Downlink Training in Cell-Free Massive MIMO: A Blessing in Disguise

Cell-free Massive MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) refers to a distributed Massive MIMO system where all the access points (APs) cooperate to coherently serve all the user equipments (UEs), suppress inter-cell interference and mitigate the multiuser interference. Recent works demonstrated that, unlike co-located Massive MIMO, the \textit{channel hardening} is, in general, less pronounced in cell-free Massive MIMO, thus there is much to benefit from estimating the downlink channel. In this study, we investigate the gain introduced by the downlink beamforming training, extending the previously proposed analysis to non-orthogonal uplink and downlink pilots. Assuming single-antenna APs, conjugate beamforming and independent Rayleigh fading channel, we derive a closed-form expression for the per-user achievable downlink rate that addresses channel estimation errors and pilot contamination both at the AP and UE side. The performance evaluation includes max-min fairness power control, greedy pilot assignment methods, and a comparison between achievable rates obtained from different capacity-bounding techniques. Numerical results show that downlink beamforming training, although increases pilot overhead and introduces additional pilot contamination, improves significantly the achievable downlink rate. Even for large number of APs, it is not fully efficient for the UE relying on the statistical channel state information for data decoding.Comment: Published in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications on August 14, 2019. {\copyright} 2019 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other use

Physical Layer Security in Integrated Sensing and Communication Systems

The development of integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems has been spurred by the growing congestion of the wireless spectrum. The ISAC system detects targets and communicates with downlink cellular users simultaneously. Uniquely for such scenarios, radar targets are regarded as potential eavesdroppers which might surveil the information sent from the base station (BS) to communication users (CUs) via the radar probing signal. To address this issue, we propose security solutions for ISAC systems to prevent confidential information from being intercepted by radar targets. In this thesis, we firstly present a beamformer design algorithm assisted by artificial noise (AN), which aims to minimize the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the target while ensuring the quality of service (QoS) of legitimate receivers. Furthermore, to reduce the power consumed by AN, we apply the directional modulation (DM) approach to exploit constructive interference (CI). In this case, the optimization problem is designed to maximize the SINR of the target reflected echoes with CI constraints for each CU, while constraining the received symbols at the target in the destructive region. Apart from the separate functionalities of radar and communication systems above, we investigate sensing-aided physical layer security (PLS), where the ISAC BS first emits an omnidirectional waveform to search for and estimate target directions. Then, we formulate a weighted optimization problem to simultaneously maximize the secrecy rate and minimize the Cram\'er-Rao bound (CRB) with the aid of the AN, designing a beampattern with a wide main beam covering all possible angles of targets. The main beam width of the next iteration depends on the optimal CRB. In this way, the sensing and security functionalities provide mutual benefits, resulting in the improvement of mutual performances with every iteration of the optimization, until convergence. Overall, numerical results show the effectiveness of the ISAC security designs through the deployment of AN-aided secrecy rate maximization and CI techniques. The sensing-assisted PLS scheme offers a new approach for obtaining channel information of eavesdroppers, which is treated as a limitation of conventional PLS studies. This design gains mutual benefits in both single and multi-target scenarios

Relay assisted device-to-device communication with channel uncertainty

The gains of direct communication between user equipment in a network may not be fully realised due to the separation between the user equipment and due to the fading that the channel between these user equipment experiences. In order to fully realise the gains that direct (device-to-device) communication promises, idle user equipment can be exploited to serve as relays to enforce device-to-device communication. The availability of potential relay user equipment creates a problem: a way to select the relay user equipment. Moreover, unlike infrastructure relays, user equipment are carried around by people and these users are self-interested. Thus the problem of relay selection goes beyond choosing which device to assist in relayed communication but catering for user self-interest. Another problem in wireless communication is the unavailability of perfect channel state information. This reality creates uncertainty in the channel and so in designing selection algorithms, channel uncertainty awareness needs to be a consideration. Therefore the work in this thesis considers the design of relay user equipment selection algorithms that are not only device centric but that are relay user equipment centric. Furthermore, the designed algorithms are channel uncertainty aware. Firstly, a stable matching based relay user equipment selection algorithm is put forward for underlay device-to-device communication. A channel uncertainty aware approach is proposed to cater to imperfect channel state information at the devices. The algorithm is combined with a rate based mode selection algorithm. Next, to cater to the queue state at the relay user equipment, a cross-layer selection algorithm is proposed for a twoway decode and forward relay set up. The algorithm proposed employs deterministic uncertainty constraint in the interference channel, solving the selection algorithm in a heuristic fashion. Then a cluster head selection algorithm is proposed for device-to-device group communication constrained by channel uncertainty in the interference channel. The formulated rate maximization problem is solved for deterministic and probabilistic constraint scenarios, and the problem extended to a multiple-input single-out scenario for which robust beamforming was designed. Finally, relay utility and social distance based selection algorithms are proposed for full duplex decode and forward device-to-device communication set up. A worst-case approach is proposed for a full channel uncertainty scenario. The results from computer simulations indicate that the proposed algorithms offer spectral efficiency, fairness and energy efficiency gains. The results also showed clearly the deterioration in the performance of networks when perfect channel state information is assumed

