Energy-efficient diversity combining for different access schemes in a multi-path dispersive channel

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Engenharia Electrotécnica e ComputadoresThe forthcoming generation of mobile communications, 5G, will settle a new standard for a larger bandwidth and better Quality of Service (QoS). With the exploding growth rate of user generated data, wireless standards must cope with this growth and at the same time be energy efficient to avoid depleting the batteries of wireless devices. Besides these issues, in a broadband wireless setting QoS can be severely affected from a multipath dispersive channel and therefore be energy demanding. Cross-layered architectures are a good choice to enhance the overall performance of a wireless system. Examples of cross-layered Physical (PHY) - Medium Access Control (MAC) architectures are type-II Diversity Combining (DC) Hybrid-ARQ (H-ARQ) and Multi-user Detection (MUD) schemes. Cross-layered type-II DC H-ARQ schemes reuse failed packet transmissions to enhance data reception on posterior retransmissions; MUD schemes reuse data information from previously collided packets on posterior retransmissions to enhance data reception. For a multipath dispersive channel, a PHY layer analytical model is proposed for Single-Carrier with Frequency Domain Equalization (SC-FDE) that supports DC H-ARQ and MUD. Based on this analytical model, three PHY-MAC protocols are proposed. A crosslayered Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) scheme that uses DC H-ARQ is modeled and its performance is studied in this document; the performance analysis shows that the scheme performs better with DC and achieves a better energy efficiency at the cost of a higher delay. A novel cross-layered prefix-assisted Direct-Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DS-CDMA) scheme is proposed and modeled in this document, it uses principles of DC and MUD. This protocol performs better by means of additional retransmissions, achieving better energy efficiency, at the cost of higher redundancy from a code spreading gain. Finally, a novel cross-layered protocol H-ARQ Network Division Multiple Access (H-NDMA) is proposed and modeled, where the combination of DC H-ARQ and MUD is used with the intent of maximizing the system capacity with a lower delay; system results show that the proposed scheme achieves better energy efficiency and a better performance at the cost of a higher number of retransmissions. A comparison of the three cross-layered protocols is made, using the PHY analytical model, under normalized conditions using the same amount of maximum redundancy. Results show that the H-NDMA protocol, in general, obtains the best results, achieving a good performance and a good energy efficiency for a high channel load and low Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). TDMA with DC H-ARQ achieves the best energy efficiency, although presenting the worst delay. Prefix-assisted DS-CDMA in the other hand shows good delay results but presents the worst throughput and energy efficiency

Time diversity solutions to cope with lost packets

A dissertation submitted to Departamento de Engenharia Electrotécnica of Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia of Universidade Nova de Lisboa in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Engenharia Electrotécnica e de ComputadoresModern broadband wireless systems require high throughputs and can also have very high Quality-of-Service (QoS) requirements, namely small error rates and short delays. A high spectral efficiency is needed to meet these requirements. Lost packets, either due to errors or collisions, are usually discarded and need to be retransmitted, leading to performance degradation. An alternative to simple retransmission that can improve both power and spectral efficiency is to combine the signals associated to different transmission attempts. This thesis analyses two time diversity approaches to cope with lost packets that are relatively similar at physical layer but handle different packet loss causes. The first is a lowcomplexity Diversity-Combining (DC) Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) scheme employed in a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) architecture, adapted for channels dedicated to a single user. The second is a Network-assisted Diversity Multiple Access (NDMA) scheme, which is a multi-packet detection approach able to separate multiple mobile terminals transmitting simultaneously in one slot using temporal diversity. This thesis combines these techniques with Single Carrier with Frequency Division Equalizer (SC-FDE) systems, which are widely recognized as the best candidates for the uplink of future broadband wireless systems. It proposes a new NDMA scheme capable of handling more Mobile Terminals (MTs) than the user separation capacity of the receiver. This thesis also proposes a set of analytical tools that can be used to analyse and optimize the use of these two systems. These tools are then employed to compare both approaches in terms of error rate, throughput and delay performances, and taking the implementation complexity into consideration. Finally, it is shown that both approaches represent viable solutions for future broadband wireless communications complementing each other.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - PhD grant(SFRH/BD/41515/2007); CTS multi-annual funding project PEst-OE/EEI/UI0066/2011, IT pluri-annual funding project PEst-OE/EEI/LA0008/2011, U-BOAT project PTDC/EEATEL/ 67066/2006, MPSat project PTDC/EEA-TEL/099074/2008 and OPPORTUNISTICCR project PTDC/EEA-TEL/115981/200

