Information-theoretic analysis of MIMO channel sounding

The large majority of commercially available multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radio channel measurement devices (sounders) is based on time-division multiplexed switching (TDMS) of a single transmit/receive radio-frequency chain into the elements of a transmit/receive antenna array. While being cost-effective, such a solution can cause significant measurement errors due to phase noise and frequency offset in the local oscillators. In this paper, we systematically analyze the resulting errors and show that, in practice, overestimation of channel capacity by several hundred percent can occur. Overestimation is caused by phase noise (and to a lesser extent frequency offset) leading to an increase of the MIMO channel rank. Our analysis furthermore reveals that the impact of phase errors is, in general, most pronounced if the physical channel has low rank (typical for line-of-sight or poor scattering scenarios). The extreme case of a rank-1 physical channel is analyzed in detail. Finally, we present measurement results obtained from a commercially employed TDMS-based MIMO channel sounder. In the light of the findings of this paper, the results obtained through MIMO channel measurement campaigns using TDMS-based channel sounders should be interpreted with great care.Comment: 99 pages, 14 figures, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Theor

Nondata-Aided Rician Parameters Estimation With Redundant GMM for Adaptive Modulation in Industrial Fading Channel

Wireless networks have been widely utilized in industries, where wireless links are challenged by the severe nonstationary Rician fading channel, which requires online link quality estimation to support high-quality wireless services. However, most traditional Rician estimation approaches are designed for channel measurements and work only with nonmodulated symbols. Then, the online Rician estimation usually requires a priori aiding pilots or known modulation order to cancel the modulation interference. This article proposes a nondata-Aided method with redundant Gaussian mixture model (GMM). The convergence paradigm of GMM with redundant subcomponents has been analyzed, guided by which the redundant subcomponents can be iteratively discriminated to approach the global optimization. By further adopting the constellation constraint, the probability to identify the redundant subcomponent is significantly increased. As a result, accurate estimation of the Rician parameters can be achieved without additional overhead. Experiments illustrate not only the feasibility but also the near-optimal accuracy

Laboratory and field trials evaluation of transmit delay Diversity applied to DVB-T/H networks

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The requirements for future DVB-T/H networks demand that broadcasters design and deploy networks that provide ubiquitous reception in challenging indoors and other obstructed situations. It is essential that such networks are designed cost-effectively and with minimized environmental impact. The use of transmit diversity techniques with multiple antennas have long been proposed to improve the performance and capacity of wireless systems. Transmit diversity exploits the scattering effect inherent in the channel by means of transmitting multiple signals in a controlled manner from spatially separated antennas, allowing independently faded signals to arrive at the receiver and improves the chances of decoding a signal of acceptable quality. Transmit diversity can complement receive diversity by adding an additional diversity gain and in situations where receiver diversity is not practical, transmit diversity alone delivers a comparable amount of diversity gain. Transmit Delay Diversity (DD) can be applied to systems employing the DVB standard without receiver equipment modifications. Although transmit DD can provide a gain in NLOS situations, it can introduce degradation in LOS situation. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the effectiveness in real-word applications of novel diversity techniques for broadcast transmitter networks. Tests involved laboratory experiments using a wireless MIMO channel emulator and the deployment of a field measurement campaign dedicated to driving, indoor and rooftop reception. The relationship between the diversity gain, the propagation environment and several parameters such as the transmit antenna separation, the receiver speed and the Forward Error Correction Codes (FEC) configuration are investigated. Results includes the effect of real-word parameter usually not modeled in the software simulation analysis, such as antenna radiation patterns and mutual coupling, scattering vegetation impact, non-Gaussian noise sources and receiver implementation. Moreover, a practical analysis of the effectiveness of experimental techniques to mitigate the loss due to transmit DD loss in rooftop reception is presented. The results of this thesis confirmed, completed and extended the existing predictions with real word measurement results

