The evolution and importance of measurements

for future communications networks

Andrew Smith, Sundeep Bhandari, Tian Hong Loh, David Humphreys

Group Leader & Strategy Lead *

5G & Future Comms

+44 20 8943 6672 andrew.smith@npl.co.uk

* Also UK DCMS 5G Testbeds & Trial programme (secondment)

Talk structure

Intro to NPL

NPL & Communications

• The past

• The present

• The immediate future

• Longer term – network 2030

NPL IntroThe UK’s national standards laboratory

Founded in 1900; a world-leading National

Measurement Institute

Public corporation – UK Department for

Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS)’s

largest science and technology asset

Mission: To provide the measurement capability

that underpins the UK’s prosperity and quality of

life

~1300 staff; 900+ specialists in Measurement

Science; 200 visiting researchers

State-of-the-art laboratory facilities

Revenue: 60% BEIS/NMS; 40% Other [Grant,

OGD, Industry]

Extensive international collaboration

35 746 m2

~400 Laboratories

purpose built

We develop and make available primary

standards (the ultimate reference points for

measurements), ensuring they are internationally

accepted

We carry out research to prepare for

measurements that will be needed in the future

Multidisciplinary CR&D, consultancy, technical

and measurement services for public and private

sectors

Core Mission – Supporting Innovation

NPL

Metrology is everywhere !

Energy

Space

Communications

Environment

Healthcare

Manufacturing

Health & safety

Transport

Space

Navigation

Digital Evolution

Resources

Hazard Prevention

Pharmaceutical Engineering

Health Protection

Biometrics

Satellite Pre-fly Testing

Climate Data

Carbon Emission

Low Carbon Technology

2% of GDP dependent on a robust measurement system

Talk structure

Intro to NPL

NPL & Communications

• The past

• The present

• The immediate future

• Longer term – network 2030

Heritage and legacy

Packet-switching developed at NPL 1966

The invention of Radar 1935

World’s first Automatic Computing Engine (ACE) 1946

Communications / waveform metrology at NPL

Industry guidance and collaboration (long history), e.g.

2G RF Peak power meters – Correcting waveforms (2005)

3G/4G Error Vector Magnitude – New methods (2013)

Fibre-optic parameters

Differential carrier phase recovery for QPSK optical coherent

systems with integrated tunable lasers

European metrology leadership in comms waveforms

EMRP/EMPIR projects “Ultrafast & high speed comms”

2014, “MORSE” 2016, “HF-circuits” 2016, “Metrology for 5G”

2018, “Photonics for Industry” 2018

2G RF Peak power meters

5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 401 10

6

1 105

1 104

1 103

0.01

0.1

1

Scope response

Power meter

Time us

Rel

aitv

e P

ower

Power Meter

Oscilloscope response

-5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Time in microseconds

10-1

10-2

10-3

10-4

10-5

10-6

10-0

Rela

tive p

ow

er

Vector

Signal

Generator

Diode peak-

power meter

Digital

Sampling

Oscilloscope

EOS

traceable

impulse

David A. Humphreys and James Miall, “Traceable RF Peak

Power Measurements for Mobile Communications‘,”IEEE Trans.

Instrum. Meas., Vol. 54, No. 2, pp. 680-683, April 2005.

3G Error Vector Magnitude

WCDMA

Source

WCDMA

Receiver

EVMReal time

oscilloscope

Traceable

Source

D A Humphreys and J Miall, “Traceable Measurement of

Source and Receiver EVM using a Real-Time Oscilloscope,”

IEEE Trans. IM. Vol. 62 (6) pp. 1413 – 1416, June 2013.

Talk structure

Intro to NPL

NPL & Communications

• The past

• The present

• The immediate future

• Longer term – network 2030

Real environment

Real environment

Source: Wikipedia

Information Transmission

Transistors

Gate Lead

Drain Lead

MOS capacitors

Flange

Integratedcapacitor

Ceramicsubstrate

Array ofbonding-wires

Real environment

Real environment

Waveforms Devices Antenna Propagation Wireless

System

Source: Wikipedia

Information Transmission (Cont.)

Source: Electronics Letters

Real World

Propagation

Antenna

Comms complex waveforms:

multiple modalities

Waveforms for 4G / 4G LTE and 5G

Photonics (fibre-optic) e.g. coherent

measurement for phase noise

Lifi - emerging measurement requirements

THz comms

Digital coherent receiver

Key Trends:

Wider range frequencies:

‘Sub-6GHz’ and ‘mmWaves’

New waveforms

Massive MIMO

Beamforming

Highly flexible architecture

5G Key Trends and Challenges

Challenges:

Large-scale antenna array

Interoperability issues

Extreme node densities (many

simultaneous connections)

Higher power and spectrum

efficiency

Signal Attenuation in

mm-wave bands

Beamforming Reconfiguration

Multi-user MIMO

40 50 60 70 80 900.8-

0.4-

0

0.4

40-

0

40

80

Time, ns

CH

1:

So

urc

e m

on

ito

r, V

CH

2:

OE

FS

an

d A

nte

nn

a, m

V

Source Antenna

30 40 50 60 70 800.2-

0

0.2

0.4

40-

20-

0

20

Time, ns

CH

1:

So

urc

e m

on

ito

r, V

CH

2:

OE

FS

and

An

ten

na,

mV

Source Antenna

(a) Waveform 1 (b) Waveform 2

DelayDelay

Waveforms

Ultra-Dense Networking

Power Efficiency

26 & 2839

Funded by:

• EU Horizon 2020 EURAMET EMPIR

research & innovation programme

• Participating States

MET5G (NPL-led)

(http://www.met5g.eu/)

Consortium:

Stakeholders:

• Cambridge University (WSN for 5G, beam steering sensor arrays)

• Queen Mary University of London (Antenna Array for 5G)

• Bristol University (mmWave channel)

• University of York (smart antenna WSN for 5G)

• Surrey University (5GIC) – lots of joint work

• Inputting to UK test beds and trials

• ETSI mWT

Example NPL 5G academic collaborations

Friday, 15 February 2019 19

> x 3

Monopole AntennaSmart Antenna

Meta-material-based

Smart antenna

Reflectarray Smart antenna

Switchable polarisation &

beam

Smart Antenna 5G TestbedSeveral Patents

Smart Antenna applied to wireless communication network

Smart AntennaMonopole Antenna

Talk structure

Intro to NPL

NPL & Communications

• The past

• The present

• The immediate future

• Longer term – network 2030

Mission critical application

e.g. remote robotic surgery

Future

Networks

DEMANDS BUSINESS

TRANSFORMATION,

NOT JUST NEW

TECHNOLOGY

Sources: ITU & tmforum

ECOSYSTEM

ENABLER

CONNECTIVITY PROVIDER

MASSIVE MACHINE TYPE

COMMUNICATIONS

ENHANCED MOBILE

BROADBAND

Gigabytes in a second

3D video, UHD screens

Work and play in the cloud

Augmented reality

Industry automation

Self Driving Car

ULTRA-RELIABLE AND LOW

LATENCY COMMUNICATIONS

Smart City

Smart Home/Building

5G demands business transformation, not just new technology

NPL 5G relevant activities:

Location Awareness for autonomous vehicles

NPL 5G relevant activities:

mmWave hybrid beamforming phased array testbed

8*16 planar antenna array

prototype @ 26GHz

Up Convertor

IF

LO

Beam former Matrix16*8

Antenna

Down Convertor

IF

LO

Pass LossBaseband

-132dB

Pow

er d

Bm

-72dBm-47dBm

-4dBm

IL=-2dBGain=46dBGain=13dB

EIRP=60dBm

Gain=28dBi Gain=25dBi

32dBm

Gain=21dB

12dBm

Up Convertor

Splitter networks

2 to 32

Antenna array16*8

IL=-16dB

IL=-3dB

Antenna

Down Convertor

IF

LO

Baseband

IL=-2dBGain=46dB

Gain=25dBi

0dBm 8dBm

-8dBm

Gain=13dB IL=-3dB

Baseband

IF

-2dBm

NPL 5G relevant activities – UK REng UK-China

3D holographic display using 5G/LiFi techniques

3D hologram display

3D hologram data conversion

Data Transmission using 5G/Li-Fi techniques

5G system

LiFi system

High accuracy time – lots of uses

Dissemination of time over 5G

5G Core

Radio access

Distributed MIMO

Applications/services

Geo-location/positioning accuracy

Latency

Security

Resilience

Network optimisation

Synchronisation

QKD

Time synchronisation

Primary Reference Clocks

10-12 Cs (1 µs per day) [best Cs performance up to 10-14]

4G LTE (<150 Mb/s) – typical requirement 1.5 µs

5G (10-100 Gb/s) may need 200 ns within 5 years

[possibly 20 ns beyond 5-10 years]

NPL working with 5GIC Surrey on future time

synchronisation (& phase) via dark fibre.

Talk structure

Intro to NPL

NPL & Communications

• The past

• The present

• The immediate future

• Longer term – network 2030

Considerations in determining the

future metrology framework

“Data” and the emerging “cyber physical world”

Automation – AI & ML at scale on top of

virtualisation

New (unknown) disruptive technologies

Importance of measurements

Future Network Centre Initiative (in the UK)

Data Life Cycle

Paradigm shifts everywhere

Traditional “Physical Metrology”

New metrology

Network Control Plane Security

Orchestration

Distributed Infrastructure

Management

DevOps for Networks

Operations Automation

Converged future virtualised networks

Future networks: long-term

Measurements of future 2030 networks will likely

require:

Future analogue of a digital twin - with real time

embodiment of complex system

Traceable feedback into system to provide full

characterisation

Traceable data provenance across systems -

for different and simultaneous applications

Everything driven by validated AI optimisation

techniques

Importance of measurement

Lisa Perkins

BT’s Director

or Adastral Park

What legacy will we leave?

Developing and de-risking future networks

National scale platform

Future core networks

Interoperability across systems and operators

Developing a new ecosystem

Stimulate innovation

Develop new business models

and new use cases

Ensure impartiality and

confidentiality

Embedding measurement by

default

A place to develop the multidisciplinary

ICT talent of the future

Creating a cross-industry, world leading CR&D test environment for fixed and

mobile networks with a focus on accelerating innovation, development and

deployment for the benefit of all.

Any questions?

The National Physical Laboratory is operated by NPL

Management Ltd, a wholly-owned company of the

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

(BEIS).

Andrew Smith

T +44 20 8943 6672

E: andrew.smith@npl.co.uk

Questions?