Performance analysis of diversity techniques in wireless communication systems: Cooperative systems with CCI and MIMO-OFDM systems

This Dissertation analyzes the performance of ecient digital commu- nication systems, the performance analysis includes the bit error rate (BER) of dier- ent binary and M-ary modulation schemes, and the average channel capacity (ACC) under dierent adaptive transmission protocols, namely, the simultaneous power and rate adaptation protocol (OPRA), the optimal rate with xed power protocol (ORA), the channel inversion with xed rate protocol (CIFR), and the truncated channel in- version with xed transmit power protocol (CTIFR). In this dissertation, BER and ACC performance of interference-limited dual-hop decode-and-forward (DF) relay- ing cooperative systems with co-channel interference (CCI) at both the relay and destination nodes is analyzed in small-scale multipath Nakagami-m fading channels with arbitrary (integer as well as non-integer) values of m. This channel condition is assumed for both the desired signal as well as co-channel interfering signals. In addition, the practical case of unequal average fading powers between the two hops is assumed in the analysis. The analysis assumes an arbitrary number of indepen- dent and non-identically distributed (i.n.i.d.) interfering signals at both relay (R) and destination (D) nodes. Also, the work extended to the case when the receiver employs the maximum ratio combining (MRC) and the equal gain combining (EGC) schemes to exploit the diversity gain

Cooperative Communication over Underwater Acoustic Channels

As diverse and data-heavy underwater applications emerge, demanding requirements are further imposed on underwater wireless communication systems. Future underwater wireless communication networks might consist of both mobile and stationary nodes which exchange data such as control, telemetry, speech, and video signals among themselves as well as a central node located at a ship or onshore. The submerged nodes, which can, for example, take the form of an autonomous underwater vehicle/robot or diver, can be equipped with various sensors, sonars, video cameras, or other types of data acquisition instruments. Innovative physical layer solutions are therefore required to develop efficient, reliable, and high-speed transmission solutions tailored for challenging and diverse requirements of underwater applications. Building on the promising combination of multi-carrier and cooperative communication techniques, this dissertation investigates the fundamental performance bounds of cooperative underwater acoustic (UWA) communication systems taking into account the inherent unique characteristics of the UWA channel. We derive outage probability and capacity expressions for cooperative multi-carrier UWA systems with amplify-and-forward and decode-and-forward relaying. Through the derived expressions, we demonstrate the effect of several system and channel parameters on the performance. Furthermore, we investigate the performance of cooperative UWA systems in the presence of non-uniform Doppler distortion and propose receiver designs to mitigate the degrading Doppler effects

