Cognitive Orthogonal Precoder for Two-tiered Networks Deployment

In this work, the problem of cross-tier interference in a two-tiered (macro-cell and cognitive small-cells) network, under the complete spectrum sharing paradigm, is studied. A new orthogonal precoder transmit scheme for the small base stations, called multi-user Vandermonde-subspace frequency division multiplexing (MU-VFDM), is proposed. MU-VFDM allows several cognitive small base stations to coexist with legacy macro-cell receivers, by nulling the small- to macro-cell cross-tier interference, without any cooperation between the two tiers. This cleverly designed cascaded precoder structure, not only cancels the cross-tier interference, but avoids the co-tier interference for the small-cell network. The achievable sum-rate of the small-cell network, satisfying the interference cancelation requirements, is evaluated for perfect and imperfect channel state information at the transmitter. Simulation results for the cascaded MU-VFDM precoder show a comparable performance to that of state-of-the-art dirty paper coding technique, for the case of a dense cellular layout. Finally, a comparison between MU-VFDM and a standard complete spectrum separation strategy is proposed. Promising gains in terms of achievable sum-rate are shown for the two-tiered network w.r.t. the traditional bandwidth management approach.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, accepted and to appear in IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications: Cognitive Radio Series, 2013. Copyright transferred to IEE

A Distributed Approach to Interference Alignment in OFDM-based Two-tiered Networks

In this contribution, we consider a two-tiered network and focus on the coexistence between the two tiers at physical layer. We target our efforts on a long term evolution advanced (LTE-A) orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) macro-cell sharing the spectrum with a randomly deployed second tier of small-cells. In such networks, high levels of co-channel interference between the macro and small base stations (MBS/SBS) may largely limit the potential spectral efficiency gains provided by the frequency reuse 1. To address this issue, we propose a novel cognitive interference alignment based scheme to protect the macro-cell from the cross-tier interference, while mitigating the co-tier interference in the second tier. Remarkably, only local channel state information (CSI) and autonomous operations are required in the second tier, resulting in a completely self-organizing approach for the SBSs. The optimal precoder that maximizes the spectral efficiency of the link between each SBS and its served user equipment is found by means of a distributed one-shot strategy. Numerical findings reveal non-negligible spectral efficiency enhancements with respect to traditional time division multiple access approaches at any signal to noise (SNR) regime. Additionally, the proposed technique exhibits significant robustness to channel estimation errors, achieving remarkable results for the imperfect CSI case and yielding consistent performance enhancements to the network.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, accepted and to appear in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology Special Section: Self-Organizing Radio Networks, 2013. Authors' final version. Copyright transferred to IEE

Vandermonde-subspace Frequency Division Multiplexing for Two-Tiered Cognitive Radio Networks

Vandermonde-subspace frequency division multiplexing (VFDM) is an overlay spectrum sharing technique for cognitive radio. VFDM makes use of a precoder based on a Vandermonde structure to transmit information over a secondary system, while keeping an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based primary system interference-free. To do so, VFDM exploits frequency selectivity and the use of cyclic prefixes by the primary system. Herein, a global view of VFDM is presented, including also practical aspects such as linear receivers and the impact of channel estimation. We show that VFDM provides a spectral efficiency increase of up to 1 bps/Hz over cognitive radio systems based on unused band detection. We also present some key design parameters for its future implementation and a feasible channel estimation protocol. Finally we show that, even when some of the theoretical assumptions are relaxed, VFDM provides non-negligible rates while protecting the primary system.Comment: 9 pages, accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Communication

Physical-Layer Transmission Cooperative Strategies for Heterogeneous Networks

The deployment of small cells within the boundaries of a macro-cell is considered to be an effective solution to cope with the current trend of higher data rates and improved system capacity. In the current heterogeneous configuration with the mass deployment of small cells, it is preferred that these two cell types coexist over the same spectrum, because acquiring additional spectrum licenses for small cells is difficult and expensive. However, the coexistence leads to cross-tier/inter-system interference. In this context, this contribution investigates interference alignment (IA) methods in order to mitigate the interference of macro-cell base station towards the small cell user terminals. More specifically, we design a diversity-oriented interference alignment scheme with space-frequency block codes (SFBC). The main motivation for joint interference alignment with SFBC is to allow the coexistence of two systems under minor inter-system information exchange. The small cells just need to know what space-frequency block code is used by the macro-cell system and no inter-system channels need to be exchanged, contrarily to other schemes recently proposed. Numerical results show that the proposed method achieves a performance close to the case where full-cooperation between the tiers is allowed

