The recent concept of beamspace multiple input multiple output (MIMO) can significantly reduce the number of required radio frequency (RF) chains in millimeter-wave (mmWave) massive MIMO systems ...without obvious performance loss. However, the fundamental limit of existing beamspace MIMO is that the number of supported users cannot be larger than the number of RF chains at the same time-frequency resources. To break this fundamental limit, in this paper, we propose a new spectrum and energy-efficient mmWave transmission scheme that integrates the concept of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) with beamspace MIMO, i.e., beamspace MIMO-NOMA. By using NOMA in beamspace MIMO systems, the number of supported users can be larger than the number of RF chains at the same time-frequency resources. In particular, the achievable sum rate of the proposed beamspace MIMO-NOMA in a typical mmWave channel model is analyzed, which shows an obvious performance gain compared with the existing beamspace MIMO. Then, a precoding scheme based on the principle of zero forcing is designed to reduce the inter-beam interferences in the beamspace MIMO-NOMA system. Furthermore, to maximize the achievable sum rate, a dynamic power allocation is proposed by solving the joint power optimization problem, which not only includes the intra-beam power optimization, but also considers the inter-beam power optimization. Finally, an iterative optimization algorithm with low complexity is developed to realize the dynamic power allocation. Simulation results show that the proposed beamspace MIMO-NOMA can achieve higher spectrum and energy efficiency compared with the existing beamspace MIMO.
In this paper, we investigate the downlink transmission of a non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA)-based integrated terrestrial-satellite network, in which the NOMA-based terrestrial networks and the ...satellite cooperatively provide coverage for ground users while reusing the entire bandwidth. For both terrestrial networks and the satellite network, multi-antennas are equipped and beamforming techniques are utilized to serve multiple users simultaneously. A channel quality-based scheme is proposed to select users for the satellite, and we then formulate the terrestrial user pairing as a max-min problem to maximize the minimum channel correlation between users in one NOMA group. Since the terrestrial networks and the satellite network will cause interference to each other, we first investigate the capacity performance of the terrestrial networks and the satellite networks separately, which can be decomposed into the designing of beamforming vectors and the power allocation schemes. Then, a joint iteration algorithm is proposed to maximize the total system capacity, where we introduce the interference temperature limit for the satellite since the satellite can cause interference to all base station users. Finally, numerical results are provided to evaluate the user paring scheme as well as the total system performance, in comparison with some other proposed algorithms and existing algorithms.
Current fifth generation (5G) cellular networks mainly focus on the terrestrial scenario. Due to the difficulty of deploying communications infrastructure on the ocean, the performance of existing ...maritime communication networks (MCNs) is far behind 5G. This problem can be solved by using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as agile aerial platforms to enable on-demand maritime coverage, as a supplement to marine satellites and shore-based terrestrial based stations (TBSs). In this article, we study the integration of UAVs with existing MCNs, and investigate the potential gains of hybrid satellite-UAV-terrestrial networks for maritime coverage. Unlike the terrestrial scenario, vessels on the ocean keep to sea lanes and are sparsely distributed. This provides new opportunities to ease the scheduling of UAVs. Also, new challenges arise due to the more complicated maritime prorogation environment, as well as the mutual interference between UAVs and existing satellites/TBSs. We discuss these issues and show possible solutions considering practical constraints.
Millimeter-wave (mmWave) communication is envisioned to provide orders of magnitude capacity improvement. However, it is challenging to realize a sufficient link margin due to high path loss and ...blockages. To address this difficulty, in this paper, we explore the potential gain of ultra-densification for enhancing mmWave communications from a network-level perspective. By deploying the mmWave base stations (BSs) in an extremely dense and amorphous fashion, the access distance is reduced and the choice of serving BSs is enriched for each user, which are intuitively effective for mitigating the propagation loss and blockages. Nevertheless, co-channel interference under this model will become a performance-limiting factor. To solve this problem, we propose a large-scale channel state information (CSI)-based interference coordination approach. Note that the large-scale CSI is highly location-dependent, and can be obtained with a quite low cost. Thus, the scalability of the proposed coordination framework can be guaranteed. Particularly, using only the large-scale CSI of interference links, a coordinated frequency resource block allocation problem is formulated for maximizing the minimum achievable rate of the users, which is uncovered to be an NP-hard integer programming problem. To circumvent this difficulty, a greedy scheme with polynomial-time complexity is proposed by adopting the bisection method and linear integer programming tools. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed coordination scheme based on large-scale CSI only can still offer substantial gains over the existing methods. Moreover, although the proposed scheme is only guaranteed to converge to a local optimum, it performs well in terms of both user fairness and system efficiency.
