Filter-And-Forward Distributed Beamforming in Relay Networks with Frequency Selective Fading

A new approach to distributed cooperative beamforming in relay networks with frequency selective fading is proposed. It is assumed that all the relay nodes are equipped with finite impulse response (FIR) filters and use a filter-and-forward (FF) strategy to compensate for the transmitter-to-relay and relay-to-destination channels. Three relevant half-duplex distributed beamforming problems are considered. The first problem amounts to minimizing the total relay transmitted power subject to the destination quality-of-service (QoS) constraint. In the second and third problems, the destination QoS is maximized subject to the total and individual relay transmitted power constraints, respectively. For the first and second problems, closed-form solutions are obtained, whereas the third problem is solved using convex optimization. The latter convex optimization technique can be also directly extended to the case when the individual and total power constraints should be jointly taken into account. Simulation results demonstrate that in the frequency selective fading case, the proposed FF approach provides substantial performance improvements as compared to the commonly used amplify-and-forward (AF) relay beamforming strategy.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Trans. on Signal Processing on 8 July 200

Adaptive Beamforming for Distributed Relay Networks

Tremendous research work has been put into the realm of distributed relay networks, for its distinct advantages in exploiting spatial diversity, reducing the deployment cost and mitigating the effect of fading in wireless transmission without the multi-antenna requirement on the relay nodes. In typical relay networks, data transmission between a source and a destination is assisted by relay nodes with various relaying protocols. In this thesis, we investigate how to adaptively select the relay weights to meet specific interference suppressing requirements of the network. The thesis makes original contributions by proposing a filter-and-forward (FF) relay scheme in cognitive radio networks and an iterative algorithm based transceiver beamforming scheme for multi-pair relay networks. In the firstly proposed scheme, the relay nodes are adapted to deal with the inter-symbol-interference (ISI) that is introduced in the frequency-selective channel environment and the leakage interference introduced to the primary user. Our proposed scheme uses FF relay beamforming at the relay nodes to combat the frequency selective channel, and our scheme also aims to maximize the received SINR at the secondary destination, while suppressing the interference introduced to the primary user (PU). This scheme is further extended to accommodate a relay nodes output power constraint. Under certain criteria, the extended scheme can be transformed into two sub-schemes with lower computational complexity, where their closed-form solutions are derived. The probability that we can perform these transformations is also tested, which reveals under what circumstances our second scheme can be solved more easily. Then, we propose an iterative transceiver beamforming scheme for the multi-pair distributed relay networks. In our scheme, we consider multi-antenna users in one user group communicating with their partners in the other user group via distributed single-antenna relay nodes. We employ transceiver beamformers at the user nodes, and through our proposed iterative algorithm the relay nodes and user nodes can be coordinatively adapted to suppress the inter-pair-interference (IPI) while maximize the desired signal power. We also divide the rather difficult transceiver beamforming problem into three sub-problems, each of which can be solved with sub-optimal solutions. The transmit beamforming vectors, distributed relay coefficients and the receive beamforming vectors are obtained by iteratively solving these three sub-problems, each having a closed-form solution. The tasks of maximizing desired signal power, and reducing inter-pair interference (IPI) and noise are thus allocated to different iteration steps. By this arrangement, the transmit and receiver beamformers of each user are responsible for improving its own performance and the distributed relay nodes can be employed with simple amplify-and-forward(AF) protocols and only forward the received signal with proper scalar. This iterative relay beamforming scheme is further extended by distributing the computation tasks among each user and relay node, through which high computational efficiency can be ensured while extra overhead of bandwidth is need for sharing beamforming vector updates during the iteration steps. Furthermore, with respect to the channel uncertainty, two more relay strategies are proposed considering two different requirements from the communication network: sum relay output power and individual relay output power. At last, the application of the iterative relay beamforming method in cognitive radio networks is studied, where multiple pairs of users are considered as secondary users (SUs), and the designed transmit beamforming vector, relay beamforming vector and receive beamforming vector together guarantee that the inner interference of their transmissions is well suppressed while the interference introduced by them to the PU is restricted under a predefined threshold

Rank-Two Beamforming and Power Allocation in Multicasting Relay Networks

In this paper, we propose a novel single-group multicasting relay beamforming scheme. We assume a source that transmits common messages via multiple amplify-and-forward relays to multiple destinations. To increase the number of degrees of freedom in the beamforming design, the relays process two received signals jointly and transmit the Alamouti space-time block code over two different beams. Furthermore, in contrast to the existing relay multicasting scheme of the literature, we take into account the direct links from the source to the destinations. We aim to maximize the lowest received quality-of-service by choosing the proper relay weights and the ideal distribution of the power resources in the network. To solve the corresponding optimization problem, we propose an iterative algorithm which solves sequences of convex approximations of the original non-convex optimization problem. Simulation results demonstrate significant performance improvements of the proposed methods as compared with the existing relay multicasting scheme of the literature and an algorithm based on the popular semidefinite relaxation technique

Principles of Physical Layer Security in Multiuser Wireless Networks: A Survey

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the domain of physical layer security in multiuser wireless networks. The essential premise of physical-layer security is to enable the exchange of confidential messages over a wireless medium in the presence of unauthorized eavesdroppers without relying on higher-layer encryption. This can be achieved primarily in two ways: without the need for a secret key by intelligently designing transmit coding strategies, or by exploiting the wireless communication medium to develop secret keys over public channels. The survey begins with an overview of the foundations dating back to the pioneering work of Shannon and Wyner on information-theoretic security. We then describe the evolution of secure transmission strategies from point-to-point channels to multiple-antenna systems, followed by generalizations to multiuser broadcast, multiple-access, interference, and relay networks. Secret-key generation and establishment protocols based on physical layer mechanisms are subsequently covered. Approaches for secrecy based on channel coding design are then examined, along with a description of inter-disciplinary approaches based on game theory and stochastic geometry. The associated problem of physical-layer message authentication is also introduced briefly. The survey concludes with observations on potential research directions in this area.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures, 303 refs. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1303.1609 by other authors. IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials, 201

New Achievable Sum Degrees of Freedom in Half-duplex Single-antenna Multi-user Multi-hop Networks

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from IEEE via the DOI in this recordIEEE We investigate the achievable sum degrees of freedom (DoF) in a class of single-antenna multi-user multi-hop relay networks. The networks consist of multiple information sources and destinations, without direct signal propagation link between them, so that multiple layers of relays are deployed to assist in information delivery. We consider the situation that relays are unable to shield their receptions from the harmful selfinterference and from the interference generated by other relays. Hence ideal full-duplex relaying is not applicable. Utilizing halfduplex decode-and-forward relays, a cluster successive relaying (CSR) transmission scheme is adopted to conduct message transmission. The CSR scheme divides each layer of relays into two successively activated relay clusters to compensate the extra channel consumption demanded by the half-duplex operation. We propose two interference alignment strategies to deal with the interference issues. By properly clustering the relays in each layer, we find the asymptotically achievable sum DoF, subject to time-varying and frequency-selective fading respectively. These results can lead to new lower bounds for the available DoF in the considered class of multi-user multi-hop networks.This work was funded in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (61771343 and 61331009), the EU Horizon 2020 Programme Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (H2020-MSCA-IF-2016-752979), and the EU PF7 QUICK project (PIRESES-GA-2013-612652)