The surest way to increase the system capacity of a wireless link is by getting the transmitter and receiver closer to each other, which creates the dual benefits of higher-quality links and more spatial reuse. In a network with nomadic users, this inevitably involves deploying more infrastructure, typically in the form of microcells, hot spots, distributed antennas, or relays. A less expensive alternative is the recent concept of femtocells - also called home base stations - which are data access points installed by home users to get better indoor voice and data coverage. In this article we overview the technical and business arguments for femtocells and describe the state of the art on each front. We also describe the technical challenges facing femtocell networks and give some preliminary ideas for how to overcome them.

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Femtocell networks: a survey

Topological photonics is a rapidly emerging field of research in which geometrical and topological ideas are exploited to design and control the behavior of light. Drawing inspiration from the discovery of the quantum Hall effects and topological insulators in condensed matter, recent advances have shown how to engineer analogous effects also for photons, leading to remarkable phenomena such as the robust unidirectional propagation of light, which hold great promise for applications. Thanks to the flexibility and diversity of photonics systems, this field is also opening up new opportunities to realize exotic topological models and to probe and exploit topological effects in new ways. This article reviews experimental and theoretical developments in topological photonics across a wide range of experimental platforms, including photonic crystals, waveguides, metamaterials, cavities, optomechanics, silicon photonics, and circuit QED. A discussion of how changing the dimensionality and symmetries of photonics systems has allowed for the realization of different topological phases is offered, and progress in understanding the interplay of topology with non-Hermitian effects, such as dissipation, is reviewed. As an exciting perspective, topological photonics can be combined with optical nonlinearities, leading toward new collective phenomena and novel strongly correlated states of light, such as an analog of the fractional quantum Hall effect.

Topological Photonics

We describe a method to estimate the capacity limit of fiber-optic communication systems (or ?fiber channels?) based on information theory. This paper is divided into two parts. Part 1 reviews fundamental concepts of digital communications and information theory. We treat digitization and modulation followed by information theory for channels both without and with memory. We provide explicit relationships between the commonly used signal-to-noise ratio and the optical signal-to-noise ratio. We further evaluate the performance of modulation constellations such as quadrature-amplitude modulation, combinations of amplitude-shift keying and phase-shift keying, exotic constellations, and concentric rings for an additive white Gaussian noise channel using coherent detection. Part 2 is devoted specifically to the "fiber channel.'' We review the physical phenomena present in transmission over optical fiber networks, including sources of noise, the need for optical filtering in optically-routed networks, and, most critically, the presence of fiber Kerr nonlinearity. We describe various transmission scenarios and impairment mitigation techniques, and define a fiber channel deemed to be the most relevant for communication over optically-routed networks. We proceed to evaluate a capacity limit estimate for this fiber channel using ring constellations. Several scenarios are considered, including uniform and optimized ring constellations, different fiber dispersion maps, and varying transmission distances. We further present evidences that point to the physical origin of the fiber capacity limitations and provide a comparison of recent record experiments with our capacity limit estimation.

Capacity Limits of Optical Fiber Networks

Indoor radio propagation channel

In this tutorial survey the principles of radio propagation in indoor environments are reviewed. The channel is modeled as a linear time-varying filter at each location in the three-dimensional space, and the properties of the filter's impulse response are described. Theoretical distributions of the sequences of arrival times, amplitudes and phases are presented. Other relevant concepts such as spatial and temporal variations of the channel, large-scale path losses, mean excess delay and RMS delay spread are explored. Propagation characteristics of the indoor and outdoor channels are compared and their major differences are outlined. Previous measurement and modeling efforts are surveyed, and areas for future research are suggested. >

The indoor radio propagation channel

The results of indoor multipath propagation measurements using 10 ns, 1.5 GHz, radarlike pulses are presented for a medium-size office building. The observed channel was very slowly time varying, with the delay spread extending over a range up to about 200 ns and rms values of up to about 50 ns. The attenuation varied over a 60 dB dynamic range. A simple statistical multipath model of the indoor radio channel is also presented, which fits our measurements well, and more importantly, appears to be extendable to other buildings. With this model, the received signal rays arrive in clusters. The rays have independent uniform phases, and independent Rayleigh amplitudes with variances that decay exponentially with cluster and ray delays. The clusters, and the rays within the cluster, form Poisson arrival processes with different, but fixed, rates. The clusters are formed by the building superstructure, while the individual rays are formed by objects in the vicinities of the transmitter and the receiver.

