Multiuser MIMO-OFDM for Next-Generation Wireless Systems

This overview portrays the 40-year evolution of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) research. The amelioration of powerful multicarrier OFDM arrangements with multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems has numerous benefits, which are detailed in this treatise. We continue by highlighting the limitations of conventional detection and channel estimation techniques designed for multiuser MIMO OFDM systems in the so-called rank-deficient scenarios, where the number of users supported or the number of transmit antennas employed exceeds the number of receiver antennas. This is often encountered in practice, unless we limit the number of users granted access in the base station’s or radio port’s coverage area. Following a historical perspective on the associated design problems and their state-of-the-art solutions, the second half of this treatise details a range of classic multiuser detectors (MUDs) designed for MIMO-OFDM systems and characterizes their achievable performance. A further section aims for identifying novel cutting-edge genetic algorithm (GA)-aided detector solutions, which have found numerous applications in wireless communications in recent years. In an effort to stimulate the cross pollination of ideas across the machine learning, optimization, signal processing, and wireless communications research communities, we will review the broadly applicable principles of various GA-assisted optimization techniques, which were recently proposed also for employment inmultiuser MIMO OFDM. In order to stimulate new research, we demonstrate that the family of GA-aided MUDs is capable of achieving a near-optimum performance at the cost of a significantly lower computational complexity than that imposed by their optimum maximum-likelihood (ML) MUD aided counterparts. The paper is concluded by outlining a range of future research options that may find their way into next-generation wireless systems

Dispensing with channel estimation: differentially modulated cooperative wireless communications

As a benefit of bypassing the potentially excessive complexity and yet inaccurate channel estimation, differentially encoded modulation in conjunction with low-complexity noncoherent detection constitutes a viable candidate for user-cooperative systems, where estimating all the links by the relays is unrealistic. In order to stimulate further research on differentially modulated cooperative systems, a number of fundamental challenges encountered in their practical implementations are addressed, including the time-variant-channel-induced performance erosion, flexible cooperative protocol designs, resource allocation as well as its high-spectral-efficiency transceiver design. Our investigations demonstrate the quantitative benefits of cooperative wireless networks both from a pure capacity perspective as well as from a practical system design perspective

Iterative Joint Channel Estimation and Multi-User Detection for Multiple-Antenna Aided OFDM Systems

Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems have recently attracted substantial research interest. However, compared to Single-Input-Single-Output (SISO) systems, channel estimation in the MIMO scenario becomes more challenging, owing to the increased number of independent transmitter-receiver links to be estimated. In the context of the Bell LAyered Space-Time architecture (BLAST) or Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA) multi-user MIMO OFDM systems, none of the known channel estimation techniques allows the number of users to be higher than the number of receiver antennas, which is often referred to as a “rank-deficient” scenario, owing to the constraint imposed by the rank of the MIMO channel matrix. Against this background, in this paper we propose a new Genetic Algorithm (GA) assisted iterative Joint Channel Estimation and Multi-User Detection (GA-JCEMUD) approach for multi-user MIMO SDMA-OFDM systems, which provides an effective solution to the multi-user MIMO channel estimation problem in the above-mentioned rank-deficient scenario. Furthermore, the GAs invoked in the data detection literature can only provide a hard-decision output for the Forward Error Correction (FEC) or channel decoder, which inevitably limits the system’s achievable performance. By contrast, our proposed GA is capable of providing “soft” outputs and hence it becomes capable of achieving an improved performance with the aid of FEC decoders. A range of simulation results are provided to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed scheme. Index Terms—Channel estimation, genetic algorithm, multiple-input-multiple-output, multi-user detection, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, space division multiple access

