Coded modulation techniques with bit interleaving and iterative processing for impulsive noise channels

Power line communications (PLC) surfers performance degradation due mainly to impulsive noise interference generated by electrical appliances. This thesis studies coded modulation techniques to improve the spectral efficiency and error performance of PLC. Considered in the first part is the application of bit-interleaved coded modulation with iterative decoding (BICM-ID) in class-A impulsive noise environment. In particular, the optimal soft-output demodulator and its suboptimal version are presented for an additive class-A noise (AWAN) channel so that iterative demodulation and decoding can be performed at the receiver. The effect of signal mapping on the error performance of BICM-ID systems in impulsive noise is then investigated, with both computer simulations and a tight error bound on the asymptotic performance. Extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) chart analysis is performed to illustrate the convergence properties of different mappings. The superior performance of BICMID compared to orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) is also clearly demonstrated.Motivated by the successes of both BICM-ID and OFDM in improving the error performance of communications systems in impulsive noise environment, the second part of this thesis introduces a novel scheme of bit-interleaved coded OFDM with iterative decoding (BI-COFDM-ID) over the class-A impulsive noise channel. Here, an iterative receiver composed of outer and inner iteration loops is first described in detail. Error performance improvements of the proposed iterative receiver with different iteration strategies are presented and discussed. Performance comparisons of BI-COFDM-ID, BICM-ID and iteratively decoded OFDM are made to illustrate the superiority of BI-COFDM-ID. The effect of signal mapping on the error performance of BI-COFDM-ID is also studied

Advanced Coding And Modulation For Ultra-wideband And Impulsive Noises

The ever-growing demand for higher quality and faster multimedia content delivery over short distances in home environments drives the quest for higher data rates in wireless personal area networks (WPANs). One of the candidate IEEE 802.15.3a WPAN proposals support data rates up to 480 Mbps by using punctured convolutional codes with quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation for a multi-band orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) system over ultra wideband (UWB) channels. In the first part of this dissertation, we combine more powerful near-Shannon-limit turbo codes with bandwidth efficient trellis coded modulation, i.e., turbo trellis coded modulation (TTCM), to further improve the data rates up to 1.2 Gbps. A modified iterative decoder for this TTCM coded MB-OFDM system is proposed and its bit error rate performance under various impulsive noises over both Gaussian and UWB channel is extensively investigated, especially in mismatched scenarios. A robust decoder which is immune to noise mismatch is provided based on comparison of impulsive noises in time domain and frequency domain. The accurate estimation of the dynamic noise model could be very difficult or impossible at the receiver, thus a significant performance degradation may occur due to noise mismatch. In the second part of this dissertation, we prove that the minimax decoder in \cite, which instead of minimizing the average bit error probability aims at minimizing the worst bit error probability, is optimal and robust to certain noise model with unknown prior probabilities in two and higher dimensions. Besides turbo codes, another kind of error correcting codes which approach the Shannon capacity is low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. In the last part of this dissertation, we extend the density evolution method for sum-product decoding using mismatched noises. We will prove that as long as the true noise type and the estimated noise type used in the decoder are both binary-input memoryless output symmetric channels, the output from mismatched log-likelihood ratio (LLR) computation is also symmetric. We will show the Shannon capacity can be evaluated for mismatched LLR computation and it can be reduced if the mismatched LLR computation is not an one-to-one mapping function. We will derive the Shannon capacity, threshold and stable condition of LDPC codes for mismatched BIAWGN and BIL noise types. The results show that the noise variance estimation errors will not affect the Shannon capacity and stable condition, but the errors do reduce the threshold. The mismatch in noise type will only reduce Shannon capacity when LLR computation is based on BIL

Investigation of non-binary trellis codes designed for impulsive noise environments