Multiuser MIMO-OFDM for Next-Generation Wireless Systems

This overview portrays the 40-year evolution of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) research. The amelioration of powerful multicarrier OFDM arrangements with multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems has numerous benefits, which are detailed in this treatise. We continue by highlighting the limitations of conventional detection and channel estimation techniques designed for multiuser MIMO OFDM systems in the so-called rank-deficient scenarios, where the number of users supported or the number of transmit antennas employed exceeds the number of receiver antennas. This is often encountered in practice, unless we limit the number of users granted access in the base station’s or radio port’s coverage area. Following a historical perspective on the associated design problems and their state-of-the-art solutions, the second half of this treatise details a range of classic multiuser detectors (MUDs) designed for MIMO-OFDM systems and characterizes their achievable performance. A further section aims for identifying novel cutting-edge genetic algorithm (GA)-aided detector solutions, which have found numerous applications in wireless communications in recent years. In an effort to stimulate the cross pollination of ideas across the machine learning, optimization, signal processing, and wireless communications research communities, we will review the broadly applicable principles of various GA-assisted optimization techniques, which were recently proposed also for employment inmultiuser MIMO OFDM. In order to stimulate new research, we demonstrate that the family of GA-aided MUDs is capable of achieving a near-optimum performance at the cost of a significantly lower computational complexity than that imposed by their optimum maximum-likelihood (ML) MUD aided counterparts. The paper is concluded by outlining a range of future research options that may find their way into next-generation wireless systems

Coherent receiver design and analysis for interleaved division multiple access (IDMA)

This thesis discusses a new multiuser detection technique for cellular wireless communications. Multiuser communications is critical in cellular systems as multiple terminals (users) transmit to base stations (or wireless infrastructure). Efficient receiver methods are needed to maximise the performance of these links and maximise overall throughput and coverage while minimising inter-cell interference. Recently a new technique, Interleave-Division Multiple Access (IDMA), was developed as a variant of direct-sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA). In this new scheme users are separated by user specific interleavers, and each user is allocated a low rate code. As a result, the bandwidth expansion is devoted to the low rate code and not weaker spreading codes. IDMA has shown to have significant performance gains over traditional DS-CDMA with a modest increase in complexity. The literature on IDMA primarily focuses on the design of low rate forward error correcting (FEC) codes, as well as channel estimation. However, the practical aspects of an IDMA receiver such as timing acquisition, tracking, block asynchronous detection, and cellular analysis are rarely studied. The objective of this thesis is to design and analyse practical synchronisation, detection and power optimisation techniques for IDMA systems. It also, for the first time, provides a novel analysis and design of a multi-cell system employing a general multiuser receiver. These tools can be used to optimise and evaluate the performance of an IDMA communication system. The techniques presented in this work can be easily employed for DS-CDMA or other multiuser receiver designs with slight modification. Acquisition and synchronisation are essential processes that a base-station is required to perform before user's data can be detected and decoded. For high capacity IDMA systems, which can be heavily loaded and operate close to the channel capacity, the performance of acquisition and tracking can be severely affected by multiple access interference as well as severe drift. This thesis develops acquisition and synchronisation algorithms which can cope with heavy multiple access interference as well as high levels of drift. Once the timing points have been estimated for an IDMA receiver the detection and decoding process can proceed. An important issue with uplink systems is the alignment of frame boundaries for efficient detection. This thesis demonstrates how a fully asynchronous system can be modelled for detection. This thesis presents a model for the frame asynchronous IDMA system, and then develops a maximum likelihood receiver for the proposed system. This thesis develops tools to analyse and optimise IDMA receivers. The tools developed are general enough to be applied to other multiuser receiver techniques. The conventional EXIT chart analysis of unequal power allocated multiuser systems use an averaged EXIT chart analysis for all users to reduce the complexity of the task. This thesis presents a multidimensional analysis for power allocated IDMA, and shows how it can be utilised in power optimisation. Finally, this work develops a novel power zoning technique for multicell multiuser receivers using the optimised power levels, and illustrates a particular example where there is a 50% capacity improvement using the proposed scheme. -- provided by Candidate

