OFDMA/SC-FDMA aided space-time shift keying for dispersive multi-user scenarios

Motivated by the recent concept of Space-Time Shift Keying (STSK) developed for achieving a flexible diversity versus multiplexing gain trade-off, we propose a novel Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)/Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) aided multi-user STSK scheme for frequency-selective channels. The proposed OFDMA/SC-FDMA STSK scheme is capable of providing an improved performance in dispersive channels, while supporting multiple users in a multiple antenna aided wireless system. Furthermore, the scheme has the inherent potential of benefitting from the low-complexity single-stream Maximum-likelihood (ML) detector. Both an uncoded and a sophisticated near-capacity coded OFDMA/SC-FDMA STSK scheme were studied and their performances were compared in multiuser wideband Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) scenarios. Explicitly, OFDMA/SC-FDMA aided STSK exhibits an excellent performance even in the presence of channel impairments due to the frequency-selectivity of wideband channels and proves to be a beneficial choice for high capacity multi-user MIMO systems

Capacity, coding and interference cancellation in multiuser multicarrier wireless communications systems

Multicarrier modulation and multiuser systems have generated a great deal of research during the last decade. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a multicarrier modulation generated with the inverse Discrete Fourier Transform, which has been adopted for standards in wireless and wire-line communications. Multiuser wireless systems using multicarrier modulation suffer from the effects of dispersive fading channels, which create multi-access, inter-symbol, and inter-carrier interference (MAI, ISI, ICI). Nevertheless, channel dispersion also provides diversity, which can be exploited and has the potential to increase robustness against fading. Multiuser multi-carrier systems can be implemented using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), a flexible orthogonal multiplexing scheme that can implement time and frequency division multiplexing, and using multicarrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA). Coding, interference cancellation, and resource sharing schemes to improve the performance of multiuser multicarrier systems on wireless channels were addressed in this dissertation. Performance of multiple access schemes applied to a downlink multiuser wireless system was studied from an information theory perspective and from a more practical perspective. For time, frequency, and code division, implemented using OFDMA and MC-CDMA, the system outage capacity region was calculated for a correlated fading channel. It was found that receiver complexity determines which scheme offers larger capacity regions, and that OFDMA results in a better compromise between complexity and performance than MC-CDMA. From the more practical perspective of bit error rate, the effects of channel coding and interleaving were investigated. Results in terms of coding bounds as well as simulation were obtained, showing that OFDMAbased orthogonal multiple access schemes are more sensitive to the effectiveness of the code to provide diversity than non-orthogonal, MC-CDMA-based schemes. While cellular multiuser schemes suffer mainly from MAI, OFDM-based broadcasting systems suffer from ICI, in particular when operating as a single frequency network (SFN). It was found that for SFN the performance of a conventional OFDM receiver rapidly degrades when transmitters have frequency synchronization errors. Several methods based on linear and decision-feedback ICI cancellation were proposed and evaluated, showing improved robustness against ICI. System function characterization of time-variant dispersive channels is important for understanding their effects on single carrier and multicarrier modulation. Using time-frequency duality it was shown that MC-CDMA and DS-CDMA are strictly dual on dispersive channels. This property was used to derive optimal matched filter structures, and to determine a criterion for the selection of spreading sequences for both DS and MC CDMA. The analysis of multiple antenna systems provided a unified framework for the study of DS-CDMA and MC-CDMA on time and frequency dispersive channels, which can also be used to compare their performance

MIMO signal processing in offset-QAM based filter bank multicarrier systems

Next-generation communication systems have to comply with very strict requirements for increased flexibility in heterogeneous environments, high spectral efficiency, and agility of carrier aggregation. This fact motivates research in advanced multicarrier modulation (MCM) schemes, such as filter bank-based multicarrier (FBMC) modulation. This paper focuses on the offset quadrature amplitude modulation (OQAM)-based FBMC variant, known as FBMC/OQAM, which presents outstanding spectral efficiency and confinement in a number of channels and applications. Its special nature, however, generates a number of new signal processing challenges that are not present in other MCM schemes, notably, in orthogonal-frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM). In multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) architectures, which are expected to play a primary role in future communication systems, these challenges are intensified, creating new interesting research problems and calling for new ideas and methods that are adapted to the particularities of the MIMO-FBMC/OQAM system. The goal of this paper is to focus on these signal processing problems and provide a concise yet comprehensive overview of the recent advances in this area. Open problems and associated directions for future research are also discussed.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Optical Space Division Multiplexing in Short Reach Multi-Mode Fiber Systems