PhD ThesisIt is well known that binary codes with iterative decoders can achieve near Shannon limit performance on the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel, but their performance on more realistic wired or wireless channels can become degraded due to the presence of burst errors or impulsive noise. In such extreme environments, error correction alone cannot combat the serious e ect of the channel and must be combined with the signal processing techniques such as channel estimation, channel equalisation and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). However, even after the received signal has been processed, it can still contain burst errors, or the noise present in the signal maybe non Gaussian. In these cases, popular binary coding schemes such as Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) or turbo codes may not perform optimally, resulting in the degradation of performance. Nevertheless, there is still scope for the design of new non-binary codes that are more suitable for these environments, allowing us to achieve further gains in performance. In this thesis, an investigation into good non-binary trellis error-correcting codes and advanced noise reduction techniques has been carried out with the aim of enhancing the performance of wired and wireless communication networks in di erent extreme environments. These environments include, urban, indoor, pedestrian, underwater, and powerline communication (PLC). This work includes an examination of the performance of non-binary trellis codes in harsh scenarios such as underwater communications when the noise channel is additive S S noise. Similar work was also conducted for single input single output (SISO) power line communication systems for single carrier (SC) and multi carrier (MC) over realistic multi-path frequency selective channels. A further examination of multi-input multi-output (MIMO) wired and wireless systems on Middleton class A noise channel was carried out. The main focus of the project was non-binary coding schemes as it is well-known that they outperform their binary counterparts when the channel is bursty. However, few studies have investigated non-binary codes for other environments. The major novelty of this work is the comparison of the performance of non-binary trellis codes with binary trellis codes in various scenarios, leading to the conclusion that non-binary codes are, in most cases, superior in performance to binary codes. Furthermore, the theoretical bounds of SISO and MIMO binary and non-binary convolutional coded OFDM-PLC systems have been investigated for the rst time. In order to validate our results, the implementation of simulated and theoretical results have been obtained for di erent values of noise parameters and on di erent PLC channels. The results show a strong agreement between the simulated and theoretical analysis for all cases.University of Thi-Qar for choosing me for their PhD scholarship and the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education and Scienti c Research (MOHESR) for granting me the funds to study in UK. In addition, there was ample support towards my stay in the UK from the Iraqi Cultural Attach e in Londo

Analysis of low-density parity-check codes on impulsive noise channels

PhD ThesisCommunication channels can severely degrade a signal, not only due to fading effects but also interference in the form of impulsive noise. In conventional communication systems, the additive noise at the receiver is usually assumed to be Gaussian distributed. However, this assumption is not always valid and examples of non-Gaussian distributed noise include power line channels, underwater acoustic channels and manmade interference. When designing a communication system it is useful to know the theoretical performance in terms of bit-error probability (BEP) on these types of channels. However, the effect of impulses on the BEP performance has not been well studied, particularly when error correcting codes are employed. Today, advanced error-correcting codes with very long block lengths and iterative decoding algorithms, such as Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) codes and turbo codes, are popular due to their capacity-approaching performance. However, very long codes are not always desirable, particularly in communications systems where latency is a serious issue, such as in voice and video communication between multiple users. This thesis focuses on the analysis of short LDPC codes. Finite length analyses of LDPC codes have already been presented for the additive white Gaussian noise channel in the literature, but the analysis of short LDPC codes for channels that exhibit impulsive noise has not been investigated. The novel contributions in this thesis are presented in three sections. First, uncoded and LDPC-coded BEP performance on channels exhibiting impulsive noise modelled by symmetric -stable (S S) distributions are examined. Different sub-optimal receivers are compared and a new low-complexity receiver is proposed that achieves near-optimal performance. Density evolution is then used to derive the threshold signal-tonoise ratio (SNR) of LDPC codes that employ these receivers. In order to accurately predict the waterfall performance of short LDPC codes, a nite length analysis is proposed with the aid of the threshold SNRs of LDPC codes and the derived uncoded BEPs for impulsive noise channels. Second, to investigate the e ect of impulsive noise on wireless channels, the analytic BEP on generalized fading channels with S S noise is derived. However, it requires the evaluation of a double integral to obtain the analytic BEP, so to reduce the computational cost, the Cauchy- Gaussian mixture model and the asymptotic property of S S process are used to derive upper bounds of the exact BEP. Two closed-form expressions are derived to approximate the exact BEP on a Rayleigh fading channel with S S noise. Then density evolution of different receivers is derived for these channels to nd the asymptotic performance of LDPC codes. Finally, the waterfall performance of LDPC codes is again estimated for generalized fading channels with S S noise by utilizing the derived uncoded BEP and threshold SNRs. Finally, the addition of spatial diversity at the receiver is investigated. Spatial diversity is an effective method to mitigate the effects of fading and when used in conjunction with LDPC codes and can achieve excellent error-correcting performance. Hence, the performance of conventional linear diversity combining techniques are derived. Then the SNRs of these linear combiners are compared and the relationship of the noise power between different linear combiners is obtained. Nonlinear detectors have been shown to achieve better performance than linear combiners hence, optimal and sub-optimal detectors are also presented and compared. A non-linear detector based on the bi-parameter Cauchy-Gaussian mixture model is used and shows near-optimal performance with a significant reduction in complexity when compared with the optimal detector. Furthermore, we show how to apply density evolution of LDPC codes for different combining techniques on these channels and an estimation of the waterfall performance of LDPC codes is derived that reduces the gap between simulated and asymptotic performance. In conclusion, the work presented in this thesis provides a framework to evaluate the performance of communication systems in the presence of additive impulsive noise, with and without spatial diversity at the receiver. For the first time, bounds on the BEP performance of LDPC codes on channels with impulsive noise have been derived for optimal and sub-optimal receivers, allowing other researchers to predict the performance of LDPC codes in these type of environments without needing to run lengthy computer simulations

