Analysis and mitigation of the narrowband interference impact on IR-UWB communication systems

The impact of narrowband interference signals on impulse radio ultrawideband (UWB) communication systems has been investigated. A closed form expression for the bit error rate performance of UWB communication system in a Log-normal flat fading channel under such impact is evaluated. The actual UWB channel model is known as a multipath fading channel; however flat fading channel model can be considered with some of the UWB wireless applications such as UWB wireless sensor networks which are characterized by size and energy constraints. Thus, a simple and low-cost one-finger Rake receiver can be used with such wireless systems. It was proven that UWB systems unavoidably suffer from the interference caused by the coexisting systems due to the restraint on their transmission power levels. To this end, we propose an interference canceller scheme which is capable of suppressing the impact of such interference and enhancing the performance of UWB communication systems. The interference canceller scheme performance is also investigated in various scenarios of operation such as the presence of multiple narrowband interference signals, symbol timing error, and a comparison with a notch filter-based case. Copyrigh

Enhancing the bit error rate performance of ultra wideband systems using time-hopping pulse position modulation in multiple access environments

Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) technology is one of the possible solutions for future short-range indoor data communication with uniquely attractive features inviting major advances in wireless communications, networking, radar, imaging, and positioning systems. A major challenge when designing UWB systems is choosing a suitable modulation technique. Data rate, transceiver complexity, and BER performance of the transmitted signal are all related to the employed modulation scheme. Several classical modulation schemes can be used to create UWB signals, some are more efficient than others. These schemes are namely, Pulse Position Modulation (PPM), Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM), Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK), and On-Off Keying (OOK) are reviewed. In the thesis, the performance of PPM system, combined with Time Hopping Spread Spectrum (THSS) multiple access technique is evaluated in an asynchronous multiple access free space environment. The multiple access interference is first assumed to be a zero mean Gaussian random process to simulate the scenario of a multi user environment. An exact BER calculation is then evaluated based on the characteristic function (CF) method, for Time Hopping-Pulse Position Modulation Ultra Wide Band (TH-PPM UWB) systems with multiple access interference (MAI) in AWGN environment. The resulting analytical expression is then used to assess the accuracy of the MAI Gaussian Approximation (GA) first assumed. The GA is shown to be inaccurate for predicting BERs for medium and large signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) values. Furthermore, the analysis of TH-PPM system is further extended to evaluate the influence of changing and optimising some of the system or signal parameters. It can be shown how the system is greatly sensitive to variations in some signal parameters, like the pulse shape, the time-shift parameter associated with PPM, and the pulse length. In addition, the system performance can be greatly improved by optimising other system parameters like the number of pulses per bit, Ns, and the number of time slots per frame, Nh. All these evaluation are addressed through numerical examples. Then, we can say that, by improving signal or system parameters, the BER performance of the system is greatly enhanced. This is achieved without imposing exact complexity to the transceiver and with moderate computational calculations

Performance Enhancement of Ultra Wideband WPAN using Narrowband Interference Mitigation Techniques

A new promising technique adopted by 4G community is ultra-wideband technology, which offers a solution for high bandwidth, high data rate, low cost, low power consumption, position location capability etc. A conventional type of UWB communication is impulse radio, where very short transient pulses are transmitted rather than a modulated carrier. Consequently, the spectrum is spread over several GHz, complying with the definition of UWB. Currently, the Rake receiver used for spread spectrum is considered a very promising candidate for UWB reception, due to its capability of collecting multipath components. Since UWB signals occupy such a large bandwidth, they operate as an overlay system with other existing narrowband (NB) radio systems overlapping with their bands. In order to ensure a robust communication link, the issue of coexistence and interference of UWB systems with current indoor wireless systems must be considered. Ultra Wideband technology with its application, advantages and disadvantages are discussed in detail. Design of UWB short pulse and a detail study IEEE 802.15.3a UWB channel models statistical characteristics have been analyzed through simulation. Simulation studies are performed and improved techniques are suggested for interference reduction in both Impulse Radio based UWB and Transmitted Reference type of UWB system. Modified TR-UWB receiver with UWB pulse design at transmitter end and notch filtering at receiver’s front end proved to be more efficient in single NBI, multiple NBI and WBI suppression. Extensive simulation studies to support the efficacy of the proposed schemes are carried out in the MATLAB. Bit error rate (BER) performance study for different data rates over different UWB channel models are also analyzed using proposed receiver models. Performance improvement of TR-UWB system is noticed using the proposed techniques

A General Framework for Analyzing, Characterizing, and Implementing Spectrally Modulated, Spectrally Encoded Signals