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

Characterisation and Modelling of Indoor and Short-Range MIMO Communications

Over the last decade, we have witnessed the rapid evolution of Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems which promise to break the frontiers of conventional architectures and deliver high throughput by employing more than one element at the transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) in order to exploit the spatial domain. This is achieved by transmitting simultaneous data streams from different elements which impinge on the Rx with ideally unique spatial signatures as a result of the propagation paths’ interactions with the surrounding environment. This thesis is oriented to the statistical characterisation and modelling of MIMO systems and particularly of indoor and short-range channels which lend themselves a plethora of modern applications, such as wireless local networks (WLANs), peer-to-peer and vehicular communications. The contributions of the thesis are detailed below. Firstly, an indoor channel model is proposed which decorrelates the full spatial correlation matrix of a 5.2 GHzmeasuredMIMO channel and thereafter assigns the Nakagami-m distribution on the resulting uncorrelated eigenmodes. The choice of the flexible Nakagami-m density was found to better fit the measured data compared to the commonly used Rayleigh and Ricean distributions. In fact, the proposed scheme captures the spatial variations of the measured channel reasonably well and systematically outperforms two known analytical models in terms of information theory and link-level performance. The second contribution introduces an array processing scheme, namely the three-dimensional (3D) frequency domain Space Alternating Generalised Expectation Maximisation (FD-SAGE) algorithm for jointly extracting the dominant paths’ parameters. The scheme exhibits a satisfactory robustness in a synthetic environment even for closely separated sources and is applicable to any array geometry as long as its manifold is known. The algorithm is further applied to the same set of raw data so that different global spatial parameters of interest are determined; these are the multipath clustering, azimuth spreads and inter-dependency of the spatial domains. The third contribution covers the case of short-range communications which have nowadays emerged as a hot topic in the area of wireless networks. The main focus is on dual-branch MIMO Ricean systems for which a design methodology to achieve maximum capacities in the presence of Line-of-Sight (LoS) components is proposed. Moreover, a statistical eigenanalysis of these configurations is performed and novel closed-formulae for the marginal eigenvalue and condition number statistics are derived. These formulae are further used to develop an adaptive detector (AD) whose aim is to reduce the feasibility cost and complexity of Maximum Likelihood (ML)-based MIMO receivers. Finally, a tractable novel upper bound on the ergodic capacity of the above mentioned MIMO systems is presented which relies on a fundamental power constraint. The bound is sufficiently tight and applicable for arbitrary rank of the mean channel matrix, Signal-to-Noise ratio (SNR) and takes the effects of spatial correlation at both ends into account. More importantly, it includes previously reported capacity bounds as special cases

