Abstract-The millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency band spanning from 30 GHz to 300 GHz constitutes a substantial portion of the unused frequency spectrum, which is an important resource for future wireless communication systems in order to fulfill the escalating capacity demand. Given the improvements in integrated components and enhanced power efficiency at high frequencies, wireless systems can operate in the mmWave frequency band. In this paper, we present a survey of the mmWave propagation characteristics, channel modeling and design guidelines, such as system and antenna design considerations for mmWave, including the link budget of the network, which are essential for mmWave communication systems. We commence by introducing the main channel propagation characteristics of mmWaves followed by channel modeling and design guidelines. Then, we report on the main measurement and modeling campaigns conducted in order to understand the mmWave band's properties and present the associated channel models. We survey the different channel models focusing on the channel models available for the 28 GHz, 38 GHz, 60 GHz and 73 GHz frequency bands. Finally, we present the mmWave channel model and its challenges in the context of mmWave communication systems design.

Abstract-Emerging technologies, such as the Internet of things, smart applications, smart grids and machine-to-machine networks stimulate the deployment of autonomous, selfconfiguring, large-scale wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Efficient energy utilization is crucially important in order to maintain a fully operational network for the longest period of time possible. Therefore, network lifetime (NL) maximization techniques have attracted a lot of research attention owing to their importance in terms of extending the flawless operation of battery-constrained WSNs. In this paper, we review the recent developments in WSNs, including their applications, design constraints and lifetime estimation models. Commencing with the portrayal of rich variety definitions of NL design objective used for WSNs, the family of NL maximization techniques is introduced and some design guidelines with examples are provided to show the potential improvements of the different design criteria.

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Abstract-Near-capacity performance may be achieved with the aid of iterative decoding, where extrinsic soft information is exchanged between the constituent decoders in order to improve the attainable system performance. Extrinsic Information Transfer (EXIT) charts constitute a powerful semi-analytical tool used for analysing and designing iteratively decoded systems. In this tutorial, we commence by providing a rudimentary overview of the iterative decoding principle and the concept of soft information exchange. We then elaborate on the concept of EXIT charts using three iteratively decoded prototype systems as design examples. We conclude by illustrating further applications of EXIT charts, including near-capacity designs, the concept of irregular codes and the design of modulation schemes.

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Harnessing the abundant availability of spectral resources at millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies is an attractive solution to meet the escalating data rate demands. Additionally, it has been shown that full-duplex (FD) communication has the potential of doubling the bandwidth efficiency. However, the presence of significant residual self-interference (SI), which is especially more pronounced at mmWave frequencies because of the non-linearities in the hardware components, erodes the full potential of FD in practice. Conventionally, the residual SI is canceled in the baseband using digital processing with the aid of a transmit precoder. In this work, we propose a hybrid beamforming design for FD mmWave communications, where the SI is canceled by the joint design of beamformer weights at the radio-frequency (RF) and the precoder as well as combiner in the baseband. Our proposed design preserves the dimensions of the transmit signal, while suppressing the SI. We demonstrate that our joint design is capable of reducing the SI by upto 30 dB, hence performing similarly to the interference-free FD system while being computationally efficient. Our simulation results show that the proposed design significantly outperforms eigen-beamforming.

Abstract-Layered video coding creates multiple layers of unequal importance, which enables us to progressively refine the reconstructed video quality. When the base layer (BL) is corrupted or lost during transmission, the enhancement layers (ELs) must be dropped, regardless whether they are perfectly decoded or not, which implies that the transmission power assigned to the ELs is wasted. In this treatise, we propose an interlayer forward error correction (FEC) coded video transmission scheme for mobile TV. At the transmitter, the proposed interlayer (IL) coding technique implants the systematic information of the BL into the ELs by using exclusive-OR operations. At the receiver, the implanted bits of the ELs may be utilized for assisting in decoding the BL. Furthermore, the data partition mode of H.264 video coding is utilized as the source encoder, where the type B and type C partitions will assist in protecting the type A partition. The IL coded bitstream will then be modulated and transmitted over a multi-functional multiple-input multiple output (MF-MIMO) scheme for the sake of improving the system's performance in mobile environments. The proposed system may be readily combined with the traditional unequal error protection (UEP) technique, where extrinsic mutual information (MI) measurements are used for characterizing the performance of our proposed technique. Finally, our simulation results show that the proposed system model outperforms the traditional UEP aided system by about 2.5 dB of E b /N0 or 3.4 dB of peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) at the cost of 21% complexity increase, when employing a recursive systematic convolutional code. Furthermore, unlike the traditional UEP strategies, where typically stronger FEC-protection is assigned to the more important layer, employing our proposed IL coding technique requires weaker FEC to the more important layer. For example, the system relying on channel coding rates of 0.85, 0.44 and 0.44 for the type A, type B and type C H.264 video partitions, respectively, achieves the best system performance when employing a recursive systematic convolutional (RSC) code.

Abstract-Advanced cost reduction and performance improvement techniques conceived for Radio Over Fiber (ROF) communications are considered. ROF techniques are expected to form the backbone of the future 5G generation of wireless networks. The achievable link performance and the associated deployement cost constitute the most salient metrics of a ROF architecture. In this paper, we commence by providing a rudimentary overview of the ROF architecture and then elaborate on ROF techniques designed for improving the attainable system performance. We conclude by describing the ROF techniques conceived for reducing the ROF system installation costs.