Superimposed training for single carrier transmission in future mobile communications

The amount of wireless devices and wireless traffic has been increasing exponentially for the last ten years. It is forecasted that the exponential growth will continue without saturation till 2020 and probably further. So far, network vendors and operators have tackled the problem by introducing new evolutions of cellular macro networks, where each evolution has increased the physical layer spectral efficiency. Unfortunately, the spectral efficiency of the physical layer is achieving the Shannon-Hartley limit and does not provide much room for improvement anymore. However, considering the overhead due to synchronization and channel estimation reference symbols in the context of physical layer spectral efficiency, we believe that there is room for improvement. In this thesis, we will study the potentiality of superimposed training methods, especially data-dependent superimposed training, to boost the spectral efficiency of wideband single carrier communications even further. The main idea is that with superimposed training we can transmit more data symbols in the same time duration as compared to traditional time domain multiplexed training. In theory, more data symbols means more data bits which indicates higher throughput for the end user. In practice, nothing is free. With superimposed training we encounter self-interference between the training signal and the data signal. Therefore, we have to look for iterative receiver structures to separate these two or to estimate both, the desired data signal and the interfering component. In this thesis, we initiate the studies to find out if we truly can improve the existing systems by introducing the superimposed training scheme. We show that in certain scenarios we can achieve higher spectral efficiency, which maps directly to higher user throughput, but with the cost of higher signal processing burden in the receiver. In addition, we provide analytical tools for estimating the symbol or bit error ratio in the receiver with a given parametrization. The discussion leads us to the conclusion that there still remains several open topics for further study when looking for new ways of optimizing the overhead of reference symbols in wireless communications. Superimposed training with data-dependent components may prove to provide extra throughput gain. Furthermore, the superimposed component may be used for, e.g., improved synchronization, low bit-rate signaling or continuous tracking of neighbor cells. We believe that the current systems could be improved by using the superimposed training collectively with time domain multiplexed training

Convergence of packet communications over the evolved mobile networks; signal processing and protocol performance

In this thesis, the convergence of packet communications over the evolved mobile networks is studied. The Long Term Evolution (LTE) process is dominating the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) in order to bring technologies to the markets in the spirit of continuous innovation. The global markets of mobile information services are growing towards the Mobile Information Society. The thesis begins with the principles and theories of the multiple-access transmission schemes, transmitter receiver techniques and signal processing algorithms. Next, packet communications and Internet protocols are referred from the IETF standards with the characteristics of mobile communications in the focus. The mobile network architecture and protocols bind together the evolved packet system of Internet communications to the radio access network technologies. Specifics of the traffic models are shortly visited for their statistical meaning in the radio performance analysis. Radio resource management algorithms and protocols, also procedures, are covered addressing their relevance for the system performance. Throughout these Chapters, the commonalities and differentiators of the WCDMA, WCDMA/HSPA and LTE are covered. The main outcome of the thesis is the performance analysis of the LTE technology beginning from the early discoveries to the analysis of various system features and finally converging to an extensive system analysis campaign. The system performance is analysed with the characteristics of voice over the Internet and best effort traffic of the Internet. These traffic classes represent the majority of the mobile traffic in the converged packet networks, and yet they are simple enough for a fair and generic analysis of technologies. The thesis consists of publications and inventions created by the author that proposed several improvements to the 3G technologies towards the LTE. In the system analysis, the LTE showed by the factor of at least 2.5 to 3 times higher system measures compared to the WCDMA/HSPA reference. The WCDMA/HSPA networks are currently available with over 400 million subscribers and showing increasing growth, in the meanwhile the first LTE roll-outs are scheduled to begin in 2010. Sophisticated 3G LTE mobile devices are expected to appear fluently for all consumer segments in the following years

Evaluation of spectrally efficient indoor optical wireless transmission techniques

Optical wireless communications (OWC) has the potential to become a remedy for the shortage of the radio frequency (RF) spectrum. Especially in indoor environments, OWC could enable wireless home networking systems which offload data traffic from existing RF systems. In OWC, data is transmitted by modulating the intensity of light sources, typically incoherent light emitting diodes (LEDs). Thus, OWC systems employ intensity modulation (IM) and direct detection (DD) of the optical carrier. Since off-the-shelf LEDs have a limited modulation capability, the transmission bandwidth of practical OWC systems is restricted. Consequently, the available bandwidth has to be used efficiently. In this thesis, spectrally efficient optical wireless transmission techniques are evaluated. Firstly, multiple transmitter-receiver techniques are investigated. These multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) techniques provide high spectral efficiency, and therefore high data rates. Specifically, the MIMO techniques repetition coding (RC), spatial multiplexing (SMP) and spatial modulation (SM) are analysed for indoor OWC. The performance of these techniques is evaluated analytically and by means of computer simulations. It is shown that inducing power imbalance between the multiple optical transmitters can substantially improve the performance of optical MIMO techniques as the power imbalance improves the differentiability of the multiple channels. In addition, it is found that link blockage and the utilisation of transmitters having different optical wavelengths enhance channel differentiability as well. These methods enable the utilisation of optical MIMO techniques under conditions which typically disallow the application of MIMO schemes due to little differences between the multiple links. Secondly, a novel optical wireless transmitter concept is developed. This concept uses discrete power level stepping to generate intensity modulated optical signals, such as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) waveforms. The transmitter consists of several on-off-switchable LED groups which are individually controlled to emit scaled optical intensities. As a result, the digital-to-analogue conversion of the signals to be sent is done in the optical domain. This method enables the implementation of low-complex and power-efficient optical transmitter front-ends – the major shortcoming of conventional optical OFDM transmitters. Thirdly, a novel approach for wireless data transmission within an aircraft cabin is presented. The data is transferred by 2-dimensional visual code sequences. These sequences are displayed on the in-flight entertainment (IFE) screen and are captured by the built-in camera of a user device which acts as receiver. Transmission experiments within an aircraft cabin mock-up demonstrate the functionality of the implemented system under realistic conditions, such as ambient illumination and geometric configuration. Altogether, this thesis has analysed the potential of spectrally efficient optical wireless transmission techniques. It is shown that OWC systems can greatly benefit from these techniques

