Category Archives: Podcast

5G, Beyond 5G, Commentary, Education, Podcast, Technical insights

Episode 43: Ten Things That Are Missing in Many Textbooks

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We have now released the 43rd episode of the podcast Wireless Future. It has the following abstract:

There are many textbooks to choose between when learning the basics of wireless communications. In this episode, Erik G. Larsson and Emil Björnson discuss the recent book “Introduction to Multiple Antenna Communications and Reconfigurable Surfaces” that Emil has written together with Özlem Tugfe Demir. The conversation focuses on ten subtopics that are covered by the book and differentiates it from many previous textbooks. These are related to the dimensionality of physical constants, the choice of performance metrics, and the motivation behind OFDM signaling. Various system modeling characteristics are discussed, including how the antenna array geometry impacts the channel, dual-polarized signals, carrier frequency dependencies, and the connection between models for small-scale fading and radar cross-sections. The role of non-orthogonal multiple access, hybrid beamforming, and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces are also covered. The textbook is meant for teaching an introductory course on the topic and can be freely downloaded from https://www.nowpublishers.com/NowOpen

You can watch the video podcast on YouTube:

You can listen to the audio-only podcast at the following places:

5G, Beyond 5G, Commentary, Podcast, Technical insights

Episode 42: The Contours of 6G are Taking Shape

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We have now released the 42nd episode of the podcast Wireless Future. It has the following abstract:

Even if the 6G standardization is just beginning, the last five years of intensive research have illuminated the contours of the next-generation technology. In this episode, Emil Björnson and Erik G. Larsson discuss the recent paper “6G takes shape” written by leading researchers at UT Austin and Qualcomm. The conversation covers lessons learned from 5G, the potential role of new frequency bands and waveforms, and new coding schemes and forms of MIMO. The roles of machine learning and generative AI, as well as satellite integration and Open RAN, are also discussed. The original paper by Jeffrey G. Andrews, Todd E. Humphreys, and Tingfang Ji will appear in the IEEE BITS magazine, and the preprint is available on arXiv.

You can watch the video podcast on YouTube:

You can listen to the audio-only podcast at the following places:

Beyond 5G, Commentary, Podcast, Technical insights

Episode 41: 6G in the Upper Mid-Band

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We have now released the 41st episode of the podcast Wireless Future. It has the following abstract:

New cellular network deployments are often associated with new frequency bands. 6G will likely use the upper mid-band from 7-24 GHz. It is called the “golden band” since it provides more spectrum than in current 5G networks and features decent propagation conditions. In this episode, Erik G. Larsson and Emil Björnson discuss the coexistence issues that must be overcome when operating in this band and how much spectrum we can expect to utilize. The future role of multi-antenna technology and its associated challenges are detailed, including the emerging “Gigantic MIMO” term. The prospects of exploiting near-field propagation effects in 6G and the road towards distributed cell-free MIMO are also covered. You can read Emil’s paper about Gigantic MIMO and Nokia’s white paper about coverage evaluation.

You can watch the video podcast on YouTube:

You can listen to the audio-only podcast at the following places:

Beyond 5G, Commentary, Podcast, Technical insights

Episode 40: Synchronization of Massive Antenna Arrays

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We have now released the 40th episode of the podcast Wireless Future. It has the following abstract:

Many textbook models of communication systems assume that the transmitter and receiver are synchronized in time, frequency, and phase. Achieving and maintaining such synchronization is an often-overlooked practical challenge. However, the importance of synchronization grows as we plan to use larger antenna arrays and distributed MIMO in 6G. In this episode, Emil Björnson and Erik G. Larsson discuss some fundamental principles of synchronization, including the underlying physical phenomena, pilot signaling for phase synchronization, and reciprocity calibration. We especially discuss how the seemingly simplest angular beamforming can be among the hardest features to support from a synchronization perspective, with a digital array. More technical details in the papers Phase Calibration of Distributed Antenna Arrays and Massive Synchrony in Distributed Antenna Systems.

You can watch the video podcast on YouTube:

You can listen to the audio-only podcast at the following places:

Beyond 5G, Commentary, Podcast, Technical insights

Episode 39: Radio Stripes at Terahertz (With Parisa Aghdam)

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We have now released the 39th episode of the podcast Wireless Future. It has the following abstract:

Massive bandwidths are available in the sub-terahertz bands, but the coverage of a cellular network exploiting those frequencies will be spotty. The 6GTandem project tries to circumvent this issue by developing a dual-frequency system architecture that jointly uses the sub-6 GHz and sub-THz bands. In this episode, Erik G. Larsson and Emil Björnson are visited by Dr. Parisa Aghdam, Technical Lead of 6GTandem and Research Manager at Ericsson. The discussion starts with potential use cases, such as extended reality services in stadiums and connected factories. The conversation then focuses on hardware aspects, such as how to build a distributed antenna system using plastic microwave fibers and amplifiers so that sub-THz signals can be transmitted from many different locations. You can read more about the EU-funded project and its partners at https://horizon-6gtandem.eu/

You can watch the video podcast on YouTube:

You can listen to the audio-only podcast at the following places:

Beyond 5G, Commentary, News, Podcast, Technical insights

Episode 38: Things We Learned at the 6G Symposium

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We have now released the 38th episode of the podcast Wireless Future. It has the following abstract:

Many topics are studied within the 6G research community, from hardware design to algorithms, protocols, and services. Erik G. Larsson and Emil Björnson recently attended the ELLIIT 6G Symposium in Lund, Sweden. In this episode, they discuss ten things that they learned from listening to the keynote speeches. The topics span from integrated sensing, positioning, and localization via machine-learning applications in communications to fundamental communication theory, such as circuits for universal channel decoding and jamming protection. The expected 6G spectrum ranges, energy efficiency in base stations, and new use cases for electromagnetic materials are also covered. You can find slides from the symposium here.

Ten things we learned

3:22 Integrated sensing and communication 12:45 Positioning using phase-coherent access points 20:42 Experimental work on positioning from ELLIIT Focus period 24:02 Trained activation functions in machine learning 30:25 Learning to operate a reconfigurable intelligent surface 37:15 Guessing Random Additive Noise Decoding (GRAND) 44:30 Protecting digital beamforming against jamming 53:02 6G frequency spectrum 1:01:50 Energy efficiency in base stations 1:08:47 New use cases for electromagnetic materials

You can watch the video podcast on YouTube:

You can listen to the audio-only podcast at the following places:

5G, Beyond 5G, Commentary, Podcast, Technical insights

Episode 37. Wireless Future Panel Discussion (Live Podcast)

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We have now released the 37th episode of the podcast Wireless Future. It has the following abstract:

We celebrate the three-year anniversary of the podcast with a live recording from the Wireless Future Symposium that was held in September 2023. A panel of experts answered questions that we received on social media. Liesbet Van der Perre (KU Leuven) discusses the future of wireless Internet-of-Things, Fredrik Tufvesson (Lund University) explains new channel properties at higher frequencies, Jakob Hoydis (NVIDIA) describes differentiable ray-tracing and its connection to machine learning, Deniz Gündüz (Imperial College London) presents his vision for how artificial intelligence will affect future wireless networks, Henk Wymeersch (Chalmers University of Technology) elaborates on the similarities and differences between communication and positioning, and Luca Sanguinetti (University of Pisa) demystifies holographic MIMO and its relation to near-field communications.

You can watch the video podcast on YouTube:

You can listen to the audio-only podcast at the following places: