5G Research topics offer scholars an opportunity to innovate and explore the field of 5G Wireless systems using enhanced algorithms and protocols to increase the data rates and overcome the existing challenges. 5G networking is the advancement in the wireless domain for next-generation needs to offer enhanced data rates. Every new technology overcomes the existing challenges; similarly, 5G networks offer superior speed than the existing LTE/4G Networks to manage and connect multiple devices.
Coverage issues.
With the advent of 5G we will witness a site densification process as a primary means to increase network capacity. Site densification necessarily poses economical issues that may slow down considerably spatial and temporal 5G deployment, unless a substantial BS cost reduction is achieved over the time. It has been reported how SDN and network virtualization may contribute to cut costs, but there remains uncertainty about to what extent this will speed up 5G rollout. Recent studies have shown that, under a business-as-usual model, in UK 90% of the population will be covered with 5G not before 2027 and the that 100% coverage will be extremely hard to reach due to prohibitively increasing deployment costs in less populated
Emerging applications challenges :
Super-hype of 5G contributed to create unprecedented expectations about the levels of QoS these mobile networks will be able to provide. It is becoming clear, however, how some emerging applications will push the required QoS to extreme levels that appear very challenging for currently envisioned 5G architectures. Among them, driverless cars and vehicles and the tactile Internet. For example, the set of requirements imposed by the tactile Internet (end-to-end ultra-low latency not exceeding 1 ms, outage probability 10−7 or less, network intelligence to support predictive actuation) to deliver actuation and senses such as hearing, touching, and seeing, is still considered a 5G challenge especially over long ranges beyond 100 km
Device to Device Communication challenges and vulnerabilities :
There are aspects of D2D communication in 5G that have not yet been addressed in a totally satisfactory manner. One is coexistence of cellular users (CUs) and D2D pairs, particularly, mitigation of D2D links interference on CUs, when downlink resources are shared with D2D devices, and also on the BS when uplink resources are shared. D2D interference management is still a subject of research efforts, since existing interference mitigation techniques (interference cancellation based on coding and signal processing, interference avoidance based on orthogonal resource allocation, and interference coordination based on scheduling and power control) are expected to be insufficient in ultra-dense node deployment scenarios. Other issues concern D2D security and privacy. Direct or relay-assisted communication may be established on device controlled links with no control of the core network, a trusted party providing identification, authentication, and encryption. This makes D2D links potentially more vulnerable to privacy violation, besides suffering from all of the attacks affecting other networks.
Mobile edge computing issues:
It is foreseen that moving computing, storage, and networking resources to the edge of the radio access network (RAN) will be a key ingredient to alleviate backhaul and core network and to allow executing delay-sensitive and context-aware applications in the proximity of end users. This paradigm, referred to as mobile edge computing (MEC), poses however concerns . Among them, the limited computing and storage resources per each MEC platform, the necessity for MEC platforms of different provider to collaborate, challenges in user mobility support in small cells, problematic applicability of centralized authentication protocols.
An open and smart RAN?
We are currently witnessing efforts towards open, interoperable interfaces, RAN virtualization, and RAN intelligence.There is a trend to incentivize the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware, to explore open source and open whitebox network by introducing virtualized network elements with standardized open interfaces, to push embedded machine learning systems and artificial intelligence back end modules for an enhanced network intelligence. These are the main objectives of the ORAN Alliance. This trend is taking the first steps and it is clear to what extent the envisioned features will be implemented in 5G networks.
Network orchestration and slicing :
The NFV-SDN technologies, as briefly mentioned above, promise to support the implementation of a large variety of services by means of softwarized functionalities hosted into cloud computing platform over data centers implemented with standard hardware (COTS). In terms of Capex and Opex this is a real revolution for network operators, that can move into the direction of more effective procurement and simplified operations. Moreover the same resources (both and hardware and software) may be shared among different subsets of customers, while keeping full isolation of the data paths and of the quality of service thanks to the native capabilities of cloud computing platforms. This is the “slicing” concepts, different subsets of customers may subscribe a service contract with different operators (either real or virtual) and share in the end the same infrastructure, which paves the way to novel business models and opportunities for the network providers. An effective management of NFV requires an orchestration platform that will automate the deployment of the required functionalities and manage operations. Some opensource implementations of such an orchestration platform are currently under implementation, for instance Open source MANO (OSM)1, and the open network automation platform (ONAP)2, and running proof of concepts are also available such as the central office re-engineered as a data-center (CORD)3. These technologies are not at the production level and some issues like multi-domain orchestration support are still open. Similarly, the slicing paradigm has still to be fully understood and experimented to validate some critical aspects such as full quality of service isolation and security guarantees.
PhD Research Areas in 5G Network
- Implementing Security mechanism in Pervasive/Ubiquitous Computing
- Evolution of Future Wireless Networks using Cognitive Radio
- Implementing Privacy and Security in Wireless Networks
- Elevated Performance Network Virtualization
- Experimental Results on Spectrum effectiveness in End-to-End wireless systems
- D2D in 5G Network Architecture, Supervision Techniques, and Services
- Joint Management and Orchestration of Networking with Cloud Technologies