Codificação distribuída em sistemas com diversidade cooperativa

Doutoramento em Engenharia ElectrotécnicaO presente trabalho propõe-se a divulgar as mais significativas técnicas de esquemas cooperativos, de forma a ultrapassar alguns dos problemas dos sistemas móveis sem fios da próxima geração, estendendo a área de cobertura destes sistemas, assim como a sua capacidade e fiabilidade. O estudo de diversos esquemas cooperativos é efetuado em termos de capacidade e de taxa de erros, fazendo variar o número de relays e de antenas em cada elemento do sistema. Diversos algoritmos com aplicação em sistemas cooperativos são desenvolvidos e propostos ao longo desta tese, como códigos espaço-frequência aplicados de forma distribuída nos relays, para sistemas baseados na tecnologia OFDM e sob diversos cenários próximos da realidade. Os sistemas cooperativos são particularmente úteis em situações em que o caminho direto entre dois terminais não está acessível ou tem uma fraca qualidade de transmissão. Tendo este aspeto em consideração, e pretendendo ter a máxima eficiência espetral e máxima diversidade, um algoritmo com precodificação é também proposto para múltiplos relays, cada um equipado com uma ou duas antenas. A formulação matemática associada aos algoritmos propostos é apresentada, assim como a derivação da probabilidade de erro teórica. O desempenho dos sistemas assistidos por relays usando os algoritmos propostos é comparado em relação a outros esquemas cooperativos equivalentes e a esquemas não-cooperativos, considerando cenários com diferentes qualidades de canal, daí advindo importantes conclusões em relação a estes sistemas.Cooperative schemes are promising solutions for cellular wireless networks aiming to improve system fairness, extend coverage and increase capacity. Measurements of these system performances are made in terms of BER and capacity for different configurations, by varying the number of relays and of antennas equipping each node. In this work we propose and evaluate distributed space-frequency codes applied to cooperative systems in a distributed way, with application in OFDM systems and considering realistic scenarios. Moreover, the use of relays is of significant interest to allow radio access in situations where a direct path is not available or has poor quality. Thus, a data precoded relay-assisted scheme is also proposed for a system cooperating with multiple relays, each equipped with either a single antenna or two-antenna array. Mathematical formulation of the proposed algorithms is derived as well as the pairwise error probability. We further present the performances of the proposed algorithms apllied in relay-assisted schemes, and compare them with equivalent cooperative and non-cooperative schemes, for several channel quality scenarios, through which important conclusions are achieved.FCT/FS

Energy Efficiency in MIMO Underlay and Overlay Device-to-Device Communications and Cognitive Radio Systems

This paper addresses the problem of resource allocation for systems in which a primary and a secondary link share the available spectrum by an underlay or overlay approach. After observing that such a scenario models both cognitive radio and D2D communications, we formulate the problem as the maximization of the secondary energy efficiency subject to a minimum rate requirement for the primary user. This leads to challenging non-convex, fractional problems. In the underlay scenario, we obtain the global solution by means of a suitable reformulation. In the overlay scenario, two algorithms are proposed. The first one yields a resource allocation fulfilling the first-order optimality conditions of the resource allocation problem, by solving a sequence of easier fractional problems. The second one enjoys a weaker optimality claim, but an even lower computational complexity. Numerical results demonstrate the merits of the proposed algorithms both in terms of energy-efficient performance and complexity, also showing that the two proposed algorithms for the overlay scenario perform very similarly, despite the different complexity.Comment: to appear in IEEE Transactions on Signal Processin

Wireless transmission protocols using relays for broadcast and information exchange channels