Resource allocation and secure communication design in simultaneous wireless information and power transfer systems

Radio frequency (RF) energy transfer techniques have been regarded as the key enabling solutions to supply continuous and stable energy for the energy-constrained wireless devices. Simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) has been developed as a more promising RF energy transfer technique since it enables wireless information and wireless energy to access users from a same transmitted signal. Therefore, SWIPT has received remarkable attention. This thesis provides an investigation on applications and security issues of this emerging technology in various wireless communication scenarios. First, this thesis examines the application of SWIPT to a multi-user cooperative network in which the amplify-and-forward (AF) relay protocol is employed at the multi-antenna relay. A power splitting (PS) receiver architecture is utilized at each destination node to implement energy harvesting (EH) and information decoding (ID) simultaneously. The aim of this chapter is to minimize the relay transmit power by jointly designing relay beamforming vectors and PS ratios based on channel uncertainty models. The non-convex problem is converted into a semidefinite programming (SDP) problem by using the semidefinite relaxation (SDR) approach. In addition, a rank-one proof presents that the solution generated by the relaxed problem is optimal to the original problem. Second, a security issue about the SWIPT system is investigated in a cooperative network in the presence of potential eavesdroppers. The AF relay protocol and a PS receiver architecture are adopted at the multi-antenna relay and the desired destination node, respectively. Based on the system setup and the assumption of perfect channel state information (CSI), a transmit power minimization problem combined with the secrecy rate and harvested energy constraints is proposed to jointly optimize the beamforming vector and the PS ratio. The proposed optimization problem is non-convex and hard to tackle due to the issues of the quadratic terms and the coupled variables. To deal with this non-convex problem, two algorithms are proposed. In the first algorithm case, the proposed problem can be globally solved by using a two-level optimization approach which involves the SDR method and the one-dimensional (1-D) line search method. In addition, a rank reduction theorem is introduced to guarantee the tightness of the relaxation of the proposed scheme. In the second algorithm case, the proposed problem can be locally solved by exploiting a low complexity iterative algorithm which is embedded in the sequential parametric convex approximation (SPCA) method. Furthermore, the proposed optimization problem is extended to the imperfect CSI case. Third, a secure communication case is studied in an underlay multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) cognitive radio (CR) network where the secondary transmitter (ST) provides SWIPT to receivers. In this chapter, two uncertainty channel models are proposed. One is based on the assumption that the ST has the perfect channel knowledge of the secondary information receiver (SIR) and the imperfect channel knowledge of secondary energy receivers (SERs) and primary receivers (PUs). The other one assumes that the ST only has the imperfect channel knowledge of all receivers. In each uncertainty channel model, an outage-constrained secrecy rate maximization (OC-SRM) problem combined with probability constraints is proposed to jointly optimizing the transmit covariance matrix and the artificial noise (AN)- aided covariance matrix. The designed OC-SRM problem for both models is non-convex due to the unsolvable probabilistic constraints. To solve this non-convex problem, the log determinant functions are first approximated to the easy handle the functions that the channel error terms are included in the trace function. Then, the probability constraints are converted into the deterministic constraints by exploiting the Bernstein-type inequality (BTI) approach. Finally, the reformulated problem for both models is solvable by using the existing convex tools. Last, a novel security issue is investigated in a MIMO-SWIPT downlink network where nonlinear energy receivers (ERs) are considered as the potential eavesdroppers. In this chapter, two uncertainty channel models, namely partial channel uncertainty (PCU) and full channel uncertainty (FCU), are proposed. An OC-SRM problem of each model is proposed to design the transmit signal covariance matrix while satisfying probabilistic constraints of the secrecy rate and the harvested energy. To surmount the non-convexity of the proposed OC-SRM problem in each model, several transformations and approximations are utilized. In the PCU model, the OC-SRM problem is first converted into two subproblems by introducing auxiliary variables. Then, three conservative approaches are adopted to obtain the safe approximation expressions of the probabilistic constraints, which are deterministic constraints. Moreover, an alternating optimization (AO) algorithm is proposed to iteratively solve two convex conic subproblems. In the FCU model, log determinant functions are first approximated to the trace functions. Then, the three approaches aforementioned are employed to convert probabilistic constraints into deterministic ones. The bisection method is utilized to solve the reformulated problem. Finally, the computational complexity of the proposed three approaches based on the PCU and FCU model is analyzed