Rethinking the role of interference in wireless networks

This article re-examines the fundamental notion of interference in wireless networks by contrasting traditional approaches to new concepts that handle interference in a creative way. Specifically, we discuss the fundamental limits of the interference channel and present the interference alignment technique and its extension of signal alignment techniques. Contrary to this traditional view, which treats interference as a detrimental phenomenon, we introduce three concepts that handle interference as a useful resource. The first concept exploits interference at the modulation level and leads to simple multiuser downlink precoding that provides significant energy savings. The second concept uses radio frequency radiation for energy harvesting and handles interference as a source of green energy. The last concept refers to a secrecy environment and uses interference as an efficient means to jam potential eavesdroppers. These three techniques bring a new vision about interference in wireless networks and motivate a plethora of potential new applications and services

Wearable Wireless Devices

No abstract available

Wearable Wireless Devices

No abstract available

Adaptive Suppression of Interfering Signals in Communication Systems

The growth in the number of wireless devices and applications underscores the need for characterizing and mitigating interference induced problems such as distortion and blocking. A typical interference scenario involves the detection of a small amplitude signal of interest (SOI) in the presence of a large amplitude interfering signal; it is desirable to attenuate the interfering signal while preserving the integrity of SOI and an appropriate dynamic range. If the frequency of the interfering signal varies or is unknown, an adaptive notch function must be applied in order to maintain adequate attenuation. This work explores the performance space of a phase cancellation technique used in implementing the desired notch function for communication systems in the 1-3 GHz frequency range. A system level model constructed with MATLAB and related simulation results assist in building the theoretical foundation for setting performance bounds on the implemented solution and deriving hardware specifications for the RF notch subsystem devices. Simulations and measurements are presented for a Low Noise Amplifer (LNA), voltage variable attenuators, bandpass filters and phase shifters. Ultimately, full system tests provide a measure of merit for this work as well as invaluable lessons learned. The emphasis of this project is the on-wafer LNA measurements, dependence of IC system performance on mismatches and overall system performance tests. Where possible, predictions are plotted alongside measured data. The reasonable match between the two validates system and component models and more than compensates for the painstaking modeling efforts. Most importantly, using the signal to interferer ratio (SIR) as a figure of merit, experimental results demonstrate up to 58 dB of SIR improvement. This number represents a remarkable advancement in interference rejection at RF or microwave frequencies

Quantum Cryptography

Quantum cryptography could well be the first application of quantum mechanics at the individual quanta level. The very fast progress in both theory and experiments over the recent years are reviewed, with emphasis on open questions and technological issues.Comment: 55 pages, 32 figures; to appear in Reviews of Modern Physic

Design Techniques of Highly Integrated Hybrid-Switched-Capacitor-Resonant Power Converters for LED Lighting Applications

The Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are rapidly emerging as the dominant light source given their high luminous efficacy, long lift span, and thanks to the newly enacted efficiency standards in favor of the more environmentally-friendly LED technology. The LED lighting market is expected to reach USD 105.66 billion by 2025. As such, the lighting industry requires LED drivers, which essentially are power converters, with high efficiency, wide input/output range, low cost, small form factor, and great performance in power factor, and luminance flicker. These requirements raise new challenges beyond the traditional power converter topologies. On the other hand, the development and improvement of new device technologies such as printed thin-film capacitors and integrated high voltage/power devices opens up many new opportunities for mitigating such challenges using innovative circuit design techniques and solutions. Almost all electric products needs certain power delivery, regulation or conversion circuits to meet the optimized operation conditions. Designing a high performance power converter is a real challenge given the market’s increasing requirements on energy efficiency, size, cost, form factor, EMI performance, human health impact, and so on. The design of a LED driver system covers from high voltage AC/DC and DC/DC power converters, to high frequency low voltage digital controllers, to power factor correction (PFC) and EMI filtering techniques, and to safety solutions such as galvanic isolation. In this thesis, we study design challenges and present corresponding solutions to realize highly integrated and high performance LED drivers combining switched-capacitor and resonant converters, applying re-configurable multi-level circuit topology, utilizing sigma delta modulation, and exploring capacitive galvanic isolation. A hybrid switched-capacitor-resonant (HSCR) LED driver based on a stackable switched-capacitor (SC) converter IC rated for 15 to 20 W applications. Bulky transformers have been replaced with a SC ladder to perform high-efficiency voltage step-down conversion; an L-C resonant output network provides almost lossless current regulation and demonstrates the potential of capacitive galvanic isolation. The integrated SC modules can be stacked in the voltage domain to handle a large range of input voltage ranges that largely exceed the voltage limitation of the medium-voltage-rated 120 V silicon technology. The LED driver demonstrates > 91% efficiency over a rectified input DC voltage range from 160 VDC to 180 VDC with two stacked ICs; using a stack of four ICs > 89.6% efficiency is demonstrated over an input range from 320 VDC to 360 VDC . The LED driver can dim its output power to around 10% of the rated power while maintaining >70% efficiency with a PWM controlled clock gating circuit. Next, the design of AC main rectifier and inverter front end with sigma delta modulation is described. The proposed circuits features a pair of sigma delta controlled multilevel converters. The first is a multilevel rectifier responsible for PFC and dimming. The second is a bidirectional multilevel inverter used to cancel AC power ripple from the DC bus. The system also contains an output stage that powers the LEDs with DC and provides for galvanic isolation. Its functional performance indicates that integrated multilevel converters are a viable topology for lighting and other similar applications