Fourth generation (4G) communications will support many capabilities while providing universal, high speed access. One potential enabler for these capabilities is software defined radio (SDR). When controlled by cognitive radio (CR) principles, the required waveform diversity is achieved via a synergistic union called CR-based SDR. Research is rapidly progressing in SDR hardware and software venues, but current CR-based SDR research lacks the theoretical foundation and analytic framework to permit efficient implementation. This limitation is addressed here by introducing a general framework for analyzing, characterizing, and implementing spectrally modulated, spectrally encoded (SMSE) signals within CR-based SDR architectures. Given orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a 4G candidate signal, OFDM-based signals are collectively classified as SMSE since modulation and encoding are spectrally applied. The proposed framework provides analytic commonality and unification of SMSE signals. Applicability is first shown for candidate 4G signals, and resultant analytic expressions agree with published results. Implementability is then demonstrated in multiple coexistence scenarios via modeling and simulation to reinforce practical utility

Modelling and characterisation of antennas and propagation for body-centric wireless communication

PhDBody-Centric Wireless Communication (BCWC) is a central point in the development of fourth generation mobile communications. The continuous miniaturisation of sensors, in addition to the advancement in wearable electronics, embedded software, digital signal processing and biomedical technologies, have led to a new concept of usercentric networks, where devices can be carried in the user’s pockets, attached to the user’s body or even implanted. Body-centric wireless networks take their place within the personal area networks, body area networks and body sensor networks which are all emerging technologies that have a broad range of applications such as healthcare and personal entertainment. The major difference between BCWC and conventional wireless systems is the radio channel over which the communication takes place. The human body is a hostile environment from radio propagation perspective and it is therefore important to understand and characterise the effect of the human body on the antenna elements, the radio channel parameters and hence the system performance. This is presented and highlighted in the thesis through a combination of experimental and electromagnetic numerical investigations, with a particular emphasis to the numerical analysis based on the finite-difference time-domain technique. The presented research work encapsulates the characteristics of the narrowband (2.4 GHz) and ultra wide-band (3-10 GHz) on-body radio channels with respect to different digital phantoms, body postures, and antenna types hence highlighting the effect of subject-specific modelling, static and dynamic environments and antenna performance on the overall body-centric network. The investigations covered extend further to include in-body communications where the radio channel for telemetry with medical implants is also analysed by considering the effect of different digital phantoms on the radio channel characteristics. The study supports the significance of developing powerful and reliable numerical modelling to be used in conjunction with measurement campaigns for a comprehensive understanding of the radio channel in body-centric wireless communication. It also emphasises the importance of considering subject-specific electromagnetic modelling to provide a reliable prediction of the network performance

An improved channel model for medical body area network device testing

For testing and validation of medical body area network devices the knowledge of the wireless channel is very crucial. Although this could be implemented by utilizing existing BAN channel models, their restriction to specific device usage scenarios and environments make them less appropriate. For this purpose, this thesis presents a methodology for an MBAN device testing by developing an improved channel model, which accounts for a room size and use case variability. The improved channel model is based on channel sounding, over the frequency band from 2.3 GHz to 2.5 GHz, performed for five different use cases defined based on body posture, movement, and orientation. In order to study the room size effect, the measurements have been carried out in three different office rooms and an anechoic chamber. The proposed channel model is composed of three components, which are modeled separately: the mean path loss, body shadowing, and multipath fading. The mean path loss is modeled as a distance log function, while the body shadowing is modeled statistically by a lognormal distribution, and the multipath fading by a Rician distribution. The impact of room size is mainly notified in the Rician K-factor value; whereas the effect of movement is notified in the lognormal parameter. Furthermore, the effect of body orientation and posture is represented in the path loss model parameters

Detection of PPM-UWB random signals

This paper focuses on the symbol detection problem of random pulse-position modulation (PPM) ultrawideband (UWB) signals in the absence of interframe interference. Particular attention is devoted to severely time-varying channels where optimal detectors are proposed for both uncorrelated and correlated scattering scenarios. This is done by assuming the received waveforms to be unknown parameters. In UWB communication systems, the assumption of unknown random waveforms is consistent with the fact that the received waveform has very little resemblance with the original transmitted pulse. In order to circumvent this limitation, a conditional approach is presented herein by compressing the likelihood ratio test with the information regarding the second-order moments of the end-to-end channel response. Both full-rank and rank-one detectors are derived. For the reduced complexity rank-one detector, an iterative procedure is presented that maximizes the J-divergence between the hypotheses to be tested. Finally, simulation results are provided to compare the performance of the proposed detectors in different propagation environments.Peer Reviewe

On-Body Channel Measurement Using Wireless Sensors

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Exact modeling of multiple access interference, ber derivation and a method to improve the performance of UWB communication systems

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