Enabling 5G and beyond: millimeter wave propagation and cloud RAN evolution

In the last few years, mobile wireless technology has gone through a revolutionary change. Web-enabled devices have evolved into essential tools for communication, information, and entertainment. The fifth generation (5G) of mobile communication networks is envisioned to be a key enabler of the next upcoming wireless revolution. Millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum and the evolution of Cloud Radio Access Networks (C-RANs) are two of the main technological innovations of 5G wireless systems and beyond. Because of the current spectrum-shortage condition, mmWaves have been proposed for the next generation systems, providing larger bandwidths and higher data rates. Consequently, new radio channel models are being developed. Recently, deterministic ray-based models such as Ray-Tracing (RT) are getting more attractive thanks to their frequency-agility and reliable predictions. A modern RT software has been calibrated and used to analyze the mmWave channel. Knowledge of the electromagnetic properties of materials is therefore essential. Hence, an item-level electromagnetic characterization of common construction materials has been successfully achieved to obtain information about their complex relative permittivity. A complete tuning of the RT tool has been performed against indoor and outdoor measurement campaigns at 27 and 38 GHz, setting the basis for the future development of advanced beamforming techniques which rely on deterministic propagation models (as RT). C-RAN is a novel mobile network architecture which can address a number of challenges that network operators are facing in order to meet the continuous customers’ demands. C-RANs have already been adopted in advanced 4G deployments; however, there are still some issues to deal with, especially considering the bandwidth requirements set by the forthcoming 5G systems. Open RAN specifications have been proposed to overcome the new 5G challenges set on C-RAN architectures, including synchronization aspects. In this work it is described an FPGA implementation of the Synchronization Plane for an O-RAN-compliant radio system.

Interference mitigation techniques for cloud-RAN deployments in 5G and beyond systems

The deployment of ultra-dense networks is one of the most promising solutions to manage the phenomenon of co-channel interference that affects the latest wireless communication systems, especially in hotspots. To meet the requirements of the use-cases and the immense amount of traffic generated in these scenarios, 5G ultra-dense networks are being deployed using various technologies, such as distributed antenna system (DAS) and cloud-radio access network (C-RAN). Through these centralized densification schemes, virtualized baseband processing units coordinate the distributed access points and manage the available network resources. In particular, link adaptation techniques are shown to be fundamental to overall system operation and performance enhancement. The core of this dissertation is the result of an analysis and a comparison of dynamic and adaptive methods for modulation and coding scheme (MCS) selection applied to the latest mobile telecommunications standards. A novel algorithm based on the proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller principles and block error rate (BLER) target has been proposed. Tests were conducted in a 4G and 5G system level laboratory and, by means of a channel emulator, the performance was evaluated for different channel models and target BLERs. Furthermore, due to the intrinsic sectorization of the end-users distribution in the investigated scenario, a preliminary analysis on the joint application of users grouping algorithms with multi-antenna and multi-user techniques has been performed. In conclusion, the importance and impact of other fundamental physical layer operations, such as channel estimation and power control, on the overall end-to-end system behavior and performance were highlighted.

EDUCAÇÃO NUTRICIONAL E HIPERTENSÃO ARTERIAL SISTÊMICA: ABORDAGEM INDIVIDUAL E CAPACITAÇÃO DE UMA EQUIPE DE SAÚDE DA FAMÍLIA

A hipertensão é um grave problema de saúde pública. Sua prevalência no Brasil varia entre 22% e 44% para adultos (32% em média), chegando a mais de 50% para indivíduos com 60 a 69 anos e 75% em indivíduos com mais de 70 anos e esse número é crescente, seu aparecimento está cada vez mais precoce e estima-se que cerca de 4% das crianças e adolescentes também sejam portadoras. O excesso de gordura abdominal (circunferência abdominal maior que 86 cm, para mulheres e 94 cm, para homens) é associado ao aumento de risco para hipertensão e outros fatores de risco para doenças cardiovasculares (DCV). No município de Bodoquena existe alto índice de hipertensos com baixa aceitação e adesão ao tratamento não medicamentoso e adaptação aos hábitos de vida mais saudáveis. Assim o objetivo deste projeto foi implementar ações de educação nutricional na ESF Urbano 1 de Bodoquena/MS visando apresentar a nutrição saudável como fator coadjuvante no tratamento da hipertensão arterial sistêmica. Foi realizado o acompanhamento nutricional e orientação nutricional de um grupo de hipertensos da ESF, além da capacitação da equipe do ESF a fim de levantar multiplicadores da importância da alimentação saudável. Os resultados encontrados demonstraram que o paciente do sexo masculino apresentou redução de 4,2kg de sua massa corporal além de redução de 6cm de cintura, seu consumo de fibras alimentares passou de 11g/dia para 23g/dia. Nas mulheres os resultados foram de redução de em média 3,6kg de massa corporal, medidas abdominais reduziram em média 3,6cm, seu consumo de fibras alimentares foi de 18,4g/dia para 28g/dia, adquiridas através do consumo de pelo menos 2 porções de frutas ao dia. A educação continuada da equipe de saúde da família, embora muito comprometido pela restrição do tempo para avaliação poderá trazer resultados e benefícios aos usuários que muitas vezes não são contabilizados considerando a possibilidade de multiplicação do conhecimento, principalmente os ACS através da visita domiciliar.