Joint IA and SFBC Macrocells and Small-Cells Coexistence under Minor Information Exchange

Thedeployment of small-cells within the boundaries of a macrocell is considered to be an effective solution to cope with the current trend of higher data rates and improved system capacity. In the current heterogeneous configuration with the mass deployment of small-cells, it is preferred that these two cell types will coexist over the same spectrum, because acquiring additional spectrum licenses for small-cells is difficult and expensive. However, the coexistence leads to cross-tier/intersystem interference. In this context, this contribution investigates interference alignment (IA) methods in order to mitigate the interference of macrocell base station towards the small-cell user terminals.More specifically, we design a diversity-oriented interference alignment scheme with space-frequency block codes (SFBCs).The main motivation for joint interference alignment with SFBC is to allow the coexistence of two systems under minor intersysteminformation exchange.The small-cells just need to know what space-frequency block code is used by the macrocell system and no intersystem channels need to be exchanged, contrarily to other schemes recently proposed. Numerical results show that the proposed method achieves a performance close to the case where full cooperation between the tiers is allowed

Implementação e avaliação no system generator de um sistema cooperativo para os futuros sistemas 5G

With the arrival of 5G it is expected the proliferation of services in the different fields such as healthcare, utility applications, industrial automation, 4K streaming, that the former networks can not provide. Additionally, the total number of wireless communication devices will escalate in such a manner that the already scarce available frequency bandwidth won’t be enough to pack the intended objectives. Cisco’s Annual Internet Report from 2018 predicts that by 2023 there will be nearly 30 billion devices capable of wireless communication. Due to the exponential expiation of both services and devices, the challenges upon both network data capacity and efficient radio resourse use will be greater than ever, thus the urgency for solutions is grand. Both the capacity for wireless communications and spectral efficiency are related to cell size and its users proximity to the access point. Thus, shortening the distance between the transmitter and the receiver improves both aspects of the network. This concept is what motivates the implementation of heterogeneous networks, HetNets, that are composed of many different small-cells, SCs, overlaid across the same coexisting area of a conventional macro-cell, shortening the distance between the cell users and its access point transceivers, granting a better coverage and higher data rates. However, the HetNets potential does not come without any challenges, as these networks suffer considerably from communication interference between cells. Although some interference management algorithms that allow coexistence between cells have been proposed in recent years, most of them were evaluated by software simulations and not implemented in real-time platforms. Therefore, this master thesis aims to give the first step on the implementation and evaluation of an interference mitigation technique in hardware. Specifically, it is assumed a downlink scenario composed by a macro-cell base station, a macro-cell primary user and a small cell user, with the aim of implementing an algorithm that eliminates the downlink interference that the base station may cause to the secondary users. The study was carried out using the System Generator DSP tool, which is a tool that generates code for hardware from schematics created in it. This tool also offers a wide range of blocks that help the creation, and fundamentally, the simulation and study of the system to be implemented, before being translated into hardware. The results obtained in this work are a faithful representation of the behavior of the implemented system, which can be used for a future application for FPGA.Com a chegada do 5G, espera-se a proliferação de serviços nas mais diversas áreas tal como assistência médica, automação industrial, transmissão em 4k, que não eram possíveis nas redes das gerações anteriores. Além deste fenómeno, o número total de dispositivos capazes de conexões wireless aumentará de tal maneira que a escassa largura de banda disponível não será suficiente para abranger os objetivos pretendidos. O Relatório Anual de 2018 sobre a Internet da Cisco prevê que até 2023 haverá quase 30 bilhões de dispositivos capazes de comunicação sem fio. Devido ao aumento exponencial de serviços e dispositivos, os desafios sobre a capacidade de dados da rede e o udo eficiente dos recursos de rádio serão maiores que nunca. Por estes motivos, a necessidade de soluções para estas lacunas é enorme. Tanto a capacidade da rede e o uso eficiente do espectro de frequências estão relacionados ao tamanho da célula e à proximidade dos usuários com o ponto de acesso da célula. Ao encurtar a distância entre o transmissor e o recetor ocorre um melhoramento destes dois aspetos da rede. Este é o principal conceito na implementação de redes heterogéneas, HetNets, que são compostas por diversas células pequenas que coexistem na área de uma macro célula convencional, diminuído a distância entre os utilizadores da célula e os pontos de acesso, garantindo uma melhor cobertura e taxa de dados mais elevadas. No entanto, o potencial das HatNets não vem sem nenhum custo, pois estas redes sofrem consideravelmente de interferência entre as células. Embora nos últimos anos foram propostos alguns algoritmos que permitem a coexistência das células, a maioria destes foi só testado em simulações de software e não em plataformas em tempo real. Por esse motivo, esta dissertação de mestrado visa dar o primeiro passo na implementação e a avaliação de uma técnica de mitigação de interferência em hardware. Mais especificamente no cenário de downlink entre uma estação base de uma macro célula, um utilizador primário da macro célula e um utilizador secundário de uma célula pequena, com o principal objetivo de cancelar a interferência que a estação base possa fazer ao utilizador secundário. O estudo foi realizado utilizando a ferramenta System Generator DSP, que é uma ferramenta que gera código para hardware a partir de esquemáticos criados na mesma. Esta ferramenta também oferece uma vasta gama de blocos que ajudam a criação, e fundamentalmente, a simulação e o estudo do sistema a implementar antes de ser traduzido para hardware. Os resultados obtidos neste trabalho são uma fiel representação do comportamento do sistema implementado. O quais podem ser utilizados para uma futura aplicação para FPGA.Mestrado em Engenharia Eletrónica e Telecomunicaçõe