The virtual multiple input multiple output (MIMO) technique can dramatically improve the performance of a multi-cell distributed antenna system (DAS), thanks to its great potentials for inter-cell ...interference mitigation. One of the most challenging issues for virtual MIMO is the acquisition of channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT), which usually leads to an overwhelming amount of system overhead. In this work, we focus on the case that only the slowly-varying large-scale channel state is required at the transmitter, and explore the performance gain that can be achieved by coordinated transmissions for virtual MIMO with large-scale CSIT. Aiming at maximizing the achievable ergodic sum rate, the input covariances for all the mobile terminals (MTs) are jointly optimized, which turns out to be a complicated non-convex problem with a non-closed-form objective function. Further analysis reveals that the coordinated transmission problem can be recast as a Max-Min problem with a closed-form objective function and linear constraints. Then, by appealing to the successive approximation method and the saddle-point theory of concave-convex functions, we propose an iterative algorithm for coordinated transmissions with large-scale CSIT and establish its convergence. Simulation results corroborate that the proposed scheme converges quickly, and it yields significant performance gains compared to the existing schemes. Moreover, it is observed that the proposed scheme can achieve a nearly globally-optimal point under the diagonal input covariance constraint. Since the acquisition of large-scale CSIT is far less demanding than that of full CSIT, we believe that the proposed coordinated transmissions with large-scale CSIT in DASs shed some light on virtual MIMO in the making.
Abstract
Norfloxacin (NOF) is an environmentally harmful and ubiquitous aquatic pollutant with extensive production and application. In this study, a novel composition named carbon-based composite ...photocatalytic material of zinc oxide and zinc sulphide (ZnO/ZnS@BC) was successfully obtained by the impregnation-roasting method to remove NOF under UV-light. Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectrometer characterised the composition. ZnO/ZnS was successfully decorated on the surface of biochar (BC). The pH, the ZnSO
4
/PS ratio, and ions and quenchers, were investigated. High removal efficiency was obtained with a pH of 7 and a ZnSO
4
/PS ratio of 1:1, and the removal ratio of NOF reached 95% within three hours; the adsorption and degradation ratios reached 46% and 49%, respectively. Fe
2+
promoted the degradation of NOF, whereas other ions inhibited it, with NO
3
−
showing the strongest inhibitory effect. Three reactive species (tert-butanol, quinone, and ammonium oxala) were identified in the catalytic system. The decreasing order of the contribution of each reactive species was: O
2
−
> ·OH
−
> h
+
. Additionally, a recycling experiment demonstrated the stability of the catalyst; the catalytic degradation ratio of NOF reached 78% after five successive runs. Therefore, ZnO/ZnS@BC possessed strong adsorption capacity and high ultraviolet photocatalysis ability.
Satellite networks are able to provide seamless services for ground users with wide coverage, which is intrinsically suitable for providing broadcasting or multicasting services. While terrestrial ...networks have experienced rapid development in recent years, in next generation communications, the architecture of integrated terrestrial-satellite networks is promising to enable users to seamlessly access all types of services. In this article, we investigate the problem of cooperative transmission in integrated terrestrial-satellite networks, where two cases of unicast transmission and multicast transmission are discussed separately. Overall, this article aims to provide a comprehensive discussion and also propose a general framework of cooperative transmission in future terrestrial- satellite networks.
Memristors with tunable resistance states are emerging building blocks of artificial neural networks. However, in situ learning on a large-scale multiple-layer memristor network has yet to be ...demonstrated because of challenges in device property engineering and circuit integration. Here we monolithically integrate hafnium oxide-based memristors with a foundry-made transistor array into a multiple-layer neural network. We experimentally demonstrate in situ learning capability and achieve competitive classification accuracy on a standard machine learning dataset, which further confirms that the training algorithm allows the network to adapt to hardware imperfections. Our simulation using the experimental parameters suggests that a larger network would further increase the classification accuracy. The memristor neural network is a promising hardware platform for artificial intelligence with high speed-energy efficiency.
Alterations of gut microbiota have been implicated in multiple diseases including cancer. However, the gut microbiota spectrum in lung cancer remains largely unknown. Here we profiled the gut ...microbiota composition in a discovery cohort containing 42 early-stage lung cancer patients and 65 healthy individuals through the 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing analysis. We found that lung cancer patients displayed a significant shift of microbiota composition in contrast to the healthy populations. To identify the optimal microbiota signature for noninvasive diagnosis purpose, we took advantage of Support-Vector Machine (SVM) and found that the predictive model with 13 operational taxonomic unit (OTU)-based biomarkers achieved a high accuracy in lung cancer prediction (area under curve, AUC = 97.6%). This signature performed reasonably well in the validation cohort (AUC = 76.4%), which contained 34 lung cancer patients and 40 healthy individuals. To facilitate potential clinical practice, we further constructed a 'patient discrimination index' (PDI), which largely retained the prediction efficiency in both the discovery cohort (AUC = 92.4%) and the validation cohort (AUC = 67.7%). Together, our study uncovered the microbiota spectrum of lung cancer patients and established the specific gut microbial signature for the potential prediction of the early-stage lung cancer.