26 research outputs found
Long-Baseline Laser Interferometry for the Detection of Binary Black-Hole Mergers
Late in 2015, gravitational physics reached a watershed moment with the first direct detections of gravitational waves. Two events, each from the coalescence of a binary black hole system, were detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). At present, LIGO comprises two 4 km laser interferometers, one in Washington and the other in Louisiana; a third detector is planned to be installed in India. These interferometers, known as Advanced LIGO, belong to the so-called “second generation” of gravitational-wave detectors. Compared to the first-generation LIGO detectors (Initial and Enhanced LIGO), these instruments use multi-stage active seismic isolation, heavier and higher-quality mirrors, and more laser power to achieve an unprecedented sensitivity to gravitational waves. In 2015, both Advanced LIGO detectors achieved a strain sensitivity better than 10-23/Hz1/2 at a few hundred hertz; ultimately, these detectors are designed to achieve a sensitivity of a few parts in 10-24/Hz1/2 at a few hundred hertz.
This thesis covers several topics in gravitational physics and laser interferometry. First, it presents the design, control scheme, and noise performance of the Advanced LIGO detector in Washington during the first observing run (O1). Second, it discusses some issues relating to interferometer calibration, and the impact of calibration errors on astrophysical parameter estimation. Third, it discusses the prospects for using terrestrial and space-based laser interferometers as dark matter detectors.
This thesis has the internal LIGO document number P1600295.</p
Recent Trends in Communication Networks
In recent years there has been many developments in communication technology. This has greatly enhanced the computing power of small handheld resource-constrained mobile devices. Different generations of communication technology have evolved. This had led to new research for communication of large volumes of data in different transmission media and the design of different communication protocols. Another direction of research concerns the secure and error-free communication between the sender and receiver despite the risk of the presence of an eavesdropper. For the communication requirement of a huge amount of multimedia streaming data, a lot of research has been carried out in the design of proper overlay networks. The book addresses new research techniques that have evolved to handle these challenges
Interference Mitigation and Localization Based on Time-Frequency Analysis for Navigation Satellite Systems
Interference Mitigation and Localization
Based on Time-Frequency Analysis for
Navigation Satellite SystemsNowadays, the operation of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) is imperative across a multitude of applications worldwide. The increasing reliance on accurate positioning and timing information has made more serious than ever the consequences of possible service outages in the satellite navigation systems. Among others, interference is regarded as the primary threat to their operation. Due the recent proliferation of portable interferers, notably jammers, it has now become common for GNSS receivers to endure simultaneous attacks from multiple sources of interference, which are likely spatially distributed and transmit different modulations.
To the best knowledge of the author, the present dissertation is the first publication to investigate the use of the S-transform (ST) to devise countermeasures to interference. The original contributions in this context are mainly:
• the formulation of a complexity-scalable ST implementable in real time as a
bank of filters;
• a method for characterizing and localizing multiple in-car jammers through
interference snapshots that are collected by separate receivers and analysed
with a clever use of the ST;
• a preliminary assessment of novel methods for mitigating generic interference
at the receiver end by means the ST and more computationally efficient variants of the transform.
Besides GNSSs, the countermeasures to interference proposed are equivalently applicable to protect any direct-sequence
spread spectrum (DS-SS) communication
Sensing and Signal Processing in Smart Healthcare
In the last decade, we have witnessed the rapid development of electronic technologies that are transforming our daily lives. Such technologies are often integrated with various sensors that facilitate the collection of human motion and physiological data and are equipped with wireless communication modules such as Bluetooth, radio frequency identification, and near-field communication. In smart healthcare applications, designing ergonomic and intuitive human–computer interfaces is crucial because a system that is not easy to use will create a huge obstacle to adoption and may significantly reduce the efficacy of the solution. Signal and data processing is another important consideration in smart healthcare applications because it must ensure high accuracy with a high level of confidence in order for the applications to be useful for clinicians in making diagnosis and treatment decisions. This Special Issue is a collection of 10 articles selected from a total of 26 contributions. These contributions span the areas of signal processing and smart healthcare systems mostly contributed by authors from Europe, including Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, and Netherlands. Authors from China, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Ecuador are also included
Waveform Design and Processing for Joint Wireless Communications and Sensing
Since the advent of radar/sensing systems, they have always had fixed frequencies for operation. Due to the exponential growth of communications systems, the need for dedicated spectrum for them also increased, causing spectrum scarcity for both communications and sensing. It was obvious that some form of flexible spectrum sharing was necessary between these two functionalities. Soon enough, this led the researchers to focus on joint communications and sensing (JCAS) systems that share spectral resources efficiently. The hardware convergence due to the similar functioning of the two systems complemented the frequency convergence of JCAS systems. In fact, JCAS is one of the prominent requirements in future sixth-generation (6G) communications systems.
