Power allocation, bit loading and sub-carrier bandwidth sizing for OFDM-based cognitive radio

The function of the Radio Resource Management module of a Cognitive Radio (CR) system is to evaluate the available resources and assign them to meet the Quality of Service (QoS) objectives of the Secondary User (SU), within some constraints on factors which limit the performance of the Primary User (PU). While interference mitigation to the PU spectral band from the SU's transmission has received a lot of attention in recent literature; the novelty of our work is in considering a more realistic and effective approach of dividing the PU into sub-bands, and ensuring that the interference to each of them is below a specified threshold. With this objective, and within a power budget, we execute the tasks of power allocation, bit loading and sizing the sub-carrier bandwidth for an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based SU. After extensively analyzing the solution form of the optimization problems posed for the resource allocation, we suggest iterative algorithms to meet the aforementioned objectives. The algorithm for sub-carrier bandwidth sizing is novel, and not previously presented in literature. A multiple SU scenario is also considered, which entails assigning sub-carriers to the users, besides the resource allocation. Simulation results are provided, for both single and multi-user cases, which indicate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms in a CR environment

Interference Mitigation in WAIC Systems

Advancements in the field of wireless communications in the last few decades have made it an indispensable part of how human made entities, and by extension, humans interact with each other. The inherent lack of the need for significant physical infrastructure brings with it great advantages in terms of mobility, operational and maintenance costs, and overall reliability and flexibility. The characteristics of wireless techniques make for an attractive proposition for enabling operational communications in aircrafts. However, wireless networks bring with them their own set of challenges in terms of range, dependability or susceptibility to interference and security. The main objective of this thesis is to evaluate different wireless communications techniques for their feasibility to be employed as Wireless Avionics Intra-Communications (WAIC) systems. The major hindrance in ensuring reliable communications in this regard comes from the operation of the existing Radio Altimeter systems in the allotted frequency band of 4.2 - 4.4 GHz. WAIC systems based on wireless techniques such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) have been simulated in MATLAB for the analysis. The performance of the WAIC systems in the presence of interference from Altimeter signals and Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) has been evaluated and studied

Performance Evaluation of Distributed-Antenna Communications Systems Using Beam-Hopping

Digital beamforming (DBF) techniques are capable of improving the performance of communications systems significantly. However, if the transmitted signals are conflicted with strong interference, especially, in the direction of the transmitted beams , these directional jamming signals will severely degrade the system performance. In order to efficiently mitigate the interference of the directional jammers, in this contribution a beam-hopping (BH) communications scheme is proposed. In the proposed BH communications scheme, only one pair of the beams is used for transmission and it hops from one to the next according to an assigned BH pattern. In this contribution a range of expressions in terms of the average SINR performance have been derived, when both the uplink and downlink are considered. The average SINR performance of the proposed BH scheme and that of the conventional single-beam (SB) as well as multiple-beam (MB) assisted beam-processing schemes have been investigated. Our analysis and results show that the proposed BH scheme is capable of efficiently combating the directional jamming, with the aid of utilizing the directional gain of the beams generated by both the transmitter and the receiver. Furthermore, the BH scheme is capable of reducing the intercept probability of the communications. Therefore, the proposed BH scheme is suitable for communications, when several distributed antenna arrays are available around a mobile

Full-duplex wireless communications: challenges, solutions and future research directions

The family of conventional half-duplex (HD) wireless systems relied on transmitting and receiving in different time-slots or frequency sub-bands. Hence the wireless research community aspires to conceive full-duplex (FD) operation for supporting concurrent transmission and reception in a single time/frequency channel, which would improve the attainable spectral efficiency by a factor of two. The main challenge encountered in implementing an FD wireless device is the large power difference between the self-interference (SI) imposed by the device’s own transmissions and the signal of interest received from a remote source. In this survey, we present a comprehensive list of the potential FD techniques and highlight their pros and cons. We classify the SI cancellation techniques into three categories, namely passive suppression, analog cancellation and digital cancellation, with the advantages and disadvantages of each technique compared. Specifically, we analyse the main impairments (e.g. phase noise, power amplifier nonlinearity as well as in-phase and quadrature-phase (I/Q) imbalance, etc.) that degrading the SI cancellation. We then discuss the FD based Media Access Control (MAC)-layer protocol design for the sake of addressing some of the critical issues, such as the problem of hidden terminals, the resultant end-to-end delay and the high packet loss ratio (PLR) due to network congestion. After elaborating on a variety of physical/MAC-layer techniques, we discuss potential solutions conceived for meeting the challenges imposed by the aforementioned techniques. Furthermore, we also discuss a range of critical issues related to the implementation, performance enhancement and optimization of FD systems, including important topics such as hybrid FD/HD scheme, optimal relay selection and optimal power allocation, etc. Finally, a variety of new directions and open problems associated with FD technology are pointed out. Our hope is that this treatise will stimulate future research efforts in the emerging field of FD communication

Vector OFDM Transmission over Non-Gaussian Power Line Communication Channels

Most of the recent power line communication (PLC) systems and standards, both narrow-band and broadband, are based on orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM). This multiplexing scheme, however, suffers from the high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR), which can considerably impact the energy efficiency, size, and cost of PLC modems as well as cause electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) issues. This paper investigates the performance of vector OFDM (VOFDM), which has inherently better PAPR properties, over non-Gaussian broadband PLC channels equipped with two nonlinear preprocessors at the receiver. In addition, the low PAPR property of the VOFDM system is exploited to further enhance the efficiency of the nonlinear preprocessors. The achievable gains are studied in terms of the complementary cumulative distribution function of the PAPR, probability of noise detection error, and the signal-to-noise ratio at the output of the nonlinear preprocessors. For comparison’s sake, the performance of conventional OFDM systems is also presented throughout this paper. Results reveal that the proposed system is able to provide up to 2-dB saving in the transmit power relative to the conventional OFDM under same system conditions, which eventually also translates into a system that is more resilient to EMC limits, reduced cost, and size of PLC modems. It is also shown that the achievable gains become more significant as the vector block size of the VOFDM system is increased

Investigation of VBLAST Equalization Technique for Underwater Acoustic Communications

Underwater Acoustic Communications (UWAC) is an emerging technology in the field of underwater communications, and it is challenging because of the signal attenuation of the sound waves. Multiple Input and Multiple-Output (MIMO) is introduced in UWAC because of its support in enhancing the data throughput even under the conditions of interference, signal fading, and multipath. The paper presents the concept and analysis of 2× 2 MIMO UWAC systems that uses a 4- QAM spatial modulation scheme thus minimizing the decoding complexity and overcoming the Inter Channel Interference (IChI). Bit Error Rate (BER) investigation is carried out over different link distances under acoustic Line of Sight (LOS). The utilization of Zero Forcing (ZF) and Vertical-Bell Laboratories Layered Space-Time (VBLAST) equalizers, which estimates the transmitted data proves a success of removing Inter Symbol Interference (ISI).  The ISI caused due to multipath effect and scattering in UWAC can be reduced by iterative process considered in VBLAST.  A study is made on how the distance between the transmitter and the receiver and the Doppler Effect has its impact on the performance of the system