Spectrum- and Energy-Efficient Radio Resource Allocation for Wireless Communications

Wireless communications has been evolved significantly over the last decade. During this period, higher quality of service (QoS) requirements have been proposed to support various services. In addition, due to the increasing number of wireless devices and transmission, the energy consumption of the wireless networks becomes a burden. Therefore, the energy efficiency is considered as important as spectrum efficiency for future wireless communications networks, and spectrum and energy efficiency have become essential research topics in wireless communications. Moreover, due to the exploding of number mobile devices, the limited radio resources have become more and more scarce. With large numbers of users and various QoS requirements, a lot of wireless communications networks and techniques have emerged and how to effectively manage the limited radio resources become much more important. In this dissertation, we focus our research on spectrum- and energy-efficient resource allocation schemes in wireless communication networks. Recently, heterogeneous networks (HetNets) have been proposed and studied to improve the spectrum efficiency. In a two-tier heterogeneous network, small base stations reuse the same spectrum with macro base stations in order to support more transmission over the limited frequency bands. We design a cascaded precoding scheme considering both interference cancellation and power allocation for the two-tier heterogeneous network. Besides heterogeneous networks, as the fast development of intelligent transportation, we study the spectrum- and energy-efficient resource allocation in vehicular communication networks. The intelligent transportation and vehicular communications both have drawn much attention and are faced special wireless environment, which includes Doppler effects and severe uncertainties in channel estimation. A novel designed spectrum efficiency scheme is studied and verified. With consideration of energy efficiency, the device-to-device (D2D) enabled wireless network is an effective network structure to increase the usage of spectrum. From a device\u27s perspective, we design an energy-efficient resource allocation scheme in D2D communication networks. To improve the energy efficiency of wireless communication networks, energy harvesting technique is a powerful way. Recently, the simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) has been proposed as a promising energy harvesting method for wireless communication networks, based on which we derive an energy-efficient resource allocation scheme for SWIPT cooperative networks, which considers both the power and relay allocation. In addition to the schemes derivation for spectrum- and energy-efficient resource allocation, simulation results and the proofs of the proposed propositions are provided for the completeness of this dissertation

Técnicas de transmissão e recepção para sistemas MIMO heterogéneos na banda das ondas milimétricas

