The fundamental challenge of the millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequency band is the sensitivity of the radio channel to blockages, which gives rise to unstable connectivity and impacts the reliability of a system. To this end, multipoint connectivity is a promising approach for ensuring the desired rate and reliability requirements. A robust beamformer design is proposed to improve the communication reliability by exploiting the spatial macro-diversity and a pessimistic estimate of rates over potential link blockage combinations. Specifically, we provide a blockage-aware algorithm for the weighted sum-rate maximization (WSRM) problem with parallel beamformer processing across distributed remote radio units (RRUs). Combinations of non-convex and coupled constraints are handled via successive convex approximation (SCA) framework, which admits a closed-form solution for each SCA step, by solving a system of Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) optimality conditions. Unlike the conventional coordinated multi-point (CoMP) schemes, the proposed blockage-aware beamformer design has, per-iteration, computational complexity in the order of RRU antennas instead of system-wide joint transmit antennas. This leads to a practical and computationally efficient implementation that is scalable to any arbitrary multi-point configuration. In the presence of random blockages, the proposed schemes are shown to significantly outperform baseline scenarios and result in reliable mmWave communication.

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The sensitivity of millimeter-wave (mmWave) radio channel to blockage is a fundamental challenge in achieving lowlatency and reliable connectivity. In this paper, we explore the viability of using coordinated multi-point (CoMP) transmission for a delay bounded and reliable mmWave communication. We provide an iterative algorithm for the time-average sumpower-minimization problem by solving a system of Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) optimality conditions. We use the Lyapunov optimization framework and derive a dynamic control algorithm to transform a time-average stochastic problem into a sequence of deterministic subproblems. Furthermore, for the robust beamformer design, we consider a pessimistic estimate of the userspecific rate, assuming that a portion of CoMP links would be blocked during the data transmission phase, while ensuring the average latency requirements. The numerical examples illustrate that in the presence of random blockages, the proposed method outperforms baseline scenarios and results in energy-efficient, high-reliability and low-latency mmWave communication.

Millimeter-wave communication is considered one of the key enablers for 5G systems as it contributes to achieving high data rate with very wideband transmission, high beamforming gain and massive MIMO techniques. Further, millimeter-wave technology can also be used for the accurate positioning. However, it is yet unclear how communication and positioning systems can share resources to flexibly fulfill data-rate and quality-of-position requirements, especially, in multiuser scenarios. In this regard, the objective of this paper is to investigate and quantify the trade-off between positioning quality and achievable sum-rate as a function of number of receive antennas and transmitter locations in an uplink multiuser scenario.

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Abstract-In the realm of substation automation (SA), communication infrastructure plays a vital role in mediating between physical and virtual worlds of substation. Specification of data exchanges through standardized communication stacks is therefore an important issue for all substation equipment manufacturers seeking to provide vendor interoperability. Nowadays competitive electric utility marketplace, reliable and real-time information become the key factor for reliable delivery of power to the endusers, profitability of the electric utility and customer satisfaction. The operational and commercial demands of electric utilities require a high-performance data communication network that supports both existing functionalities and future operational requirements. As communication arena is changing day by day, the need for efficient and reliable communication infrastructure to address SA is evident. In this respect, a communication network constitutes the core of the SA, thus the design of cost-effective and reliable network architecture is a crucial task. Most of the existing communication networks claim to address the need of communication architecture for SA but in some regard these claims just could not fulfill the constraints imposed by highly available environment for SA. This paper presents a survey and analysis of the current state-of-the-art communication infrastructure in the SA. As Ethernet technology becomes more reliable and also widely available with fiber optical communication so this paper also examines the key issues and requirements for Ethernet in the substation environment and also opens some research challenges.

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