A Statistical Model for Indoor Multipath Propagation

Simple two-parameter formulas are presented for the functions involved in the amplitude-phase and the quadrature nonlinear models of a TWT amplifier, and are shown to fit measured data very well. Also, a closed-form expression is derived for the output signal of a TWT amplifier excited by two phase-modulated carriers, and an expression containing a single integral is given when more than two such earriers are involved. Finally, a frequencydependent quadrature model is proposed whose parameters are obtainable from single-tone measurements.

Frequency-Independent and Frequency-Dependent Nonlinear Models of TWT Amplifiers

The idea of implementing an indoor radio communications system serving an entire building from a single central antenna appears to be an attractive proposition. However, based on various indoor propagation measurements of the signal attenuation and the multipath delay spread, such a centralized approach appears to be limited to small buildings and to narrow-band FDMA-type systems with limited reliability and flexibility. In this paper, we present the results of indoor radio propagation measurements of two signal distribution approaches that improve the picture dramatically. In the first, the building is divided into many small cells, each served from an antenna located in its own center, and with adjacent cells operating in different frequency bands. In the second approach, the building is divided into one or more large cells, each served from a distributed antenna system or a "leaky feeder" that winds its way through the hallways. This approach eliminates the frequency cell handoff problem that is bound to exist in the first approach, while still preserving the dramatic reductions in multipath delay spread and signal attenuation compared to a centralized system. For example, the measurements show that, with either approach, the signal attenuation can be reduced by as much as a few tens of decibels and the rms delay spread becomes limited to 20 to 50 us, even in large buildings. This can make possible the implementation of sophisticated broad-band TDMA-type systems that are flexible, robust, and virtually building-independent.

Distributed Antennas for Indoor Radio Communications

High-frequency power amplifiers operate most efficiently at saturation, i.e., in the nonlinear range of their input/output characteristics. This phenomenon has traditionally dictated the use of constant envelope modulation methods for data transmission, resulting in circular signal constellations. This approach has inherently limited the admissible data rates in digital radio. In this paper we present a method for solving this problem without sacrificing amplifier power efficiency. We describe and analyze an adaptive linearizer that can automatically compensate for amplifier nonlinearity and thus make it possible to transmit multilevel quadrature amplitude modulated signals without incurring intolerable constellation distortions. The linearizer utilizes a real-time, data-directed, recursive algorithm for predistorting the signal constellation. Our analysis and computer simulations indicate that the algorithm is robust and converges rapidly from a blind start. Furthermore, the signal constellation and the average transmitted power can both be changed through software.

Adaptive linearization of power amplifiers in digital radio systems

An analytic method is described for fully characterizing the gain of an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) that is based on easily measured monochromatic absorption data. The analytic expressions presented, which involve the solution of one transcendental equation, can predict signal gains and pump absorptions in an amplifier containing an arbitrary number of pumps and signals from arbitrary directions. The gain of an amplifier was measured over a range of more than 20 dB in both pump and signal powers. The measured theoretical results agreed to within 0.5 dB. Although the results described apply explicitly to EDFAs pumped in the 1480-nm region, they are also applicable to EDFAs pumped in the 980-nm region. The method is valid whenever the gain saturation by amplified spontaneous-emission noise can be neglected, which is typically the case for amplifiers with less than about 20 dB of gain. >

Adel A. M. Saleh

Papers

A Statistical Model for Indoor Multipath Propagation

Frequency-Independent and Frequency-Dependent Nonlinear Models of TWT Amplifiers

Distributed Antennas for Indoor Radio Communications

Adaptive linearization of power amplifiers in digital radio systems

Modeling of gain in erbium-doped fiber amplifiers