A universal space-time architecture for multiple-antenna aided systems

In this tutorial, we first review the family of conventional multiple-antenna techniques, and then we provide a general overview of the recent concept of the powerful Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) family based on a universal Space-Time Shift Keying (STSK) philosophy. When appropriately configured, the proposed STSK scheme has the potential of outperforming conventional MIMO arrangements

Dispensing with channel estimation: differentially modulated cooperative wireless communications

As a benefit of bypassing the potentially excessive complexity and yet inaccurate channel estimation, differentially encoded modulation in conjunction with low-complexity noncoherent detection constitutes a viable candidate for user-cooperative systems, where estimating all the links by the relays is unrealistic. In order to stimulate further research on differentially modulated cooperative systems, a number of fundamental challenges encountered in their practical implementations are addressed, including the time-variant-channel-induced performance erosion, flexible cooperative protocol designs, resource allocation as well as its high-spectral-efficiency transceiver design. Our investigations demonstrate the quantitative benefits of cooperative wireless networks both from a pure capacity perspective as well as from a practical system design perspective

Transmit Diversity Assisted Space Shift Keying for Colocated and Distributed/Cooperative MIMO Elements

Space Shift Keying (SSK) modulation is a recently proposed MIMO technique, which activates only a single transmit antenna during each time slot and uses the specific index of the activated transmit antenna to implicitly convey information. Activating a single antenna is beneficial in terms of eliminating the inter-channel interference, and mitigates the peak-to-mean power ratio, while avoiding the need for synchronisation among transmit antennas. However, this benefit is achieved at a sacrifice, since the transmit diversity gain potential of the multiple transmit antennas is not fully exploited in existing SSK assisted systems. Furthermore, a high SSK throughput requires the transmitter to employ a high number of transmit antennas, which is not always practical. Hence, we propose four algorithms, namely open-loop Space Time Space Shift Keying (ST-SSK), closed-loop feedback-aided phase rotation, feedback-aided power allocation, and cooperative ST-SSK, for the sake of achieving a diversity gain. The performance improvements of the proposed schemes are demonstrated by Monte-Carlo simulations for spatially independent Rayleigh fading channels. Their robustness against channel estimation errors is also considered. We advocate the proposed ST-SSK techniques, which are capable of achieving a transmit diversity gain of about 10 dB at a BER of 10-5, at a cost of imposing a moderate throughput loss dedicated to a modest feedback overhead. Furthermore, our proposed ST-SSK scheme lends itself to efficient communication, because the deleterious effects of deep shadow fading no longer impose spatial correlation on the signals received by the antennas, which cannot be readily avoided by co-located antenna elements

Dispensing with Channel Estimation…

In this article, we investigate the feasibility of noncoherent detection schemes in wireless communication systems as a low-complexity alternative to the family of coherent schemes. The noncoherent schemes require no channel knowledge at the receiver for the detection of the received signal, while the coherent schemes require channel inherently complex estimation, which implies that pilot symbols have to be transmitted resulting in a wastage of the available bandwidth as well as the transmission power

Coherent and Differential Downlink Space-Time Steering Aided Generalised Multicarrier DS-CDMA

This paper presents a generalised MultiCarrier Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (MC DS-CDMA) system invoking smart antennas for improving the achievable performance in the downlink. In this contribution, the MC DSCDMA transmitter employs an Antenna Array (AA) and Steered Space-Time Spreading (SSTS). Furthermore, the proposed system employs both Time and Frequency (TF) domain spreading for extending the capacity of the system, which is combined with a user-grouping technique for reducing the effects of Multi-User Interference (MUI). Moreover, to eliminate the high complexity Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) channel estimation required for coherent detection, we also propose a Differential SSTS (DSSTS) scheme. More explicitly, for coherent SSTS detection MVNr number of channel estimates have to be generated, where M is the number of transmit AAs, V is the number of subcarriers and Nr is the number of receive antennas. This is a challenging task, which renders the low-complexity DSSTS scheme attractive. Index Terms—MIMO, MC DS-CDMA, beamforming, spacetime spreading, differential space-time spreading

Design guidelines for spatial modulation

A new class of low-complexity, yet energyefficient Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) transmission techniques, namely the family of Spatial Modulation (SM) aided MIMOs (SM-MIMO) has emerged. These systems are capable of exploiting the spatial dimensions (i.e. the antenna indices) as an additional dimension invoked for transmitting information, apart from the traditional Amplitude and Phase Modulation (APM). SM is capable of efficiently operating in diverse MIMO configurations in the context of future communication systems. It constitutes a promising transmission candidate for large-scale MIMO design and for the indoor optical wireless communication whilst relying on a single-Radio Frequency (RF) chain. Moreover, SM may also be viewed as an entirely new hybrid modulation scheme, which is still in its infancy. This paper aims for providing a general survey of the SM design framework as well as of its intrinsic limits. In particular, we focus our attention on the associated transceiver design, on spatial constellation optimization, on link adaptation techniques, on distributed/ cooperative protocol design issues, and on their meritorious variants