Millimeter-wave and terahertz technologies have been attracting attention from the wireless research community since they can offer large underutilized bandwidths which can enable the support of ultra-high-speed connections in future wireless communication systems. While the high signal attenuation occurring at these frequencies requires the adoption of very large (or the so-called ultra-massive) antenna arrays, in order to accomplish low complexity and low power consumption, hybrid analog/digital designs must be adopted. In this paper we present a hybrid design algorithm suitable for both mmWave and THz multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, which comprises separate computation steps for the digital precoder, analog precoder and multiuser interference mitigation. The design can also incorporate different analog architectures such as phase shifters, switches and inverters, antenna selection and so on. Furthermore, it is also applicable for different structures, namely fully-connected structures, arrays of subarrays (AoSA) and dynamic arrays of subarrays (DAoSA), making it suitable for the support of ultra-massive MIMO (UM-MIMO) in severely hardware constrained THz systems. We will show that, by using the proposed approach, it is possible to achieve good trade-offs between spectral efficiency and simplified implementation, even as the number of users and data streams increases.

Multidimensional Index Modulations (IM) are a novel alternative to conventional modulations which can bring considerable benefits for future wireless networks. Within this scope, in this paper we present a new scheme, named as Precoding-aided Transmitter side Generalized Space-Frequency Index Modulation (PT-GSFIM), where part of the information bits select the active antennas and subcarriers which then carry amplitude and phase modulated symbols. The proposed scheme is designed for multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) scenarios and incorporates a precoder which removes multiuser interference (MUI) at the receivers. Furthermore, the proposed PT-GSFIM also integrates signal space diversity (SSD) techniques for tackling the typical poor performance of uncoded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) based schemes. By combining complex rotation matrices (CRM) and subcarrier-level interleaving, PT-GSFIM can exploit the inherent diversity in frequency selective channels and improve the performance without additional power or bandwidth. To support reliable detection of the multidimensional PT-GSFIM we also propose three different detection algorithms which can provide different tradeoffs between performance and complexity. Simulation results shows that proposed PT-GSFIM scheme, can provide significant gains over conventional MU-MIMO and GSM schemes.

Index modulation (IM) has been attracting considerable research efforts in recent years as it is considered a promising technology that can enhance spectral and energy efficiency and help cope with the rising demand of mobile traffic in future wireless networks. In this paper, we propose a cloud radio access network (C-RAN) suitable for fifth-generation (5G) and beyond systems, where the base stations (BSs) and access points (APs) transmit multidimensional IM symbols, which we refer to as precoding-aided transmitter-side generalized space–frequency IM (PT-GSFIM). The adopted PT-GSFIM approach is an alternative multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) scheme that avoids multiuser interference (MUI) while exploiting the inherent diversity in frequency-selective channels. To validate the potential gains of the proposed PT-GSFIM-based C-RAN, a thorough system-level assessment is presented for three different three-dimensional scenarios taken from standardized 5G New Radio (5G NR), using two different numerologies and frequency ranges. Throughput performance results indicate that the 28 GHz band in spite of its higher bandwidth and higher achieved throughput presents lower spectral efficiency (SE). The 3.5 GHz band having lower bandwidth and lower achieved throughput attains higher SE. Overall, the results indicate that a C-RAN based on the proposed PT-GSFIM scheme clearly outperforms both generalized spatial modulation (GSM) and conventional MU-MIMO, exploiting its additional inherent frequency diversity.