Power allocation and linear precoding for wireless communications with finite-alphabet inputs

This dissertation proposes a new approach to maximizing data rate/throughput of practical communication system/networks through linear precoding and power allocation. First, the mutual information or capacity region is derived for finite-alphabet inputs such as phase-shift keying (PSK), pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM), and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signals. This approach, without the commonly used Gaussian input assumptions, complicates the mutual information analysis and precoder design but improves performance when the designed precoders are applied to practical systems and networks. Second, several numerical optimization methods are developed for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) multiple access channels, dual-hop relay networks, and point-to-point MIMO systems. In MIMO multiple access channels, an iterative weighted sum rate maximization algorithm is proposed which utilizes an alternating optimization strategy and gradient descent update. In dual-hop relay networks, the structure of the optimal precoder is exploited to develop a two-step iterative algorithm based on convex optimization and optimization on the Stiefel manifold. The proposed algorithm is insensitive to initial point selection and able to achieve a near global optimal precoder solution. The gradient descent method is also used to obtain the optimal power allocation scheme which maximizes the mutual information between the source node and destination node in dual-hop relay networks. For point-to-point MIMO systems, a low complexity precoding design method is proposed, which maximizes the lower bound of the mutual information with discretized power allocation vector in a non-iterative fashion, thus reducing complexity. Finally, performances of the proposed power allocation and linear precoding schemes are evaluated in terms of both mutual information and bit error rate (BER). Numerical results show that at the same target mutual information or sum rate, the proposed approaches achieve 3-10dB gains compared to the existing methods in the medium signal-to-noise ratio region. Such significant gains are also indicated in the coded BER systems --Abstract, page iv-v

Modeling and Analysis of Cellular Networks Using Stochastic Geometry: A Tutorial

This paper presents a tutorial on stochastic geometry (SG)-based analysis for cellular networks. This tutorial is distinguished by its depth with respect to wireless communication details and its focus on cellular networks. This paper starts by modeling and analyzing the baseband interference in a baseline single-tier downlink cellular network with single antenna base stations and universal frequency reuse. Then, it characterizes signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio and its related performance metrics. In particular, a unified approach to conduct error probability, outage probability, and transmission rate analysis is presented. Although the main focus of this paper is on cellular networks, the presented unified approach applies for other types of wireless networks that impose interference protection around receivers. This paper then extends the unified approach to capture cellular network characteristics (e.g., frequency reuse, multiple antenna, power control, etc.). It also presents numerical examples associated with demonstrations and discussions. To this end, this paper highlights the state-of-the-art research and points out future research directions

MIMO techniques for higher data rate wireless communications

The demand for higher data rate, higher spectral efficiency and better quality of service in wireless communications is growing fast in the past few years. However, obtaining these requirements become challenging for wireless communication systems due to the problems of channel multi-path fading, higher power loss and power bandwidth limitations. A lot of research interest has been directed towards implementing new techniques in wireless communication systems, such as MIMO an OFDM, to overcome the above mentioned problems. Methods of achieving higher data rate and better spectral efficiency have been dealt with in the thesis. The work comprised three parts; the first part focuses on channel modelling, the second looks at fading mitigation techniques, and the third part deals with adaptive transmission schemes for different diversity techniques. In the first part, we present multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) space-time geometrical channel model with hyperbolically distributed scatterers (GBHDS) for a macro-cell mobile environment. The model is based on one-ring scattering assumption. This MIMO model provides statistics of the time of arrival (TOA) and direction of arrival (DOA). Our analytical results are validated with measurement data and compared to different geometrical based signal bounce macro-cell (GBSSBM) channel models including Gaussian scatterer density (GSD) channel model, the geometrical based exponential (GBE) channel model. On the other hand, for the same channel model we investigate the analytical methods which capture physical wave and antenna configuration at both ends representing in a matrix form. In the second part, we investigate the proposed channel model using joint frequency and spatial diversity system. . We combine STBC with OFDM to improve the error performance in the fading channels. We consider two different fading scenarios namely frequency selective and time selective fading channels. For the first scenario we propose a new technique to suppress the frequency error offset caused by the motion of mobile (Doppler shift). On the other hand, we examine the performance of STBC-OFDM in time selective macro-cell channel environment. In the last part, we evaluate the spectral efficiency for different receiver diversity namely maximal ratio combiner (MRC), selection combiner (SC), and Hybrid (MRC/SC). We derive closed form expressions for the single user capacity, taking into account the effect of imperfect channel estimation at the receiver. The channel considered is a slowly varying spatially independent flat Rayleigh fading channel. Three adaptive transmission schemes are analysed: 1) optimal power rate and rate adaptation (opra), constant power with optimal rate adaptation (ora), and 3) channel inversion with fixed rate (cifr). Furthermore, we derive analytical results for capacity statistics including moment generating function (MGF), complementary cumulative distribution function (CDF) and probability density function (pdf)