Wireless Access in Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication (URLLC)

TL;DR

This paper discusses the challenges and principles of wireless access design for URLLC in 5G, focusing on tradeoffs, massive MIMO, multi-connectivity, and reliability assessment methods.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of fundamental tradeoffs and principles in URLLC wireless access, highlighting the roles of massive MIMO and multi-connectivity.

Findings

Analysis of reliability and latency tradeoffs

Insights into massive MIMO and multi-connectivity benefits

Discussion on statistical methods for high reliability

Abstract

The future connectivity landscape and, notably, the 5G wireless systems will feature Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC). The coupling of high reliability and low latency requirements in URLLC use cases makes the wireless access design very challenging, in terms of both the protocol design and of the associated transmission techniques. This paper aims to provide a broad perspective on the fundamental tradeoffs in URLLC as well as the principles used in building access protocols. Two specific technologies are considered in the context of URLLC: massive MIMO and multi-connectivity, also termed interface diversity. The paper also touches upon the important question of the proper statistical methodology for designing and assessing extremely high reliability levels.