Exploiting Diversity in Broadband Wireless Relay Networks

Fading is one of the most fundamental impairments to wireless communications. The standard approach to combating fading is by adding redundancy - or diversity - to help increase coverage and transmission speed. Motivated by the results in multiple-input multiple-output technologies, which are usually used at base stations or access points, cooperation commutation has been proposed to improve the performance of wireless networks which consist of low-cost single antenna devices. While the majority of the research in cooperative communication focuses on flat fading for its simplicity and easy analysis, in practice the underlying channels in broadband wireless communication systems such as cellular systems (UMTS/LTE) are more likely to exhibit frequency selective fading. In this dissertation, we consider a frequency selective fading channel model and explore distributed diversity techniques in broadband wireless relay networks, with consideration to practical issues such as channel estimation and complexity-performance tradeoffs. We first study a system model with one source, one destination and multiple decode-and-forward (DF) relays which share a single channel orthogonal to the source. We derive the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff (DMT) for several relaying strategies: best relay selection, random relay selection, and the case when all decoding relays participate. The best relay selection method selects the relay in the decoding set with the largest sum-squared relay-to-destination channel coefficients. This scheme can achieve the optimal DMT of the system at the expense of higher complexity, compared to the other two relaying strategies which do not always exploit the spatial diversity offered by the relays. Different from flat fading, we find special cases when the three relaying strategies have the same DMT. We further present a transceiver design and prove it can achieve the optimal DMT asymptotically. Monte Carlo simulations are presented to corroborate the theoretical analysis. We provide a detailed performance comparison of the three relaying strategies in channels encountered in practice. The work has been extended to systems with multiple amplify-and-forward relays. We propose two relay selection schemes with maximum likelihood sequential estimator and linear zero- forcing equalization at the destination respectively and both schemes can asymptotically achieve the optimal DMT. We next extend the results in the two-hop network, as previously studied, to multi-hop networks. In particular, we consider the routing problem in clustered multi-hop DF relay networks since clustered multi-hop wireless networks have attracted significant attention for their robustness to fading, hierarchical structure, and ability to exploit the broadcast nature of the wireless channel. We propose an opportunistic routing (or relay selection) algorithm for such networks. In contrast to the majority of existing approaches to routing in clustered networks, our algorithm only requires channel state information in the final hop, which is shown to be essential for reaping the diversity offered by the channel. In addition to exploiting the available diversity, our simple cross-layer algorithm has the flexibility to satisfy an additional routing objective such as maximization of network lifetime. We demonstrate through analysis and simulation that our proposed routing algorithm attains full diversity under certain conditions on the cluster sizes, and its diversity is equal to the diversity of more complicated approaches that require full channel state information. The final part of this dissertation considers channel estimation in relay networks. Channel state information is vital for exploiting diversity in cooperative networks. The existing literature on cooperative channel estimation assumes that block lengths are long and that channel estimation takes place within a fading block. However, if the forwarding delay needs to be reduced, short block lengths are preferred, and adaptive estimation through multiple blocks is required. In particular, we consider estimating the relay-to-destination channel in DF relay systems for which the presence of forwarded information is probabilistic since it is unknown whether the relay participates in the forwarding phase. A detector is used so that the update of the least mean square channel estimate is made only when the detector decides the presence of training data. We use the generalized likelihood ratio test and focus on the detector threshold for deciding whether the training sequence is present. We also propose a heuristic objective function which leads to a proper threshold to improve the convergence speed and reduce the estimation error. Extensive numerical results show the superior performance of using this threshold as opposed to fixed thresholds

Design Of Vehicular Communication Systems Employing Physical Layer Network Coding Over Cascaded Fading Channels

Tez (Doktora) -- İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, 2017Thesis (Ph.D.) -- İstanbul Technical University, Institute of Science and Technology, 2017İnsandan insana ses taşıma odaklı ikinci nesil (2nd Generation, 2G) mobil haberleşme teknolojilerinin kaydettiği başarıdan sonra telsiz iletişim alanındaki eğilimler insandan-makinaya olarak adlandırılan veri taşıma odaklı telsiz iletişim teknolojilerine (3rd Generation, 3G) doğru yönelmiştir. Bu veri taşıma odaklı iletişim konsepti ile birlikte son kullanıcılar multi-media mesajlaşma, internet erişimi, e-ticaret ve video paylaşımı gibi çok çeşitli telsiz iletişim servislerine kavuşma imkanı buldular. Telsiz iletişimdeki başarılı ve hızlı ilerlemenin bir sonucu olarak günümüzde bu alanda yapılan araştırma-geliştirme çalışmalarının yönü yüksek veri iletim hızları (>100Mb/s) ve daha yüksek bant-verimliliği (>10b/s) gerektiren makineden-makineye (Mactine-to-Machine, M2M) telsiz iletişime doğru yönelmiş bulunmaktadır. M2M telsiz iletişiminde bir araştırma/uygulama alanı araçtan-nesnelere (Vehicle-to-things, V2X) haberleşmedir. Araçtan araca (Vehicle-to-Vehicle, V2V) ve araçtan yol kenarındaki baz istasyonuna (Vehicle-to-Infrastructure, V2I) olmak üzere iki haberleşme sistemini birlikte içeren V2X haberleşme sistemleri günümüzde özellikle büyük metropollerde günlük hayatı pek çok yönden olumsuz etkileyen trafik kaynaklı problemlere karşı getirdiği çözüm önerileri nedeniyle üniversitlerde teorik çalışmalar yapan araştırmacıların yanı sıra, resmi kurumların, standartları belirleyen organizasyonların ve özellille otomotiv ve bilişim endüstrisindeki şirketlerin gittikçe artan dikkatini çekmeyi başarmıştır. Araçlar arası haberleşme teknolojilerinin gelişimine ivme kazandıran önemli gelişmelere bakılacak olursa; 1999 yılında ABD’de Federal Communication Comission (FCC) 5.9GHz frekans bandında 75MHz’lik bir frekans bandının V2X haberleşme için kullanımını onaylamıştır. 2008 yılında ise Avrupa haberleşme standardları enstitüsü (European Telecommunication Standards Institute) yine 5.9GHz frekans bandında 30Mhz’lik bir bandın bu amaçla kullanılmasını önermiştir. FCC’nin 2003 yılında ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems) uygulamalarında kullanılacak haberleşme birimleri için yayımladığı rapor ve talebin ardından DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communication) olarak adlandırılan V2X haberleşme sistemlerinin standardizasyonu için çalışmalar başlamış ve 2004 yılında IEEE 802.11standardı temel alınarak geliştirilen IEEE 802.11p standardı WAVE (Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments) olarak da bilinen adıyla 2010 yılında kabul edilmiştir. Bugün artık pek çok üniversitede çeşitli araştırma grupları V2X haberleşme üzerine akademik çalışmalar yürütürken endüstriyel seviyede ise Avrupa’da örneğin büyük ölçekli Avrupa Birliği projeleri olarak CAR2CAR Communication Corsortium, Secure Vehicular Communication ve NEARCTIS yürütülmektedir. Amerika’da ise ulaştırma bakanlığının desteklediği IntelliDrive projesi ile güvenlik, mobil iletişim ve çevre koruma amaçlı hedefler doğrultusunda trafik altyapısı, araçlar ve yolcuların mobil haberleşme cihazları arasında haberleşmeyi sağlayacak bir telsiz iletişim ağı alt yapısı kurma çalışmaları sürdürülmektedir. Benzer çalışmalar Japon Otomobil Teknolojileri Araştırma Enstitüsü JARI tarafından da yapılmaktadır. Yine V2V haberleşmenin trafik güvenliğini arttırmadaki öneminin anlaşılmasından sonra lider otomobil üreticisi firmalar “Crash Avoidance Metrics Partnership” adını verdikleri proje için ortak çatı altında biraraya gelmişlerdir. Kısaca belirtilmek istenirse, telsiz iletişim alanında V2X haberleşme yeni ama oldukça önemli bir çalışma alanı olarak görülmektedir. Günümüz telsiz haberleşme teknolojilerinden biri olan araçtan araca haberleşme, trafik verimliliğini arttırma, kazaların azaltılması ve trafikte güvenli sürüş konulara çözümler sağlayacak akıllı taşıma sistemlerinin gerçeklenmesinde çekirdek teknoloji konumundadır. Hücresel haberleşme ile karşılaştırıldığında, V2V haberleşme bazı yeni zorlukları içerir. V2V haberleşme kanallarının istatistiksel özellikleri hücresel telsiz haberleşme kanallarının istatistiksel özelliklerinden farklıdır. Bu nedenle, Rayleigh, Rician ve Nakagami-m gibi iyi bilinen hücresel haberleşme kanal modelleri V2V haberleşme kanallarındaki sönümlemeyi modellemek için uygun değildir. Yapılan saha ölçümlerinden görüldüğü üzere, V2V haberleşme kanallarında kanal kazancı, hareketli kaynaklar etrafında, her biri ayrı bir işaret kaynağı gibi davranan birbirinden bağımsız saçıcı gupların oluşturduğu sanal kanalların kanal kazançlarının çarpımından meydana gelmektedir. Kanal kazancının bu çarpımsallık niteliğinden dolayı V2V haberleşme kanalları kaskad sönümlemeli kanal