41 research outputs found
Real-time dynamic spectrum management for multi-user multi-carrier communication systems
Dynamic spectrum management is recognized as a key technique to tackle
interference in multi-user multi-carrier communication systems and networks.
However existing dynamic spectrum management algorithms may not be suitable
when the available computation time and compute power are limited, i.e., when a
very fast responsiveness is required. In this paper, we present a new paradigm,
theory and algorithm for real-time dynamic spectrum management (RT-DSM) under
tight real-time constraints. Specifically, a RT-DSM algorithm can be stopped at
any point in time while guaranteeing a feasible and improved solution. This is
enabled by the introduction of a novel difference-of-variables (DoV)
transformation and problem reformulation, for which a primal coordinate ascent
approach is proposed with exact line search via a logarithmicly scaled grid
search. The concrete proposed algorithm is referred to as iterative power
difference balancing (IPDB). Simulations for different realistic wireline and
wireless interference limited systems demonstrate its good performance, low
complexity and wide applicability under different configurations.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures. This work has been submitted to the IEEE for
possible publicatio
Spectrum optimization in multi-user multi-carrier systems with iterative convex and nonconvex approximation methods
Several practical multi-user multi-carrier communication systems are
characterized by a multi-carrier interference channel system model where the
interference is treated as noise. For these systems, spectrum optimization is a
promising means to mitigate interference. This however corresponds to a
challenging nonconvex optimization problem. Existing iterative convex
approximation (ICA) methods consist in solving a series of improving convex
approximations and are typically implemented in a per-user iterative approach.
However they do not take this typical iterative implementation into account in
their design. This paper proposes a novel class of iterative approximation
methods that focuses explicitly on the per-user iterative implementation, which
allows to relax the problem significantly, dropping joint convexity and even
convexity requirements for the approximations. A systematic design framework is
proposed to construct instances of this novel class, where several new
iterative approximation methods are developed with improved per-user convex and
nonconvex approximations that are both tighter and simpler to solve (in
closed-form). As a result, these novel methods display a much faster
convergence speed and require a significantly lower computational cost.
Furthermore, a majority of the proposed methods can tackle the issue of getting
stuck in bad locally optimal solutions, and hence improve solution quality
compared to existing ICA methods.Comment: 33 pages, 7 figures. This work has been submitted for possible
publicatio
FAST Copper for Broadband Access
FAST Copper is a multi-year, U.S. NSF funded project that started in 2004, and is jointly pursued by the research groups of Mung Chiang at Princeton University, John Cioffi at Stanford University, and Alexander Fraser at Fraser Research Lab, and in collaboration with several industrial partners including AT&T. The goal of the FAST Copper Project is to provide ubiquitous, 100 Mbps, fiber/DSL broadband access to everyone in the US with a phone line. This goal will be achieved through two threads of research: dynamic and joint optimization of resources in Frequency, Amplitude, Space, and Time (thus the name 'FAST') to overcome the attenuation and crosstalk bottlenecks, and the integration of communication, networking, computation, modeling, and distributed information management and control for the multi-user twisted pair network
Enhanced multi-user DMT spectrum management using polynomial matrix decomposition techniques
This thesis researches the increasingly critical roles played by intelligent resource management
and interference mitigation algorithms in present-day input multiple output (MIMO)
communication systems. This thesis considers the application of polynomial matrix decomposition
(PMD) algorithms, an emerging broadband factorisation technology for broadband
MIMO access networks. Present DSL systems’ performance is constrained by the presence
of interference (crosstalk) between multiple users sharing a common physical cable bundle.
Compared to the traditional static spectrum management methods that define their survival
to the worst-case scenarios, DSM methods provides some degree of flexibility to both direct
channel and noise parameters to improve evolvability and robustness significantly. A novel
crosstalk-aware DSM algorithm is proposed for the efficient management of multi-user DSL
systems. Joint power allocation procedures are considered for the proposed single-channel
equalisation method in DSL access networks.
This thesis then shows that DSM can also benefit overdetermined precoding-equalisation
systems, when the channel state information (CSI) parameters call for a specific decision
feedback criterion to achieve a perfect reconstruction. A reasonable redundancy is introduced
to reformulate the original multi-user MIMO problem into the simplest case of power
management problem. DSM algorithms are primarily applied to solve the power allocation
problem in DSM networks with the aim of maximising the system attribute rather than
meeting specific requirements. Also, a powerful PMD algorithm known as sequential
matrix diagonalisation (SMD) is used for analysing the eigenvalue decomposition problem
by quantifying the available system resource including the effects of the crosstalk and its
parameters. This analysis is carried out through joint precoding and equalisation structures.
The thesis also investigates dynamic interference mitigation strategies for improving
the performance of DSL networks. Two different mitigation strategies through a decision
feedback equalisation (DFE) criterion are considered, including zero-forcing (ZF) and
minimum mean square error (MMSE) equalisers. The difference between ZF and MMSE
equalisations is analysed. Some experimental simulation results demonstrate the performance
of both ZF and MMSE equalisation under the DFE equalisation constraint settings. Model reduction on the MMSE equalisation is thus applied to balance the crosstalk interference and
enhance the data-rate throughput.