This thesis focuses on integrating the sensing functionality on top of wireless mobile communications systems, such as in fifth-generation (5G). To facilitate effective JCAS, the thesis provides signal processing techniques for designing waveforms that optimally share the spectral resources, for single-input single-output (SISO) as well as multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. In addition, novel radar processing techniques are investigated for MIMO systems to better detect the targets in the environment.
The standard waveform in 5G, that is, orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), is also considered for joint waveform design. In such a communications system, the resources are usually not fully utilized and there exist unused subcarriers within the OFDM waveform. These subcarriers are filled with optimized samples to minimize the lower bounds of delay and velocity estimates’ error variances of sensing, for SISO JCAS systems. The simulations with standard-compliant 5G waveforms illustrate the improvements possible in sensing, while also helping to maximize the efficiency in the transmit power amplification process, along the same optimization scheme. The simulation results are complemented through practical radio-frequency measurements of an outdoor environment depicting the significant gains that can be obtained in the range–angle map of sensing, due to the waveform optimization.
For MIMO JCAS systems, apart from conventional communications streams, separate transmit (TX) streams are used to improve sensing performance through two separate schemes. One scheme involves optimizing the sensing streams to minimize the lower bounds of delay and angle estimates’ error variances of sensing. Simulation results indicate that the errors of sensing can be minimized while striking a good balance with the communications capacity. The other scheme depicts that the target detection can be enhanced using sensing streams on top of a communications stream. Specifically, the number of false targets detected can be significantly reduced in comparison to single-stream communication.
The antenna arrays in MIMO communications systems nowadays are a combination of analog and digital architectures, i.e., hybrid, instead of consisting of a fullydigital architecture, for reduced costs and power consumption. Radar processing in such a hybrid architecture with multiple TX streams is not straightforward in comparison to the conventional fully-digital MIMO radar. Hence, this thesis also provides novel radar processing techniques to obtain the range–angle and range–velocity maps of the sensed environment. The simulation results illustrate that the targets can be reliably detected through the proposed MIMO processing, while also providing super-resolution in the angular domain
Optimisation des performances de réseaux de capteurs dynamiques par le contrôle de synchronisation dans les systèmes ultra large bande
The basic concept of Impulse-Radio UWB (IR-UWB) technology is to transmit and receive baseband impulse waveform streams of very low power density and ultra-short duration pulses (typically at nanosecond scale). These properties of UWB give rise to fine time-domain resolution, rich multipath diversity, low power and low cost on-chip implementation facility, high secure and safety, enhanced penetration capability, high user capacity, and potential spectrum compatibility with existing narrowband systems. Due to all these features, UWB technology has been considered as a feasible technology for WSN applications. While UWB has many reasons to make it a useful and exciting technology for wireless sensor networks and many other applications, it also has some challenges which must be overcome for it to become a popular approach, such as interference from other UWB users, accurate modelling of the UWB channel in various environments, wideband RF component (antennas, low noise amplifiers) designs, accurate