Objectives
- To develop advanced coding techniques for emerging wireless communication and sensor networks. Analog Joint Source Channel Coding (JSCC) and emerging topics in digital coding will be considered. In particular, we will focus on hybrid analog-digital schemes for Gaussian sources and channels with memory, analog mappings for correlated sources in multiuser scenarios, digital joint source channel coding for high rate transmissions, polar coding under secrecy constraints, and both digital and analog network coding.
- To develop advanced signal processing techniques for emerging wireless communication and sensor networks. Special efforts will be devoted to signal processing techniques for interference-limited scenarios like non-coherent subspace-based communication and optimization problems, improper signaling, and Tx-Rx schemes for multicell MIMO networks. Signal processing methods for unconventional MIMO transceiver architectures will also be investigated. Such architectures are fundamental to deal with MIMO wireless channels with unprecedented bandwidth and number of antennas in emerging applications. Time Modulated Arrays, hybrid analog-digital precoding and combining, and non-orthogonal modulation formats are topics to be considered. Finally, distributed signal and information processing over networks and graphs will be addressed. Specifically, CARMEN will focus on topics like computation over networks, distributed optimization and distributed signal processing, and the recovery of data matrices given a small fraction of their entries (matrix completion).
- To assess coding and signal processing techniques by means of Over The Air (OTA) transmissions. Leveraging the past expertise of its partners, a specific hardware testbed for the evaluation of the concepts to be developed within CARMEN will be constructed. A salient feature of the CARMEN testbed is that it will be operating at extremely high frequencies around 70 GHz with MIMO capabilities. Addressing such high frequencies is a challenging task for CARMEN members since past experiments were always under 6 GHz. The multi- antenna testbed nodes will support precise time and frequency synchronization functionalities and will allow for measurements with mobility. The emulation of high velocities from low-speed experiments will be considered to assess affordably high-speed scenarios such as those in railway transportation. Finally, evaluation over harsh channels like wireless optical intensity and underwater channels will be also considered. Such evaluations will be done using channel models and simulations due to the difficulty of carrying out OTA experiments in these cases.
A graphical representation of the technical activities of CARMEN and the involvement of the different partners in each of them is depicted in the following figure:
