Concatenated codes for the multiple-input multiple-output quasi-static fading channel

The use of multiple antennas at the transmitter and/or the receiver promises greatly increased capacity. This can be useful to meet the ever growing demand of wireless connectivity, provided we can find techniques to efficiently exploit the advantages of the Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) system. This work explores the MIMO system in a flat quasi-static fading scenario. Such a channel occurs, for example, in packet data systems, where the channel fade is constant for the duration of a codeword and changes independently from one transmission to another. We first show why it is hard to compute the true constrained modulation outage capacity. As an alternative, we present achievable lower bounds to this capacity based on existing space-time codes. The bounds we compute are the fundamental limits to the performance of these space-time codes under maximum-likelihood decoding, optimal outer codes and asymptotically long lengths. These bounds also indicate that MIMO systems have different behavior under Gaussian signaling (unconstrained input) and under the finite alphabet setting. Our results naturally suggest the use of concatenated codes to approach near-capacity performance. However, we show that a system utilizing an iterative decoder has a fundamental limit it cannot be universal and therefore it cannot perform arbitrarily close to its outage limit. Next, we propose two different transceiver structures that have good performance. The first structure is based on a novel BCJR-decision feedback decoder which results in performance within a dB of the outage limit. The second structure is based on recursive realizations of space-time trellis codes and uses iterative decoding at the receiver. This recursive structure has impressive performance even when the channel has time diversity. Thus, it forms the basis of a very flexible and robust MIMO transceiver structure

A Sliding Correlator Channel Sounder for Ultra-Wideband Measurements

This body of work forms a detailed and comprehensive guide for those interested in performing broadband wireless channel measurements. Discussion addresses the theoretical and practical aspects of designing and implementing a sliding correlator channel sounder, as well as how such a system may be used to measure and model the ultra-wideband wireless channel. The specific contributions of this work are as follows: Developed a systematic methodology for designing optimal sliding correlator-based channel sounders. Constructed a UWB channel sounder based upon a 17-bit LFSR that attained 1.66 ns of temporal resolution and 34 dB of dynamic range. Performed an exemplary measurement campaign of the UWB channel from which UWB angular spreads and RMS delay spreads are reported. The design procedure developed in Chapter 3 will allow researchers to build optimal channel sounders for investigating next-generation wireless channels. Chapter 4 s discussion addresses the real-world challenges of constructing a high performance sliding correlator channel sounder. Finally, the measurement campaign discussed in Chapter 5 outlines a procedure for investigating the spatio-temporal characteristics of the wireless channel and provides some of the first examples of UWB angular spread measurements.M.S.Committee Chair: Durgin, Gregory; Committee Member: Ingram, Mary Ann; Committee Member: Smith, Whi

On Code Design for Interference Channels

abstract: There has been a lot of work on the characterization of capacity and achievable rate regions, and rate region outer-bounds for various multi-user channels of interest. Parallel to the developed information theoretic results, practical codes have also been designed for some multi-user channels such as multiple access channels, broadcast channels and relay channels; however, interference channels have not received much attention and only a limited amount of work has been conducted on them. With this motivation, in this dissertation, design of practical and implementable channel codes is studied focusing on multi-user channels with special emphasis on interference channels; in particular, irregular low-density-parity-check codes are exploited for a variety of cases and trellis based codes for short block length designs are performed. Novel code design approaches are first studied for the two-user Gaussian multiple access channel. Exploiting Gaussian mixture approximation, new methods are proposed wherein the optimized codes are shown to improve upon the available designs and off-the-shelf point-to-point codes applied to the multiple access channel scenario. The code design is then examined for the two-user Gaussian interference channel implementing the Han-Kobayashi encoding and decoding strategy. Compared with the point-to-point codes, the newly designed codes consistently offer better performance. Parallel to this work, code design is explored for the discrete memoryless interference channels wherein the channel inputs and outputs are taken from a finite alphabet and it is demonstrated that the designed codes are superior to the single user codes used with time sharing. Finally, the code design principles are also investigated for the two-user Gaussian interference channel employing trellis-based codes with short block lengths for the case of strong and mixed interference levels.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 201

