RINGS: Massive Extended-Array Transceivers for Robust Scaling of All-Digital mmWave MIMO

RINGS：大规模扩展阵列收发器，用于全数字毫米波 MIMO 的稳健扩展

• 批准号: 2148303
• 负责人: Upamanyu Madhow
• 金额: $ 100万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Barbara
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-05-01 至 2025-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2148303&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RINGS; Massive; Extended; Array; Transceivers

As the demand for high-speed wireless data keeps growing, it is essential to access the vast amounts of spectrum available in “millimeter wave (mmWave)” frequency bands, which are orders of magnitude higher than the frequency bands used in WiFi and cellular systems today. There has been substantial recent progress demonstrating feasibility of radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) built with low-cost silicon semiconductor processes, for lower mmWave frequency bands such as 28 GHz licensed spectrum (for 5G cellular), and 60 GHz unlicensed spectrum (for next-generation WiFi). This project aims to provide a quantum leap beyond these efforts, developing strategically important and commercially viable technologies for opening up upper mmWave bands beyond 100 GHz. A specific goal is to develop antenna arrays with thousands of elements, capable of forming agile pencil beams tracking mobile devices, which can be miniaturized into compact form factors because of the tiny wavelengths at 100+ GHz. The project investigates novel approaches for co-design of hardware and algorithms for scaling array sizes, targeting significant jumps in attainable link distances and data rates (10 Gbps per mobile user in an urban cell, and 100 Gbps for a fixed wireless alternative to fiber).Millimeter wave (mmWave) communication will play a crucial role in next-generation communication infrastructures. A fundamental bottleneck in mmWave hardware development is packaging: “fitting” the RFIC electronics becomes difficult at small carrier wavelengths due to the standard constraint of half-wavelength spacing between antennas. This project investigates novel hardware architectures that sidestep such packaging bottlenecks to realize massive extended arrays, along with closely coupled innovations in all-digital hierarchical signal processing architectures, targeting quantum leaps in capacity and resilience. Hardware research includes development of extremely low-cost 140GHz transceiver modular array tile technologies that readily scale to arrays having vast numbers of elements. Signal processing and systems research develops all-digital hierarchical signal processing architectures matched to the tiled hardware architecture, illustrating the system-level impact of the robustness and additional spatial degrees of freedom provided by extended arrays in canonical multiuser (MU) MIMO and Line of Sight (LoS) MIMO settings aimed at flexible, cost-effective deployment of access and backhaul nodes. A key design concept is spatial redundancy: by choosing hardware and system parameters such that the number of array RF channels greatly exceeds the number of MIMO signals involved, it becomes possible to simplify power consumption and die area by sacrificing dynamic range.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

随着对高速无线数据的需求不断增长，访问“毫米波 (mmWave)”频段中的大量可用频谱至关重要，这些频段比 WiFi 和蜂窝系统中使用的频段高出几个数量级如今，采用低成本硅半导体工艺构建的射频集成电路 (RFIC) 已取得重大进展，适用于 28 GHz 许可频谱（用于 5G 蜂窝）和 60 GHz 等较低毫米波频段。该项目旨在实现超越这些努力的巨大飞跃，战略性地开发重要且商业上可行的技术，以开放 100 GHz 以上的较高毫米波频段。元件，能够形成灵活的笔形波束跟踪移动设备，由于 100+ GHz 的微小波长，这些元件可以小型化为紧凑的外形尺寸。该项目研究了用于缩放阵列的硬件和算法协同设计的新方法。尺寸，目标是可实现的链路距离和数据速率显着提升（城市小区中每个移动用户 10 Gbps，光纤的固定无线替代方案为 100 Gbps）。毫米波 (mmWave) 通信将在下一代通信中发挥至关重要的作用毫米波硬件开发的一个基本瓶颈是封装：由于天线之间半波长间距的标准限制，在小载波波长下“安装”RFIC 电子器件变得困难。研究绕过此类封装瓶颈以实现大规模扩展阵列的新型硬件架构，以及全数字分层信号处理架构的紧密耦合创新，旨在实现容量和弹性的飞跃硬件研究包括开发极低成本的 140GHz 收发器模块化阵列。平铺技术可以轻松扩展到具有大量元件的阵列，信号处理和系统研究开发了与平铺硬件架构相匹配的全数字分层信号处理架构，说明了系统级影响。规范多用户 (MU) MIMO 和视距 (LoS) MIMO 设置中的扩展阵列提供的鲁棒性和额外空间自由度旨在实现灵活、经济高效的接入和回程节点部署 一个关键的设计概念是空间冗余。 ：通过选择硬件和系统参数，使阵列射频通道的数量大大超过所涉及的 MIMO 信号的数量，可以通过牺牲动态范围来简化功耗和芯片面积。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命和通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，该项目被认为值得支持。