Channel estimation and parameters acquisition systems employing cooperative diversity

Doutoramento em Engenharia Eletrotécnica e TelecomunicaçõesThis work investigates new channel estimation schemes for the forthcoming and future generation of cellular systems for which cooperative techniques are regarded. The studied cooperative systems are designed to re-transmit the received information to the user terminal via the relay nodes, in order to make use of benefits such as high throughput, fairness in access and extra coverage. The cooperative scenarios rely on OFDM-based systems employing classical and pilot-based channel estimators, which were originally designed to pointto-point links. The analytical studies consider two relaying protocols, namely, the Amplifyand-Forward and the Equalise-and-Forward, both for the downlink case. The relaying channels statistics show that such channels entail specific characteristics that comply to a proper filter and equalisation designs. Therefore, adjustments in the estimation process are needed in order to obtain the relay channel estimates, refine these initial estimates via iterative processing and obtain others system parameters that are required in the equalisation. The system performance is evaluated considering standardised specifications and the International Telecommunication Union multipath channel models.Este trabalho tem por objetivo o estudo de novos esquemas de estimação de canal para sistemas de comunicação móvel das próximas gerações, para os quais técnicas cooperativa são consideradas. Os sistemas cooperativos investigados neste trabalho estão projetados para fazerem uso de terminais adicionais a fim de retransmitir a informação recebida para o utilizador final. Desta forma, pode-se usurfruir de benefícios relacionados às comunicações cooperativas tais como o aumento do rendimento do sistema, fiabilidade e extra cobertura. Os cenários são basedos em sistemas OFDM que empregam estimadores de canal que fazem uso de sinais piloto e que originalmente foram projetados para ligações ponto a ponto. Os estudos analíticos consideram dois protocolos de encaminhamento, nomeadamente, Amplify-and-Forward e Equalise-and-Forward, ambos para o caso downlink. As estatísticas dos canais em estudo mostram que tais canais ocasionam características específicas para as quais o filtro do estimador e a equalisação devem ser apropridamente projetados. Estas características requerem ajustes que são necessários no processo de estimação a fim de estimar os canais, refinar as estimativas iniciais através de processos iterativos e ainda obter outros parâmetros do sistema que são necessários na equalização. O desempenho dos esquemas propostos são avaliados tendo em consideração especificações padronizadas e modelos de canal descritos na International Telecommunication Union

Adaptive relay techniques for OFDM-based cooperative communication systems

Cooperative communication has been considered as a cost-effective manner to exploit the spatial diversity, improve the quality-of-service and extend transmission coverage. However, there are many challenges faced by cooperative systems which use relays to forward signals to the destination, such as the accumulation of multipath channels, complex resource allocation with the bidirectional asymmetric traffic and reduction of transmission efficiency caused by additional relay overhead. In this thesis, we aim to address the above challenges of cooperative communications, and design the efficient relay systems. Starting with the channel accumulation problem in the amplify-and-forward relay system, we proposed two adaptive schemes for single/multiple-relay networks respectively. These schemes exploit an adaptive guard interval (GI) technique to cover the accumulated delay spread and enhance the transmission efficiency by limiting the overhead. The proposed GI scheme can be implemented without any extra control signal. Extending the adaptive GI scheme to multiple-relay systems, we propose a relay selection strategy which achieves the trade-off between the transmission reliability and overhead by considering both the channel gain and the accumulated delay spread. We then consider resource allocation problem in the two-way decode-and-forward relay system with asymmetric traffic loads. Two allocation algorithms are respectively investigated for time-division and frequency-division relay systems to maximize the end-to-end capacity of the two-way system under a capacity ratio constraint. For the frequency-division systems, a balanced end-to-end capacity is defined as the objective function which combines the requirements of maximizing the end-to-end capacity and achieving the capacity ratio. A suboptimal algorithm is proposed for the frequency-division systems which separates subcarrier allocation and time/power allocation. It can achieve the similar performance with the optimal one with reduced complexity. In order to further enhance the transmission reliability and maintaining low processing delay, we propose an equalize-and-forward (EF) relay scheme. The EF relay equalizes the channel between source and relay to eliminate the channel accumulation without signal regeneration. To reduce the processing time, an efficient parallel structure is applied in the EF relay. Numerical results show that the EF relay exhibits low outage probability at the same data rate as compared to AF and DF schemes

Radio Communications

In the last decades the restless evolution of information and communication technologies (ICT) brought to a deep transformation of our habits. The growth of the Internet and the advances in hardware and software implementations modified our way to communicate and to share information. In this book, an overview of the major issues faced today by researchers in the field of radio communications is given through 35 high quality chapters written by specialists working in universities and research centers all over the world. Various aspects will be deeply discussed: channel modeling, beamforming, multiple antennas, cooperative networks, opportunistic scheduling, advanced admission control, handover management, systems performance assessment, routing issues in mobility conditions, localization, web security. Advanced techniques for the radio resource management will be discussed both in single and multiple radio technologies; either in infrastructure, mesh or ad hoc networks