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationMultiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) technique has emerged as a key feature for future generations of wireless communication systems. It increases the channel capacity proportionate to the minimum number of transmit and receive antennas. This dissertation addresses the receiver design for high-rate MIMO communications in at fading environments. The emphasis of the thesis is on the cases where channel state information (CSI) is not available and thus, clever channel estimation algorithms have to be developed to bene t from the maximum available channel capacity. The thesis makes four distinct novel contributions. First, we note that the conventional MCMC-MIMO detector presented in the prior work may deteriorate as SNR increases. We suggest and show through computer simulations that this problem to a great extent can be solved by initializing the MCMC detector with regulated states which are found through linear detectors. We also introduce the novel concept of staged-MCMC in a turbo receiver, where we start the detection process at a lower complexity and increase complexity only if the data could not be correctly detected in the present stage of data detection. Second, we note that in high-rate MIMO communications, joint data detection and channel estimation poses new challenges when a turbo loop is used to improve the quality of the estimated channel and the detected data. Erroneous detected data may propagate in the turbo loop and, thus, degrade the performance of the receiver signi cantly. This is referred to as error propagation. We propose a novel receiver that decorrelates channel estimation and the detected data to avoid the detrimental e ect of error propagation. Third, the dissertation studies joint channel estimation and MIMO detection over a continuously time-varying channel and proposes a new dual-layer channel estimator to overcome the complexity of optimal channel estimators. The proposed dual-layer channel estimator reduces the complexity of the MIMO detector with optimal channel estimator by an order of magnitude at a cost of a negligible performance degradation, on the order of 0.1 to 0.2 dB. The fourth contribution of this dissertation is to note that the Wiener ltering techniques that are discussed in this dissertation and elsewhere in the literature assume that channel (time-varying) statistics are available. We propose a new method that estimates such statistics using the coarse channel estimates obtained through pilot symbols. The dissertation also makes an additional contribution revealing di erences between the MCMC-MIMO and LMMSE-MIMO detectors. We nd that under the realistic condition where CSI has to be estimated, hence the available channel estimate will be noisy, the MCMC-MIMO detector outperforms the LMMSE-MIMO detector with a signi cant margin

Transmission strategies for broadband wireless systems with MMSE turbo equalization

This monograph details efficient transmission strategies for single-carrier wireless broadband communication systems employing iterative (turbo) equalization. In particular, the first part focuses on the design and analysis of low complexity and robust MMSE-based turbo equalizers operating in the frequency domain. Accordingly, several novel receiver schemes are presented which improve the convergence properties and error performance over the existing turbo equalizers. The second part discusses concepts and algorithms that aim to increase the power and spectral efficiency of the communication system by efficiently exploiting the available resources at the transmitter side based upon the channel conditions. The challenging issue encountered in this context is how the transmission rate and power can be optimized, while a specific convergence constraint of the turbo equalizer is guaranteed.Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit dem Entwurf und der Analyse von effizienten Übertragungs-konzepten für drahtlose, breitbandige Einträger-Kommunikationssysteme mit iterativer (Turbo-) Entzerrung und Kanaldekodierung. Dies beinhaltet einerseits die Entwicklung von empfängerseitigen Frequenzbereichs-entzerrern mit geringer Komplexität basierend auf dem Prinzip der Soft Interference Cancellation Minimum-Mean Squared-Error (SC-MMSE) Filterung und andererseits den Entwurf von senderseitigen Algorithmen, die durch Ausnutzung von Kanalzustandsinformationen die Bandbreiten- und Leistungseffizienz in Ein- und Mehrnutzersystemen mit Mehrfachantennen (sog. Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO)) verbessern. Im ersten Teil dieser Arbeit wird ein allgemeiner Ansatz für Verfahren zur Turbo-Entzerrung nach dem Prinzip der linearen MMSE-Schätzung, der nichtlinearen MMSE-Schätzung sowie der kombinierten MMSE- und Maximum-a-Posteriori (MAP)-Schätzung vorgestellt. In diesem Zusammenhang werden zwei neue Empfängerkonzepte, die eine Steigerung der Leistungsfähigkeit und Verbesserung der Konvergenz in Bezug auf existierende SC-MMSE Turbo-Entzerrer in verschiedenen Kanalumgebungen erzielen, eingeführt. Der erste Empfänger - PDA SC-MMSE - stellt eine Kombination aus dem Probabilistic-Data-Association (PDA) Ansatz und dem bekannten SC-MMSE Entzerrer dar. Im Gegensatz zum SC-MMSE nutzt der PDA SC-MMSE eine interne Entscheidungsrückführung, so dass zur Unterdrückung von Interferenzen neben den a priori Informationen der Kanaldekodierung auch weiche Entscheidungen der vorherigen Detektions-schritte berücksichtigt werden. Durch die zusätzlich interne Entscheidungsrückführung erzielt der PDA SC-MMSE einen wesentlichen Gewinn an Performance in räumlich unkorrelierten MIMO-Kanälen gegenüber dem SC-MMSE, ohne dabei die Komplexität des Entzerrers wesentlich zu erhöhen. Der zweite Empfänger - hybrid SC-MMSE - bildet eine Verknüpfung von gruppenbasierter SC-MMSE Frequenzbereichsfilterung und MAP-Detektion. Dieser Empfänger besitzt eine skalierbare Berechnungskomplexität und weist eine hohe Robustheit gegenüber räumlichen Korrelationen in MIMO-Kanälen auf. Die numerischen Ergebnisse von Simulationen basierend auf Messungen mit einem Channel-Sounder in Mehrnutzerkanälen mit starken räumlichen Korrelationen zeigen eindrucksvoll die Überlegenheit des hybriden SC-MMSE-Ansatzes gegenüber dem konventionellen SC-MMSE-basiertem Empfänger. Im zweiten Teil wird der Einfluss von System- und Kanalmodellparametern auf die Konvergenzeigenschaften der vorgestellten iterativen Empfänger mit Hilfe sogenannter Korrelationsdiagramme untersucht. Durch semi-analytische Berechnungen der Entzerrer- und Kanaldecoder-Korrelationsfunktionen wird eine einfache Berechnungsvorschrift zur Vorhersage der Bitfehlerwahrscheinlichkeit von SC-MMSE und PDA SC-MMSE Turbo Entzerrern für MIMO-Fadingkanäle entwickelt. Des Weiteren werden zwei Fehlerschranken für die Ausfallwahrscheinlichkeit der Empfänger vorgestellt. Die semi-analytische Methode und die abgeleiteten Fehlerschranken ermöglichen eine aufwandsgeringe Abschätzung sowie Optimierung der Leistungsfähigkeit des iterativen Systems. Im dritten und abschließenden Teil werden Strategien zur Raten- und Leistungszuweisung in Kommunikationssystemen mit konventionellen iterativen SC-MMSE Empfängern untersucht. Zunächst wird das Problem der Maximierung der instantanen Summendatenrate unter der Berücksichtigung der Konvergenz des iterativen Empfängers für einen Zweinutzerkanal mit fester Leistungsallokation betrachtet. Mit Hilfe des Flächentheorems von Extrinsic-Information-Transfer (EXIT)-Funktionen wird eine obere Schranke für die erreichbare Ratenregion hergeleitet. Auf Grundlage dieser Schranke wird ein einfacher Algorithmus entwickelt, der für jeden Nutzer aus einer Menge von vorgegebenen Kanalcodes mit verschiedenen Codierraten denjenigen auswählt, der den instantanen Datendurchsatz des Mehrnutzersystems verbessert. Neben der instantanen Ratenzuweisung wird auch ein ausfallbasierter Ansatz zur Ratenzuweisung entwickelt. Hierbei erfolgt die Auswahl der Kanalcodes für die Nutzer unter Berücksichtigung der Einhaltung einer bestimmten Ausfallwahrscheinlichkeit (outage probability) des iterativen Empfängers. Des Weiteren wird ein neues Entwurfskriterium für irreguläre Faltungscodes hergeleitet, das die Ausfallwahrscheinlichkeit von Turbo SC-MMSE Systemen verringert und somit die Zuverlässigkeit der Datenübertragung erhöht. Eine Reihe von Simulationsergebnissen von Kapazitäts- und Durchsatzberechnungen werden vorgestellt, die die Wirksamkeit der vorgeschlagenen Algorithmen und Optimierungsverfahren in Mehrnutzerkanälen belegen. Abschließend werden außerdem verschiedene Maßnahmen zur Minimierung der Sendeleistung in Einnutzersystemen mit senderseitiger Singular-Value-Decomposition (SVD)-basierter Vorcodierung untersucht. Es wird gezeigt, dass eine Methode, welche die Leistungspegel des Senders hinsichtlich der Bitfehlerrate des iterativen Empfängers optimiert, den konventionellen Verfahren zur Leistungszuweisung überlegen ist

