PSSS based wireless communication for latency critical ultra-reliable communication in factory automation

• Applicants: Professor Dr.-Ing. Rüdiger Kays; Professor Dr.-Ing. Rolf Kraemer
• Subject Area: Electronic Semiconductors, Components and Circuits, Integrated Systems, Sensor Technology, Theoretical Electrical Engineering
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 432106374

• Final Report Year: 2022

Final Report Abstract

Factory automation applications have high requirements in terms of reliability (BER ≤ 10^-9), cycle times (in the range 50 µs - 100 µs), and availability (99.999%) of a communication system. Unfortunately, radio-based data transmission still inadequately meets these high demands. However, wireless networking is desirable due to the flexibility it enables, its simple installation, and the mobility of the nodes. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is already widely used in mobile communications and local area networks. In the 5G-ACIA, OFDM is now to be increasingly used in industrial environments within 5G networks. In the project, the Parallel Sequence Spread Spectrum (PSSS) concept, which has received little attention to date, has been further researched. This physical layer (PHY) method was investigated for the first time in the BMBF project ParSec. The applicants see great potential to use this concept, especially in the application area of industrial communication. Industrial radio channels are characterized by many strong reflections, which lead to significant fades in the frequency response of the channel transfer function. The PSSS system is based on orthogonal spreading codes and, as a code division multiplex, enables these effects to be sufficiently mitigated at high bandwidths. Combined with a suitable error protection scheme for short packet lengths as encountered in factory automation, it is probably possible to guarantee the required performance even under difficult propagation conditions with low complexity of implementation. The project analyzes this approach. Concepts of synchronization, channel estimation, and equalization are developed and explored in depth. In addition, the possibilities of a previously untested duplex concept (Code Division Duplex (CDD)) are investigated. Fundamental insights are gained that are transferable to other radio communication use cases apart from the industrial scenario. The overall performance is assessed by comparing the PSSS concept with an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) approach.

Publications

• Improved Parallel Sequence Spread Spectrum Transmission for High Bandwidth Efficiency. 2020 IEEE 91st Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC2020-Spring), 1-5. IEEE.
  Peter, Elias L.; Endemann, Wolfgang & Kays, Rudiger
  
• A Study of Barker Spreading Codes for High-Speed PSSS Wireless Systems. 2021 Joint European Conference on Networks and Communications & 6G Summit (EuCNC/6G Summit), 112-117. IEEE.
  Lopacinski, L.; Maletic, N.; Hasani, A.; Krishnegowda, K.; Gutierrez, J.; Kraemer, R. & Grass, E.
  
• Influence of Roll-off Pulse Shaping on a Parallel Sequence Spread Spectrum Signal. 2021 IEEE 19th International Conference on Industrial Informatics (INDIN), 1-5. IEEE.
  Peter, Elias L.; Endemann, Wolfgang & Kays, Rudiger
  
• Modulation and Coding Schemes for Variable-Rate Parallel Sequence Spread Spectrum. 2021 IEEE 32nd Annual International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC), 446-451. IEEE.
  Lopacinski, L.; Hasani, A.; Maletic, N.; Gutierrez, J.; Kraemer, R. & Grass, E.
  
• Parallel Sequence Spread Spectrum based Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication for Factory Automation. 2021 26th IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation (ETFA ), 01-04. IEEE.
  Krishnegowda, Karthik; Peter, Elias L.; Scheide, Matthias; Wimmer, Lara; Kays, Rudiger; Grass, Eckhard & Kraemer, Rolf