Iterative joint channel and data estimation for rank-deficient MIMO-OFDM

In this paper we propose a turbo-detected multi-antenna-multi-carrier receiver scheme. Following the philosophy of the turbo processing, our turbo MIMO-OFDM receiver comprises a succession of detection modules, namely the channel estimator, the space-time detector and the decoder, which iteratively exchange soft bit-related information and thus facilitate a substantial improvement of the overall system performance. In this paper we analyze the achievable performance of the iterative system proposed with the aim of documenting the various design trade-offs, such as the achievable error-rate performance, the attainable data-rate as well as the associated computational complexity. Specifically, we report a virtually error-free performance for a rate-1/2 turbo-coded 8x8-QPSK-OFDM system, exhibiting an effective throughput of 8*2/2=8 bits/sec/Hz and having a pilot overhead of only 10%, at SNR of 7.5dB and normalized Doppler frequency of 0.003, which corresponds to a mobile terminal speed of about 65 km/h

Enhanced Wireless Access Technologies and Experiments for W-CDMA Communications

This article reviews enhanced wireless access technologies and experimental evaluations of the wideband DS-CDMA physical layer employing intercell asynchronous operation with a three-step fast cell search method, pilot symbol-assisted coherent links, signal-to-interference plus background noise power ratio-based fast transmit power control, site diversity (soft/softer handover), and transmit diversity in the forward link. The article also presents link-capacity-enhancing techniques such as using an interference canceller and adaptive antenna array diversity receiver/transmitter, and experimental results in a real multipath fading channel. The laboratory and field experiments exemplify superior techniques of the W-CDMA physical layer and the potential of the IC and AAAD transceiver to decrease the mobile transmit power in the reverse link and multipath interference from high-rate users with large transmit power in the forward link

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationMultiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) technique has emerged as a key feature for future generations of wireless communication systems. It increases the channel capacity proportionate to the minimum number of transmit and receive antennas. This dissertation addresses the receiver design for high-rate MIMO communications in at fading environments. The emphasis of the thesis is on the cases where channel state information (CSI) is not available and thus, clever channel estimation algorithms have to be developed to bene t from the maximum available channel capacity. The thesis makes four distinct novel contributions. First, we note that the conventional MCMC-MIMO detector presented in the prior work may deteriorate as SNR increases. We suggest and show through computer simulations that this problem to a great extent can be solved by initializing the MCMC detector with regulated states which are found through linear detectors. We also introduce the novel concept of staged-MCMC in a turbo receiver, where we start the detection process at a lower complexity and increase complexity only if the data could not be correctly detected in the present stage of data detection. Second, we note that in high-rate MIMO communications, joint data detection and channel estimation poses new challenges when a turbo loop is used to improve the quality of the estimated channel and the detected data. Erroneous detected data may propagate in the turbo loop and, thus, degrade the performance of the receiver signi cantly. This is referred to as error propagation. We propose a novel receiver that decorrelates channel estimation and the detected data to avoid the detrimental e ect of error propagation. Third, the dissertation studies joint channel estimation and MIMO detection over a continuously time-varying channel and proposes a new dual-layer channel estimator to overcome the complexity of optimal channel estimators. The proposed dual-layer channel estimator reduces the complexity of the MIMO detector with optimal channel estimator by an order of magnitude at a cost of a negligible performance degradation, on the order of 0.1 to 0.2 dB. The fourth contribution of this dissertation is to note that the Wiener ltering techniques that are discussed in this dissertation and elsewhere in the literature assume that channel (time-varying) statistics are available. We propose a new method that estimates such statistics using the coarse channel estimates obtained through pilot symbols. The dissertation also makes an additional contribution revealing di erences between the MCMC-MIMO and LMMSE-MIMO detectors. We nd that under the realistic condition where CSI has to be estimated, hence the available channel estimate will be noisy, the MCMC-MIMO detector outperforms the LMMSE-MIMO detector with a signi cant margin