Low Complexity Rate Compatible Puncturing Patterns Design for LDPC Codes

In contemporary digital communications design, two major challenges should be addressed: adaptability and flexibility. The system should be capable of flexible and efficient use of all available spectrums and should be adaptable to provide efficient support for the diverse set of service characteristics. These needs imply the necessity of limit-achieving and flexible channel coding techniques, to improve system reliability. Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes fit such requirements well, since they are capacity-achieving. Moreover, through puncturing, allowing the adaption of the coding rate to different channel conditions with a single encoder/decoder pair, adaptability and flexibility can be obtained at a low computational cost.In this paper, the design of rate-compatible puncturing patterns for LDPCs is addressed. We use a previously defined formal analysis of a class of punctured LDPC codes through their equivalent parity check matrices. We address a new design criterion for the puncturing patterns using a simplified analysis of the decoding belief propagation algorithm, i.e., considering a Gaussian approximation for message densities under density evolution, and a simple algorithmic method, recently defined by the Authors, to estimate the threshold for regular and irregular LDPC codes on memoryless binary-input continuous-output Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channels

Design and performance evaluation of turbo FDE receivers

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de ComputadoresIn recent years, block transmission techniques were proposed and developed for broadband wireless communication systems, which have to deal with strongly frequency-selective fading channels. Techniques like Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM)and Single Carrier with Frequency Domain Equalization (SC-FDE) are able to provide high bit rates despite the channel adversities. In this thesis we concentrate on the study of single carrier block transmission techniques considering receiver structures suitable to scenarios with strongly time-dispersive channels. CP-assisted (Cycle Pre x) block transmission techniques are employed to cope with frequency selective channels, allowing cost-e ective implementations through FFT-based (Fast Fourier Transform) signal processing. It is investigated the impact of the number of multipath components as well as the diversity order on the asymptotic performance of SC-FDE schemes. We also propose a receiver structure able to perform a joint detection and channel estimation method, in which it is possible to combine the channel estimates, based on training sequences, with decision-directed channel estimates. A study about the impact of the correlation factor estimation in the performance of Iterative Block-Decision Feedback Equalizer (IB-DFE) receivers is also presented