Mestrado em Engenharia Eletrónica e TelecomunicaçõesCom o crescimento dos dispositivos de comunicações móveis e de serviços de banda larga, os requisitos do sistema tornam-se cada vez mais exigentes. O LTE-Advanced apresenta um melhoramento progressivo relativamente ao seu antecessor LTE, introduzindo redes heterogéneas, que têm vindo provar constituir uma solução sólida para melhorar tanto a capacidade, como a cobertura da rede. Quanto à implementação do 5G, será necessário um salto disruptivo na tecnologia, que permita novas possibilidades, tal como a de conectar pessoas e coisas. Para tornar isso possível, é necessário investigar e testar novas tecnologias. MIMO massivo e comunicações em ondas milimétricas são algumas das tecnologias que têm vindo a demonstrar resultados com potencial, tais como o aumento da capacidade e da eficiência espectral. No entanto, devido às características da propagação de ondas milimétricas, a existência de cenários com redes heterogéneas ultradensas é uma possibilidade. Ao se considerar cenários ultradensos com um número massivo de utilizadores, o sistema fica limitado devido à interferência, mesmo operando na banda das ondas milimétricas. Como tal, é de extrema importância o desenvolvimento de técnicas que mitiguem essa interferência. Nesta dissertação, propõe-se uma arquitetura de baixa complexidade para um transmissor e um recetor a operarem no sentido ascendente, numa rede heterogénea ultradensa. Nesta arquitetura são aplicadas tecnologias como MIMO massivo, ondas milimétricas e técnicas de beamforming, com o intuito de mitigar a interferência entre células. Usando a probabilidade de erro de bit como métrica de performance, os resultados mostram que a arquitetura proposta consegue remover a interferência eficientemente, alcançando resultados próximos de uma arquitetura completamente digital.With the constant increase of mobile communication devices and broadband services, the system requirements are getting more demanding. Long Term Evolution (LTE) Advanced comes as a progressive enhancement to its predecessor LTE, introducing heterogeneous networks (HetNets), which have proven to be great solutions to improve both capacity and coverage. As for 5G, it takes more of a disruptive step, enabling new possibilities, such as connecting people and things. To enable such a step, new technologies and techniques need to be researched and tested. Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) and millimeter wave (mmWave) communications are two of such technologies, as they show promising results such as increased capacity and spectral efficiency. However, due to the mmWave propagation constraints, the existence of ultra-dense HetNet scenarios may be a possibility. When considering ultra-dense scenarios with a massive number of users, the system becomes interference-limited, even using mmWave band. As such, the design of interference mitigation techniques that deal with both inter and intra-tier interference are of the utmost importance. In this dissertation, a low complexity analog-digital hybrid architecture for both the transmitter and receiver in the uplink scenario is proposed. It is designed for an ultra-dense heterogeneous system and employing massive MIMO, mmWave and beamforming techniques in order to mitigate both intra- and inter-tier interference. Considering the Bit Error Rate (BER) as the performance metric, the results show that the proposed architecture efficiently removes both inter- and intra-tier interferences, achieving a result close to its fully digital counterpart

Transmission Cooperative Strategies for MIMO-OFDM Heterogeneous Networks

Mobile traffic in cellular networks is increasing exponentially, mainly due to the use of data intensive services like video. One way to cope with these demands is to reduce the cell-size by deploying small-cells along the coverage area of the current macro-cell system. The deployment of small-cells significantly improves indoor coverage. Nevertheless, as additional spectrum licenses are difficult and expensive to acquire it is expected that the macro and small-cells will coexist under the same spectrum. The coexistence of the two systems results in crosstier/ inter-system interference. In this context, we design several interference alignment based techniques for the downlink of heterogeneous networks, in order to cancel the interference generated from macro-cell at small-cell user terminals. More specifically, in this contribution we design interference alignment methods under different levels of inter-system coordination and the constraint that the performance of macro-cell system is kept close to the case where small-cell system is switched-off. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed methods achieve close to the optimal performance with low overhea

A composite approach to self-sustainable transmissions : rethinking OFDM

This paper proposes two novel strategies to extend the battery life of an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) receiver, by exploiting the concept of wireless power transfer (WPT). First a new receiver architecture is devised that does not discard the cyclic prefix (CP), but instead, exploits it to extract power from the received signal, realizing a WPT between the transmitter and the receiver. Subsequently, a flexible composite transmit strategy is designed, in which the OFDM transmitter transmits to the receiver two independent signals coexisting in the same band. It is shown that, by means of this approach, the transmitter can arbitrarily increase the power concentrated within the CP at the OFDM receiver, without increasing the redundancy of the transmission. The feasibility conditions for the self-sustainability of the transmission are derived, in terms of power consumption at the receiver, for both legacy and composite transmission. Numerical findings show that, under reasonable conditions, the amount of power carried in the CP could be made sufficient to decode the information symbols, making the transmission fully self-sustainable. The potential of the proposed approach is confirmed by the encouraging results obtained when the full self-sustainability constraint is relaxed, and partially self-sustainable OFDM transmissions are analyzed