Relays have been used to overcome existing network performance bottlenecks in meeting the growing demand for large bandwidth and high quality of service (QoS) in wireless networks. This thesis proposes several wireless transmission protocols using relays in practical multi-user broadcast and information exchange channels. The main theme is to demonstrate that efficient use of relays provides an additional dimension to improve reliability, throughput, power efficiency and secrecy. First, a spectrally efficient cooperative transmission protocol is proposed for the multiple-input and singleoutput (MISO) broadcast channel to improve the reliability of wireless transmission. The proposed protocol mitigates co-channel interference and provides another dimension to improve the diversity gain. Analytical and simulation results show that outage probability and the diversity and multiplexing tradeoff of the proposed cooperative protocol outperforms the non-cooperative scheme. Second, a two-way relaying protocol is proposed for the multi-pair, two-way relaying channel to improve the throughput and reliability. The proposed protocol enables both the users and the relay to participate in interference cancellation. Several beamforming schemes are proposed for the multi-antenna relay. Analytical and simulation results reveal that the proposed protocol delivers significant improvements in ergodic capacity, outage probability and the diversity and multiplexing tradeoff if compared to existing schemes. Third, a joint beamforming and power management scheme is proposed for multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) two-way relaying channel to improve the sum-rate. Network power allocation and power control optimisation problems are formulated and solved using convex optimisation techniques. Simulation results verify that the proposed scheme delivers better sum-rate or consumes lower power when compared to existing schemes. Fourth, two-way secrecy schemes which combine one-time pad and wiretap coding are proposed for the scalar broadcast channel to improve secrecy rate. The proposed schemes utilise the channel reciprocity and employ relays to forward secret messages. Analytical and simulation results reveal that the proposed schemes are able to achieve positive secrecy rates even when the number of users is large. All of these new wireless transmission protocols help to realise better throughput, reliability, power efficiency and secrecy for wireless broadcast and information exchange channels through the efficient use of relays

Differential Coding for MIMO and Cooperative Communications

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication systems have been studied a lot in the last ten years. They have many promising features like array gain, diversity gain, spatial multiplexing gain, interference reduction, and improved capacity as compared to a single-input single-output (SISO) systems. However, the increasing demand of high data-rate in current wireless communications systems motivated us to investigate new rate-efficient channel coding techniques. In this dissertation, we study differential modulation for MIMO systems. Differential modulation is useful since it avoids the need of channel estimation by the receiver and saves valuable bandwidth with a slight symbol error-rate (SER) performance loss. The effect of channel correlation over differential MIMO system has not been studied in detail so far. It has been shown in the literature that a linear memoryless precoder can be used to improve the performance of coherent MIMO system over correlated channels. In this work, we implement precoded differential modulation for non-orthogonal and orthogonal space-time blocks codes (STBCs) over arbitrarily correlated channels. We design precoders based on pair-wise error probability (PEP) and approximate SER for differential MIMO system. The carrier offsets, which result because of the movement of the receiver or transmitter and/or scatterers, and mismatch between the transmit and receive oscillators, are a big challenge for the differential MIMO system. The carrier offsets make the flat fading channel behave as a time-varying channel. Hence, the channel does not remain constant over two consecutive STBC block transmission time-intervals, which is a basic assumption for differential systems and the differential systems break down. Double-differential coding is a key technique which could be used to avoid the need of both carrier offset and channel estimation. In this work, we propose a double-differential coding for full-rank and square orthogonal space-time block codes (OSTBC) with M-PSK constellation. A suboptimal decoder for the double-differentially encoded OSTBC is obtained. We also derive a simple PEP upper bound for the double-differential OSTBC. A precoder is also designed based on the PEP upper bound for the double-differential OSTBC to make it more robust against arbitrary MIMO channel correlations. Cooperative communication has several promising features to become a main technology in future wireless communications systems. It has been shown in the literature that the cooperative communication can avoid the difficulties of implementing actual antenna array and convert the SISO system into a virtual MIMO system. In this way, cooperation between the users allows them to exploit the diversity gain and other advantages of MIMO system at a SISO wireless network. A cooperative communication system is difficult to implement in practice because it generally requires that all cooperating nodes must have the perfect knowledge of the channel gains of all the links in the network. This is infeasible in a large wireless network like cellular system. If the users are moving and there is mismatch between the transmit and receive oscillators, the resulting carrier offset may further degrade the performance of a cooperative system. In practice, it is very difficult to estimate the carrier offset perfectly over SISO links. A very small residual offset error in the data may degrade the system performance substantially. Hence, to exploit the diversity in a cooperative system in the presence of carrier offsets is a big challenge. In this dissertation, we propose double-differential modulation for cooperative communication systems to avoid the need of the knowledge of carrier offset and channel gain at the cooperating nodes (relays) and the destination. We derive few useful SER/bit error rate (BER) expressions for double-differential cooperative communication systems using decode-and-forward and amplify-and-forward protocols. Based on these SER/BER expressions, power allocations are also proposed to further improve the performance of these systems. List of papers included in the dissertation This dissertation is based on the following five papers, referred to in the text by letters (A-E)