The application of space division multiplexing to fiber-optic communications is a promising approach to further increase the channel capacity of optical waveguides. In this work, short reach and low-cost optical space division multiplexing systems with intensity modulation and direct detection (IM/DD) are in the focus of interest. Herein, different modes are utilized to generate spatial diversity in a multi-mode fiber. In such IM/DD systems, the process of square-law detection is inherently non-linear. In order to obtain an understanding of the channel characteristics, a system model is developed, which is able to show under which conditions the system can be considered linear in baseband. It is shown that linearity applies in scenarios with low mode cross-talk. This enables the use of linear multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) signal processing strategies for equalization purposes. In conditions with high mode cross-talk, significant interference occurs, and the transmitted information cannot be extracted at the receiver. Furthermore, a method to determine the power coupling coefficients between mode groups is presented that does not require the excitation of individual modes, and hence it can be realized with inexpensive components. In addition, different optical components are analyzed with respect for their suitability in MIMO setups with IM/DD. The conventional approach with single-mode fiber to multi-mode fiber offset launches and optical couplers as well as a configuration that utilizes multi-segment detection are feasible options for a (2x2) setup. It is further shown that conventional photonic lanterns are not suited for MIMO with IM/DD due to their low mode orthogonality during the multiplexing process. In order to enable higher order MIMO configurations, devices for mode multiplexing and demultiplexing need to be developed, which exhibit a high mode orthogonality on one hand and are low-cost on the other hand

A robust timing and frequency synchronization for OFDM systems

Abstract—A robust symbol-timing and carrier-frequency synchronization scheme applicable to orthogonal frequency-division-multiplexing systems is presented. The proposed method is based on a training symbol specifically designed to have a steep rolloff timing metric. The proposed timing metric also provides a robust sync detection capability. Both time domain training and frequency domain (FD) training are investigated. For FD training, maintaining a low peak-to-average power ratio of the training symbol was taken into consideration. The channel estimation scheme based on the designed training symbol was also incorporated in the system in order to give both fine-timing and frequency-offset estimates. For fine frequency estimation, two approaches are presented. The first one is based on the suppression of the interference introduced in the frequency estimation process by the training symbol pattern in the context of multipath dispersive channels. The second one is based on the maximum likelihood principle and does not suffer from any interference. A new performance measure is introduced for timing estimation, which is based on the plot of signal to timing-error-induced average interference power ratio against the timing estimate shift. A simple approach for finding the optimal setting of the timing estimator is presented. Finally, the sync detection, timing estimation, frequency estimation, and bit-error-rate performance of the proposed method are presented in a multipath Rayleigh fading channel. Index Terms—Frequency-offset estimation, orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), symbol-timing estimation, synchronization, training symbol. I

Near-Instantaneously Adaptive HSDPA-Style OFDM Versus MC-CDMA Transceivers for WIFI, WIMAX, and Next-Generation Cellular Systems

Burts-by-burst (BbB) adaptive high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) style multicarrier systems are reviewed, identifying their most critical design aspects. These systems exhibit numerous attractive features, rendering them eminently eligible for employment in next-generation wireless systems. It is argued that BbB-adaptive or symbol-by-symbol adaptive orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) modems counteract the near instantaneous channel quality variations and hence attain an increased throughput or robustness in comparison to their fixed-mode counterparts. Although they act quite differently, various diversity techniques, such as Rake receivers and space-time block coding (STBC) are also capable of mitigating the channel quality variations in their effort to reduce the bit error ratio (BER), provided that the individual antenna elements experience independent fading. By contrast, in the presence of correlated fading imposed by shadowing or time-variant multiuser interference, the benefits of space-time coding erode and it is unrealistic to expect that a fixed-mode space-time coded system remains capable of maintaining a near-constant BER