Multiple Access for Massive Machine Type Communications

The internet we have known thus far has been an internet of people, as it has connected people with one another. However, these connections are forecasted to occupy only a minuscule of future communications. The internet of tomorrow is indeed: the internet of things. The Internet of Things (IoT) promises to improve all aspects of life by connecting everything to everything. An enormous amount of effort is being exerted to turn these visions into a reality. Sensors and actuators will communicate and operate in an automated fashion with no or minimal human intervention. In the current literature, these sensors and actuators are referred to as machines, and the communication amongst these machines is referred to as Machine to Machine (M2M) communication or Machine-Type Communication (MTC). As IoT requires a seamless mode of communication that is available anywhere and anytime, wireless communications will be one of the key enabling technologies for IoT. In existing wireless cellular networks, users with data to transmit first need to request channel access. All access requests are processed by a central unit that in return either grants or denies the access request. Once granted access, users' data transmissions are non-overlapping and interference free. However, as the number of IoT devices is forecasted to be in the order of hundreds of millions, if not billions, in the near future, the access channels of existing cellular networks are predicted to suffer from severe congestion and, thus, incur unpredictable latencies in the system. On the other hand, in random access, users with data to transmit will access the channel in an uncoordinated and probabilistic fashion, thus, requiring little or no signalling overhead. However, this reduction in overhead is at the expense of reliability and efficiency due to the interference caused by contending users. In most existing random access schemes, packets are lost when they experience interference from other packets transmitted over the same resources. Moreover, most existing random access schemes are best-effort schemes with almost no Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees. In this thesis, we investigate the performance of different random access schemes in different settings to resolve the problem of the massive access of IoT devices with diverse QoS guarantees. First, we take a step towards re-designing existing random access protocols such that they are more practical and more efficient. For many years, researchers have adopted the collision channel model in random access schemes: a collision is the event of two or more users transmitting over the same time-frequency resources. In the event of a collision, all the involved data is lost, and users need to retransmit their information. However, in practice, data can be recovered even in the presence of interference provided that the power of the signal is sufficiently larger than the power of the noise and the power of the interference. Based on this, we re-define the event of collision as the event of the interference power exceeding a pre-determined threshold. We propose a new analytical framework to compute the probability of packet recovery failure inspired by error control codes on graph. We optimize the random access parameters based on evolution strategies. Our results show a significant improvement in performance in terms of reliability and efficiency. Next, we focus on supporting the heterogeneous IoT applications and accommodating their diverse latency and reliability requirements in a unified access scheme. We propose a multi-stage approach where each group of applications transmits in different stages with different probabilities. We propose a new analytical framework to compute the probability of packet recovery failure for each group in each stage. We also optimize the random access parameters using evolution strategies. Our results show that our proposed scheme can outperform coordinated access schemes of existing cellular networks when the number of users is very large. Finally, we investigate random non-orthogonal multiple access schemes that are known to achieve a higher spectrum efficiency and are known to support higher loads. In our proposed scheme, user detection and channel estimation are carried out via pilot sequences that are transmitted simultaneously with the user's data. Here, a collision event is defined as the event of two or more users selecting the same pilot sequence. All collisions are regarded as interference to the remaining users. We first study the distribution of the interference power and derive its expression. Then, we use this expression to derive simple yet accurate analytical bounds on the throughput and outage probability of the proposed scheme. We consider both joint decoding as well as successive interference cancellation. We show that the proposed scheme is especially useful in the case of short packet transmission

