Enabling Asynchronous Machine-Type D2D Communication Using Multiple Waveforms in 5G

In this paper, we explore the idea that 5G will permit the use of multiple waveforms, with each service employing a waveform that is best suited for it. We look at a 5G machinetype communication (MTC) scenario consisting of clustered user equipment employing device-to-device (D2D) communication, such as a smart factory with intercommunicating machinery. The overhead associated with synchronizing a large number of machine-type D2D user equipment (DUE) comes at a cost that may render synchronous communication infeasible or undesirable. Based on this motivation, we consider multiple possible combinations of prominent 5G waveform candidates for cellular users and DUEs, examining the asynchronous performance of all waveforms under consideration and using the performance of synchronous orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) as a baseline for comparison. Specifically, we focus on the coexistence of waveforms in which the ordinary cellular users employ OFDM for synchronous communication, as in LTE, and the machine-type DUEs, operating asynchronously, employ a different waveform. When DUEs employ filter bank multicarrier with offset-QAM, the average achieved rate is marginally greater than the synchronous OFDM baseline case, and approximately 43% greater than the asynchronous OFDM case. This result is encouraging, as the benefits of asynchronous D2D communication could be enjoyed in MTC scenarios without suffering any performance reduction compared to the synchronous OFDM scenario. We then investigate how the relative performance of different waveform choices depends on the scenario by varying key parameters. Notably, for asynchronous communication, increasing the transmit power of DUEs results in diminishing benefits unless the DUEs employ a waveform that mitigates interdevice leakage interference

Integrated Filters and Couplers for Next Generation Wireless Tranceivers

The main focus of this thesis is to investigate the critical nonlinear distortion issues affecting RF/Microwave components such as power amplifiers (PA) and develop new and improved solutions that will improve efficiency and linearity of next generation RF/Microwave mobile wireless communication systems. This research involves evaluating the nonlinear distortions in PA for different analog and digital signals which have been a major concern. The second harmonic injection technique is explored and used to effectively suppress nonlinear distortions. This method consists of simultaneously feeding back the second harmonics at the output of the power amplifier (PA) into the input of the PA. Simulated and measured results show improved linearity results. However, for increasing frequency bandwidth, the suppression abilities reduced which is a limitation for 4G LTE and 5G networks that require larger bandwidth (above 5 MHz). This thesis explores creative ways to deal with this major drawback. The injection technique was modified with the aid of a well-designed band-stop filter. The compact narrowband notch filter designed was able to suppress nonlinear distortions very effectively when used before the PA. The notch filter is also integrated in the injection technique for LTE carrier aggregation (CA) with multiple carriers and significant improvement in nonlinear distortion performance was observed. This thesis also considers maximizing efficiency alongside with improved linearity performance. To improve on the efficiency performance of the PA, the balanced PA configuration was investigated. However, another major challenge was that the couplers used in this configuration are very large in size at the desired operating frequency. In this thesis, this problem was solved by designing a compact branch line coupler. The novel coupler was simulated, fabricated and measured with performance comparable to its conventional equivalent and the coupler achieved substantial size reduction over others. The coupler is implemented in the balanced PA configuration giving improved input and output matching abilities. The proposed balanced PA is also implemented in 4G LTE and 5G wireless transmitters. This thesis provides simulation and measured results for all balanced PA cases with substantial efficiency and linearity improvements observed even for higher bandwidths (above 5 MHz). Additionally, the coupler is successfully integrated with rectifiers for improved energy harvesting performance and gave improved RF-dc conversion efficienc

A hybrid-structure offset-QAM filter-bank multi-carrier MIMO system

Offset quadrature amplitude modulation (OQAM) filter-bank multi-carrier (FBMC), has great potential for boosting the spectral efficiency (SE) and energy efficiency (EE) of future communication systems. This is due to its superior spectral localization, CP-less transmission and relaxed synchronization requirements. Our research focuses on three main OQAM/FBMC research problems: the computational complexity reduction taking equalization into consideration, its integration with multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) and its high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). OQAM/FBMC systems are mainly implemented either using frequency spreading (FS) or polyphase network (PPN) techniques. The PPN technique is generally less complex, but when using frequency domain equalization (FDE) to equalize multipath channel effects at the receiver, there is a computational complexity overhead when using PPN. A novel hybrid-structure OQAM/FBMC MIMO space-frequency block coding (SFBC) system is proposed, to achieve the lowest possible overall complexity in conjunction with FDE at the receiver in frequency selective Rayleigh fading channel. The Alamouti SFBC block coding is performed on the complex-orthogonal signal before OQAM processing, which resolves the problems of intrinsic interference when integrating OQAM/FBMC with MIMO. In better multipath channel conditions with a line-of-sight (LOS) path, a zero-forcing (ZF) time domain equalization (TDE) is exploited to further reduce the computational complexity with comparable performance bit-error-rate (BER). On the other hand, to tackle the high PAPR problem of the OQAM/FBMC system in the uplink, a novel single carrier (SC)-OQAM/FBMC MIMO system is proposed. The system uses DFT-spreading applied to the OQAM modulated signal, along with interleaved subcarrier mapping to significantly reduce the PAPR and enhance the BER performance over Rayleigh fading channels, with relatively low additional computational complexity compared to the original complexity of the FBMC system and compared to other FBMC PAPR reduction techniques.The proposed hybrid-structure system has shown significant BER performance in frequency-selective Rayleigh fading channels compared to OFDM, with significantly lower OOB emissions in addition to the enhanced SE due to the absence of CP. In mild multipath fading channels with a LOS component, the PPN OQAM/FBMC MIMO using TDE has a comparable BER performance with significantly less computational complexity. As for the uplink, the SC-OQAM/FBMC MIMO system significantly reduces the PAPR and enhances the BER performance, with relatively low additional computational complexity