Power allocation and linear precoding for wireless communications with finite-alphabet inputs

This dissertation proposes a new approach to maximizing data rate/throughput of practical communication system/networks through linear precoding and power allocation. First, the mutual information or capacity region is derived for finite-alphabet inputs such as phase-shift keying (PSK), pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM), and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signals. This approach, without the commonly used Gaussian input assumptions, complicates the mutual information analysis and precoder design but improves performance when the designed precoders are applied to practical systems and networks. Second, several numerical optimization methods are developed for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) multiple access channels, dual-hop relay networks, and point-to-point MIMO systems. In MIMO multiple access channels, an iterative weighted sum rate maximization algorithm is proposed which utilizes an alternating optimization strategy and gradient descent update. In dual-hop relay networks, the structure of the optimal precoder is exploited to develop a two-step iterative algorithm based on convex optimization and optimization on the Stiefel manifold. The proposed algorithm is insensitive to initial point selection and able to achieve a near global optimal precoder solution. The gradient descent method is also used to obtain the optimal power allocation scheme which maximizes the mutual information between the source node and destination node in dual-hop relay networks. For point-to-point MIMO systems, a low complexity precoding design method is proposed, which maximizes the lower bound of the mutual information with discretized power allocation vector in a non-iterative fashion, thus reducing complexity. Finally, performances of the proposed power allocation and linear precoding schemes are evaluated in terms of both mutual information and bit error rate (BER). Numerical results show that at the same target mutual information or sum rate, the proposed approaches achieve 3-10dB gains compared to the existing methods in the medium signal-to-noise ratio region. Such significant gains are also indicated in the coded BER systems --Abstract, page iv-v

On the Linear Precoder Design for MIMO Channels with Finite-Alphabet Inputs and Statistical CSI

This paper investigates the linear precoder design that maximizes the average mutual information of multiple-input multiple-output channels with finite-alphabet inputs and statistical channel state information known at the transmitter. This linear precoder design is an important open problem and is extremely difficult to solve: First, average mutual information lacks closed-form expression and involves complicated computations; Second, the optimization problem over precoder is nonconcave. This study explores the solution to this problem and provides the following contributions: 1) A closed-form lower bound of average mutual information is derived. It achieves asymptotic optimality at low and high signal-to-noise ratio regions and, with a constant shift, offers an accurate approximation to the average mutual information; 2) The optimal structure of the precoder is revealed, and a unified two-step iterative algorithm is proposed to solve this problem. Numerical examples show the convergence and the efficacy of the proposed algorithm. Compared to its conventional counterparts, the proposed linear precoding method provides a significant performance gain.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, accepted by IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM) 2011, Houston, T

Linear Precoding for MIMO Multiple Access Channels with Finite Discrete Inputs

In this paper, we study linear precoding for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) multiple access channels (MAC) with finite discrete inputs. We derive the constellation-constrained capacity region for the MIMO MAC with an arbitrary number of users and find that the boundary can be achieved by solving the problem of weighted sum rate maximization with constellation and individual power constraints. Due to the non-concavity of the objective function, we obtain a set of necessary conditions for the optimization problem through Karush-Kuhn-Tucker analysis. to find the optimal precoding matrices for all users, we propose an iterative algorithm utilizing alternating optimization strategy. in particular, each iteration of the algorithm involves the gradient descent update with backtracking line search. Numerical results show that when inputs are digital modulated signals and the signal-to-noise ratio is in the medium range, our proposed algorithm offers considerably higher sum rate than non-precoding and the traditional method which maximizes Gaussian-input sum capacity. Furthermore, a low-density parity-check coded system with iterative detection and decoding for MAC is presented to evaluate the bit error rate (BER) performance of precoders. BER results also indicate that the system with the proposed linear precoder achieves significant gains over the non-precoding system and the precoder designed for Gaussian inputs. © 2006 IEEE

Linear Precoding for MIMO Multiple Access Channels with Discrete-constellation Inputs

In this paper, we study linear precoding for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) multiple access channels (MAC) with discrete-constellation inputs. We derive the constellation-constrained capacity region for the MIMO MAC with an arbitrary number of users. Due to the non-concavity of the objective function, we obtain the necessary conditions for the weighted sum rate (WSR) maximization problem through Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) analysis. to find the optimal precoding matrices, we propose an iterative algorithm utilizing alternating optimization strategy and gradient descent update. Numerical results show that when inputs are digital modulated signals and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is in the medium range, our proposed algorithm offers significantly higher sum rate than non-precoding and the traditional method which maximizes Gaussian-input sum capacity. Furthermore, the bit error rate (BER) results of a low-density parity-check (LDPC) coded system also indicate that the system with the proposed linear precoder achieves significant gains over other methods. © 2011 IEEE

