Calculation of the Performance of Communication Systems from Measured Oscillator Phase Noise

Oscillator phase noise (PN) is one of the major problems that affect the performance of communication systems. In this paper, a direct connection between oscillator measurements, in terms of measured single-side band PN spectrum, and the optimal communication system performance, in terms of the resulting error vector magnitude (EVM) due to PN, is mathematically derived and analyzed. First, a statistical model of the PN, considering the effect of white and colored noise sources, is derived. Then, we utilize this model to derive the modified Bayesian Cramer-Rao bound on PN estimation, and use it to find an EVM bound for the system performance. Based on our analysis, it is found that the influence from different noise regions strongly depends on the communication bandwidth, i.e., the symbol rate. For high symbol rate communication systems, cumulative PN that appears near carrier is of relatively low importance compared to the white PN far from carrier. Our results also show that 1/f^3 noise is more predictable compared to 1/f^2 noise and in a fair comparison it affects the performance less.Comment: Accepted in IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems-I: Regular Paper

On the Impact of Phase Noise in Communication Systems –- Performance Analysis and Algorithms

The mobile industry is preparing to scale up the network capacity by a factor of 1000x in order to cope with the staggering growth in mobile traffic. As a consequence, there is a tremendous pressure on the network infrastructure, where more cost-effective, flexible, high speed connectivity solutions are being sought for. In this regard, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, and millimeter-wave communication systems are new physical layer technologies, which promise to facilitate the 1000 fold increase in network capacity. However, these technologies are extremely prone to hardware impairments like phase noise caused by noisy oscillators. Furthermore, wireless backhaul networks are an effective solution to transport data by using high-order signal constellations, which are also susceptible to phase noise impairments. Analyzing the performance of wireless communication systems impaired by oscillator phase noise, and designing systems to operate efficiently in strong phase noise conditions are critical problems in communication theory. The criticality of these problems is accentuated with the growing interest in new physical layer technologies, and the deployment of wireless backhaul networks. This forms the main motivation for this thesis where we analyze the impact of phase noise on the system performance, and we also design algorithms in order to mitigate phase noise and its effects. First, we address the problem of maximum a posteriori (MAP) detection of data in the presence of strong phase noise in single-antenna systems. This is achieved by designing a low-complexity joint phase-estimator data-detector. We show that the proposed method outperforms existing detectors, especially when high order signal constellations are used. Then, in order to further improve system performance, we consider the problem of optimizing signal constellations for transmission over channels impaired by phase noise. Specifically, we design signal constellations such that the error rate performance of the system is minimized, and the information rate of the system is maximized. We observe that these optimized constellations significantly improve the system performance, when compared to conventional constellations, and those proposed in the literature. Next, we derive the MAP symbol detector for a MIMO system where each antenna at the transceiver has its own oscillator. We propose three suboptimal, low-complexity algorithms for approximately implementing the MAP symbol detector, which involve joint phase noise estimation and data detection. We observe that the proposed techniques significantly outperform the other algorithms in prior works. Finally, we study the impact of phase noise on the performance of a massive MIMO system, where we analyze both uplink and downlink performances. Based on rigorous analyses of the achievable rates, we provide interesting insights for the following question: how should oscillators be connected to the antennas at a base station, which employs a large number of antennas

OFDM under Oscillator Phase Noise : Contributions to Analysis and Estimation Methods