On Combined Coding and Modulation

In the treatment of channel coding as a separate operation independent of the modulation, the coded set of sequences generally has a smaller channel symbol duration than the uncoded set of sequences for the same information rate. Accordingly, the power spectrum density (PSD) of the channel signals changes essentially. On the other hand, if the modulation is designed in conjunction with the channel coding, error correction can be achieved without leading to any essential changes in the PSD. In this thesis, two combined coding and modulation schemes are studied. Narrowband powerline communication (PLC) is considered as a practical application. The thesis can be divided into two parts. In the first part, combined coding and modulation scheme based on the single carrier modulation is proposed. An run-length limited (RLL) encoder is introduced between the channel encoder and the constant envelope modulator to control the minimum channel symbol duration (the minimum duration in which the channel symbol stays constant) of a set of block waveforms defined in a constant time. As a single carrier modulation, noncoherent FSK and PSK are considered. Accordingly, it is shown that high coding gains can be achieved at the same information rate without leading to an essential change in the PSD. The maximum-likelihood (ML) receiver structures are derived and investigated for the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and the impulsive noise channel models. In the second part of the thesis, OFDM modulation is considered. If the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) of the transmitted OFDM symbol contains a small number of zeros or known data, there is a similarity between the inverse DFT (IDFT) and RS encoder. In practice, not all subcarriers are used to carry information. Some subcarriers are set to zero or known data (pilot symbols) for different purposes, that include channel estimation, synchronization or cancelation of the DC value. An iterative impulsive noise suppression algorithm is proposed, which exploits the impulsive noise structure in the time and frequency domain and uses the existing redundancy to decode the errors. The simulation results show that the influence of impulsive noise can be essentially reduced.Bei der klassischen Kanalcodierung wird die Datenrate durch Einfügen von Redundanzen bewusst erhöht, um dadurch eine Absicherung gegen auftretende Fehler zu erreichen. Die Erhöhung der Datenrate erfordert eine wesentliche Änderung im Power-Spektrum. Aber bei vielen Anwendungen ist eine möglichst effiziente Nutzung des Power-Spektrums gefordert. In dieser Arbeit werden Codierung und Modulation gemeinsam betrachtet, so dass die Verbesserung der Übertragungsqualität keine wesentliche Änderung in dem Power-Spektrum erfordert. Das Power-Spektrum wird durch Power-Spektrum-Dichte analysiert. Als praktische Anwendung der Arbeit wird die Schmalband-Powerline-Kommunikation (Narrowband Power Line Communication) betrachtet. Powerline ist der Begriff für die Übertragung von Daten über Stromkabel. Im Gegensatz zu konventionellen Kommunikationskanälen kann die Störung auf Stromnetze nicht als additives weißes Gaußsches Rauschen (AWGN) modelliert werden. Das ist darauf zurückzuführen, dass neben Hintergrundrauschen auch Schmalbandstörungen und insbesondere Impulsstörungen vorkommen. Beim Auftreten eines Impulses sind Bit- oder Burstfehler bei einer Datenübertragung sehr wahrscheinlich. Im ersten Teil werden Einzelträgerverfahren betrachtet. Ein sogenannter RLL- (Run-length Limited) Code wird verwendet, um die Anzahl aufeinanderfolgender Symbole mit gleichem Wert nach unten zu begrenzen. Dementsprechend wird gezeigt, dass im gemeinsamen blockweisen RLL Encoder/Modulator der minimale euklidische Abstand erhöht werden kann, ohne wesentliche Änderung in der Power-Spektrum-Dichte. Im Empfänger erfolgen Demodulation und Decodierung nicht getrennt, sondern in einem Schritt, wobei alle Vorteile der Maximum-Likelihood-Decodierung mit Verwendung von Soft-Decision erhalten bleiben. Ein wesentlich größerer Codierungsgewinn ergibt sich bei der Verkettung mit einem RS- (Reed-Solomon) Code. Zunächst werden die Auswirkungen von Impulsstörungen auf RLL-codierte Einzelträgerverfahren erläutert. Die Modellierung von Impulsstörungen als nicht-Gauß'sche Verteilungen wurde in der Literatur durch verschiedene Ansätze vorgestellt. In der Arbeit wird das Klasse-A Modell von Middleton angewendet. Im zweiten Teil der Arbeit wird OFDM- (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) Verfahren betrachtet. Insbesondere durch die Impulsstörungen werden in der Datenübertragung erhebliche Störeffekte hervorgerufen. In OFDM werden die Modulation bzw. Demodulation mit Hilfe einer IDFT bzw. DFT (Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform, Discrete Fourier Transform) ausgeführt. Die bisherigen Überlegungen zur Kompensation von Impulsstörungen behandeln nur das OFDM-Verfahren mit einer großen Anzahl von Unterträgern (>256). In diesem Fall wird die Energie des Störimpulses durch die DFT auf viele Unterträger verteilt. Wenn die Anzahl der Unterträger kleiner als 256 ist, ist die Verteilung der Störung nicht uniform. Wenn die DFT der gesendeten OFDM-Symbol eine kleine Anzahl von Nullen oder bekannten Daten enthält, gibt es eine Ähnlichkeit zwischen der IDFT und RS-Encoder. Die OFDM-Signale beinhalten häufig Pilotinformationen und zu Null gesetzte Träger in der Signalstruktur. Es werden Verfahren zur Kompensation von Impulsstörungen durch Pilotinformationen und zu Null gesetzte Träger untersucht bzw. entwickelt, die eine Steigerung der Robustheit der Datenübertragung ermöglichen. Als Zielkriterium wird dabei die Senkung der Bitfehlerrate bei einer impulsgestörten Übertragung herangezogen. Für die Modellierung von Impulsstörungen wird das vereinfachte "Klasse-A"\, Modell von Middleton verwendet