Joint signal detection and channel estimation in rank-deficient MIMO systems

L'évolution de la prospère famille des standards 802.11 a encouragé le développement des technologies appliquées aux réseaux locaux sans fil (WLANs). Pour faire face à la toujours croissante nécessité de rendre possible les communications à très haut débit, les systèmes à antennes multiples (MIMO) sont une solution viable. Ils ont l'avantage d'accroître le débit de transmission sans avoir recours à plus de puissance ou de largeur de bande. Cependant, l'industrie hésite encore à augmenter le nombre d'antennes des portables et des accésoires sans fil. De plus, à l'intérieur des bâtiments, la déficience de rang de la matrice de canal peut se produire dû à la nature de la dispersion des parcours de propagation, ce phénomène est aussi occasionné à l'extérieur par de longues distances de transmission. Ce projet est motivé par les raisons décrites antérieurement, il se veut un étude sur la viabilité des transcepteurs sans fil à large bande capables de régulariser la déficience de rang du canal sans fil. On vise le développement des techniques capables de séparer M signaux co-canal, même avec une seule antenne et à faire une estimation précise du canal. Les solutions décrites dans ce document cherchent à surmonter les difficultés posées par le medium aux transcepteurs sans fil à large bande. Le résultat de cette étude est un algorithme transcepteur approprié aux systèmes MIMO à rang déficient

Robust frequency-domain turbo equalization for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communications

This dissertation investigates single carrier frequency-domain equalization (SC-FDE) with multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels for radio frequency (RF) and underwater acoustic (UWA) wireless communications. It consists of five papers, selected from a total of 13 publications. Each paper focuses on a specific technical challenge of the SC-FDE MIMO system. The first paper proposes an improved frequency-domain channel estimation method based on interpolation to track fast time-varying fading channels using a small amount of training symbols in a large data block. The second paper addresses the carrier frequency offset (CFO) problem using a new group-wise phase estimation and compensation algorithm to combat phase distortion caused by CFOs, rather than to explicitly estimate the CFOs. The third paper incorporates layered frequency-domain equalization with the phase correction algorithm to combat the fast phase rotation in coherent communications. In the fourth paper, the frequency-domain equalization combined with the turbo principle and soft successive interference cancelation (SSIC) is proposed to further improve the bit error rate (BER) performance of UWA communications. In the fifth paper, a bandwidth-efficient SC-FDE scheme incorporating decision-directed channel estimation is proposed for UWA MIMO communication systems. The proposed algorithms are tested by extensive computer simulations and real ocean experiment data. The results demonstrate significant performance improvements in four aspects: improved channel tracking, reduced BER, reduced computational complexity, and enhanced data efficiency --Abstract, page iv

Hybrid solutions to instantaneous MIMO blind separation and decoding: narrowband, QAM and square cases

Future wireless communication systems are desired to support high data rates and high quality transmission when considering the growing multimedia applications. Increasing the channel throughput leads to the multiple input and multiple output and blind equalization techniques in recent years. Thereby blind MIMO equalization has attracted a great interest.Both system performance and computational complexities play important roles in real time communications. Reducing the computational load and providing accurate performances are the main challenges in present systems. In this thesis, a hybrid method which can provide an affordable complexity with good performance for Blind Equalization in large constellation MIMO systems is proposed first. Saving computational cost happens both in the signal sep- aration part and in signal detection part. First, based on Quadrature amplitude modulation signal characteristics, an efficient and simple nonlinear function for the Independent Compo- nent Analysis is introduced. Second, using the idea of the sphere decoding, we choose the soft information of channels in a sphere, and overcome the so- called curse of dimensionality of the Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm and enhance the final results simultaneously. Mathematically, we demonstrate in the digital communication cases, the EM algorithm shows Newton -like convergence.Despite the widespread use of forward -error coding (FEC), most multiple input multiple output (MIMO) blind channel estimation techniques ignore its presence, and instead make the sim- plifying assumption that the transmitted symbols are uncoded. However, FEC induces code structure in the transmitted sequence that can be exploited to improve blind MIMO channel estimates. In final part of this work, we exploit the iterative channel estimation and decoding performance for blind MIMO equalization. Experiments show the improvements achievable by exploiting the existence of coding structures and that it can access the performance of a BCJR equalizer with perfect channel information in a reasonable SNR range. All results are confirmed experimentally for the example of blind equalization in block fading MIMO systems