Efficient multiuser cooperative relay communications employing layered modulations

Relay-assisted cooperative communications are promising solutions for error-performance improvement and cell coverage extension. In this thesis, we propose several efficient cooperative relay communication schemes. First, an efficient space-time coded cooperative relay communications scheme that employs linear precoding and transmission-pattern selection is proposed. This is built upon an existing block linear precoding technique for conventional multiple-input multiple-output systems in order to improve the diversity performance of a multihop relay network. Second, we consider several multiuser cooperative relay communication schemes employing layered modulations, such as hierarchical modulation and superposition coding. Conventional cooperative relay communication is effective in mitigating fading effects. However, additional resources, such as time slots or frequency bands are required for the relay, which reduce the overall throughput. Reduction of throughput will become more severe as the number of users increases. In order to overcome this limitation, multiuser cooperative relaying schemes that employ hierarchical modulation and superposition coding are proposed. These schemes exploit the superimposed message for users in the network and allow the system to transmit two or more independent data streams simultaneously. The proposed schemes do not require additional resources than the conventional schemes, while improving the error performance by flexibly controlling the power division coefficient of superposition coding or the distance parameter of hierarchical modulation

Distributed energy spectral efficiency optimization for partial/full interference alignment in multi-user multi-relay multi-cell MIMO systems

The energy spectral efficiency maximization (ESEM) problem of a multi-user, multi-relay, multi-cell system is considered, where all the network nodes are equipped with multiple antenna aided transceivers. In order to deal with the potentially excessive interference originating from a plethora of geographically distributed transmission sources, a pair of transmission protocols based on interference alignment (IA) are conceived, which may be distributively implemented in the network. The first, termed the full-IA protocol, avoids all intra-cell interference (ICI) and other-cell interference (OCI) by finding the perfect interferencenulling receive beamforming matrices (RxBFMs). The second protocol, termed as partial-IA, only attempts to null the ICI. Employing the RxBFMs computed by either of these protocols mathematically decomposes the channel into a multiplicity of non-interfering multiple-input–single-output (MISO) channels, which we term as spatial multiplexing components (SMCs). The problem of finding the optimal SMCs as well as their power control variables for the ESEM problem considered is formally defined and converted into a convex optimization form with the aid of carefully selected variable relaxations and transformations. Thus, the optimal SMCs and power control variables can be distributively computed using both the classic dual decomposition and subgradient methods. The performance of both protocols is characterized, and the ESEM algorithm conceived is compared to a baseline equal power allocation (EPA) algorithm. The results indicate that indeed, the ESEM algorithm performs better than the EPA algorithm in most cases. Furthermore, surprisingly the partial-IA protocol outperforms the full-IA protocol in all cases considered, which may be explained by the fact that the partial-IA protocol is less restrictive in terms of the number of available transmit dimensions at the transmitters. Given the typical cell sizes considered in this paper, the path-loss sufficiently attenuates the majority of the interference, and thus the full-IA protocol over-compensates, when trying to avoid all possible sources of interference. We have observed that, given a sufficiently high maximum power, the partial-IA protocol achieves an energy spectral efficiency (ESE) that is 2.42 times higher than that attained by the full-IA protocol

