REVOL6G: Affine Frequency Division Multiplexing for 6G Communications and Sensing (REVOL6G)
Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Lead partner: UCL
Partners: University of Essex; ACCELERCOMM LIMITED; Samsung Electronics co Limited; Tyndall National Institute; University of Southampton; Viavi Solutions UK Ltd
Lead academic: Prof Christos Masouros
Project amount: £140,398
Research themes: Future Communications; Control & Signal Processing
Project period: 1 June 2024 – 31 March 2026
Project description: The REVOL6G project is conceived at a critical moment, as countries race to shape the upcoming sixth generation (6G) mobile systems. At the very heart of the 6G system design, it is rather urgent to develop a flexible & context-aware waveform to support `perceptive’ communications in highly dynamic environments (e.g., non-terrestrial networks, connected autonomous vehicles, high speed railways). The legacy orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is, however, infeasible as its orthogonality could be easily destroyed in high mobility channels. Not to mention some other challenges such as asynchrony, heterogeneity, hardware impairments (e.g., carrier frequency offset, phase noise), stringent requirements on spectrum- and energy- efficiencies, etc. The mission of REVOL6G is thus to carry out a radical & intensive investigation on a disruptive multicarrier waveform called affine frequency division multiplexing (AFDM).
Such a waveform is promising owing to its unique tunable chirp structure, high backward compatibility, as well as strong resilience in mobile environments. To fully unleash its potential, we propose to 1) analyse and optimise the AFDM waveform properties (e.g., ambiguity functions, peak-to-average power ratio); 2) develop low-complexity & full-diversity receivers to improve both the communications and the sensing; and 3) conduct a deep learning assisted redesign of index-modulation AFDM for higher system energy efficiency.
Ground-breaking research results are anticipated through the joint force of three leading groups at UoE, UCL, and UoS as well as four prestigious partners: VIAVI Marconi Labs, Samsung Cambridge, AccelerComm, and the Tyndall National Institute (Ireland). Fully aligning with certain key areas of the three EPSRC Communication Hubs, the project will make direct contributions to the Hubs’ vision towards ultimate connectivity in all spectrum. The obtained outcomes and knowledge will lay the foundation of the next generation wireless system design, accelerate the UK 6G research, and reinforce the UK’s role as a global leader, academically and economically.