synchronization, high sampling rate for digital implementations, and so on. In this thesis, we will focus only on one of the most critical issues in ultra wideband systems: Timing Synchronization.Dans cette thèse nous nous sommes principalement concentrés sur les transmissions impulsion radio Ultra Large Bande (UWB-IR) qui a plusieurs avantages grâce à la nature de sa bande très large (entre 3.1GHZ et 10.6GHz) qui permet un débit élevé et une très bonne résolution temporelle. Ainsi, la très courte durée des impulsions émises assure une transmission robuste dans un canal multi-trajets dense. Enfin la faible densité spectrale de puissance du signal permet au système UWB de coexister avec les applications existantes. En raison de toutes ces caractéristiques, la technologie UWB a été considérée comme une technologie prometteuse pour les applications WSN. Cependant, il existe plusieurs défis technologiques pour l'implémentation des systèmes UWB. A savoir, une distorsion différente de la forme d'onde du signal reçu pour chaque trajet, la conception d'antennes très larges bandes de petites dimensions et non coûteuses, la synchronisation d'un signal impulsionnel, l'utilisation de modulation d'onde d'ordre élevé pour améliorer le débit etc. Dans ce travail, Nous allons nous intéresser à l'étude et l'amélioration de la synchronisation temporelle dans les systèmes ULB
Ultra Wideband Communications: from Analog to Digital
Ultrabreitband-Signale (Ultra Wideband [UWB]) können einen
signifikanten Nutzen im Bereich drahtloser Kommunikationssysteme haben. Es
sind jedoch noch einige Probleme offen, die durch Systemdesigner und
Wissenschaftler gelöst werden müssen. Ein Funknetzsystem mit einer derart
groĂźen Bandbreite ist normalerweise auch durch eine groĂźe Anzahl an
Mehrwegekomponenten mit jeweils verschiedenen Pfadamplituden
gekennzeichnet. Daher ist es schwierig, die zeitlich verteilte Energie
effektiv zu erfassen. Außerdem ist in vielen Fällen der naheliegende
Ansatz, ein kohärenter Empfänger im Sinne eines signalangepassten Filters
oder eines Korrelators, nicht unbedingt die beste Wahl. In der vorliegenden
Arbeit wird dabei auf die bestehende Problematik und weitere
Lösungsmöglichkeiten eingegangen.
Im ersten Abschnitt geht es um „Impulse Radio UWB”-Systeme mit
niedriger Datenrate. Bei diesen Systemen kommt ein inkohärenter Empfänger
zum Einsatz. Inkohärente Signaldetektion stellt insofern einen
vielversprechenden Ansatz dar, als das damit aufwandsgĂĽnstige und robuste
Implementierungen möglich sind. Dies trifft vor allem in Anwendungsfällen
wie den von drahtlosen Sensornetzen zu, wo preiswerte Geräte mit langer
Batterielaufzeit nötigsind. Dies verringert den für die Kanalschätzung
und die Synchronisation nötigen Aufwand, was jedoch auf Kosten der
Leistungseffizienz geht und eine erhöhte Störempfindlichkeit gegenüber
Interferenz (z.B. Interferenz durch mehrere Nutzer oder schmalbandige
Interferenz) zur Folge hat.
Um die Bitfehlerrate der oben genannten Verfahren zu bestimmen, wurde
zunächst ein inkohärenter Combining-Verlust spezifiziert, welcher
auftritt im Gegensatz zu kohärenter Detektion mit Maximum Ratio Multipath
Combining. Dieser Verlust hängt von dem Produkt aus der Länge des
Integrationsfensters und der Signalbandbreite ab.
Um den Verlust durch inkohärentes Combining zu reduzieren und somit die
Leistungseffizienz des Empfängers zu steigern, werden verbesserte
Combining-Methoden fĂĽr Mehrwegeempfang vorgeschlagen. Ein analoger
Empfänger, bei dem der Hauptteil des Mehrwege-Combinings durch einen
„Integrate and Dump”-Filter implementiert ist, wird für UWB-Systeme
mit Zeit-Hopping gezeigt. Dabei wurde die Einsatzmöglichkeit von dünn
besetzten Codes in solchen System diskutiert und bewertet. Des Weiteren
wird eine Regel für die Code-Auswahl vorgestellt, welche die Stabilität
des Systems gegen Mehrnutzer-Störungen sicherstellt und gleichzeitig den
Verlust durch inkohärentes Combining verringert.