Linear Transmit-Receive Strategies for Multi-user MIMO Wireless Communications

Die Notwendigkeit zur Unterdrueckung von Interferenzen auf der einen Seite und zur Ausnutzung der durch Mehrfachzugriffsverfahren erzielbaren Gewinne auf der anderen Seite rueckte die raeumlichen Mehrfachzugriffsverfahren (Space Division Multiple Access, SDMA) in den Fokus der Forschung. Ein Vertreter der raeumlichen Mehrfachzugriffsverfahren, die lineare Vorkodierung, fand aufgrund steigender Anzahl an Nutzern und Antennen in heutigen und zukuenftigen Mobilkommunikationssystemen besondere Beachtung, da diese Verfahren das Design von Algorithmen zur Vorcodierung vereinfachen. Aus diesem Grund leistet diese Dissertation einen Beitrag zur Entwicklung linearer Sende- und Empfangstechniken fuer MIMO-Technologie mit mehreren Nutzern. Zunaechst stellen wir ein Framework zur Approximation des Datendurchsatzes in Broadcast-MIMO-Kanaelen mit mehreren Nutzern vor. In diesem Framework nehmen wir das lineare Vorkodierverfahren regularisierte Blockdiagonalisierung (RBD) an. Durch den Vergleich von Dirty Paper Coding (DPC) und linearen Vorkodieralgorithmen (z.B. Zero Forcing (ZF) und Blockdiagonalisierung (BD)) ist es uns moeglich, untere und obere Schranken fuer den Unterschied bezueglich Datenraten und bezueglich Leistung zwischen beiden anzugeben. Im Weiteren entwickeln wir einen Algorithmus fuer koordiniertes Beamforming (Coordinated Beamforming, CBF), dessen Loesung sich in geschlossener Form angeben laesst. Dieser CBF-Algorithmus basiert auf der SeDJoCo-Transformation und loest bisher vorhandene Probleme im Bereich CBF. Im Anschluss schlagen wir einen iterativen CBF-Algorithmus namens FlexCoBF (flexible coordinated beamforming) fuer MIMO-Broadcast-Kanaele mit mehreren Nutzern vor. Im Vergleich mit bis dato existierenden iterativen CBF-Algorithmen kann als vielversprechendster Vorteil die freie Wahl der linearen Sende- und Empfangsstrategie herausgestellt werden. Das heisst, jede existierende Methode der linearen Vorkodierung kann als Sendestrategie genutzt werden, waehrend die Strategie zum Empfangsbeamforming frei aus MRC oder MMSE gewaehlt werden darf. Im Hinblick auf Szenarien, in denen Mobilfunkzellen in Clustern zusammengefasst sind, erweitern wir FlexCoBF noch weiter. Hier wurde das Konzept der koordinierten Mehrpunktverbindung (Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) transmission) integriert. Zuletzt stellen wir drei Moeglichkeiten vor, Kanalzustandsinformationen (Channel State Information, CSI) unter verschiedenen Kanalumstaenden zu erlangen. Die Qualitaet der Kanalzustandsinformationen hat einen starken Einfluss auf die Guete des Uebertragungssystems. Die durch unsere neuen Algorithmen erzielten Verbesserungen haben wir mittels numerischer Simulationen von Summenraten und Bitfehlerraten belegt.In order to combat interference and exploit large multiplexing gains of the multi-antenna systems, a particular interest in spatial division multiple access (SDMA) techniques has emerged. Linear precoding techniques, as one of the SDMA strategies, have obtained more attention due to the fact that an increasing number of users and antennas involved into the existing and future mobile communication systems requires a simplification of the precoding design. Therefore, this thesis contributes to the design of linear transmit and receive strategies for multi-user MIMO broadcast channels in a single cell and clustered multiple cells. First, we present a throughput approximation framework for multi-user MIMO broadcast channels employing regularized block diagonalization (RBD) linear precoding. Comparing dirty paper coding (DPC) and linear precoding algorithms (e.g., zero forcing (ZF) and block diagonalization (BD)), we further quantify lower and upper bounds of the rate and power offset between them as a function of the system parameters such as the number of users and antennas. Next, we develop a novel closed-form coordinated beamforming (CBF) algorithm (i.e., SeDJoCo based closed-form CBF) to solve the existing open problem of CBF. Our new algorithm can support a MIMO system with an arbitrary number of users and transmit antennas. Moreover, the application of our new algorithm is not only for CBF, but also for blind source separation (BSS), since the same mathematical model has been used in BSS application.Then, we further propose a new iterative CBF algorithm (i.e., flexible coordinated beamforming (FlexCoBF)) for multi-user MIMO broadcast channels. Compared to the existing iterative CBF algorithms, the most promising advantage of our new algorithm is that it provides freedom in the choice of the linear transmit and receive beamforming strategies, i.e., any existing linear precoding method can be chosen as the transmit strategy and the receive beamforming strategy can be flexibly chosen from MRC or MMSE receivers. Considering clustered multiple cell scenarios, we extend the FlexCoBF algorithm further and introduce the concept of the coordinated multipoint (CoMP) transmission. Finally, we present three strategies for channel state information (CSI) acquisition regarding various channel conditions and channel estimation strategies. The CSI knowledge is required at the base station in order to implement SDMA techniques. The quality of the obtained CSI heavily affects the system performance. The performance enhancement achieved by our new strategies has been demonstrated by numerical simulation results in terms of the system sum rate and the bit error rate

Analysis and Design of Algorithms for the Improvement of Non-coherent Massive MIMO based on DMPSK for beyond 5G systems

