Network-Coded Multiple Access

This paper proposes and experimentally demonstrates a first wireless local area network (WLAN) system that jointly exploits physical-layer network coding (PNC) and multiuser decoding (MUD) to boost system throughput. We refer to this multiple access mode as Network-Coded Multiple Access (NCMA). Prior studies on PNC mostly focused on relay networks. NCMA is the first realized multiple access scheme that establishes the usefulness of PNC in a non-relay setting. NCMA allows multiple nodes to transmit simultaneously to the access point (AP) to boost throughput. In the non-relay setting, when two nodes A and B transmit to the AP simultaneously, the AP aims to obtain both packet A and packet B rather than their network-coded packet. An interesting question is whether network coding, specifically PNC which extracts packet (A XOR B), can still be useful in such a setting. We provide an affirmative answer to this question with a novel two-layer decoding approach amenable to real-time implementation. Our USRP prototype indicates that NCMA can boost throughput by 100% in the medium-high SNR regime (>=10dB). We believe further throughput enhancement is possible by allowing more than two users to transmit together

Turbo receivers for interleave-division multiple-access systems

In this paper several turbo receivers for Interleave-Division Multiple-Access (IDMA) systems will be discussed. The multiple access system model is presented first. The optimal, Maximum A Posteriori (MAP) algorithm, is then presented. It will be shown that the use of a precoding technique at the emitter side is applicable to IDMA systems. Several low complexity Multi-User Detector (MUD), based on the Gaussian approximation, will be next discussed. It will be shown that the MUD with Probabilistic Data Association (PDA) algorithm provides faster convergence of the turbo receiver. The discussed turbo receivers will be evaluated by means of Bit Error Rate (BER) simulations and EXtrinsic Information Transfer (EXIT) charts