Enabling Technologies for Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communications: From PHY and MAC Layer Perspectives

Gordon J. Sutton, Jie Zeng*, Ren Ping Liu, Wei Ni, Diep N. Nguyen, Beeshanga A. Jayawickrama, Xiaojing Huang, Mehran Abolhasan, Zhang Zhang, Eryk Dutkiewicz, Tiejun Lv

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

210 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Future 5th generation networks are expected to enable three key services-enhanced mobile broadband, massive machine type communications and ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC). As per the 3rd generation partnership project URLLC requirements, it is expected that the reliability of one transmission of a 32 byte packet will be at least 99.999% and the latency will be at most 1 ms. This unprecedented level of reliability and latency will yield various new applications, such as smart grids, industrial automation and intelligent transport systems. In this survey we present potential future URLLC applications, and summarize the corresponding reliability and latency requirements. We provide a comprehensive discussion on physical (PHY) and medium access control (MAC) layer techniques that enable URLLC, addressing both licensed and unlicensed bands. This paper evaluates the relevant PHY and MAC techniques for their ability to improve the reliability and reduce the latency. We identify that enabling long-term evolution to coexist in the unlicensed spectrum is also a potential enabler of URLLC in the unlicensed band, and provide numerical evaluations. Lastly, this paper discusses the potential future research directions and challenges in achieving the URLLC requirements.

Original languageEnglish
Article number8636206
Pages (from-to)2488-2524
Number of pages37
JournalIEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials
Volume21
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2019
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • LTE
  • URLLC
  • coexistence
  • latency
  • reliability
  • unlicensed

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Sutton, G. J., Zeng, J., Liu, R. P., Ni, W., Nguyen, D. N., Jayawickrama, B. A., Huang, X., Abolhasan, M., Zhang, Z., Dutkiewicz, E., & Lv, T. (2019). Enabling Technologies for Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communications: From PHY and MAC Layer Perspectives. IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials, 21(3), 2488-2524. Article 8636206. https://doi.org/10.1109/COMST.2019.2897800