Allocation designs for massive multiple access with interference cancellation

In the transition towards the next generation of wireless technology systems, the increasing number of devices curbs the potential of current wireless networks to cope with such increases in network density. Wireless communications via satellite constitute a cost effective option to achieve high transmission reliability in remote areas or to create resilient networks to be used in emergency situations. To counterbalance the growing network density, one of the main goals in the uplink is to increase the spectral efficiency of the network. By working on the application of non-orthogonal multiple access and the exploitation of the collision domain through interference cancellation, this dissertation tackles the problem of massive multiple access. A consensual scheme that meets the main goal and the aim of reducing the interaction between devices and the satellite in the control plane is Enhanced Spread Spectrum ALOHA, which combines spreading-based short-packet transmissions with successive interference cancellation (SIC) on the receiver's side. This combination opens up several design avenues in terms of energy and code allocation to users when a certain amount of channel state information is available to them. Motivated by this scheme, this thesis studies the best allocation strategies when the SIC receiver operates nonideally: firstly, it investigates a system model for a receiver that, inspired by the demodulator adopted in the Enhanced Spread Spectrum ALOHA system, deals with the problems of user ordering and iterative decoding with short packets; and secondly, it delves into the user-asymptotic regime and the application of the calculus of variations to derive the stationary point equations corresponding to the optimal allocation rules.The first part of this thesis investigates the impact of nonideal decoding and imperfect cancellation on the first iteration of a SIC receiver aided by redundancy-check error control. The system model characterises both non-idealities using known functions of the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio. The propagation of packet decoding success/failure events throughout the stages of the receiver is circumvented in the user-asymptotic regime, since the model takes a deterministic form. The asymptotically optimal energy and rate allocation is studied for a wide variety of cases. The second part of this thesis investigates an iterative SIC receiver and extends the allocation designs derived previously to iterations beyond the first. The derivation of a system model is challenging, since each iteration of the receiver operates with memory with respect to the previous ones, and due to the fact that the decoding operations for the same user in different iterations are statistically dependent. This thesis motivates and states a system model that solves said difficulties by adding minimal complexity to the one adopted previously. The user-asymptotic regime is investigated to reveal mathematical forms to the above model that allow for a thorough understanding of the adopted receiver. Finally, the chapter exploits the user-asymptotic model and conducts research to designing smooth allocation functions. The third part of this thesis studies the user-ordering problem for a SIC receiver to which the strengths received from all users are unknown. The thesis derives an accurate system model for a large-user SIC receiver, which proceeds to order users after estimating their symbol energies at the initial stage through preamble cross-correlations. Analytical findings are determined in the user-asymptotic regime. The asymptotically optimal energy allocation is shown to obey, in contrast to the practically exponential user-energy distributions obtained before, a piecewise constant function; fact that entails great computational advantages of its application.En la transició cap a la pròxima generació de sistemes tecnològics sense fils, el creixent nombre de dispositius frena el potencial de les xarxes sense fils actuals per fer front a tal augment en la densitat de xarxa. Les comunicacions sense fils via satèl·lit constitueixen una opció rentable per assolir una fiabilitat de transmissió alta en zones remotes o per crear xarxes que puguin ser utilitzades en situacions d'emergència. Per contrarestar la creixent densitat de xarxa, un dels objectius principals en l'enllaç ascendent és augmentar l'eficiència espectral d'aquesta. Aquesta tesi aborda el problema d'accés múltiple massiu combinant l'aplicació de tècniques d'accés múltiple no ortogonal amb esquemes de cancel·lació d’interferència. Un esquema consensuat que acompleix amb l’objectiu principal i amb la fita de reduir la interacció entre dispositius i satèl·lit en el pla de control és Enhanced Spread Spectrum ALOHA, que combina transmissions de paquets curts basades en l'eixamplament del senyal amb la cancel·lació successiva d'interferències (SIC) en recepció. Aquesta combinació obre diverses vies per l'assignació d'energia i codi als diferents usuaris quan aquests disposen d’informació sobre l'estat del canal. Motivat per l'esquema anterior, aquesta tesi estudia les millors estratègies d'assignació quan s'adopta un receptor SIC no ideal: en primer lloc, investiga un model de sistema per un receptor SIC que, inspirat en el desmodulador adoptat en el sistema Enhanced Spread Spectrum ALOHA, aborda els problemes d'ordenació d'usuaris i de descodificació iterativa amb paquets curts; i, en segon lloc, s’endinsa en el règim asimptòtic d'usuaris i en l'aplicació del càlcul de variacions per derivar les equacions de punt estacionari corresponents a les funcions d'assignació òptimes. La primera part d'aquesta tesi investiga l'impacte de la descodificació no ideal i de la cancel·lació imperfecta en la primera iteració d'un receptor SIC assistit per control d'errors. El model de sistema proposat caracteritza ambdues no idealitats fent ús de funcions conegudes de la relació senyal-a-soroll-més-interferència. La propagació dels esdeveniments d'èxit/fracàs en la descodificació de paquets al llarg de les etapes del receptor s'aborda en el règim asimptòtic d'usuaris, ja que el model pren forma determinista. Les funcions d'assignació s'estudien en el règim asimptòtic d'usuaris per varis casos. La segona part de la tesi investiga un receptor SIC iteratiu i estén les assignacions derivades en el capítol anterior per a iteracions del SIC més enllà de la primera. La derivació d'un model de sistema suposa un repte, ja que cada iteració del receptor opera amb memòria respecte a iteracions anteriors i degut a que les operacions de descodificació per a un mateix usuari en iteracions diferents són estadísticament dependents. Es proposa un model de sistema que resol tals dificultats afegint complexitat mínima al model adoptat anteriorment. S'investiga el règim asimptòtic d'usuaris amb l'objectiu d’evidenciar expressions matemàtiques del model que permetin la completa comprensió del receptor adoptat. Per últim, es dissenyen funcions d'assignació contínuament diferenciables fent ús del model asimptòtic anterior. La tercera i última part d'aquesta tesi estudia el problema d'ordenació d'usuaris aplicat a un receptor SIC que desconeix les potències rebudes de tots ells. Es deriva un model de sistema per un receptor que gestiona nombrosos usuaris i els ordena després d'estimar les energies de tots ells en l'etapa inicial mitjançant correlacions de preamble. Els resultats analítics s’obtenen en el règim asimptòtic d'usuaris. Es demostra que, contràriament a les distribucions pràcticament exponencials obtingudes anteriorment, l'assignació d'energia òptima derivada per a infinits usuaris presenta una estructura constant a trossos; fet que comporta grans avantatges computacionals en la seva aplicació.En la transición hacia la próxima generación de sistemas tecnológicos inalámbricos, el creciente número de dispositivos frena el potencial de las redes inalámbricas actuales para hacer frente a esos aumentos en la densidad de red. Impulsadas por las innovaciones en tecnología satelital, las comunicaciones inalámbricas vía satélite constituyen una opción rentable para lograr una alta fiabilidad de transmisión en zonas remotas o para crear redes reservadas para situaciones de emergencia. Para contrarrestar la creciente densidad de la red, uno de los objetivos principales en el enlace ascendente es aumentar la eficiencia espectral de la misma. En favor de este objetivo, se identifican tres técnicas no excluyentes: (i) la aplicación de técnicas de acceso múltiple no ortogonal, para hacer frente a la limitada disponibilidad de recursos ortogonales requeridos en el acceso múltiple convencional, (ii) la explotación del dominio de colisión por el receptor, mediante la cancelación de interferencias, y (iii) la utilización de satélites multihaz, que, usando la tecnología multiantena, permiten una reutilización más eficiente del dominio espacial. Esta tesis aborda el problema de acceso múltiple masivo trabajando en los dos primeros puntos. Un esquema consensuado que cumple con el objetivo principal y con el fin de reducir la interacción entre los dispositivos y el satélite en el plano de control es Enhanced Spread Spectrum ALOHA, que combina transmisiones de paquetes cortos basadas en el ensanchamiento de la señal con la cancelación sucesiva de interferencias (SIC) en recepción. Esta combinación abre diversas vías para la asignación de energía y código a los usuarios cuando estos disponen de cierta información sobre el estado del canal. Motivado por el esquema anterior, esta tesis reexamina resultados previos bajo análisis teóricos de capacidad y cancelación perfecta, y estudia las mejores estrategias de asignación cuando el receptor SIC opera de forma no ideal. Los análisis anteriores se amplían en dos frentes: en primer lugar, adoptando políticas de decodificación y cancelación adaptadas para paquetes cortos; y, en segundo lugar, explorando el desequilibrio de energía, tasa de transmisión y fiabilidad. Con respecto al primer punto, esta tesis investiga un modelo de sistema para un receptor SIC que, inspirado en el demodulador adoptado en el sistema Enhanced Spread Spectrum ALOHA, aborda los problemas de ordenación de usuarios y decodificación iterativa con paquetes cortos. En cuanto al segundo punto, esta tesis se adentra en el régimen asintótico de usuarios y en la aplicación del cálculo de variaciones para derivar las ecuaciones de punto estacionario correspondientes a las funciones de asignación óptimas. Una de las principales contribuciones de esta tesis es el descubrimiento de funciones discontinuas (continuamente diferenciables a trozos) como una clase de distribuciones de energía ordenada para maximizar la eficiencia espectral; un enfoque que ha demostrado ser abrumadoramente exitoso. En concreto, el modelo derivado en la presente tesis incorpora, progresivamente y a lo largo de tres capítulos independientes, aspectos prácticos del cancelador de interferencias adoptado: 1. La primera parte de esta tesis investiga el impacto de la decodificación no ideal y de la cancelación imperfecta en la primera iteración de un receptor SIC asistido por control de errores. El modelo de sistema caracteriza ambas no idealidades utilizando funciones conocidas de la relación señal-a-ruido-más-interferencia (SINR) bajo la suposición de interferencia gaussiana: las funciones tasa de error de paquete (PER) y energía residual. La propagación de los eventos de éxito/fracaso en la decodificación de paquetes a lo largo de las etapas del receptor SIC se sortea en el régimen asintótico de usuarios, puesto que el modelo de sistema adopta expresiones deterministas. La asignación de energía y código se estudia en el régimen asintótico de usuarios para una amplia variedad de casos, incluyendo conjuntos formados por un número finito o infinito de esquemas de modulación y corrección de errores para paquetes de longitud finita e infinita. 2. La segunda parte de esta tesis investiga un receptor SIC iterativo y extiende las asignaciones derivadas anteriormente para iteraciones del SIC más allá de la primera. La derivación de un modelo para tal sistema supone un reto, ya que cada iteración del receptor opera con memoria respecto a las anteriores y porque las operaciones de decodificación para un mismo usuario en distintas iteraciones son estadísticamente dependientes. Esta tesis propone justificadamente un modelo de sistema que resuelve dichas dificultades añadiendo complejidad mínima al adoptado con anterioridad. En concreto, el modelo usa funciones PER multivariable, cuyos argumentos corresponden a las SINRs que experimenta un usuario a lo largo de las iteraciones del receptor, y define biyecciones para relacionar los índices de los usuarios que permanecen decodificados sin éxito en cada iteración. Se investiga el régimen asintótico de usuarios para revelar expresiones matemáticas del modelo anterior que permitan un completo entendimiento del receptor adoptado. Por último, se investiga el diseño de funciones de asignación continuamente diferenciables con extremos libres haciendo uso del modelo asintótico anterior. 3. La tercera y última parte de esta tesis estudia el problema de ordenación de usuarios en un receptor SIC que desconoce las potencias recibidas de todos ellos. La tesis deriva un modelo de sistema para un receptor SIC que gestiona un gran número de usuarios y los ordena tras estimar sus energías en la etapa inicial mediante correlaciones de preámbulo. En el régimen asintótico de usuarios, se obtienen resultados analíticos en los que el rendimiento del sistema se rige por un kernel conocido. Se demuestra que, contrariamente a las distribuciones prácticamente exponenciales obtenidas anteriormente, la asignación óptima de energía derivada para un número infinito de usuarios obedece una función constante a trozos; hecho que conlleva grandes ventajas computacionales en su aplicación.Postprint (published version

High Capacity CDMA and Collaborative Techniques

The thesis investigates new approaches to increase the user capacity and improve the error performance of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) by employing adaptive interference cancellation and collaborative spreading and space diversity techniques. Collaborative Coding Multiple Access (CCMA) is also investigated as a separate technique and combined with CDMA. The advantages and shortcomings of CDMA and CCMA are analysed and new techniques for both the uplink and downlink are proposed and evaluated. Multiple access interference (MAI) problem in the uplink of CDMA is investigated first. The practical issues of multiuser detection (MUD) techniques are reviewed and a novel blind adaptive approach to interference cancellation (IC) is proposed. It exploits the constant modulus (CM) property of digital signals to blindly suppress interference during the despreading process and obtain amplitude estimation with minimum mean squared error for use in cancellation stages. Two new blind adaptive receiver designs employing successive and parallel interference cancellation architectures using the CM algorithm (CMA) referred to as ‘CMA-SIC’ and ‘BA-PIC’, respectively, are presented. These techniques have shown to offer near single user performance for large number of users. It is shown to increase the user capacity by approximately two fold compared with conventional IC receivers. The spectral efficiency analysis of the techniques based on output signal-to interference-and-noise ratio (SINR) also shows significant gain in data rate. Furthermore, an effective and low complexity blind adaptive subcarrier combining (BASC) technique using a simple gradient descent based algorithm is proposed for Multicarrier-CDMA. It suppresses MAI without any knowledge of channel amplitudes and allows large number of users compared with equal gain and maximum ratio combining techniques normally used in practice. New user collaborative schemes are proposed and analysed theoretically and by simulations in different channel conditions to achieve spatial diversity for uplink of CCMA and CDMA. First, a simple transmitter diversity and its equivalent user collaborative diversity techniques for CCMA are designed and analysed. Next, a new user collaborative scheme with successive interference cancellation for uplink of CDMA referred to as collaborative SIC (C-SIC) is investigated to reduce MAI and achieve improved diversity. To further improve the performance of C-SIC under high system loading conditions, Collaborative Blind Adaptive SIC (C-BASIC) scheme is proposed. It is shown to minimize the residual MAI, leading to improved user capacity and a more robust system. It is known that collaborative diversity schemes incur loss in throughput due to the need of orthogonal time/frequency slots for relaying source’s data. To address this problem, finally a novel near-unity-rate scheme also referred to as bandwidth efficient collaborative diversity (BECD) is proposed and evaluated for CDMA. Under this scheme, pairs of users share a single spreading sequence to exchange and forward their data employing a simple superposition or space-time encoding methods. At the receiver collaborative joint detection is performed to separate each paired users’ data. It is shown that the scheme can achieve full diversity gain at no extra bandwidth as inter-user channel SNR becomes high. A novel approach of ‘User Collaboration’ is introduced to increase the user capacity of CDMA for both the downlink and uplink. First, collaborative group spreading technique for the downlink of overloaded CDMA system is introduced. It allows the sharing of the same single spreading sequence for more than one user belonging to the same group. This technique is referred to as Collaborative Spreading CDMA downlink (CS-CDMA-DL). In this technique T-user collaborative coding is used for each group to form a composite codeword signal of the users and then a single orthogonal sequence is used for the group. At each user’s receiver, decoding of composite codeword is carried out to extract the user’s own information while maintaining a high SINR performance. To improve the bit error performance of CS-CDMA-DL in Rayleigh fading conditions, Collaborative Space-time Spreading (C-STS) technique is proposed by combining the collaborative coding multiple access and space-time coding principles. A new scheme for uplink of CDMA using the ‘User Collaboration’ approach, referred to as CS-CDMA-UL is presented next. When users’ channels are independent (uncorrelated), significantly higher user capacity can be achieved by grouping multiple users to share the same spreading sequence and performing MUD on per group basis followed by a low complexity ML decoding at the receiver. This approach has shown to support much higher number of users than the available sequences while also maintaining the low receiver complexity. For improved performance under highly correlated channel conditions, T-user collaborative coding is also investigated within the CS-CDMA-UL system

Performance of turbo multi-user detectors in space-time coded DS-CDMA systems

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-123).In this thesis we address the problem of improving the uplink capacity and the performance of a DS-CDMA system by combining MUD and turbo decoding. These two are combined following the turbo principle. Depending on the concatenation scheme used, we divide these receivers into the Partitioned Approach (PA) and the Iterative Approach (IA) receivers. To enable the iterative exchange of information, these receivers employ a Parallel Interference Cancellation (PIC) detector as the first receiver stage

High Performance Signal Processing-Based Collision Resolution for Random Access Schemes

Els darrers anys han experimentat un augment de la demanda de serveis interactius per satèl·lit per al gran consum, cobrint serveis fixes i mòbils, tal i com accés de banda ampla, comunicacions màquina-màquina (M2M), supervisió, control i adquisició de dades (SCADA), transaccions i aplicacions de seguretat crítiques. Aquestes xarxes de comunicacions es caracteritzen per tenir una gran població d’usuaris compartint l’amplada de banda amb unes condicions de tràfic molt dinàmiques. Concretament, en el canal de retorn (de l’usuari a la xarxa) de xarxes d’accés de banda ampla, els usuaris residencials generen grans ràfegues de tràfic amb períodes d’inactivitat freqüents. Una situació similar succeeix en xarxes de comunicacions mòbils per satèl·lit, on una gran població de terminals generen transmissions infreqüents de senyalització, serveis basats en la localització or altres aplicacions de missatgeria. Aquests serveis requereixen el desenvolupament de protocols d’accés múltiple eficients que puguin operar en les condicions descrites anteriorment. Els protocols d´accés aleatori són bons candidats per servir tràfic poc predictiu, amb transmissions infreqüents així com sensibles amb el retard. A més, els protocols d´accés aleatori suporten un gran nombre de terminals compartint el canal de comunicacions i requereixen poca complexitat en el terminals. El protocols d´accés aleatori han estat àmpliament estudiats i desplegats en xarxes terrestres, però les seves prestacions són pobres en el entorn satèl·lital, que està caracteritzat per retards de propagació molt grans. Avui en dia, el seu ús en les xarxes de comunicacions per satèl·lit està principalment limitat a la senyalització d’inici de sessió, transmissió de paquets de control i en alguns casos a la transmissió de petits volums de dades amb unes eficiència d’utilització del canal molt baixa. Aquesta tesi proposa tres noves tècniques d’accés aleatori, bens adaptades per proveir els serveis esmentats anteriorment en un entorn satèl·lital, amb altes prestacions i una complexitat en el terminal d’usuari reduïda. Les noves tècniques d’accés aleatori són Contention Resolution Diversity Slotted Aloha (CRDSA), Asynchronous Contention Resolution Diversity Aloha (ACRDA) i Enhanced Spread Spectrum Aloha (E-SSA), adaptades per un tipus d’accés ranurat, asíncron i d’espectre eixamplat respectivament. Les tres tècniques utilitzen una codificació de canal (FEC) robusta, capaç d’operar en front de interferències elevades, que són típiques en l’accés aleatori, i d’un mecanisme de cancel·lació successiva d’interferència que s’implementa en el receptor sobre els paquets descodificats satisfactòriament. Els nous protocols obtenen un throughput normalitzat superior a 1 bit/s/Hz amb una tassa de pèrdua de paquets inferior a 10-3, el qual representa un factor de millora de 1000 respecte a protocols d’accés aleatori tradicionals com l’ALOHA ranurat. Les prestacions de les noves tècniques d’accés aleatori has estat analitzades per mitjà de simulacions, així com amb nou models analítics desenvolupats en aquesta tesi capaços de caracteritzar el tràfic, la distribució estadística de la potència dels paquets, les prestacions de la codificació de canal (FEC) i el procés de cancel·lació d’interferència successiva.Los últimos años han experimentado un crecimiento de la demanda de servicios interactivos por satélite para el gran consumo, cubriendo servicios fijos i móviles, como el acceso de banda ancha, comunicaciones máquina a máquina (M2M), supervisión, control y adquisición de datos (SCADA), transacciones i aplicaciones criticas de seguridad. Estas redes de comunicaciones se caracterizan por tener una gran población de usuarios compartiendo el ancho de banda en unas condiciones de tráfico muy dinámicas. Concretamente, en el canal de retorno (del usuario a la red) de redes de acceso de banda ancha, los usuarios residenciales generan grandes ráfagas de tráfico con periodos frecuentes de inactividad. Una situación similar ocurre en las redes de comunicaciones móviles por satélite, donde una gran población de terminales generan transmisiones infrecuentes de señalización, servicios basados en la localización u otras aplicaciones me mensajería. Estos servicios requieren el desarrollo de protocolos de acceso múltiple eficientes capaces de operar en las condiciones descritas anteriormente. Los protocolos de acceso aleatorio son buenos candidatos para servir el tráfico poco predictivo, con transmisiones infrecuentes así como sensibles al retardo. Además, los protocolos de acceso soportan un gran número de terminales compartiendo el canal de comunicaciones y requieren poca complejidad en los terminales. Los protocolos de acceso aleatorio han estado ampliamente estudiados i desplegados en las redes terrestres, pero sus prestaciones son pobres en el entorno satelital, que se caracteriza por retardos de comunicaciones muy elevados. Hoy en día, su uso en la redes de comunicaciones por satélite está principalmente limitado a la señalización de inicio de sesión, transmisión de pequeños volumenes de datos con eficiencia de utilización del canal muy baja. Esta tesis propone tres nuevas técnicas de acceso aleatorio bien adaptadas para proveer los servicios mencionados anteriormente en un entorno de comunicaciones por satélite, con altas prestaciones y una complejidad en el terminal de usuario reducida. Las nuevas técnicas de acceso aleatorio