Efficient FPGA implementation of high-throughput mixed radix multipath delay commutator FFT processor for MIMO-OFDM

This article presents and evaluates pipelined architecture designs for an improved high-frequency Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) processor implemented on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) for Multiple Input Multiple Output Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM). The architecture presented is a Mixed-Radix Multipath Delay Commutator. The presented parallel architecture utilizes fewer hardware resources compared to Radix-2 architecture, while maintaining simple control and butterfly structures inherent to Radix-2 implementations. The high-frequency design presented allows enhancing system throughput without requiring additional parallel data paths common in other current approaches, the presented design can process two and four independent data streams in parallel and is suitable for scaling to any power of two FFT size N. FPGA implementation of the architecture demonstrated significant resource efficiency and high-throughput in comparison to relevant current approaches within literature. The proposed architecture designs were realized with Xilinx System Generator (XSG) and evaluated on both Virtex-5 and Virtex-7 FPGA devices. Post place and route results demonstrated maximum frequency values over 400 MHz and 470 MHz for Virtex-5 and Virtex-7 FPGA devices respectively

AirSync: Enabling Distributed Multiuser MIMO with Full Spatial Multiplexing

The enormous success of advanced wireless devices is pushing the demand for higher wireless data rates. Denser spectrum reuse through the deployment of more access points per square mile has the potential to successfully meet the increasing demand for more bandwidth. In theory, the best approach to density increase is via distributed multiuser MIMO, where several access points are connected to a central server and operate as a large distributed multi-antenna access point, ensuring that all transmitted signal power serves the purpose of data transmission, rather than creating "interference." In practice, while enterprise networks offer a natural setup in which distributed MIMO might be possible, there are serious implementation difficulties, the primary one being the need to eliminate phase and timing offsets between the jointly coordinated access points. In this paper we propose AirSync, a novel scheme which provides not only time but also phase synchronization, thus enabling distributed MIMO with full spatial multiplexing gains. AirSync locks the phase of all access points using a common reference broadcasted over the air in conjunction with a Kalman filter which closely tracks the phase drift. We have implemented AirSync as a digital circuit in the FPGA of the WARP radio platform. Our experimental testbed, comprised of two access points and two clients, shows that AirSync is able to achieve phase synchronization within a few degrees, and allows the system to nearly achieve the theoretical optimal multiplexing gain. We also discuss MAC and higher layer aspects of a practical deployment. To the best of our knowledge, AirSync offers the first ever realization of the full multiuser MIMO gain, namely the ability to increase the number of wireless clients linearly with the number of jointly coordinated access points, without reducing the per client rate.Comment: Submitted to Transactions on Networkin

Distributed multi-user MIMO transmission using real-time sigma-delta-over-fiber for next generation fronthaul interface

To achieve the massive device connectivity and high data rate demanded by 5G, wireless transmission with wider signal bandwidths and higher-order multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) is inevitable. This work demonstrates a possible function split option for the next generation fronthaul interface (NGFI). The proof-of-concept downlink architecture consists of real-time sigma-delta modulated signal over fiber (SDoF) links in combination with distributed multi-user (MU) MIMO transmission. The setup is fully implemented using off-the-shelf and in-house developed components. A single SDoF link achieves an error vector magnitude (EVM) of 3.14% for a 163.84 MHz-bandwidth 256-QAM OFDM signal (958.64 Mbps) with a carrier frequency around 3.5 GHz transmitted over 100 m OM4 multi-mode fiber at 850 nm using a commercial QSFP module. The centralized architecture of the proposed setup introduces no frequency asynchronism among remote radio units. For most cases, the 2 x 2 MU-MIMO transmission has little performance degradation compared to SISO, 0.8 dB EVM degradation for 40.96 MHz-bandwidth signals and 1.4 dB for 163.84 MHz-bandwidth on average, implying that the wireless spectral efficiency almost doubles by exploiting spatial multiplexing. A 1.4 Gbps data rate (720 Mbps per user, 163.84 MHz-bandwidth, 64-QAM) is reached with an average EVM of 6.66%. The performance shows that this approach is feasible for the high-capacity hot-spot scenario