Most modern transmitters and receivers involve an analog front-end unit and a digital back-end unit. The digital back-end is responsible for information processing which involves thefollowing: redundancy removal from information; information representation; improvinginformation resilience; and information correction. The analog front-end is responsible forinformation transmission and reception. The information processing algorithms developedand implemented in the digital back-end assume a linear and noiseless analog front-end which,in reality, is not the case. This renders some of the information processing algorithms to be lesseffective in practice. The focus of this thesis is on orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing(OFDM) systems under the influence of oscillator phase noise. OFDM is an efficientinformation representation technique used in many communication systems. On the otherhand, phase noise is one type of undesired noise that occurs in the oscillator device used in theanalog front-end. It arises due to the imperfect task of frequency conversion, performed by theoscillator device, between baseband and radio frequency.  This thesis contributes to the areas of analysis and estimation in OFDM systems under theinfluence of oscillator phase noise. With regard to analysis, this thesis contributes by derivingthe channel capacity assuming a Gaussian input alphabet. The aim here is to show bothquantitatively and qualitatively the degradation in performance of the OFDM system in thepresence of phase noise. The analysis is conducted for phase noise processes that occur in bothfree-running and phase-locked loop based oscillators and also extended to include the effect ofcarrier frequency offset. With regard to estimation, two new phase noise estimation algorithmsare proposed in this thesis. In particular, these algorithms restrict the search space to a specific subset, where the desired phase noise parameter of interest is shown to lie. For example, in the first estimation method, possible subspaces in which the desired phase noise spectral vector may lie are used in the estimation step. In the second method, the geometry of the desired phase noise spectral vector is used in the estimation step. Specifically, this geometry corresponds to a non-convex set described by a set of quadratic forms that involve permutation matrices. By restricting the search space to this set, the accuracy of phase noise estimation can be improved

Compensation of Physical Impairments in Multi-Carrier Communications

Among various multi-carrier transmission techniques, orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) is currently a popular choice in many wireless communication systems. This is mainly due to its numerous advantages, including resistance to multi-path distortions by using the cyclic prefix (CP) and a simple one-tap channel equalization, and efficient implementations based on the fast Fourier and inverse Fourier transforms. However, OFDM also has disadvantages which limit its use in some applications. First, the high out-of-band (OOB) emission in OFDM due to the inherent rectangular shaping filters poses a challenge for opportunistic and dynamic spectrum access where multiple users are sharing a limited transmission bandwidth. Second, a strict orthogonal synchronization between sub-carriers makes OFDM less attractive in low-power communication systems. Furthermore, the use of the CP in OFDM reduces the spectral efficiency and thus it may not be suitable for short-packet and low-latency transmission applications. Generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM) and circular filter-bank multi-carrier offset quadrature amplitude modulation (CFBMC-OQAM) have recently been considered as alternatives to OFDM for the air interface of wireless communication systems because they can overcome certain disadvantages in OFDM. Specifically, these two systems offer a flexibility in choosing the shaping filters so that the high OOB emission in OFDM can be avoided. Moreover, the strict orthogonality requirement in OFDM is relaxed in GFDM and CFBMC-OQAM which are, respectively, non-orthogonal and real-field orthogonal systems. Although a CP is also used in these two systems, the CP is added for a block of many symbols instead of only one symbol as in OFDM, which, therefore, improves the spectral efficiency. Given that the performance of a wireless communication system is affected by various physical impairments such as phase noise (PN), in-phase and quadrature (IQ) imbalance and imperfect channel estimation, this thesis proposes a number of novel signal processing algorithms to compensate for physical impairments in multi-carrier communication systems, including OFDM, GFDM and CFBMC-OQAM. The first part of the thesis examines the use of OFDM in full-duplex (FD) communication under the presence of PN, IQ imbalance and nonlinearities. FD communication is a promising technique since it can potentially double the spectral efficiency of the conventional half-duplex (HD) technique. However, the main challenge in implementing an FD wireless device is to cope with the self-interference (SI) imposed by the device's own transmission. The implementation of SI cancellation (SIC) faces many technical issues due to the physical impairments. In this part of research, an iterative algorithm is proposed in which the SI cancellation and detection of the desired signal benefit from each other. Specifically, in each iteration, the SI cancellation performs a widely linear estimation of the SI channel and compensates for the physical impairments to improve the detection performance of the desired signal. The detected desired signal is in turn removed from the received signal to improve SI channel estimation and SI cancellation in the next iteration. Results obtained show that the proposed algorithm significantly outperforms existing algorithms in SI cancellation and detection of the desired signal. In the next part of the thesis, the impact of PN and its compensation for CFBMC-OQAM systems are considered. The sources of performance degradation are first quantified. Then, a two-stage PN compensation algorithm is proposed. In the first stage, the channel frequency response and PN are estimated based on the transmission of a preamble, which is designed to minimize the channel mean squared error (MSE). In the second stage the PN compensation is performed using the estimate obtained from the first stage together with the transmitted pilot symbols. Simulation results obtained under practical scenarios show that the proposed algorithm effectively estimates the channel frequency response and compensates for the PN. The proposed algorithm is also shown to outperform an existing algorithm that implements iterative PN compensation when the PN impact is high. As a further development from the second part, the third part of the thesis considers the impacts of both PN and IQ imbalance and proposes a unified two-stage compensation algorithm for a general multi-carrier system, which can include OFDM, GFDM and CFBMC-OQAM. Specifically, in the first stage, the channel impulse response and IQ imbalance parameters are first estimated based on the transmission of a preamble. Given the estimates obtained from the first stage, in the second stage the IQ imbalance and PN are compensated in that order based on the pilot symbols for the rest of data transmission blocks. The preamble is designed such that the estimation of IQ imbalance does not depend on the channel and PN estimation errors. The proposed algorithm is then further extended to a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system. For such a MIMO system, the preamble design is generalized so that the multiple IQ imbalances as well as channel impulse responses can be effectively estimated based on a single preamble block. Simulation results are presented and discussed in a variety of scenarios to show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm

Optical Communication

Optical communication is very much useful in telecommunication systems, data processing and networking. It consists of a transmitter that encodes a message into an optical signal, a channel that carries the signal to its desired destination, and a receiver that reproduces the message from the received optical signal. It presents up to date results on communication systems, along with the explanations of their relevance, from leading researchers in this field. The chapters cover general concepts of optical communication, components, systems, networks, signal processing and MIMO systems. In recent years, optical components and other enhanced signal processing functions are also considered in depth for optical communications systems. The researcher has also concentrated on optical devices, networking, signal processing, and MIMO systems and other enhanced functions for optical communication. This book is targeted at research, development and design engineers from the teams in manufacturing industry, academia and telecommunication industries

Feasibility of a Cognitive Extension to Existing 802.11b Wireless Devices

Cognitive radio presents a means of altering the communication method of a wireless device based on channel conditions and the intended receiving device. However, the design of such a radio is very complicated as it must consider the possibility of multiple forms of modulation, differing transmit frequencies and symbol rates, and the accompany changes to other training procedures such as synchronization. This work proposes that in some cases a simpler, more cost-effective approach can be taken, that builds upon the architecture of existing wireless devices forming a new radio with cognitive capabilities. This approach allows the base device to perform all baseband and MAC-related functions with minimal or no negative effects due to the extension. As changes in modulation type are much more complex, the analysis in this work is restricted to systems wanting to intelligently alter their transmit frequency or power, such as the 802.22 standard. Because of the extensive investment that has already been made in 802.11 technology, 802.11b chipsets and APs are very inexpensive. Therefore a frequency conversion extension was designed and tested as the fixed architecture to enable signal conversion of an 802.11b signal. Cognitive functionalities could be added with little modification to the proposed design in this work.The overall goal of this work is to achieve throughput and packet loss results comparable to the base design at the converted frequency of approximately 1.7 GHz. The successful conversion with a fixed design proves the concept feasible, as the only additional requirement is to interface a cognitive subsystem with a configurable architecture employing the same design as the fixed architecture. The nodes under test were isolated in an anechoic chamber to prevent interference from nearby networks. A program called IxChariot is used to experimentally conduct network performance tests to confirm that the extended device operates nearly identically to a normal 802.11b radio. Tests were performed for one-hop and two-hop scenarios collecting throughput and packet loss statistics. A number of undesirable effects such as increased switching delay time are also examined as well as their impact on the MAC and physical layer of the base device. The results of testing established the feasibility of a cognitive extension with no perceivable throughput/packet loss degradation for reasonable switching delays. Analysis of poor switching delay performance and 802.11g is also presented to illustrate the additional design constraints these challenges present