Danach liegt der Fokus auf digitalen Lösungen bei inkohärenter
Demodulation. Im Vergleich zum Analogempfänger besitzt ein
Digitalempfänger einen Analog-Digital-Wandler im Zeitbereich gefolgt von
einem digitalen Optimalfilter. Der digitale Optimalfilter dekodiert den
Mehrfachzugriffscode kohärent und beschränkt das inkohärente Combining
auf die empfangenen Mehrwegekomponenten im Digitalbereich. Es kommt ein
schneller Analog-Digital-Wandler mit geringer Auflösung zum Einsatz, um
einen vertretbaren Energieverbrauch zu gewährleisten. Diese Digitaltechnik
macht den Einsatz langer Analogverzögerungen bei differentieller
Demodulation unnötig und ermöglicht viele Arten der digitalen
Signalverarbeitung. Im Vergleich zur Analogtechnik reduziert sie nicht nur
den inkohärenten Combining-Verlust, sonder zeigt auch eine stärkere
Resistenz gegenüber Störungen. Dabei werden die Auswirkungen der
Auflösung und der Abtastrate der Analog-Digital-Umsetzung analysiert. Die
Resultate zeigen, dass die verminderte Effizienz solcher
Analog-Digital-Wandler gering ausfällt. Weiterhin zeigt sich, dass im
Falle starker Mehrnutzerinterferenz sogar eine Verbesserung der Ergebnisse
zu beobachten ist. Die vorgeschlagenen Design-Regeln spezifizieren die
Anwendung der Analog-Digital-Wandler und die Auswahl der Systemparameter in
Abhängigkeit der verwendeten Mehrfachzugriffscodes und der Modulationsart.
Wir zeigen, wie unter Anwendung erweiterter Modulationsverfahren die
Leistungseffizienz verbessert werden kann und schlagen ein Verfahren zur
Unterdrückung schmalbandiger Störer vor, welches auf Soft Limiting
aufbaut. Durch die Untersuchungen und Ergebnissen zeigt sich, dass
inkohärente Empfänger in UWB-Kommunikationssystemen mit niedriger
Datenrate ein groĂźes Potential aufweisen.
AuĂźerdem wird die Auswahl der benutzbaren Bandbreite untersucht, um einen
Kompromiss zwischen inkohärentem Combining-Verlust und Stabilität
gegenĂĽber langsamen Schwund zu erreichen. Dadurch wurde ein neues Konzept
für UWB-Systeme erarbeitet: wahlweise kohärente oder inkohärente
Empfänger, welche als UWB-Systeme Frequenz-Hopping nutzen. Der wesentliche
Vorteil hiervon liegt darin, dass die Bandbreite im Basisband sich deutlich
verringert. Mithin ermöglicht dies einfach zu realisierende digitale
Signalverarbeitungstechnik mit kostengĂĽnstigen Analog-Digital-Wandlern.
Dies stellt eine neue Epoche in der Forschung im Bereich drahtloser
Sensorfunknetze dar.
Der Schwerpunkt des zweiten Abschnitts stellt adaptiven Signalverarbeitung
für hohe Datenraten mit „Direct Sequence”-UWB-Systemen in den
Vordergrund. In solchen Systemen entstehen, wegen der groĂźen Anzahl der
empfangenen Mehrwegekomponenten, starke Inter- bzw.
Intrasymbolinterferenzen. Außerdem kann die Funktionalität des Systems
durch Mehrnutzerinterferenz und Schmalbandstörungen deutlich beeinflusst
werden. Um sie zu eliminieren, wird die „Widely Linear”-Rangreduzierung
benutzt. Dabei verbessert die Rangreduzierungsmethode das
Konvergenzverhalten, besonders wenn der gegebene Vektor eine sehr groĂźe
Anzahl an Abtastwerten beinhaltet (in Folge hoher einer Abtastrate).