An Equilibrium Bid Markup Strategy

Setting a bid markup strategy is a very difficult task. Nevertheless, it is important to construction firms or consulting engineering companies because the development of successful bidding strategies is a key factor to their survival in business. Based on the two bidding criteria of the conditional profit ratio and the work force continuity, this short paper first presents the explicit expression of an equilibrium bid markup strategy in procurement auctions. However, the two bidding criteria conflict with each other and tradeoffs must be made. To make tradeoffs between the two bidding criteria, a new bid markup selection making model is then developed by Cobb-Douglas utility function. The model generalizes the classical expected profit model in the sense that the latter's objective function is only a special case of the former. The result shows that the relative importance of a bidding criterion to another has significant effect on the selection of the equilibrium bid markup strategyThis work was supported partly by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71001097 and 71171052) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 201104167)S

Linear Precoding for Finite-alphabet Inputs over MIMO Fading Channels with Statistical CSI

This paper investigates the linear precoder design that maximizes the average mutual information of multiple-input multiple-output fading channels with statistical channel state information known at the transmitter. It formulates the design from the standpoint of finite-alphabet inputs, which leads to a problem that is very important in practice but extremely difficult in theory: First, the average mutual information lacks closed-form expression and involves prohibitive computational burden. Second, the optimization over the precoder is nonconcave and thus easily gets stuck in local maxima. to address these issues, this study first derives lower and upper bounds for the average mutual information, in which the computational complexity is reduced by several orders of magnitude compared to calculating the average mutual information directly. It proves that maximizing the bounds is asymptotically optimal and shows that, with a constant shift, the lower bound actually offers a very accurate approximation to the average mutual information for various fading channels. This paper further proposes utilizing the lower bound as a low-complexity and accurate alternative for developing a two-step algorithm to find a near global optimal precoder. Numerical examples demonstrate the convergence and efficacy of the proposed algorithm. Compared to its conventional counterparts, the proposed linear precoding method provides significant performance gain over existing precoding algorithms. the gain becomes more substantial when the spatial correlation of MIMO channels increases. © 2012 IEEE

On the Power Allocation for Relay Networks with Finite-alphabet Constraints

In this paper, we investigate the optimal power allocation scheme for relay networks with finite-alphabet constraints. It has been shown that the previous work utilizing various design criteria with the Gaussian inputs assumption may lead to significant loss for a practical system with finite constellation set constraint, especially when signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is in medium-to-high regions, or when the channel coding rate is medium to high. an optimal power allocation scheme is proposed to maximize the mutual information for the relay networks under discrete-constellation input constraint. Numerical examples show that significant gain can be obtained compared to the conventional counterpart for nonfading channels and fading channels. at the same time, we show that the large performance gain on the mutual information will also represent the large gain on the bit error rate (BER), i.e., the benefit of the power allocation scheme predicted by the mutual information can indeed be harvested and can provide considerable performance gain in a practical system. ©2010 IEEE

Linear Precoding for Relay Networks with Finite-Alphabet Constraints

In this paper, we investigate the optimal precoding scheme for relay networks with finite-alphabet constraints. We show that the previous work utilizing various design criteria to maximize either the diversity order or the transmission rate with the Gaussian-input assumption may lead to significant loss for a practical system with finite constellation set constraint. A linear precoding scheme is proposed to maximize the mutual information for relay networks. We exploit the structure of the optimal precoding matrix and develop a unified two-step iterative algorithm utilizing the theory of convex optimization and optimization on the complex Stiefel manifold. Numerical examples show that this novel iterative algorithm achieves significant gains compared to its conventional counterpart.Comment: Accepted by IEEE Int. Conf. Commun. (ICC), Kyoto, Japan, 201

Linear Precoding for Relay Networks: A Perspective on Finite-alphabet Inputs

This paper considers the precoder design for dual-hop amplify-and-forward relay networks and formulates the design from the standpoint of finite-alphabet inputs. in particular, the mutual information is employed as the utility function, which, however, results in a nonlinear and nonconcave problem. This paper exploits the structure of the optimal precoder that maximizes the mutual information and develops a two-step algorithm based on convex optimization and optimization on the Stiefel manifold. by doing so, the proposed algorithm is insensitive to initial point selection and able to achieve a near global optimal precoder solution. Besides, it converges fast and offers high mutual information gain. These advantages are verified by numerical examples, which also show the large performance gain in mutual information also represents the large gain in the coded bit-error rate. © 2012 IEEE