Near-capacity MIMOs using iterative detection

In this thesis, Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) techniques designed for transmission over narrowband Rayleigh fading channels are investigated. Specifically, in order to providea diversity gain while eliminating the complexity of MIMO channel estimation, a Differential Space-Time Spreading (DSTS) scheme is designed that employs non-coherent detection. Additionally, in order to maximise the coding advantage of DSTS, it is combined with Sphere Packing (SP) modulation. The related capacity analysis shows that the DSTS-SP scheme exhibits a higher capacity than its counterpart dispensing with SP. Furthermore, in order to attain additional performance gains, the DSTS system invokes iterative detection, where the outer code is constituted by a Recursive Systematic Convolutional (RSC) code, while the inner code is a SP demapper in one of the prototype systems investigated, while the other scheme employs a Unity Rate Code (URC) as its inner code in order to eliminate the error floor exhibited by the system dispensing with URC. EXIT charts are used to analyse the convergence behaviour of the iteratively detected schemes and a novel technique is proposed for computing the maximum achievable rate of the system based on EXIT charts. Explicitly, the four-antenna-aided DSTSSP system employing no URC precoding attains a coding gain of 12 dB at a BER of 10-5 and performs within 1.82 dB from the maximum achievable rate limit. By contrast, the URC aidedprecoded system operates within 0.92 dB from the same limit.On the other hand, in order to maximise the DSTS system’s throughput, an adaptive DSTSSP scheme is proposed that exploits the advantages of differential encoding, iterative decoding as well as SP modulation. The achievable integrity and bit rate enhancements of the system are determined by the following factors: the specific MIMO configuration used for transmitting data from the four antennas, the spreading factor used and the RSC encoder’s code rate.Additionally, multi-functional MIMO techniques are designed to provide diversity gains, multiplexing gains and beamforming gains by combining the benefits of space-time codes, VBLASTand beamforming. First, a system employing Nt=4 transmit Antenna Arrays (AA) with LAA number of elements per AA and Nr=4 receive antennas is proposed, which is referred to as a Layered Steered Space-Time Code (LSSTC). Three iteratively detected near-capacity LSSTC-SP receiver structures are proposed, which differ in the number of inner iterations employed between the inner decoder and the SP demapper as well as in the choice of the outer code, which is either an RSC code or an Irregular Convolutional Code (IrCC). The three systems are capable of operating within 0.9, 0.4 and 0.6 dB from the maximum achievable rate limit of the system. A comparison between the three iteratively-detected schemes reveals that a carefully designed two-stage iterative detection scheme is capable of operating sufficiently close to capacity at a lower complexity, when compared to a three-stage system employing a RSC or a two-stage system using an IrCC as an outer code. On the other hand, in order to allow the LSSTC scheme to employ less receive antennas than transmit antennas, while still accommodating multiple users, a Layered Steered Space-Time Spreading (LSSTS) scheme is proposed that combines the benefits of space-time spreading, V-BLAST, beamforming and generalised MC DS-CDMA. Furthermore, iteratively detected LSSTS schemes are presented and an LLR post-processing technique is proposed in order to improve the attainable performance of the iteratively detected LSSTS system.Finally, a distributed turbo coding scheme is proposed that combines the benefits of turbo coding and cooperative communication, where iterative detection is employed by exchanging extrinsic information between the decoders of different single-antenna-aided users. Specifically, the effect of the errors induced in the first phase of cooperation, where the two users exchange their data, on the performance of the uplink in studied, while considering different fading channel characteristics

OFDM Communication with Cooperative Relays

Signal fading due to multi-path propagation is one of the major impairments to meet the demands of next generation wireless networks for high data rate services. To mitigate the fading effects, time, frequency, and spatial diversity techniques or their hybrid can be used. Among different types of diversity techniques, spatial diversity is of special interest as is does not incur system losses in terms of delay and bandwidth efficiency.TelecommunicationsElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc