Advanced modulation technology development for earth station demodulator applications. Coded modulation system development

A jointly optimized coded modulation system is described which was designed, built, and tested by COMSAT Laboratories for NASA LeRC which provides a bandwidth efficiency of 2 bits/s/Hz at an information rate of 160 Mbit/s. A high speed rate 8/9 encoder with a Viterbi decoder and an Octal PSK modem are used to achieve this. The BER performance is approximately 1 dB from the theoretically calculated value for this system at a BER of 5 E-7 under nominal conditions. The system operates in burst mode for downlink applications and tests have demonstrated very little degradation in performance with frequency and level offset. Unique word miss rate measurements were conducted which demonstrate reliable acquisition at low values of Eb/No. Codec self tests have verified the performance of this subsystem in a stand alone mode. The codec is capable of operation at a 200 Mbit/s information rate as demonstrated using a codec test set which introduces noise digitally. The measured performance is within 0.2 dB of the computer simulated predictions. A gate array implementation of the most time critical element of the high speed Viterbi decoder was completed. This gate array add-compare-select chip significantly reduces the power consumption and improves the manufacturability of the decoder. This chip has general application in the implementation of high speed Viterbi decoders

Carrier recovery techniques on satellite mobile channels

An analytical method and a stored channel model were used to evaluate error performance of uncoded quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) and M-ary phase shift keying (MPSK) trellis coded modulation (TCM) over shadowed satellite mobile channels in the presence of phase jitter for various carrier recovery techniques

Advanced Modulation and Coding Technology Conference

The objectives, approach, and status of all current LeRC-sponsored industry contracts and university grants are presented. The following topics are covered: (1) the LeRC Space Communications Program, and Advanced Modulation and Coding Projects; (2) the status of four contracts for development of proof-of-concept modems; (3) modulation and coding work done under three university grants, two small business innovation research contracts, and two demonstration model hardware development contracts; and (4) technology needs and opportunities for future missions

Modelaçcão comportamental da camada física NB-IoT - Uplink

Mestrado em Engenharia Eletrónica e TelecomunicaçõesA Internet das Coisas (IoT) consiste numa rede sem fios de sensores/atuadores ligados entre si e que têm a capacidade de recolher dados. Devido ao crescimento rápido do mercado IoT, as redes de longa distância e baixa potência (LPWAN) tornaram-se populares. O NarrowBand-IoT (NB-IoT), desenvolvido pela 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), é um desses protocolos. O principal objectivo desta dissertação é a implementação de uma simulação comportamental em MATLAB do NB-IoT no uplink, que será disponibilizada abertamente. Esta será focada, primariamente, na camada física e nas suas respetivas funcionalidades, nomeadamente turbo coding, modulação SC-FDMA, modelos de simulação de canal, desmodulação SC-FDMA, estimação de canal, equalizador e turbo decoding. A estimação de canal é feita usando símbolos piloto previamente conhecidos. Os modelos de canal utilizados são baseados nas especificações oficiais da 3GPP. A taxa de bits errados (BER) é calculada e usada de forma a avaliar a performance do turbo encoder e do equalizador zero forcing (ZF). Serve também como comparação quando a implementação usa esquemas de modulação diferentes (Binary Phase-Shift Keying (BPSK) e Quadrature Phase-Shift Keying (QPSK)). Além disso, os sinais gerados em MATLAB são transmitidos usando como front-end de radio-frequência (RF) uma Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP). Posteriormente, são recebidos, desmodulados e descodificados. Finalmente, é obtida a constelação do sinal, a BER é calculada e os resultados são analisados.The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a wireless network of interconnected sensors/actuators with data-collecting technologies. Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) have become popular due to the rapid growth of the IoT market. Narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT), developed by 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), is one of these protocols. The main objective of this thesis is the implementation of an open-source uplink behavioral simulator based on MATLAB. Its focus is primarily on Layer 1 (physical layer) relevant functionalities, namely turbo coding, Single-Carrier Frequency-Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) modulation, channel modeling, SC-FDMA demodulation, channel estimation, equalization and turbo decoding. Channel estimation is performed using known pilot symbols. The used channel models are based on the 3GPP o cial release specs. The Bit Error Rate (BER) is calculated in order to evaluate the turbo encoder and the Zero Forcing (ZF) equalizer performance, and to compare Binary Phase-Shift Keying (BPSK) and Quadrature Phase-Shift Keying (QPSK) implementations. Furthermore, the MATLAB generated signal is transmitted using a radio-frequency (RF) front-end consisting of an Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP). Afterwards, the signal is received, demodulated and decoded. A constellation is obtained, the BER is calculated and the results are analyzed

Non-Orthogonal Signal and System Design for Wireless Communications

The thesis presents research in non-orthogonal multi-carrier signals, in which: (i) a new signal format termed truncated orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (TOFDM) is proposed to improve data rates in wireless communication systems, such as those used in mobile/cellular systems and wireless local area networks (LANs), and (ii) a new design and experimental implementation of a real-time spectrally efficient frequency division multiplexing (SEFDM) system are reported. This research proposes a modified version of the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) format, obtained by truncating OFDM symbols in the time-domain. In TOFDM, subcarriers are no longer orthogonally packed in the frequency-domain as time samples are only partially transmitted, leading to improved spectral efficiency. In this work, (i) analytical expressions are derived for the newly proposed TOFDM signal, followed by (ii) interference analysis, (iii) systems design for uncoded and coded schemes, (iv) experimental implementation and (v) performance evaluation of the new proposed signal and system, with comparisons to conventional OFDM systems. Results indicate that signals can be recovered with truncated symbol transmission. Based on the TOFDM principle, a new receiving technique, termed partial symbol recovery (PSR), is designed and implemented in software de ned radio (SDR), that allows efficient operation of two users for overlapping data, in wireless communication systems operating with collisions. The PSR technique is based on recovery of collision-free partial OFDM symbols, followed by the reconstruction of complete symbols to recover progressively the frames of two users suffering collisions. The system is evaluated in a testbed of 12-nodes using SDR platforms. The thesis also proposes channel estimation and equalization technique for non-orthogonal signals in 5G scenarios, using an orthogonal demodulator and zero padding. Finally, the implementation of complete SEFDM systems in real-time is investigated and described in detail

New Concept of PLC Modems: Multi-Carrier System for Frequency Selective Slow-Fading Channels Based on Layered SCCC Turbocodes

The article introduces a novel concept of a PLC modem as a complement to the existing G3 and PRIME standards for communications using medium- or high-voltage overhead or cable lines. The proposed concept is based on the fact that the levels of impulse noise and frequency selectivity are lower on high-voltage lines than on low-voltage ones. Also, the demands for “cost-effective” circuitry design are not so crucial as in the case of modems for low-voltage level. In contract to these positive conditions, however, there is the need to overcome much longer distances and to take into account low SNR on the receiving side. With respect to the listed reasons, our concept makes use of MCM, instead of OFDM. The assumption of low SNR is compensated through the use of an efficient channel coding based on a serially concatenated turbo code. In addition, MCM offers lower latency and PAPR compared to OFDM. Therefore, when using MCM, it is possible to excite the line with higher power. The proposed concept has been verified during experimental transmission of testing data over a real, 5 km long, 22kV overhead line

Synchronization for capacity -approaching coded communication systems

The dissertation concentrates on synchronization of capacity approaching error-correction codes that are deployed in noisy channels with very low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The major topics are symbol timing synchronization and frame synchronization.;Capacity-approaching error-correction codes, like turbo codes and low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, are capable of reaching very low bit error rates and frame error rates in noisy channels by iterative decoding. To fully achieve the potential decoding capability of Turbo codes and LDPC codes, proper symbol timing synchronization, frame synchronization and channel state estimation are required. The dissertation proposes a joint estimator of symbol time delay and channel SNR for symbol timing recovery, and a maximum a posteriori (MAP) frame synchronizer for frame synchronization.;Symbol timing recovery is implemented by sampling and interpolation. The received signal is sampled multiple times per symbol period with unknown delay and unknown SNR. A joint estimator estimates the time delay and the SNR. The signal is rebuilt by interpolating available samples using estimated time delay. The intermediate decoding results enable decision-feedback estimation. The estimates of time delay and SNR are refined by iterative processing. This refinement improves the system performance significantly.;Usually the sampling rate is assumed to be a strict integer multiple of the symbol rate. However, in a practical system the local oscillators in the transmitter and the receiver may have random drifts. Therefore the sampling rate is no longer an exact multiple of the symbol rate, and the sampling time follows a random walk. This random walk may harm the system performance severely. The dissertation analyzes the effect of random time walks and proposes to mitigate the effect by overlapped sliding windows and iterative processing.;Frame synchronization is required to find the correct boundaries of codewords. MAP frame synchronization in the sense of minimizing the frame sync failure rate is investigated. The MAP frame synchronizer explores low-density parity-check attributes of the capacity-approaching codes. The accuracy of frame synchronization is adequate for considered coded systems to work reliably under very low SNR

Indoor Channel Characterization and Performance Analysis of a 60 GHz near Gigabit System for WPAN Applications

ISBN 978-953-7619-X-

Iterative turbo beamforming for OFDM based hybrid terrestrial-satellite mobile system

In the context of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based systems, pilot-based beamforming (BF) exhibits a high degree of sensitivity to the pilot sub-carriers. Increasing the number of reference pilots significantly improves BF performance as well as system performance. However, this increase comes at the cost of data throughput, which inevitably shrinks due to transmission of additional pilots. Hence an approach where reference signals available to the BF process can be increased without transmitting additional pilots can exhibit superior system performance without compromising throughput. Thus, the authors present a novel three-stage iterative turbo beamforming (ITBF) algorithm for an OFDM-based hybrid terrestrial-satellite mobile system, which utilises both pilots and data to perform interference mitigation. Data sub-carriers are utilised as virtual reference signals in the BF process. Results show that when compared to non-iterative conventional BF, the proposed ITBF exhibits bit error rate gain of up to 2.5 dB with only one iteration