MiWaveS is partly funded by the European Union Seventh
Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant
agreement n°619563.
MiWaveS White Paper
Heterogeneous Wireless Network with mmWave Small Cell Access and Backhauling
About MiWaveS
MiWaveS (Beyond 2020 heterogeneous wireless network with Millimetre Wave Small cell access and
backhauling) is a collaborative research project, partially funded by the EU FP7 (European Union Framework
Programme 7), aiming at developing key enabling technologies for millimetre-wave (mmW) wireless access
and backhaul, that will play a key role in the future 5th generation of cellular mobile networks. While mmW
is defined as the frequency band between 30 and 300 GHz, the MiWaveS project will focus on
communications bands in the V-band (57‒66 GHz) and the E band (71‒76 GHz, 81‒86 GHz).
The MiWaveS project started in January 2014 and will terminate in December 2016.
MiwaveS Consortium
The MiWaveS’ project is run by a consortium that is composed of the most innovative companies, research
centres and academic institutions of Europe. Thanks to the multi-disciplinary expertise of the members, the
consortium is strategically positioned to address some key research challenges of future telecommunication
systems, as described further down. The strong presence of industrial partners will maximize the impact of
the key project outcomes in shaping standards and influencing regulatory bodies, as well as guaranteeing a
sound and concrete demonstration of the project results.
The consortium involves partners from eight European countries: Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom and comprises fifteen different legal entities, namely three
universities (University of Surrey, Technische Universitaet Dresden and Université de Rennes 1), two research
institutes (CEA-Leti and VTT), and nine industrial partners: two telecom operators (France Telecom / Orange
and Telecom Italia), two user terminal / semiconductor providers (Intel Mobile Communications and ST
Microelectronics), one PCB substrate technology provider (Optiprint), and finally four network subsystems,
equipment and test platform providers (Nokia, Sivers IMA, TST and National Instruments).
Fig.1 – European locations of the consortium partners
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MiWaveS is partly funded by the European Union Seventh
Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant
agreement n°619563.
Project Vision and Use-Cases
The MiWaveS project aims to contribute some key aspects to the ongoing definition of 5G, i.e. the next
generation of wireless telecommunications. Specifically, it will show how high-throughput and low-latency
heterogeneous mobile networks, based on flexible spectrum usage of the mmW frequency bands at 57‒86
GHz, should work. This will be done by proposing new key technology enablers in the mmW domain that
focus on providing unprecedented connection speed to mobile terminals and an increased traffic capacity to
the mobile networks, the target being to offer a much better user experience than the one achievable today.
The MiWaveS project envisions a system architecture comprising a heterogeneous network composed of two
main parts linked together: on the one side mmW small cells with high data rate APs (Access Points), whose
capacity ranges between 250Mbps at cell edge and a peak of 2-5 Gbps near the AP. On the other side a mmW
wireless backhaul with a peak capacity of 10 Gbps. Wireless backhaul systems and APs will typically be
installed close together on urban utility poles, street lamps or buildings, so that whenever a mobile device is
connected to a 3G/4G/5G wider area non-mmW network and is within radio coverage of a mmW AP, it will
be able to request very high-rate data exchange. A suitable allocation of small-cell resources shall be provided
by the cellular network in order to fulfil the request. This means a dual-connectivity is assumed in MiWaveS
system concept. The aggregated data from multiple users shall be routed with low latency from an AP to the
core network through multi-hop mmW wireless or optical fibre backhaul link.
In the above mentioned architecture, radio capacity can be increased from the current 100 Mbps range to a
10 Gbps range by increasing radio channel width and using efficient modulation (bits/s/Hz). The targeted
1000-times improvement at the mobile network level can be achieved by increasing the spectral area
efficiency (bits/s/Hz/km2) utilising highly directive pencil-beam antennas instead of wide-beam sector
antennas.
Fig.2 – MiWaveS use cases combined on a single topology
With the aim of favouring an early and smoother adoption of the newly developed mmW technologies,
societal aspects will also be addressed by the project, namely with the reduction of the electromagnetic field
(EMF) exposure of the public through the design of highly-directive beam-steering antennas. These will
optimize the radiated power density, focusing the energy only in the desired direction and therefore reducing
the radiated power density in unintended areas.
In order to provide a solid implementation of the MiWaveS vision, the project will work on the following usecases that will be refined to derive suitable system requirements and key performance indicators, which will
be needed to finally assess the project results:
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MiWaveS is partly funded by the European Union Seventh
Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant
agreement n°619563.