Transmit and receive techniques for MIMO-OFDM systems

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

On multiple-antenna communications: signal detection, error exponent and and quality of service

Motivated by the demand of increasing data rate in wireless communication, multiple-antenna communication is becoming a key technology in the next generation wireless system. This dissertation considers three different aspects of multipleantenna communication. The first part is signal detection in the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication. Some low complexity near optimal detectors are designed based on an improved version of Bell Laboratories Layered Space-Time (BLAST) architecture detection and an iterative space alternating generalized expectation-maximization (SAGE) algorithm. The proposed algorithms can almost achieve the performance of optimal maximum likelihood detection. Signal detections without channel knowledge (noncoherent) and with co-channel interference are also investigated. Novel solutions are proposed with near optimal performance. Secondly, the error exponent of the distributed multiple-antenna communication (relay) in the windband regime is computed. Optimal power allocation between the source and relay node, and geometrical relay node placement are investigated based on the error exponent analysis. Lastly, the quality of service (QoS) of MIMO/single-input single- output(SISO) communication is studied. The tradeoff of the end-to-end distortion and transmission buffer delay is derived. Also, the SNR exponent of the distortion is computed for MIMO communication, which can provide some insights of the interplay among time diversity, space diversity and the spatial multiplex gain

Design and analysis of iteratively decodable codes for ISI channels

Recent advancements in iterative processing have allowed communication systems to perform close to capacity limits withmanageable complexity.For manychannels such as the AWGN and flat fading channels, codes that perform only a fraction of a dB from the capacity have been designed in the literature. In this dissertation, we will focus on the design and analysis of near-capacity achieving codes for another important class of channels, namely inter-symbol interference (ISI)channels. We propose various coding schemes such as low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, parallel and serial concatenations for ISI channels when there is no spectral shaping used at the transmitter. The design and analysis techniques use the idea of extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) function matching and provide insights into the performance of different codes and receiver structures. We then present a coding scheme which is the concatenation of an LDPC code with a spectral shaping block code designed to be matched to the channel??s spectrum. We will discuss how to design the shaping code and the outer LDPC code. We will show that spectral shaping matched codes can be used for the parallel concatenation to achieve near capacity performance. We will also discuss the capacity of multiple antenna ISI channels. We study the effects of transmitter and receiver diversities and noisy channel state information on channel capacity