Mención Internacional en el título de doctorNowadays, it is nearly impossible to think of a service that does not rely on wireless communications. By the end of 2022, mobile internet represented a 60% of the total global online traffic. There is an increasing trend both in the number of subscribers and in the traffic handled by each subscriber. Larger data rates, smaller extreme-to-extreme (E2E) delays and greater number of devices are current interests for the development of mobile communications. Furthermore, it is foreseen that these demands should also be fulfilled in scenarios with stringent conditions, such as very fast varying wireless communications channels (either in time or frequency) or scenarios with power constraints, mainly found when the equipment is battery powered. Since most of the wireless communications techniques and standards rely on the fact that the wireless channel is somehow characterized or estimated to be pre or post-compensated in transmission (TX) or reception (RX), there is a clear problem when the channels vary rapidly or the available power is constrained. To estimate the wireless channel and obtain the so-called channel state information (CSI), some of the available resources (either in time, frequency or any other dimension), are utilized by including known signals in the TX and RX typically known as pilots, thus avoiding their use for data transmission. If the channels vary rapidly, they must be estimated many times, which results in a very low data efficiency of the communications link. Also, in case the power is limited or the wireless link distance is large, the resulting signal-tointerference- plus-noise ratio (SINR) will be low, which is a parameter that is directly related to the quality of the channel estimation and the performance of the data reception. This problem is aggravated in massive multiple-input multiple-output (massive MIMO), which is a promising technique for future wireless communications since it can increase the data rates, increase the reliability and cope with a larger number of simultaneous devices. In massive MIMO, the base station (BS) is typically equipped with a large number of antennas that are coordinated. In these scenarios, the channels must be estimated for each antenna (or at least for each user), and thus, the aforementioned problem of channel estimation aggravates. In this context, algorithms and techniques for massive MIMO without CSI are of interest. This thesis main topic is non-coherent massive multiple-input multiple-output (NC-mMIMO) which relies on the use of differential M-ary phase shift keying (DMPSK) and the spatial diversity of the antenna arrays to be able to detect the useful transmitted data without CSI knowledge. On the one hand, hybrid schemes that combine the coherent and non-coherent schemes allowing to get the best of both worlds are proposed. These schemes are based on distributing the resources between non-coherent (NC) and coherent data, utilizing the NC data to estimate the channel without using pilots and use the estimated channel for the coherent data. On the other hand, new constellations and user allocation strategies for the multi-user scenario of NC-mMIMO are proposed. The new constellations are better than the ones in the literature and obtained using artificial intelligence techniques, more concretely evolutionary computation.This work has received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie ETN TeamUp5G, grant agreement No. 813391. The PhD student was the Early Stage Researcher (ESR) number 2 of the project. This work has also received funding from the Spanish National Project IRENE-EARTH (PID2020-115323RB-C33) (MINECO/AEI/FEDER, UE), which funded the work of some coauthors.Programa de Doctorado en Multimedia y Comunicaciones por la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid y la Universidad Rey Juan CarlosPresidente: Luis Castedo Ribas.- Secretario: Matilde Pilar Sánchez Fernández.- Vocal: Eva Lagunas Targaron

Mobile and Wireless Communications

Mobile and Wireless Communications have been one of the major revolutions of the late twentieth century. We are witnessing a very fast growth in these technologies where mobile and wireless communications have become so ubiquitous in our society and indispensable for our daily lives. The relentless demand for higher data rates with better quality of services to comply with state-of-the art applications has revolutionized the wireless communication field and led to the emergence of new technologies such as Bluetooth, WiFi, Wimax, Ultra wideband, OFDMA. Moreover, the market tendency confirms that this revolution is not ready to stop in the foreseen future. Mobile and wireless communications applications cover diverse areas including entertainment, industrialist, biomedical, medicine, safety and security, and others, which definitely are improving our daily life. Wireless communication network is a multidisciplinary field addressing different aspects raging from theoretical analysis, system architecture design, and hardware and software implementations. While different new applications are requiring higher data rates and better quality of service and prolonging the mobile battery life, new development and advanced research studies and systems and circuits designs are necessary to keep pace with the market requirements. This book covers the most advanced research and development topics in mobile and wireless communication networks. It is divided into two parts with a total of thirty-four stand-alone chapters covering various areas of wireless communications of special topics including: physical layer and network layer, access methods and scheduling, techniques and technologies, antenna and amplifier design, integrated circuit design, applications and systems. These chapters present advanced novel and cutting-edge results and development related to wireless communication offering the readers the opportunity to enrich their knowledge in specific topics as well as to explore the whole field of rapidly emerging mobile and wireless networks. We hope that this book will be useful for students, researchers and practitioners in their research studies