Turbo Decoding and Detection for Wireless Applications

A historical perspective of turbo coding and turbo transceivers inspired by the generic turbo principles is provided, as it evolved from Shannon’s visionary predictions. More specifically, we commence by discussing the turbo principles, which have been shown to be capable of performing close to Shannon’s capacity limit. We continue by reviewing the classic maximum a posteriori probability decoder. These discussions are followed by studying the effect of a range of system parameters in a systematic fashion, in order to gauge their performance ramifications. In the second part of this treatise, we focus our attention on the family of iterative receivers designed for wireless communication systems, which were partly inspired by the invention of turbo codes. More specifically, the family of iteratively detected joint coding and modulation schemes, turbo equalization, concatenated spacetime and channel coding arrangements, as well as multi-user detection and three-stage multimedia systems are highlighted

Linearisation, error correction coding and equalisation for multi-level modulation schemes

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Engineering.Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) has been standardised for digital audio broadcasting (DAB), digital video broadcasting (DVB) and wireless local area networks (WLAN). OFDM systems are capable of effectively coping with frequency- selective fading without using complex equalisation structures. The modulation and demodulation processes using fast fourier transform (FFT) and its inverse (IFFT) can be implemented very efficiently. More recently, multicarrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA) based on the combination of OFDM and conventional CDMA has received growing attention in the field of wireless personal communication and digital multimedia broadcasting. It can cope with channel frequency selectivity due to its own capabilities of overcoming the asynchronous nature of multimedia data traffic and higher capacity over conventional multiple access techniques. On the other hand, multicarrier modulation schemes are based on the transmission of a given set of signals on large numbers of orthogonal subcarriers. Due to the fact that the multicarrier modulated (MCM) signal is a superposition of many amplitude modulated sinusoids, its probability density function is nearly Gaussian. Therefore, the MCM signal is characterised by a very high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). As a result of the high PAPR, the MCM signal is severely distorted when a nonlinear high power amplifier (HPA) is employed to obtain sufficient transmitting power. This is very common in most communication systems, and decreases the performance significantly. The simplest way to avoid the nonlinear distortion is substantial output backoff (OBO) operating in the linear region of the HPA. However, because of the high OBO, the peak transmit power has to be decreased. For this reason, many linearisation techniques have been proposed to compensate for the nonlinearity without applying high OBO. The predistortion techniques have been known and studied as one of the most promising means to solve the problem. In this thesis, an improved memory mapping predistortion technique devised to reduce the large computational complexity of a fixed point iterative (FPI) predistorter is proposed, suitable especially for multicarrier modulation schemes. The proposed memory mapping predistortion technique is further extended to compensate for nonlinear distortion with memory caused by a shaping linear filter. The case of varying HPA characteristics is also considered by using an adaptive memory mapping predistorter which updates the lookup table (LUT) and counteracts these variations. Finally, an amplitude memory mapping predistorter is presented to reduce the LUT size. Channel coding techniques have been widely used as an effective solution against channel fading in wireless environments. Amongst these, particular attention has been paid to turbo codes due to their performance being close to the Shannon limit. In-depth study and evaluation of turbo coding has been carried out for constant envelope signaling systems such as BPSK, QPSK and M-ary PSK. In this thesis, the performance of TTCM-OFDM systems with high-order modulation schemes, e.g. 16-QAM and 64-QAM, is investigated and compared with conventional channel coding schemes such as Reed-Solomon and convolutional coding. The analysis is performed in terms of spectral efficiency over a multipath fading channel and in presence of an HPA. Maximum a-priori probability (MAP), soft output Viterbi algorithm (SOVA) and pragmatic algorithms are compared for non-binary turbo decoding with these systems. For this setup, iterative multiuser detection in TTCM/MC-CDMA systems with M-QAM is introduced and investigated, adopting a set of random codes to decrease the PAPR. As another application of TTCM, the performance of multicode CDMA systems with TTCM for outer coding over multipath fading channels is investigated

Advanced Coding And Modulation For Ultra-wideband And Impulsive Noises

The ever-growing demand for higher quality and faster multimedia content delivery over short distances in home environments drives the quest for higher data rates in wireless personal area networks (WPANs). One of the candidate IEEE 802.15.3a WPAN proposals support data rates up to 480 Mbps by using punctured convolutional codes with quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation for a multi-band orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) system over ultra wideband (UWB) channels. In the first part of this dissertation, we combine more powerful near-Shannon-limit turbo codes with bandwidth efficient trellis coded modulation, i.e., turbo trellis coded modulation (TTCM), to further improve the data rates up to 1.2 Gbps. A modified iterative decoder for this TTCM coded MB-OFDM system is proposed and its bit error rate performance under various impulsive noises over both Gaussian and UWB channel is extensively investigated, especially in mismatched scenarios. A robust decoder which is immune to noise mismatch is provided based on comparison of impulsive noises in time domain and frequency domain. The accurate estimation of the dynamic noise model could be very difficult or impossible at the receiver, thus a significant performance degradation may occur due to noise mismatch. In the second part of this dissertation, we prove that the minimax decoder in \cite, which instead of minimizing the average bit error probability aims at minimizing the worst bit error probability, is optimal and robust to certain noise model with unknown prior probabilities in two and higher dimensions. Besides turbo codes, another kind of error correcting codes which approach the Shannon capacity is low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. In the last part of this dissertation, we extend the density evolution method for sum-product decoding using mismatched noises. We will prove that as long as the true noise type and the estimated noise type used in the decoder are both binary-input memoryless output symmetric channels, the output from mismatched log-likelihood ratio (LLR) computation is also symmetric. We will show the Shannon capacity can be evaluated for mismatched LLR computation and it can be reduced if the mismatched LLR computation is not an one-to-one mapping function. We will derive the Shannon capacity, threshold and stable condition of LDPC codes for mismatched BIAWGN and BIL noise types. The results show that the noise variance estimation errors will not affect the Shannon capacity and stable condition, but the errors do reduce the threshold. The mismatch in noise type will only reduce Shannon capacity when LLR computation is based on BIL