Optimal Power Allocation for Energy Efficient MIMO Relay Systems in 5G Wireless Communication

Wireless communication has undergone a significant growth to meet the unexpected demand of wireless data traffic over the past two decades. As manifested by the revolution of the third and fourth generations and long-term evolution advanced (LTE-A), engineers and researchers have been devoted to the development of the next-generation (5G) wireless solutions to meet the anticipated demand of 2020. To this end, cooperative relay communication has been introduced as an enabling technology to increase the throughput and extend the coverage of the broadband wireless networks. Decode-and-forward (DF) has been known as an effective cooperative relaying strategy for its outstanding features. On the other hand, merging massive multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) with cooperative DF relay is considered as a key technology for 5G wireless networks to improve the quality-of-service (QoS) in a cost-effective manner. The objective of this thesis is to establish and solve a power allocation optimization problem for energy efficient multi-pair DF relay systems integrated with massive MIMO. The first part of the thesis is focused on a constrained optimization problem to minimize the total transmit power for each transmission phase of the DF relay. Due to the non-convexity characteristic, the objective function is approximated as a convex function by means of complementary geometric programming (CGP) which is then solved by a sequence of geometric programming (GP). A lower bound of average SINR is also introduced by adopting the MMSE channel state information (CSI) to relax the constraint functions in the standard GP form. Finally, we proposed a homotopy or continuation method based algorithm to solve the optimization problem via popular CVX optimization toolbox. MATLAB simulations are conducted to validate the proposed algorithm. In the second part, another optimization problem is presented for the entire two-hop transmission of the DF relay to improve the global energy efficiency (GEE) under different channel conditions. Here, we estimate the channel by maximum likelihood (ML) criterion and investigate a closed-form expression of GEE. Further, GEE is approximated in a convex form by applying CGP due to the difficulty arising from the non-convexity and a lower bound of the average SINR expression is also derived to relax the constraint functions in the GP problem. Numerical results showing a detailed comparison of GEE under ML and MMSE channel estimation conditions and the performance improvement from the proposed algorithm are provided

Enabling Technologies for Internet of Things: Licensed and Unlicensed Techniques

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a novel paradigm which is shaping the evolution of the future Internet. According to the vision underlying the IoT, the next step in increasing the ubiquity of the Internet, after connecting people anytime and everywhere, is to connect inanimate objects. By providing objects with embedded communication capabilities and a common addressing scheme, a highly distributed and ubiquitous network of seamlessly connected heterogeneous devices is formed, which can be fully integrated into the current Internet and mobile networks, thus allowing for the development of new intelligent services available anytime, anywhere, by anyone and anything. Such a vision is also becoming known under the name of Machine-to-Machine (M2M), where the absence of human interaction in the system dynamics is further emphasized. A massive number of wireless devices will have the ability to connect to the Internat through the IoT framework. With the accelerating pace of marketing such framework, the new wireless communications standards are studying/proposing solutions to incorporate the services needed for the IoT. However, with an estimate of 30 billion connected devices, a lot of challenges are facing the current wireless technology. In our research, we address a variety of technology candidates for enabling such a massive framework. Mainly, we focus on the nderlay cognitive radio networks as the unlicensed candidate for IoT. On the other hand, we look into the current efforts done by the standardization bodies to accommodate the requirements of the IoT into the current cellular networks. Specifically, we survey the new features and the new user equipment categories added to the physical layer of the LTE-A. In particular, we study the performance of a dual-hop cognitive radio network sharing the spectrum of a primary network in an underlay fashion. In particular, the cognitive network consists of a source, a destination, and multiple nodes employed as amplify-and-forward relays. To improve the spectral efficiency, all relays are allowed to instantaneously transmit to the destination over the same frequency band. We present the optimal power allocation that maximizes the received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the destination while satisfying the interference constrains of the primary network. The optimal power allocation is obtained through an eigen-solution of a channel-dependent matrix, and is shown to transform the transmission over the non-orthogonal relays into parallel channels. Furthermore, while the secondary destination is equipped with multiple antennas, we propose an antenna selection scheme to select the antenna with the highest SNR. To this end, we propose a clustering scheme to subgroup the available relays and use antenna selection at the receiver to extract the same diversity order. We show that random clustering causes the system to lose some of the available degrees of freedom. We provide analytical expression of the outage probability of the system for the random clustering and the proposed maximum-SNR clustering scheme with antenna selection. In addition, we adapt our design to increase the energy-efficiency of the overall network without significant loss in the data rate. In the second part of this thesis, we will look into the current efforts done by the standardization bodies to accommodate the equirements of the IoT into the current cellular networks. Specifically, we present the new features and the new user equipment categories added to the physical layer of the LTE-A. We study some of the challenges facing the LTE-A when dealing with Machine Type communications (MTC). Specifically, the MTC Physical Downlink control channel (MPDCCH) is among the newly introduced features in the LTE-A that carries the downlink control information (DCI) for MTC devices. Correctly decoding the PDCCH, mainly depends on the channel estimation used to compensate for the channel errors during transmission, and the choice of such technique will affect both the complexity and the performance of the user equipment. We propose and assess the performance of a simple channel estimation technique depends in essence on the Least Squares (LS) estimates of the pilots signal and linear interpolations for low-Doppler channels associated with the MTC application