MIMO Transmission with Residual Transmit-RF Impairments

Physical transceiver implementations for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication systems suffer from transmit-RF (Tx-RF) impairments. In this paper, we study the effect on channel capacity and error-rate performance of residual Tx-RF impairments that defy proper compensation. In particular, we demonstrate that such residual distortions severely degrade the performance of (near-)optimum MIMO detection algorithms. To mitigate this performance loss, we propose an efficient algorithm, which is based on an i.i.d. Gaussian model for the distortion caused by these impairments. In order to validate this model, we provide measurement results based on a 4-stream Tx-RF chain implementation for MIMO orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM).Comment: to be presented at the International ITG Workshop on Smart Antennas - WSA 201

An Efficient Data-aided Synchronization in L-DACS1 for Aeronautical Communications

L-band Digital Aeronautical Communication System type-1 (L-DACS1) is an emerging standard that aims at enhancing air traffic management (ATM) by transitioning the traditional analog aeronautical communication systems to the superior and highly efficient digital domain. L-DACS1 employs modern and efficient orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation technique to achieve more efficient and higher data rate in comparison to the existing aeronautical communication systems. However, the performance of OFDM systems is very sensitive to synchronization errors. L-DACS1 transmission is in the L-band aeronautical channels that suffer from large interference and large Doppler shifts, which makes the synchronization for L-DACS more challenging. This paper proposes a novel computationally efficient synchronization method for L-DACS1 systems that offers robust performance. Through simulation, the proposed method is shown to provide accurate symbol timing offset (STO) estimation as well as fractional carrier frequency offset (CFO) estimation in a range of aeronautical channels. In particular, it can yield excellent synchronization performance in the face of a large carrier frequency offset.Comment: In the proceeding of International Conference on Data Mining, Communications and Information Technology (DMCIT

HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION OF MISO ON ORTHOGONAL FREQUENCY DIVISION MULTIPLEXING PLATFORM WITH THE HELP OF ALAMOUTI ALGORITHM

Many software based OFDM techniques were proposed from last half decade to improve the performance of the system. This paper tried to implement the same with Hardware implementation. We created Hardware based MISO platform with OFDM. We implemented Alamouti algorithm on this test bed. The test bed is implemented with the help of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The test bed is functionalized with the help of FPGA through Xilinx based system generator for DSP. In this paper we considered the 2×1 MISO implementation with Alamouti algorithm. The simulation results showed that BER and SNR are considerably high for MISO than SISO. The results also proved that proposed OFDM based Alamouti implementation for MISO is excellent in all performance criterionsMany software based OFDM techniques were proposed from last half decade to improve the performance of the system. This paper tried to implement the same with Hardware implementation. We created Hardware based MISO platform with OFDM. We implemented Alamouti algorithm on this test bed. The test bed is implemented with the help of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The test bed is functionalized with the help of FPGA through Xilinx based system generator for DSP. In this paper we considered the 2×1 MISO implementation with Alamouti algorithm. The simulation results showed that BER and SNR are considerably high for MISO than SISO. The results also proved that proposed OFDM based Alamouti implementation for MISO is excellent in all performance criterion

Robust massive MIMO Equilization for mmWave systems with low resolution ADCs

Leveraging the available millimeter wave spectrum will be important for 5G. In this work, we investigate the performance of digital beamforming with low resolution ADCs based on link level simulations including channel estimation, MIMO equalization and channel decoding. We consider the recently agreed 3GPP NR type 1 OFDM reference signals. The comparison shows sequential DCD outperforms MMSE-based MIMO equalization both in terms of detection performance and complexity. We also show that the DCD based algorithm is more robust to channel estimation errors. In contrast to the common believe we also show that the complexity of MMSE equalization for a massive MIMO system is not dominated by the matrix inversion but by the computation of the Gram matrix.Comment: submitted to WCNC 2018 Workshop

AN OFDM platform for wireless systems testing: alamouti 2x1 MIMO example

In this paper, we present a real-time implementation of an OFDM hardware platform. The platform is based on HW blocks that can be put together to configure a wireless system based on OFDM modulation. The platform can be easily upgraded to test pre-coding cooperation algorithms. We evaluate the platform to implement a diversity Alamouti 2×1 MIMO scheme wireless system. The testbed is implemented using Field- Programmable Gate Array (FPGAs) through Xilinx System Generator for DSP. Blocks for time-domain synchronization and channel estimation are key components necessary in transmission system that require good time synchronization and channel estimation for efficient demodulation