)

Many individuals are speculating about 6G, but in this episode, you will hear the joint vision of 700+ researchers at Ericsson. Erik G. Larsson and Emil Björnson are visited by Magnus Frodigh, Vice-President and Head of Ericsson Research. His team has recently published the white paper “Ever-present intelligent communication: A research outlook towards 6G”. The conversation covers emerging applications, new requirements, and research challenges that might define the 6G era. How can we achieve limitless connectivity? Which frequency bands will become important? What is a network compute fabric? What should students learn to take part in the 6G development? These are just some of the questions that are answered. We suggest that you also read Ericsson’s white paper (https://www.ericsson.com/en/reports-and-papers/white-papers/a-research-outlook-towards-6g). Music: On the Verge by Joseph McDade. Visit Erik’s website https://liu.se/en/employee/erila39 and Emil’s website https://ebjornson.com/

17. Energy-Efficient Communications

The wireless data traffic grows by 50% per year which implies that the energy consumption in the network equipment is also growing steadily. This raises both environmental and economic concerns. In this episode, Erik G. Larsson and Emil Björnson discuss how the wireless infrastructure can be made more energy-efficient. The conversation covers the basic data traffic characteristics and definition of energy efficiency, as well as what can be done when designing future network infrastructure, planning deployments, and developing efficient algorithms. To learn more, they recommend the IEEE 5G and Beyond Technology Roadmap article “Energy Efficiency” (https://futurenetworks.ieee.org/roadmap) and also “Deploying Dense Networks for Maximal Energy Efficiency: Small Cells Meet Massive MIMO” (http://arxiv.org/pdf/1505.01181). Music: On the Verge by Joseph McDade. Visit Erik’s website https://liu.se/en/employee/erila39 and Emil’s website https://ebjornson.com/

16. 6G and the Physical Layer (with Angel Lozano)

The research community’s hype around 5G has quickly shifted to hyping the next big thing: 6G. This raises many questions: Did 5G become as revolutionary as previously claimed? Which physical-layer aspects remain to be improved in 6G? To discuss these things, Erik G. Larsson and Emil Björnson are visited by Professor Angel Lozano, author of the seminal papers “What will 5G be?” and “Is the PHY layer dead?”. The conversation covers the practical and physical limits in communications, the role of machine learning, the relation between academia and industry, and whether we have got lost in asymptotic analysis. Angel’s website is https://www.upf.edu/web/angel-lozano. Music: On the Verge by Joseph McDade. Visit Erik’s website https://liu.se/en/employee/erila39 and Emil’s website https://ebjornson.com/

15. Wireless for Machine Learning (with Carlo Fischione)

Machine learning builds on the collection and processing of data. Since the data often are collected by mobile phones or internet-of-things devices, they must be transferred wirelessly to enable machine learning. In this episode, Emil Björnson and Erik G. Larsson are visited by Carlo Fischione, a Professor at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The conversation circles around distributed machine learning and how the wireless technology can evolve to support learning applications via network slicing, information-aware communication, and over-the-air computation. To learn more, they recommend the article “Wireless for Machine Learning” (https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.13492). Carlo’s website is https://people.kth.se/~carlofi/ and the Machine Learning for Communications ETI has the website https://mlc.committees.comsoc.org. Music: On the Verge by Joseph McDade. Visit Erik’s website https://liu.se/en/employee/erila39 and Emil’s website https://ebjornson.com/

14. Q/A on MIMO, NOMA, and THz Communications

In this episode, Emil Björnson and Erik G. Larsson answer questions from the listeners on the topics of distributed MIMO, THz communications, and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). Some examples are: Is cell-free massive MIMO really a game-changer? What would be its first use case? Can visible light communications be used to reach 1 terabit/s? Will Massive MIMO have a role to play in THz communications? What kind of synchronization and power constraints appear in NOMA systems? Please continue asking questions and we might answer them in later episodes! Music: On the Verge by Joseph McDade. Visit Erik’s website https://liu.se/en/employee/erila39 and Emil’s website https://ebjornson.com/

13. Distributed and Cell-Free Massive MIMO

Wireless devices normally connect to a single access point, deployed at one location. The access points are deployed sparsely to create large cell regions, each controlled by the nearest access point. This architecture was conceived for mobile telephony and has been inherited by today’s networks, even if those mainly transfer wireless data. However, future wireless networks might be organized entirely differently. In this episode, Erik G. Larsson and Emil Björnson discuss how one can create cell-free networks consisting of distributed massive MIMO arrays. The vision is that each user will be surrounded by small access points that cooperate to provide uniformly high service quality. The conversation covers the key benefits, how the network architecture can be evolved to support the new technology, and what the main research challenges are. To learn more, they recommend the article “Ubiquitous Cell-Free Massive MIMO Communications” (https://jwcn-eurasipjournals.springeropen.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s13638-019-1507-0) and the new book “Foundations of User-Centric Cell-Free Massive MIMO” (https://www.nowpublishers.com/article/Details/SIG-109). Music: On the Verge by Joseph McDade. Visit Erik’s website https://liu.se/en/employee/erila39 and Emil’s website https://ebjornson.com/

12. Privacy and Security in Connectivity (with Panos Papadimitratos)

The data that flows through wireless networks are protected by encryption, but there are anyway privacy and security issues inherent in wireless technologies. In this episode, Erik G. Larsson and Emil Björnson are visited by Panos Papadimitratos, a Professor at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The conversation focuses on location privacy and spoofing; what the practical issues are, what countermeasures exist, and which tradeoffs must be made when building wireless technologies. Music: On the Verge by Joseph McDade. Visit Erik’s website https://liu.se/en/employee/erila39 and Emil’s website https://ebjornson.com/

 

11. Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access

The wireless medium must be shared between multiple devices that want to access various services simultaneously. To avoid interference, the devices have traditionally taken turns, which is known as orthogonal multiple access. The use of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) techniques, where the devices are interfering in a controlled manner, was a popular theme in the research leading up to 5G. In this episode, Emil Björnson and Erik G. Larsson discuss the different forms of NOMA, and what their benefits and weaknesses are. They discuss what role NOMA plays in 5G and might play in future wireless technologies. To learn more, they recommend the article “Is NOMA Efficient in Multi-Antenna Networks? A Critical Look at Next Generation Multiple Access Techniques” (https://arxiv.org/abs/2101.04802). Music: On the Verge by Joseph McDade. Visit Erik’s website https://liu.se/en/employee/erila39 and Emil’s website https://ebjornson.com/