son Contention Resolution Diversity Slotted Aloha (CRDSA), Asynchronous Contention Resolution Diversity Aloha (ACRDA) y Enhanced Spread Spectrum Aloha (E-SSA), adaptadas para un tipo de acceso ranurado, asíncrono y de espectro ensanchado respectivamente. Las tres técnicas utilizan una codificación de canal (FEC) robusta, capaz de operar en condiciones de interferencia elevadas, que son típicas en el acceso aleatorio, y de un mecanismo de cancelación sucesiva de interferencias que se implementa en el receptor sobre los paquetes que han sido decodificados satisfactoriamente. Los nuevos protocolos obtienen un throughput normalizado superior a 1 bit/s/Hz con una tasa de pérdida de paquetes inferior a 10-3, lo cual representa un factor de mejora de 1000 respecto a los protocolos de acceso aleatorio tradicionales como el ALOHA ranurado. Las prestaciones de las nuevas técnicas de acceso aleatorio han sido analizadas con simulaciones así como con nuevos modelos analíticos desarrollados en esta tesis, capaces de caracterizar el tráfico, la distribución estadística de la potencia de los paquetes, las prestaciones de la codificación de canal (FEC) y el proceso de cancelación sucesiva de interferencias.Over the past years there has been a fast growing demand for low-cost interactive satellite terminals supporting both fixed and mobile services, such as consumer broadband access, machine-to-machine communications (M2M), supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), transaction and safety of life applications. These networks, are generally characterized by a large population of terminals sharing the available resources under very dynamic traffic conditions. In particular, in the return link (user to network) of commercial satellite broadband access networks, residential users are likely to generate a large amount of low duty cycle bursty traffic with extended inactivity periods. A similar situation occurs in satellite mobile networks whereby a large number of terminals typically generate infrequent packets for signaling transmission as well for position reporting or other messaging applications. These services call for the development of efficient multiple access protocols able to cope with the above operating conditions. Random Access (RA) techniques are by nature, good candidates for the less predictive, low duty cycle as well as time sensitive return link traffic. Besides, RA techniques are capable of supporting large population of terminals sharing the same capacity and require low terminal complexity. RA schemes have been widely studied and deployed in terrestrial networks, but do not perform well in the satellite environment, which is characterized by very long propagation delays. Today, their use in satellite networks is mainly limited to initial network login, the transmission of control packets, and in some cases, for the transmission of very small volumes of data with very low channel utilization. This thesis proposes three novel RA schemes well suited for the provision of the above-mentioned services over a satellite environment with high performance and low terminal complexity. The new RA schemes are Contention Resolution Diversity Slotted Aloha (CRDSA), Asynchronous Contention Resolution Diversity Aloha (ACRDA) and Enhanced Spread Spectrum Aloha (E-SSA), suited for slotted, unslotted and spread spectrum-based systems respectively. They all use strong Forward Error Correction (FEC) codes, able to cope with heavy co-channel interference typically present in RA, and successive interference cancellation implemented over the successfully decoded packets. The new schemes achieve a normalized throughput above 1 bit/s/Hz for a packet loss ratio below 10-3, which represents a 1000-fold increase compared to Slotted ALOHA. The performance of the proposed RA schemes has been analyzed by means of detailed simulations as well as novel analytical frameworks that characterize traffic and packets power statistical distributions, the performance of the FEC coding as well as the iterative interference cancellation processing at the receiver

Optimisation of Iterative Multi-user Receivers using Analytical Tools

The objective of this thesis is to develop tools for the analysis and optimization of an iterative receiver. These tools can be applied to most soft-in soft-out (SISO) receiver components. For illustration purposes we consider a multi-user DS-CDMA system with forward error correction that employs iterative multi-user detection based on soft interference cancellation and single user decoding. Optimized power levels combined with adaptive scheduling allows for efficient utilization of receiver resources for heavily loaded systems.¶ Metric transfer analysis has been shown to be an accurate method of predicting the convergence behavior of iterative receivers. EXtrinsic Information (EXIT), fidelity (FT) and variance (VT) transfer analysis are well-known methods, however the relationship between the different approaches has not been explored in detail. We compare the metrics numerically and analytically and derive functions to closely approximate the relationship between them. The result allows for easy translation between EXIT, FT and VT methods. Furthermore, we extend the $J$ function, which describes mutual information as a function of variance, to fidelity and symbol error variance, the Rayleigh fading channel model and a channel estimate. ...