modeli olarak adlandırılan bir grup kanal modeli ile modellenmelidirler. V2V haberleşmede karşılaşılan zorlukların bir nedeni, gerek haberleşen araçların gerekse onların etrafındaki diğer araçların yüksek hızlardaki hareketliliği nedeniyle haberleşme ortamının çevresel olarak çok hızlı değişmesidir. Bunun yanısıra araç antenlerinin görece düşük yükseklikte olmasının da etkisiyle, özellikle yerleşim birimleri içindeki yoğun trafik şartları düşünüldüğünde, haberleşen araçlar arasında çoğu zaman doğrudan görüş olmayacaktır. Bu da iletişimin sürekliliği ve güvenilirliği açısından işbirlikli haberleşmeyi kaçınılmaz kılmaktadır. Ancak doğrudan haberleşmeye nazaran daha fazla zaman dilimi gereksinimi işbirlikli sistemlerin temel dezavantajıdır. Veri iletim hızında kayba neden olan bu dezavantajı yok etmenin bir yolu, iki haberleşme biriminin aynı zaman aralığında aynı röle üzerinden veri aktarmasına imkan tanıyan fiziksel katman ağ kodlama (Physical Layer Network Coding, PLNC) tekniğidir. Ani gelişen durumların çok sayıda kullanıcıya kısa sürede bildirilmesini gerektirecek trafik içi haberleşmede PLNC tekniği yüksek başarımlı V2V haberleşme sistemlerinin tasarımında önemli bir rol oynayacaktır. Bu tezde sunulan çalışmalar üç grupta ele alınabilir. Birinci gruptaki ilk çalışmada tek antenli tek röleli ve röle üzerinde sabit kazançlı kuvvetlendir-ve-aktar tekniği kullanılarak PLNC yapılan bir işbirlikli V2V haberleşme sistemi tasarlanmıştır. Sistemin performans analizleri kaskad Nakagami-m kanal modeli varsayımı altında yapılmış olup bu kanal modeli, araçlar arası haberleşmeye uygun olan çift Rayleigh, kaskad Rayleigh, çift Nakagami-m ve genelleştirilmiş-K kanal modellerinin yanı sıra geleneksel hücresel haberleşme kanal modellerini de kapsamaktadır. Dolayısıyla bu çalışmada elde edilen sonuçlar bu kanal modelleri için de geçerlidir. Sistemin hata performans analizleri yapılırken öncelikle uçtan-uca işaret gürültü oranına ait birikimsel olasılık dağılım fonksiyonu kapalı formda elde edilmiş, ardından bu dağılım fonksiyonu kullanılarak sistemin servis kesinti olasılığı ve çeşitli modülasyon tipleri için sembol hata olasılığı ifadeleri kapalı formda bulunmuştur. Bu analizlerin bir devamı olarak, birinci grupta yapılan ikinci çalışmada ise, kaynaklarda öz-girişim işaretinin tam olarak yok edilemediği durumlar için yine tek antenli tek röleli rölede sabit kazançlı kuvvetlendir-ve-aktar tekniği kullanılarak PLNC yapılan sistemin performans analizi kaskad ve hızlı sönümlemeli Rayleigh kanal varsayımı altında yapılmış ve sisteme ait servis kesinti olasılığı ifadesi kapalı formda elde edilerek öz girişimin sistem performansına etkileri incelenmiştir. Tezde yer alan ikinci grup çalışmada, çok girişli çok çıkışlı (multiple input multiple output, MIMO) bir V2V haberleşme sistemi tasarlanmıştır. Sistemde birden çok röle olup kaynaklar ve tüm röleler çok antenlidir. Ayrıca röleler değişken kazançlı kuvvetlendir-ve-aktar tekniği uygulayarak PLNC yapmaktadır. Bu çalışmada da kaskad Nakagami-m kanal modeli kullanıldığından elde edilen sonuçlar yukarıda bahsedilen diğer kaskad veya kaskad olmayan kanal modelleri için de geçerlidir. Burada yapılan analizler ile tüm sistemin servis kesinti performansı kaynakların ortak servis kesinti olasılıkları cinsinden ifade edilerek bu olasılık tek katlı integral formunda bulunmuştur. Ardından servis kesinti olasılığı için alt ve üst sınır ifadeleri kapalı formda elde edilmiştir. Bulunan sınır ifadeleri aracılığıyla sistemde elde edilebilecek çeşitleme derecesi, röle sayısı, kaynak ve rölelerde kullanılan anten sayıları ve kanalların kaskadlık dereceleri ve sönümleme parametrelerinin aldığı değerlere bağlı olarak sistem parametreleri cinsinden ifade edilmiştir. Tasarlanan bu sistem ile ortak anten ve röle seçimi yapılarak V2V haberleşme sistemlerinin performansının daha da iyileştirilebileceği gösterilmiştir. Tezde yapılan üçüncü çalışmada PLNC yapılan bir çok antenli çok röleli V2V haberleşme sisteminde uzay-zaman kafes kodlama tekniği kullanılarak sistem performansının daha da iyileştirilmesi sağlanmıştır. Bu amaçla öncelikle sistemin çiftsel hata olasılığı için bir üst sınır ifadesi çift Rayleigh sönümlemeli kanal varsayımı için elde edilmiştir. Daha sonra bu olasılığı en küçük yapacak kodların inşaası için yeni bir kod tasarım ölçütü türetilmiş ve bu ölçüt kullanılarak çift Rayleigh sönümlemeli kanallarda PLNC tekniği kullanan MIMO V2V haberleşme sistemler için 4 ve 8 durumlu yeni uzay-zaman kafes kodları bulunmuştur.As a current state-of-the-art in wireless communications, Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communications is the core technology to build the intelligent transportation infrastructures promising the solutions to the issues such as traffic efficiency increasing, accident reduction and safety improvements. In comparison with the cellular wireless communication, there are some new challenges within the V2V communication. The statistical properties of the V2V communication channels differ from those of the cellular channels. Thereby, well known cellular channel models such as Rayleigh, Rician and Nakagami-m are not appropriate to simulate the fading in V2V communication channels. Field measurements reveal that V2V communication channels can be modeled by a class of channel models where the gain is obtained by multiplying the gains of virtual channels produced by each individual scattering group around that behaves as an independent signal source. Due to their multiplicativity nature, V2V communication channels are named as cascaded fading channels. A major challenge in V2V communications is that the physical environment is unsettled due to the mobility of the wireless units and other vehicles around these units. Additionally, the vehicle antennas have relatively lower heights. Therefore, especially considering the traffic in urban areas, most of the time there will be no line-of-sight between the communicating vehicles. This makes cooperative communications inevitable for seamless and reliable communication among the moving vehicles. And yet, compared to non-cooperative communication, the cooperation protocols require more time slots, which results in a decrease in data transmission rate. A method to cope with this drawback is physical layer network coding (PLNC) providing the simultaneous data transmissions of the vehicles via the same relay. The PLNC method will play an important role in the design of the high performance V2V communication systems serving in the heavy traffic conditions when a large number of users need to be notified about suddenly changing situations. Studies presented in this thesis can be divided into three categories. In the first category, a cooperative V2V communication system employing PLNC using fixed gain amplify-and-forward technique is proposed and its outage and error performance analysis is investigated. Analytic results are derived under the cascaded Nakagami-m fading channel model assumption covering double Rayleigh, cascaded Rayleigh, double Nakagami-m, generalized-K and conventional cellular channel models as well. Therefore, the results obtained by this work are also valid for all these channel models. In the error performance investigation of the proposed system, first, exact cumulative density function of the end to end signal to noise ratio is derived. Then, using this cumulative density function, the exact closed-form outage probability is obtained. Then the exact closed-form symbol error rate expression for various modulation types is derived. As a continuation of this work, the performance analysis of the same system is investigated for not only cascaded but also fast fading Rayleigh channels in the presence of the self-interference. Thus the exact closed-form outage probability expression is obtained, and it is shown that the self-interference may cause the error floor in the performance of the network coded communication systems. In the second category, a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) V2V communication system is proposed. In this proposed system, all source and relay vehicles have multiple antennas while the relays employ the PLNC method using variable gain amplify-and-forward technique. The analytic results are derived for the cascaded Nakagami-m fading channels, and therefore the result of this work are held for the cascaded and non-cascaded channels, as mentioned above. Furthermore, the performance of the system is evaluated in terms of joint outage probability of the sources, and the exact outage probability expression is obtained in a single integral form while the upper and the lower bounds of the outage probability are obtained in the closed-form. Moreover, asymptotic diversity order is quantified as a function of the number of the relays, the number of the antennas at the sources and the relays, and the channel parameters which are cascading degree and fading parameter values. Within this system, it is shown that the service outage probability performance can be enhanced by employing joint antenna and relay selection. In the third category, PLNC and space-time trellis coding (STTC) techniques are combined to improve the error performance of a multi-antenna multi-relay V2V system. The upper bound expression of the pairwise error probability of the system is evaluated for double Rayleigh fading channels. Then using the upper bound expression, a novel code-design criterion is derived for cascaded fading channels. Then, by using this new criterion, a novel STTCs with 4 and 8 states are proposed for MIMO V2V PLNC systems.DoktoraPh.D

Distributed space time block coding and application in cooperative cognitive relay networks

The design and analysis of various distributed space time block coding schemes for cooperative relay networks is considered in this thesis. Rayleigh frequency flat and selective fading channels are assumed to model the links in the networks, and interference suppression techniques together with an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) type transmission approach are employed to mitigate synchronization errors at the destination node induced by the different delays through the relay nodes. Closed-loop space time block coding is first considered in the context of decode-and-forward (regenerative) networks. In particular, quasi orthogonal and extended orthogonal coding techniques are employed for transmission from four relay nodes and parallel interference cancellation detection is exploited to mitigate synchronization errors. Availability of a direct link between the source and destination nodes is studied. Outer coding is then added to gain further improvement in end-to-end performance and amplify-and-forward (non regenerative) type networks together with distributed space time coding are considered to reduce relay node complexity. A novel detection scheme is then proposed for decode-and-forward and amplify-and-forward networks with closed-loop extended orthogonal coding and closed-loop quasi-orthogonal coding which reduce the computational complexity of the parallel interference cancellation. The near-optimum detector is presented for relay nodes with single or dual antennas. End-to-end bit error rate simulations confirm the potential of the approach and its ability to mitigate synchronization errors

Mitigation techniques through spatial diversity combining and relay-assisted technology in a turbulence impaired and misaligned free space optical channel.

Doctor of Philosophy in Electronic Engineering. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2018.In recent times, spectrum resource scarcity in Radio Frequency (RF) systems is one of the biggest and prime issues in the area of wireless communications. Owing to the cost of spectrum, increase in the bandwidth allocation as alternative solution, employed in the recent past, does no longer offer an effective means to fulfilling high demand in higher data rates. Consequently, Free Space Optical (FSO) communication systems has received considerable attention in the research community as an attractive means among other popular solutions to offering high bandwidth and high capacity compared to conventional RF systems. In addition, FSO systems have positive features which include license-free operation, cheap and ease of deployment, immunity to interference, high security, etc. Thus, FSO systems have been favoured in many areas especially, as a viable solution for the last-mile connectivity problem and a potential candidate for heterogeneous wireless backhaul network. With these attractive features, however, FSO systems are weather-dependent wireless channels. Therefore, it is usually susceptible to atmospheric induced turbulence, pointing error and attenuation under adverse weather conditions which impose severe challenges on the system performance and transmission reliability. Thus, before widespread deployment of the system will be possible, promising mitigation techniques need to be found to address these problems. In this thesis, the performance of spatial diversity combining and relay-assisted techniques with Spatial Modulation (SM) as viable mitigating tools to overcome the problem of atmospheric channel impairments along the FSO communication system link is studied. Firstly, the performance analysis of a heterodyne FSO-SM system with different diversity combiners such as Maximum Ratio Combining (MRC), Equal Gain Combining (EGC) and Selection Combining (SC) under the influence of lognormal and Gamma-Gamma atmospheric-induced turbulence fading is presented. A theoretical framework for the system error is provided by deriving the Average Pairwise Error Probability (APEP) expression for each diversity scheme under study and union bounding technique is applied to obtain their Average Bit Error Rate (ABER). Under the influence of Gamma-Gamma turbulence, an APEP expression is obtained through a generalized infinite power series expansion approach and the system performance is further enhanced by convolutional coding technique. Furthermore, the performance of proposed system under the combined effect of misalignment and Gamma-Gamma turbulence fading is also studied using the same mathematical approach. Moreover, the performance analysis of relay-assisted dual-hop heterodyne FSO-SM system with diversity combiners over a Gamma-Gamma atmospheric turbulence channel using Decode-and-Forward (DF) relay and Amplify-and-Forward (AF) relay protocols also is presented. Under DF dual-hop FSO system, power series expansion of the modified Bessel function is used to derive the closed-form expression for the end-to-end APEP expressions for each of the combiners under study over Gamma-Gamma channel, and a tight upper bound on the ABER per hop is given. Thus, the overall end-to-end ABER for the dual-hop FSO system is then evaluated. Under AF dual-hop FSO system, the statistical characteristics of AF relay in terms of Moment Generating Function (MGF), Probability Density Function (PDF) and Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) are derived for the combined Gamma-Gamma turbulence and/or pointing error distributions channel in terms of Meijer-G function. Based on these expressions, the APEP for each of the under studied combiners is determined and the ABER for the system is given by using union bounding technique. By utilizing the derived ABER expressions, the effective capacity for the considered system is then obtained. Furthermore, the performance of a dual-hop heterodyne FSO-SM asymmetric RF/FSO relaying system with MRC as mitigation tools at the destination is evaluated. The RF link experiences Nakagami-m distribution and FSO link is subjected to Gamma-Gamma distribution with and/or without pointing error. The MGF of the system equivalent SNR is derived using the CDF of the system equivalent SNR. Utilizing the MGF, the APEP for the system is then obtained and the ABER for the system is determined. Finally, owing to the slow nature of the FSO channel, the Block Error Rate (BLER) performance of FSO Subcarrier Intensity Modulation (SIM) system with spatial diversity combiners employing Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) modulation over Gamma-Gamma atmospheric turbulence with and without pointing error is studied. The channel PDF for MRC and EGC by using power series expansion of the modified Bessel function is derived. Through this, the BLER closed-form expressions for the combiners under study are obtained

Performance analysis of energy harvesting relaying

Recently, energy harvesting has been exploited as a key technique in wireless communications. Because conventional wireless systems are powered by batteries and cables, they tend to have restricted lifetime and flexibility. In order to solve these problems, wireless power has been investigated as a replacement for conventional batteries. This thesis focuses on energy harvesting in relaying. The data packet from the source to relay contains three parts: pilot for channel estimation, data symbols and pilots for harvesting. The data packet from the relay to the destination contains two parts: data symbols and pilots for estimation. To study energy harvesting, the performance of wireless powered communications is evaluated in terms of achievable rate and bit error rate, for applications where the downlink and the uplink are correlated, in contrast to previous works that assume independent uplink and downlink. Semi-closed expressions for the achievable rate and series expressions for the bit error rate are derived in Nakagami m fading channels, based on which the effect of link correlation is examined. Numerical results show that the link correlation has a significant impact on the achievable rate. Consequently, the optimum system parameter for correlated links is very different from that for independent links, showing the usefulness of our results. Also, the link correlation has a noticeable effect on the bit error rate, depending on the system parameters considered. Then, performance analysis has been performed for an AF relaying system with pilot-based channel estimation and time switching (TS) energy harvesting is conducted. Numerical results show the existence of the optimal values of the numbers of pilots for channel estimation and for energy harvesting, when the total size is fixed. Next, three novel structures using simultaneous wireless information and power transfer in energy harvesting amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying are investigated. Different combinations of time-switching (TS) and power-splitting (PS) energy harvesting protocols are studied. Closed-form expressions for the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the three structures are derived. Using these expressions, achievable rate (AR) and bit-error-rate (BER) are derived. Different parameters are examined. Numerical results show the optimal splitting ratio for channel estimation, energy harvesting and data transmission, when the packet size is fixed. Finally, the energy from the source and the energy from the ambient are merged together. The three ambient structures are studied. The closed-form expressions for the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the end-to-end signal-to- noise ratio (SNR) for the three ambient structures are derived. Curve fitting has been used to achieve the approximately achievable rate (AR) and bit-error-rate (BER). The results provide the optimal values for channel estimation pilots and power splitting ratio series for these ambient RF added structures