Simplified Log-MAP Algorithm for Very Low-Complexity Turbo Decoder Hardware Architectures

Motivated by the importance of hardware implementation in practical turbo decoders, a simplified, yet effective, n-input max∗ approximation algorithm is proposed with the aim being its efficient implementation for very low-complexity turbo decoder hardware architectures. The simplification is obtained using an appropriate digital circuit for finding the first two maximum values in a set of n data that embeds the computation of a correction term. Various implementation results show that the proposed architecture is simpler by 30%, on average, than the constant logarithmic-maximum a posteriori (Log-MAP) one, in terms of chip area with the same delay. This comes at the expense of very small performance degradation, in the order of 0.1 dB for up to moderate bit error rates, e.g., 10e−5, assuming binary turbo codes. However, when applying scaling to the extrinsic information, the proposed algorithm achieves almost identical Log-MAP turbo code performance for both binary and double-binary turbo codes, without increasing noticeably the implementation complexity

NanoMagnetic Logic Microprocessor Hierarchical Power Model

The interest on emerging nanotechnologies has been recently focused on NanoMagnetic Logic (NML), which has unique appealing features. NML circuits have a very low power consumption and, due to their magnetic nature, they maintain the information safely stored even without power supply. The nature of these circuits is highly different from the CMOS ones. As a consequence, to better understand NML logic, complex circuits and not only simple gates must be designed. This constraint calls for a new design and simulation methodology. It should efficiently encompass manifold properties: 1) being based on commonly used hardware description language (HDL) in order to easily manage complexity and hierarchy; 2) maintaining a clear link with physical characteristics 3) modeling performance aspects like speed and power, together with logic behavior. In this contribution we present a VHDL behavioral model for NML circuits, which allows to evaluate not only logic behavior but also power dissipation. It is based on a technological solution called ``snake-clock''. We demonstrate this model on a case study which offers the right variety of internal substructures to test the method: a four bit microprocessor designed using asynchronous logic. The model enables a hierarchical bottom-up evaluation of the processor logic behavior, area and power dissipation, which we evaluated using as benchmark a division algorithm. Results highlight the flexibility and the efficiency of this model, and the remarkable improvements that it brings to the analysis of NML circuit

Turbo space-time coded modulation : principle and performance analysis

A breakthrough in coding was achieved with the invention of turbo codes. Turbo codes approach Shannon capacity by displaying the properties of long random codes, yet allowing efficient decoding. Coding alone, however, cannot fully address the problem of multipath fading channel. Recent advances in information theory have revolutionized the traditional view of multipath channel as an impairment. New results show that high gains in capacity can be achieved through the use of multiple antennas at the transmitter and the receiver. To take advantage of these new results in information theory, it is necessary to devise methods that allow communication systems to operate close to the predicted capacity. One such method recently invented is space-time coding, which provides both coding gain and diversity advantage. In this dissertation, a new class of codes is proposed that extends the concept of turbo coding to include space-time encoders as constituent building blocks of turbo codes. The codes are referred to as turbo spacetime coded modulation (turbo-STCM). The motivation behind the turbo-STCM concept is to fuse the important properties of turbo and space-time codes into a unified design framework. A turbo-STCM encoder is proposed, which consists of two space-time codes in recursive systematic form concatenated in parallel. An iterative symbol-by-symbol maximum a posteriori algorithm operating in the log domain is developed for decoding turbo-STCM. The decoder employs two a posteriori probability (APP) computing modules concatenated in parallel; one module for each constituent code. The analysis of turbo-STCM is demonstrated through simulations and theoretical closed-form expressions. Simulation results are provided for 4-PSK and 8-PSK schemes over the Rayleigh block-fading channel. It is shown that the turbo-STCM scheme features full diversity and full coding rate. The significant gain can be obtained in performance over conventional space-time codes of similar complexity. The analytical union bound to the bit error probability is derived for turbo-STCM over the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and the Rayleigh block-fading channels. The bound makes it possible to express the performance analysis of turbo-STCM in terms of the properties of the constituent space-time codes. The union bound is demonstrated for 4-PSK and 8-PSK turbo-STCM with two transmit antennas and one/two receive antennas. Information theoretic bounds such as Shannon capacity, cutoff rate, outage capacity and the Fano bound, are computed for multiantenna systems over the AWGN and fading channels. These bounds are subsequently used as benchmarks for demonstrating the performance of turbo-STCM

New Coding/Decoding Techniques for Wireless Communication Systems

Wireless communication encompasses cellular telephony systems (mobile communication), wireless sensor networks, satellite communication systems and many other applications. Studies relevant to wireless communication deal with maintaining reliable and efficient exchange of information between the transmitter and receiver over a wireless channel. The most practical approach to facilitate reliable communication is using channel coding. In this dissertation we propose novel coding and decoding approaches for practical wireless systems. These approaches include variable-rate convolutional encoder, modified turbo decoder for local content in Single-Frequency Networks, and blind encoder parameter estimation for turbo codes. On the other hand, energy efficiency is major performance issue in wireless sensor networks. In this dissertation, we propose a novel hexagonal-tessellation based clustering and cluster-head selection scheme to maximize the lifetime of a wireless sensor network. For each proposed approach, the system performance evaluation is also provided. In this dissertation the reliability performance is expressed in terms of bit-error-rate (BER), and the energy efficiency is expressed in terms of network lifetime