Channel Estimation in Half and Full Duplex Relays

abstract: Both two-way relays (TWR) and full-duplex (FD) radios are spectrally efficient, and their integration shows great potential to further improve the spectral efficiency, which offers a solution to the fifth generation wireless systems. High quality channel state information (CSI) are the key components for the implementation and the performance of the FD TWR system, making channel estimation in FD TWRs crucial. The impact of channel estimation on spectral efficiency in half-duplex multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) TWR systems is investigated. The trade-off between training and data energy is proposed. In the case that two sources are symmetric in power and number of antennas, a closed-form for the optimal ratio of data energy to total energy is derived. It can be shown that the achievable rate is a monotonically increasing function of the data length. The asymmetric case is discussed as well. Efficient and accurate training schemes for FD TWRs are essential for profiting from the inherent spectrally efficient structures of both FD and TWRs. A novel one-block training scheme with a maximum likelihood (ML) estimator is proposed to estimate the channels between the nodes and the residual self-interference (RSI) channel simultaneously. Baseline training schemes are also considered to compare with the one-block scheme. The Cramer-Rao bounds (CRBs) of the training schemes are derived and analyzed by using the asymptotic properties of Toeplitz matrices. The benefit of estimating the RSI channel is shown analytically in terms of Fisher information. To obtain fundamental and analytic results of how the RSI affects the spectral efficiency, one-way FD relay systems are studied. Optimal training design and ML channel estimation are proposed to estimate the RSI channel. The CRBs are derived and analyzed in closed-form so that the optimal training sequence can be found via minimizing the CRB. Extensions of the training scheme to frequency-selective channels and multiple relays are also presented. Simultaneously sensing and transmission in an FD cognitive radio system with MIMO is considered. The trade-off between the transmission rate and the detection accuracy is characterized by the sum-rate of the primary and the secondary users. Different beamforming and combining schemes are proposed and compared.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 201

D 3. 3 Final performance results and consolidated view on the most promising multi -node/multi -antenna transmission technologies

This document provides the most recent updates on the technical contributions and research challenges focused in WP3. Each Technology Component (TeC) has been evaluated under possible uniform assessment framework of WP3 which is based on the simulation guidelines of WP6. The performance assessment is supported by the simulation results which are in their mature and stable state. An update on the Most Promising Technology Approaches (MPTAs) and their associated TeCs is the main focus of this document. Based on the input of all the TeCs in WP3, a consolidated view of WP3 on the role of multinode/multi-antenna transmission technologies in 5G systems has also been provided. This consolidated view is further supported in this document by the presentation of the impact of MPTAs on METIS scenarios and the addressed METIS goals.Aziz, D.; Baracca, P.; De Carvalho, E.; Fantini, R.; Rajatheva, N.; Popovski, P.; Sørensen, JH.... (2015). D 3. 3 Final performance results and consolidated view on the most promising multi -node/multi -antenna transmission technologies. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/7675

Towards 6G-Enabled Internet of Things with IRS-Empowered Backscatter-Assisted WPCNs

Wireless powered communication networks (WPCNs) are expected to play a key role in the forthcoming 6G systems. However, they have not yet found their way to large-scale practical implementations due to their inherent shortcomings such as the low efficiency of energy transfer and information transmission. In this thesis, we aim to study the integration of WPCNs with other novel technologies of backscatter communication and intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) to enhance the performance and improve the efficiency of these networks so as to prepare them for being seamlessly fitted into the 6G ecosystem. We first study the incorporation of backscatter communication into conventional WPCNs and investigate the performance of backscatter-assisted WPCNs (BS-WPCNs). We then study the inclusion of IRS into the WPCN environment, where an IRS is used for improving the performance of energy transfer and information transmission in WPCNs. After that, the simultaneous integration of backscatter communication and IRS technologies into WPCNs is investigated, where the analyses show the significant performance gains that can be achieved by this integration