Advanced receivers and waveforms for UAV/Aircraft aeronautical communications

Nowadays, several studies are launched for the design of reliable and safe communications systems that introduce Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), this paves the way for UAV communication systems to play an important role in a lot of applications for non-segregated military and civil airspaces. Until today, rules for integrating commercial UAVs in airspace still need to be defined, the design of secure, highly reliable and cost effective communications systems still a challenging task. This thesis is part of this communication context. Motivated by the rapid growth of UAV quantities and by the new generations of UAVs controlled by satellite, the thesis aims to study the various possible UAV links which connect UAV/aircraft to other communication system components (satellite, terrestrial networks, etc.). Three main links are considered: the Forward link, the Return link and the Mission link. Due to spectrum scarcity and higher concentration in aircraft density, spectral efficiency becomes a crucial parameter for largescale deployment of UAVs. In order to set up a spectrally efficient UAV communication system, a good understanding of transmission channel for each link is indispensable, as well as a judicious choice of the waveform. This thesis begins to study propagation channels for each link: a mutipath channels through radio Line-of-Sight (LOS) links, in a context of using Meduim Altitude Long drones Endurance (MALE) UAVs. The objective of this thesis is to maximize the solutions and the algorithms used for signal reception such as channel estimation and channel equalization. These algorithms will be used to estimate and to equalize the existing muti-path propagation channels. Furthermore, the proposed methods depend on the choosen waveform. Because of the presence of satellite link, in this thesis, we consider two low-papr linear waveforms: classical Single-Carrier (SC) waveform and Extented Weighted Single-Carrier Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (EW-SC-OFDM) waveform. channel estimation and channel equalization are performed in the time-domain (SC) or in the frequency-domain (EW-SC-OFDM). UAV architecture envisages the implantation of two antennas placed at wings. These two antennas can be used to increase diversity gain (channel matrix gain). In order to reduce channel equalization complexity, the EWSC- OFDM waveform is proposed and studied in a muti-antennas context, also for the purpose of enhancing UAV endurance and also increasing spectral efficiency, a new modulation technique is considered: Spatial Modulation (SM). In SM, transmit antennas are activated in an alternating manner. The use of EW-SC-OFDM waveform combined to SM technique allows us to propose new modified structures which exploit exces bandwidth to improve antenna bit protection and thus enhancing system performances

Non-Orthogonal Signal and System Design for Wireless Communications

The thesis presents research in non-orthogonal multi-carrier signals, in which: (i) a new signal format termed truncated orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (TOFDM) is proposed to improve data rates in wireless communication systems, such as those used in mobile/cellular systems and wireless local area networks (LANs), and (ii) a new design and experimental implementation of a real-time spectrally efficient frequency division multiplexing (SEFDM) system are reported. This research proposes a modified version of the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) format, obtained by truncating OFDM symbols in the time-domain. In TOFDM, subcarriers are no longer orthogonally packed in the frequency-domain as time samples are only partially transmitted, leading to improved spectral efficiency. In this work, (i) analytical expressions are derived for the newly proposed TOFDM signal, followed by (ii) interference analysis, (iii) systems design for uncoded and coded schemes, (iv) experimental implementation and (v) performance evaluation of the new proposed signal and system, with comparisons to conventional OFDM systems. Results indicate that signals can be recovered with truncated symbol transmission. Based on the TOFDM principle, a new receiving technique, termed partial symbol recovery (PSR), is designed and implemented in software de ned radio (SDR), that allows efficient operation of two users for overlapping data, in wireless communication systems operating with collisions. The PSR technique is based on recovery of collision-free partial OFDM symbols, followed by the reconstruction of complete symbols to recover progressively the frames of two users suffering collisions. The system is evaluated in a testbed of 12-nodes using SDR platforms. The thesis also proposes channel estimation and equalization technique for non-orthogonal signals in 5G scenarios, using an orthogonal demodulator and zero padding. Finally, the implementation of complete SEFDM systems in real-time is investigated and described in detail

Méthodes de codage et d'estimation adaptative appliquées aux communications sans fil

Les recherches et les contributions présentées portent sur des techniques de traitement du signal appliquées aux communications sans fil. Elles s’articulent autour des points suivants : (1) l’estimation adaptative de canaux de communication dans différents contextes applicatifs, (2) la correction de bruit impulsionnel et la réduction du niveau de PAPR (Peak to Average Power Ratio) dans un système multi-porteuse, (3) l’optimisation de schémas de transmission pour la diffusion sur des canaux gaussiens avec/sans contrainte de sécurité, (4) l’analyse, l’interprétation et l’amélioration des algorithmes de décodage itératif par le biais de l’optimisation, de la théorie des jeux et des outils statistiques. L’accent est plus particulièrement mis sur le dernier thème

Low PAPR and spatial diversity for OFDM schemes by using L2-orthogonal CPM ST-codes with fast decoding

International audienceOrthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a popular modulation technique that provides high data rates and good robustness against frequency selective fading. Space-Time Block Coding (STBC) is an efficient way to introduce space-time diversity in Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems. Using non-linear modulations such as Continuous Phase Modulation (CPM) with its constant envelope and continuous phase properties could be a solution to construct MIMO OFDM systems and to avoid the structural limitations of linear codes and alleviate the typical PAPR issue of OFDM. However, a major issue with CPM based systems may remain: the decoding complexity. In this paper, we introduce a new space-time-frequency diversity technique based on L2-orthogonal multi-h CPM Space-Time codes designed for OFDM transmission. We benchmark these codes under Rayleigh frequency selective channels and show how they achieve full spatial diversity at full rate for any number of antennas, good spectral compactness and also robustness to frequency fading. Furthermore, the decoding complexity is highly reduced and even made linear in the number of antennas thanks to the orthogonality properties