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Urban street-level outdoor mobile access and backhaul system, in which 1000-times higher data
volume per area is expected by 2020, and users expect to have high capacity seamless connections
almost anywhere and for area-specific network uses,
Large public events and gatherings, covering massive crowd events, sports events or vacation
resorts. A great amount of users must be served by the network, but just in some periods and in small
areas,
Indoor wireless networking and coverage from outdoor, covering the evolution of indoor networks
towards an increase of transmission capacity and versatility, either installing antennas inside the
building or outside, and connecting to the operator network by quasi-fixed links,
Rural detached small-cell zones and villages, using mmW wireless backhaul technologies
(standalone or combined with wired line connection to enhance the bandwidth) to overcome the
deployment difficulties related to traditional wired line based infrastructure installations,
Hotspot in shopping malls, considering ad-hoc deployment of small cells and mmW backhaul as a
cost efficient solution to enable high data rate services inside the malls.
Main Technical Objectives
The system requirements, derived out of the above mentioned use-cases, and the remaining project work
will focus on new development and/or enhancement of selected parts of the mobile network, so that the
following main objectives can be fulfilled:
• Provide mobile access to content-rich data using a fast and broadband link,
• Reduction of the overall network EMF density (blue radio),
• Reduction of the power consumption of the small cell access and backhaul links (green radio),
• Increase the flexibility and the QoS and decrease operating expenses of operators’ networks.
The main technical challenges posed by the above mentioned objectives will compose the core of the
innovation content of the project, which can be split in the following streams of activities:
1. Integrate a 60-GHz low power chipset in mobile phones and tablets, whose performance allow high
data rate access links beyond 10 meters transmission range,
2. Raise the performance of mmW CMOS or BiCMOS chipsets to the requirements of backhauling
applications at 57–66 and 71–86 GHz, while lowering their cost for the massive deployment of small
cells in urban environments,
3. Design a 60-GHz AP capable of linking multiple users to the network, covering many channels over
the 9-GHz frequency band (57‒66 GHz), and managing efficiently the near/far dynamics at the same
time,
4. Design concepts and algorithms for relaying and routing information in a fast and optimized way, by
a cross-layer optimization of the heterogeneous network,
5. Design high gain beam-steered antennas and steering algorithms for APs and backhauling and tiny
fixed beam antennas for user terminals, achieving efficient and cost-effective solutions, while
reducing the human body exposure to EMF.
Results will be demonstrated in several phases while the final demonstrator will show a working system
utilising technology components developed in MiWaveS.
Project Structure - Work Packages
The project is structured in eight Work Packages, so as to maximize the synergies of the consortium partners
and at the same time proceed, when possible, in parallel in order to obtain in the most efficient and aligned
way the results that can show the effectiveness of the new key technology enablers proposed by the project.
The Work Package structure is described in the following picture:
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MiWaveS is partly funded by the European Union Seventh
Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant
agreement n°619563.
Fig.3 – Work packages of the MiWaveS project
Public Events, Communication and Contribution to Standards
The MiWaveS consortium partners will share the main project outcomes in the most important worldwide
events, conferences, fora, standards and regulatory bodies focusing on technical areas relevant for the
project.
For instance, a subset of the currently targeted events for the dissemination of the achieved project results
is:
• NGMN workshops,
• Globecom, ICC, EUCNC and VTC conferences,
• Mobile World Congress,
• ITU-R WG5D work,
• 3GPP TSG RAN and SA Working Groups.
MiWaveS has identified the most important bodies in the ongoing initiatives in the 5G arena, which are
supposed to produce results suitable for standards and regulatory bodies. Consortium members are either
actively participating to or closely monitoring them all. All relevant parties mention, directly or indirectly,
mmW as a key enabling technology for 5G, whereas the exact frequency bands used by that technology will
only be defined at the ITU World Radio Conference 2019 (WRC-19). From the cellular networks
standardization point of view, the natural landing point for the MiWaveS project key results is 3GPP Release
13, expected to be finalized in Spring 2016. It is also proposed that if standardization bodies will not be ready
to discuss mmW topics within the project lifetime, the MiWaveS consortium might start a dedicated ETSI ISG.
For more information or for joint research effort proposals one may:
• contact MiWaveS’ consortium project coordinator, Dr. Laurent Dussopt (laurent.dussopt@cea.fr),
• consult the project website www.miwaves.eu,
• follow the twitter channel www.twitter.com/FP7_MiWaveS,
• join us in LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/groups/FP7-MiWaveS-6694097.
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