Digital Linearization of High Capacity and Spectrally Efficient Direct Detection Optical Transceivers

Metropolitan area networks are experiencing unprecedented traffic growth. The provision of information and entertainment supported by cloud services, broadband video and mobile technologies such as long-term evolution (LTE) and 5G are creating a rapidly increasing demand for bandwidth. Although wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) architectures have been introduced into metro transport networks to provide significant savings over single-channel systems, to cope with the ever-increasing traffic growth, it is urgently required to deploy higher data rates (100 Gb/s and beyond) for each WDM channel. In comparison to dual-polarization digital coherent transceivers, single-polarization and single photodiode-based direct-detection (DD) transceivers may be favourable for metropolitan, inter-data centre and access applications due to their use of a simple and low-cost optical hardware structure. Single sideband (SSB) quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) subcarrier modulation (SCM) is a promising signal format to achieve high information spectral density (ISD). However, due to the nonlinear effect termed signal-signal beat interference (SSBI) caused by the square-law detection, the performance of such SSB SCM DD systems is severely degraded. Therefore, it is essential to develop effective and low-complexity linearization techniques to eliminate the SSBI penalty and improve the performance of such transceivers. Extensive studies on SSB SCM DD transceivers employing a number of novel digital linearization techniques to support high capacity (≥ 100 Gb/s per channel) and spectrally-efficient (net ISD > 2 b/s/Hz) WDM transmission covering metropolitan reach scenarios (up to 240 km) are described in detail in this thesis. Digital modulation formats that can be used in DD links and the corresponding transceiver configurations are firstly reviewed, from which the SSB SCM signalling format is identified as the most promising format to achieve high data rates and ISDs. Following this, technical details of the digital linearization approaches (iterative SSBI cancellation, single-stage linearization filter and simplified non-iterative SSBI cancellation, two-stage linearization filter, Kramers-Kronig scheme) considered in the thesis are presented. Their compensation performance in a dispersion pre-compensated (Tx-EDC) 112 Gb/s per channel 35 GHz-spaced WDM SSB 16-QAM Nyquist-SCM DD system transmitting over up to 240 km standard single-mode fibre (SSMF) is assessed. Net ISDs of up to 3.18 b/s/Hz are achieved. Moreover, we also show that, with the use of effective digital linearization techniques, further simplification of the DD transceivers can be realized by moving electronic dispersion compensation from the transmitter to the receiver without sacrificing performance. The optical ISD limit of SSB SCM DD system finally explored through experiments with higher-order modulation formats combined with effective digital linearization techniques. 168 Gb/s per channel WDM 64-QAM signals were successfully transmitted over 80 km, achieving a record net optical ISD of 4.54 b/s/Hz. Finally, areas for further research are identified

New frontiers in microwave metamaterials : magnetic-free non-reciprocal devices based on angular-momentum-biasing and negative-index metawaveguides

In this work, metamaterial concepts are applied to improve the design and realization of microwave components of a new generation. Conventional radiation sources, despite the mature and efficient development over the past century, maintain fundamental limitations. Slow-wave structures, such as backward-wave oscillators and traveling-wave tubes, function on the order of several operational wavelengths, leading to bulky architectures. Cherenkov radiation-based detectors are constrained to forward propagation, where the detection or diagnostic scheme may be damaged by energetic particles. Metamaterial concepts, specifically negative-index structures, provide new opportunities for these applications. In this context, we developed a detailed design of a negative-index metamaterial conducive to microwave generation. We experimentally validated a negative-index waveguide based on patterned plates of complementary split ring resonators. The design is conducive to interaction between particles and waves; it maintains a scalable negative-index band along with a longitudinal electric field component for particle interaction. The sub-wavelength resonant nature of the metamaterial allows for a compact design. In a different field of research, there is also significant need to squeeze the dimensions of microwave components. We have developed magnet-less, non-reciprocal, microwave circulators based on angular-momentum-biasing, which allow the realization of non-reciprocal devices that do not require magnets, and therefore lead to cheaper, lighter and significantly smaller devices. Angular-momentum-biasing, theoretically proposed recently in our research group, effectively mimics the collective alignment of electron spins seen in a ferromagnetic medium under a magnetic bias. Through spatiotemporal modulation, one can generate electrical rotation, leading to strong nonreciprocal response without magnetism. We have experimentally proven the theory on lumped element circulators and proposed transmission-line variations, providing over 50 dB of isolation in a range of frequency bands. This method provides efficient, easily tunable, fully integrable, compact devices that may revolutionize the future of integrated components. We have developed rigorous design principles that not only provide guidance for designs based on desired performance metrics, but also proves the passive nature of the concept. Furthermore, we have crafted mechanisms to enhance the bandwidth performance and improve linearity.Electrical and Computer Engineerin