Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: This article is a tutorial introduction to the field of unsourced multiple access (UMAC) protocols. We first provide a historical survey of the evolution of random access protocols, focusing specifically on the case in which uncoordinated users share a wireless broadcasting medium. Next, we highlight the change of perspective originated by the UMAC model, in which the physical and medium access layer’s protocols cooperate, thus reframing random access as a novel coding-theoretic problem. By now, a large variety of UMAC protocols (codes) emerged, necessitating a certain classification that we indeed propose here. Although some random access schemes require a radical change of the physical layer, others can be implemented with minimal changes to existing industry standards. As an example, we discuss a simple modification to the 5G New Radio (5GNR) Release 16 random access channel that builds on the UMAC theory and that dramatically improves energy efficiency for systems with even moderate number of simultaneous users (e.g., 5–10-dB gain for 10–50 users) and also enables handling of high number of users, something completely out of reach of the state of the art.
Source: Proceedings of the IEEE
Authors: Gianluigi Liva, Yury Polyanskiy
Language: English
Subfield: Computer Networks and Communications
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G2295054390, Collaborative Research: CIF: Small: Low-Complexity Algorithms for Unsourced Multiple Access and Compressed Sensing in Large Dimensions, Verbundprojekt: 6G Research and Innovation Cluster (6G-RIC) Offene und sichere 6G-Technologien: Weltmarktchance für Deutschland - 6G-RIC -, Teilvorhaben: Ressourceneffiziente und quantenresistente Kommunikation für 6G
OpenAlex ID: W4401507976