Novel Physical Layer Authentication Techniques for Secure Wireless Communications

Due to the open nature of radio propagation, information security in wireless communications has been facing more challenges compared to its counterpart in wired networks. Authentication, defined as an important aspect of information security, is the process of verifying the identity of transmitters to prevent against spoofing attacks. Traditionally, secure wireless communications is achieved by relying solely upon higher layer cryptographic mechanisms. However, cryptographic approaches based on complex mathematical calculations are inefficient and vulnerable to various types of attacks. Recently, researchers have shown that the unique properties of wireless channels can be exploited for authentication enhancement by providing additional security protection against spoofing attacks. Motivated by the vulnerability of existing higher-layer security techniques and the security advantages provided by exploring the physical link properties, five novel physical layer authentication techniques to enhance the security performance of wireless systems are proposed. The first technique exploits the inherent properties of CIR to achieve robust channel-based authentication. The second and third techniques utilize a long-range channel predictor and additional multipath delay characteristics, respectively, to enhance the CIR-based authentication. The fourth technique exploits the advantages of AF cooperative relaying to improve traditional channel-based authentication. The last technique employs an embedded confidential signaling link to secure the legitimate transmissions in OFDM systems

Rate enhancement and multi-relay selection schemes for application in wireless cooperative networks

In this thesis new methods are presented to achieve performance enhancement in wireless cooperative networks. In particular, techniques to improve transmission rate, mitigate asynchronous transmission and maximise end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio are described. An offset transmission scheme with full interference cancellation for a two-hop synchronous network with frequency flat links and four relays is introduced. This approach can asymptotically, as the symbol block size increases, achieve maximum transmission rate together with full cooperative diversity provided the destination node has multiple antennas. A novel full inter-relay interference cancellation method that also achieves asymptotically maximum rate and full cooperative diversity is then designed which only requires a single antenna at the destination node. Extension to asynchronous networks is then considered through the use of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) type transmission with a cyclic prefix, and interference cancellation techniques are designed for situations when synchronization errors are present in only the second hop or both the first and second hop. End-to-end bit error rate evaluations, with and without outer coding, are used to assess the performance of the various offset transmission schemes. Multi-relay selection methods for cooperative amplify and forward type networks are then studied in order to overcome the degradation of end-to-end bit error rate performance in single-relay selection networks when there are feedback errors in the destination to relay node links. Outage probability analysis for two and four relay selection is performed to show the advantage of multi-relay selection when no interference occurs and when adjacent cell interference is present both at the relay nodes and the destination node. Simulation studies are included which support the theoretical expressions. Finally, outage probability analysis of a cognitive amplify and forward type relay network with cooperation between certain secondary users, chosen by single and multi-relay (two and four) selection is presented. The cognitive relays are assumed to exploit an underlay approach, which requires adherence to an interference constraint on the primary user. The relay selection is performed either with a max-min strategy or one based on maximising exact end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio. The analyses are again confirmed by numerical evaluations