Finally, the thesis studies a multi-user MIMO problem under the utility maximisation
framework. Simulation results illustrate that the power allocation of multi-user DSL transmission
can be jointly controlled and the interference can often be mitigated optimally on
a single user basis. Driven by imperfect CSI information in current DSL networks, the
research presents a novel DSM method that allows not only crosstalk mitigation, but also the
exploitation of crosstalk environments through the fielding of versatile, flexible and evolvable
systems. The proposed DSM tool is presented to achieve a robust mitigating system in any
arbitrary overdetermined multi-user MIMO environment. Numerical optimisation results show that the mitigation of crosstalk impairment using the proposed DSM strategy. The design and implementation of the proposed DSM are carried out in the environment of
MATLAB
Multi-User Signal and Spectra Coordination for Digital Subscriber Lines
The appetite amongst consumers for ever higher data-rates seems insatiable. This booming market presents a huge opportunity for telephone and cable operators. It also presents a challenge: the delivery of broadband services to millions of customers across sparsely populated areas. Fully fibre-based networks, whilst technically the most advanced solution, are prohibitively expensive to deploy. Digital subscriber lines (DSL) provide an alternative solution. Seen as a stepping-stone to a fully fibre-based network, DSL operates over telephone lines that are already in place, minimizing the cost of deployment. The basic principle behind DSL technology is to increase data-rate by widening the transmission bandwidth. Unfortunately, operating at high frequencies, in a medium originally designed for voice-band transmission, leads to crosstalk between the different DSLs. Crosstalk is typically 10-15 dB larger than the background noise and is the dominant source of performance degradation in DSL. This thesis develops practical multi-user techniques for mitigating crosstalk in DSL. The techniques proposed have low complexity, low latency, and are compatible with existing customer premises equipment (CPE). In addition to being practical, the techniques also yield near-optimal performance, operating close to the theoretical multi-user channel capacity. Multi-user techniques are based on the coordination of the different users in a network, and this can be done on either a spectral or signal level
Performance Enhancement in Copper Twisted Pair Cable Communications
The thesis focuses on the area of copper twisted pair based wireline communications. As one of the most widely deployed communication media, the copper twisted pair cable plays an important role in the communication network cabling infrastructure. This thesis looks to exploit diversity to improve twisted pair channels for data communications in two common application areas, namely Ethernet over Twisted Paris and digital subscriber line over twisted pair based telephone network.
The first part of the thesis addresses new approaches to next generation Ethernet over twisted pair cable. The coming challenge for Ethernet over twisted pair cable is to realise a higher data rate beyond the 25/40GBASE-T standard, in relatively short reach scenarios. The straight-forward approaches, such as improving cable quality and extending frequency bandwidth, are unlikely to provide significant improvement in terms of data rate. However, other system diversities, such as spectrum utilization are yet to be fully exploited, so as to meet the desired data rate performance. The current balanced transmission over the structured twisted pair cable and its parallel single-in-single-out channel model is revisited and formulated as a full-duplex multiple-in-multiple-out (MIMO) channel model.
With a common ground (provided by the cable shield), the balanced transmission is converted into unbalanced transmission, by replacing the differential-mode excitation with single-ended excitation. In this way, MIMO adoption may offer spectrum utilization advantages due to the doubled number of the channels. The S-parameters of the proposed MIMO channel model is obtained through the full wave electromagnetic simulation of a short CAT7A cable. The channel models are constructed from the resulting S-parameters, also the corresponding theoretical capacity is evaluated by exploiting different diversity scenarios.
With higher spectrum efficiency, the orthogonal-frequency-division-multiplexing (OFDM) modulation can significantly improve the theoretical capacity compared with single-carrier modulation, where the channel frequency selectivity is aided. The MIMO can further enhance the capacity by minimising the impact of the crosstalk. When the crosstalk is properly handled under the unbalanced transmission, this thesis shows that the theoretical capacity of the EoTP cable can reach nearly 200GBit/s.
In order to further extend the bandwidth capability of twisted pair cables, Phantom Mode transmission is studied, aiming at creating more channels under balanced transmission operation.
The second part of the thesis focuses on the research of advanced scheduling algorithms for VDSL2 QoS enhancement. For VDSL2 broadband access networks, multi-user optimisation techniques have been developed, so as to improve the basic data rate performance.
Spectrum balancing improves the network performance by optimising users transmit power spectra as the resource allocation, to mitigate the impact from the crosstalk. Aiming at enhancing the performance for the upstream VDSL2 service, where the users QoS demand is not known by all other users, a set of autonomous spectrum balancing algorithms is proposed. These optimise users transmit power spectra locally with only direct channel state information. To prevent selfish behaviour, the concept of a virtual user is introduced to represent the impact on both crosstalk interference and queueing status of other users. Moreover, novel algorithms are developed to determine the parameters and the weight of the virtual user.
Another type of resource allocation in the VDSL2 network is crosstalk cancellation by centralised signal coordination. The history of the data queue is considered as a time series, on which different smooth filter characteristics are investigated in order to investigate further performance improvement. The use of filter techniques accounts for both the instantaneous queue length and also the previous data to determine the most efficient dynamic resource allocation. With the help of this smoothed dynamic resource allocation, the network will benefit from both reduced signalling communication and improved delay performance.The proposed algorithms are verified by numerical experiments