Zusätzlich kann das System durch die Anwendung der R-linearen Verarbeitung
die Statistik zweiter Ordnung des nicht-zirkularen Signals vollständig
ausnutzen, was sich in verbesserten Schätzergebnissen widerspiegelt.
Allgemeine kann die Methode der „Widely Linear”-Rangreduzierung auch in
andern Bereichen angewendet werden, z.B. in „Direct
Sequence”-Codemultiplexverfahren (DS-CDMA), im MIMO-Bereich, im Global
System for Mobile Communications (GSM) und beim Beamforming.The aim of this thesis is to investigate key issues encountered in the
design of transmission schemes and receiving techniques for Ultra Wideband
(UWB) communication systems. Based on different data rate applications,
this work is divided into two parts, where energy efficient and robust
physical layer solutions are proposed, respectively.
Due to a huge bandwidth of UWB signals, a considerable amount of multipath
arrivals with various path gains is resolvable at the receiver. For low
data rate impulse radio UWB systems, suboptimal non-coherent detection is a
simple way to effectively capture the multipath energy. Feasible techniques
that increase the power efficiency and the interference robustness of
non-coherent detection need to be investigated. For high data rate direct
sequence UWB systems, a large number of multipath arrivals results in
severe inter-/intra-symbol interference. Additionally, the system
performance may also be deteriorated by multi-user interference and
narrowband interference. It is necessary to develop advanced signal
processing techniques at the receiver to suppress these interferences.
Part I of this thesis deals with the co-design of signaling schemes and
receiver architectures in low data rate impulse radio UWB systems based on
non-coherent detection.â—Ź We analyze the bit error rate performance of
non-coherent detection and characterize a non-coherent combining loss,
i.e., a performance penalty with respect to coherent detection with maximum
ratio multipath combining. The thorough analysis of this loss is very
helpful for the design of transmission schemes and receive techniques
innon-coherent UWB communication systems.â—Ź We propose to use optical
orthogonal codes in a time hopping impulse radio UWB system based on an
analog non-coherent receiver. The “analog” means that the major part of
the multipath combining is implemented by an integrate and dump filter. The
introduced semi-analytical method can help us to easily select the time
hopping codes to ensure the robustness against the multi-user interference
and meanwhile to alleviate the non-coherent combining loss.â—Ź The main
contribution of Part I is the proposal of applying fully digital solutions
in non-coherent detection. The proposed digital non-coherent receiver is
based on a time domain analog-to-digital converter, which has a high speed
but a very low resolution to maintain a reasonable power consumption.
Compared to its analog counterpart, itnot only significantly reduces the
non-coherent combining loss but also offers a higher interference
robustness. In particular, the one-bit receiver can effectively suppress
strong multi-user interference and is thus advantageous in separating
simultaneously operating piconets.The fully digital solutions overcome the
difficulty of implementing long analog delay lines and make differential
UWB detection possible. They also facilitate the development of various
digital signal processing techniques such as multi-user detection and
non-coherent multipath combining methods as well as the use of advanced
modulationschemes (e.g., M-ary Walsh modulation).â—Ź Furthermore, we
present a novel impulse radio UWB system based on frequency hopping, where
both coherent and non-coherent receivers can be adopted. The key advantage
is that the baseband bandwidth can be considerably reduced (e.g., lower
than 500 MHz), which enables low-complexity implementation of the fully
digital solutions. It opens up various research activities in the
application field of wireless sensor networks.
Part II of this thesis proposes adaptive widely linear reduced-rank
techniques to suppress interferences for high data rate direct sequence UWB
systems, where second-order non-circular signals are used. The reduced-rank
techniques are designed to improve the convergence performance and the
interference robustness especially when the received vector contains a
large number of samples (due to a high sampling rate in UWB systems). The
widely linear processing takes full advantage of the second-order
statistics of the non-circular signals and enhances the estimation
performance. The generic widely linear reduced-rank concept also has a
great potential in the applications of other systems such as Direct
Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DS-CDMA), Multiple Input Multiple
Output (MIMO) system, and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), or
in other areas such as beamforming