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A 5G mobile network has evolved from a cell centric radio access network to a user centric one. A user-centric no-cell (UCNC) framework has been proposed, which enables physical layer coordination over a large number of transmission and reception points for each mobile user to always experience cell-center-like communications. This paper presents some key technologies in the UCNC framework. The focus is on proof of concept of UL grant-free transmissions in the UCNC architecture. Massive connectivity supporting a huge number of devices is one of the three important scenarios in 5G networks. The challenges to support massive connectivity lie in the cost of signaling overhead and transmission latency. An uplink grant-free transmission based on sparse code multiple access (SCMA) design is proposed. The proposed scheme can provide different levels of overloading to efficiently meet the massive connectivity requirements. Grant-free transmission conducted in RRC connected state can reduce signaling overhead, while in energy conserved operation (ECO) state, it can significantly reduce the user plane transmission latency. Extensive laboratory testing has been conducted in a collaborative project of Huawei and Telefonica to verify the performance matrices. Taking LTE as a baseline for comparison purposes, it is shown that the signaling overhead by using uplink grant-free transmission can be reduced by around 80% and the user plane transmission latency in ECO state can be reduced by around 93%. Moreover, massive connectivity is efficiently supported with the SCMA scheme that yields around 230% gain over OFDMA in terms of supported active users. pub

The articles in this special section focus on 5G mobile communication. With initial commercialization expected in 2020, fifth generation (5G) mobile communications is gathering increased interest and momentum around the world. Following discussions on the 5G vision and key requirements such as high data rate, low latency, and massive connectivity, various candidate technologies have been proposed and investigated. These new technologies include massive antenna technologies to provide beamforming gain and support increased capacity, new waveforms to flexibly accommodate various services and applications with different requirements, and new multiple access schemes to support massive connections. From a spectrum point of view, there is also increased interest in the use of spectrum above 6 GHz for 5G mobile communications.

The articles in this special section focus on new waveform technologies and services for 5G mobile communications.

Compared to the TM case, the inverse scattering problem for the TE incident field is more complicated due to its stronger nonlinearity. This work provides an effective method for the reconstruction of two-dimensional (2-D) inhomogeneous dielectric objects from TE scattering data. The algorithm applies the distorted Born iterative method to the integral equation of strong permittivity fluctuation to reconstruct scatterers with high-permittivity contrast. Numerical simulations are performed and the results show that the distorted Born iterative method (DBIM) for strong permittivity fluctuation (SPF-DBIM) converges faster and can obtain better reconstructions for objects with larger dimensions and higher contrasts in comparison with ordinary DBIM. A frequency hopping technique is also applied to further increase the contrast.

A novel structure for the transition from the dominant mode in circular waveguide to that in circular groove guide is presented. The mode converter based on this structure which has low reflection coefficient is designed. The numerical result shows that the performance of this new type of transducer is improved.

Double circular groove guide is a simple structure which can be used to construct directional coupler. In this paper, the coupling property of two uniformly coupled circular groove guides is studied based on the transverse resonance analysing results of closed double circular groove guide.

A new type of groove guide, circular groove guide, has been designed for use as a low losses, high power handling, low dispersion and single mode transmission medium in the short millimetric and submillimetric waves ranges. The characteristic equations of TE modes and TM modes have been developed and the propagation characteristics of the fundamental mode have been discussed. Experimental measurements are in good agreement with theoretical results. >