Distributed Quasi-Orthogonal Space-Time coding in wireless cooperative relay networks

Cooperative diversity provides a new paradigm in robust wireless re- lay networks that leverages Space-Time (ST) processing techniques to combat the effects of fading. Distributing the encoding over multiple relays that potentially observe uncorrelated channels to a destination terminal has demonstrated promising results in extending range, data- rates and transmit power utilization. Specifically, Space Time Block Codes (STBCs) based on orthogonal designs have proven extremely popular at exploiting spatial diversity through simple distributed pro- cessing without channel knowledge at the relaying terminals. This thesis aims at extending further the extensive design and analysis in relay networks based on orthogonal designs in the context of Quasi- Orthogonal Space Time Block Codes (QOSTBCs). The characterization of Quasi-Orthogonal MIMO channels for cooper- ative networks is performed under Ergodic and Non-Ergodic channel conditions. Specific to cooperative diversity, the sub-channels are as- sumed to observe different shadowing conditions as opposed to the traditional co-located communication system. Under Ergodic chan- nel assumptions novel closed-form solutions for cooperative channel capacity under the constraint of distributed-QOSTBC processing are presented. This analysis is extended to yield closed-form approx- imate expressions and their utility is verified through simulations. The effective use of partial feedback to orthogonalize the QOSTBC is examined and significant gains under specific channel conditions are demonstrated. Distributed systems cooperating over the network introduce chal- lenges in synchronization. Without extensive network management it is difficult to synchronize all the nodes participating in the relaying between source and destination terminals. Based on QOSTBC tech- niques simple encoding strategies are introduced that provide compa- rable throughput to schemes under synchronous conditions with neg- ligible overhead in processing throughout the protocol. Both mutli- carrier and single-carrier schemes are developed to enable the flexi- bility to limit Peak-to-Average-Power-Ratio (PAPR) and reduce the Radio Frequency (RF) requirements of the relaying terminals. The insights gained in asynchronous design in flat-fading cooperative channels are then extended to broadband networks over frequency- selective channels where the novel application of QOSTBCs are used in distributed-Space-Time-Frequency (STF) coding. Specifically, cod- ing schemes are presented that extract both spatial and mutli-path diversity offered by the cooperative Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) channel. To provide maximum flexibility the proposed schemes are adapted to facilitate both Decode-and-Forward (DF) and Amplify- and-Forward (AF) relaying. In-depth Pairwise-Error-Probability (PEP) analysis provides distinct design specifications which tailor the distributed- STF code to maximize the diversity and coding gain offered under the DF and AF protocols. Numerical simulation are used extensively to confirm the validity of the proposed cooperative schemes. The analytical and numerical re- sults demonstrate the effective use of QOSTBC over orthogonal tech- niques in a wide range of channel conditions

Link Quality Control Mechanism for Selective and Opportunistic AF Relaying in Cooperative ARQs: A MLSD Perspective

Incorporating relaying techniques into Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) mechanisms gives a general impression of diversity and throughput enhancements. Allowing overhearing among multiple relays is also a known approach to increase the number of participating relays in ARQs. However, when opportunistic amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying is applied to cooperative ARQs, the system design becomes nontrivial and even involved. Based on outage analysis, the spatial and temporal diversities are first found sensitive to the received signal qualities of relays, and a link quality control mechanism is then developed to prescreen candidate relays in order to explore the diversity of cooperative ARQs with a selective and opportunistic AF (SOAF) relaying method. According to the analysis, the temporal and spatial diversities can be fully exploited if proper thresholds are set for each hop along the relaying routes. The SOAF relaying method is further examined from a packet delivery viewpoint. By the principle of the maximum likelihood sequence detection (MLSD), sufficient conditions on the link quality are established for the proposed SOAF-relaying-based ARQ scheme to attain its potential diversity order in the packet error rates (PERs) of MLSD. The conditions depend on the minimum codeword distance and the average signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Furthermore, from a heuristic viewpoint, we also develop a threshold searching algorithm for the proposed SOAF relaying and link quality method to exploit both the diversity and the SNR gains in PER. The effectiveness of the proposed thresholding mechanism is verified via simulations with trellis codes.Comment: This paper has been withdrawn by the authors due to an improper proof for Theorem 2. To avoid a misleading understanding, we thus decide to withdraw this pape

The Approximate Capacity Region of the Gaussian Z-Interference Channel with Conferencing Encoders

A two-user Gaussian Z-Interference Channel (GZIC) is considered, in which encoders are connected through noiseless links with finite capacities. In this setting, prior to each transmission block the encoders communicate with each other over the cooperative links. The capacity region and the sum-capacity of the channel are characterized within 1.71 bits per user and 2 bits in total, respectively. It is also established that properly sharing the total limited cooperation capacity between the cooperative links may enhance the achievable region, even when compared to the case of unidirectional transmitter cooperation with infinite cooperation capacity. To obtain the results, genie-aided upper bounds on the sum-capacity and cut-set bounds on the individual rates are compared with the achievable rate region. In the interference-limited regime, the achievable scheme enjoys a simple type of Han-Kobayashi signaling, together with the zero-forcing, and basic relaying techniques. In the noise-limited regime, it is shown that treating interference as noise achieves the capacity region up to a single bit per user.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Theor

Cooperative Symbol-Based Signaling for Networks with Multiple Relays

Wireless channels suffer from severe inherent impairments and hence reliable and high data rate wireless transmission is particularly challenging to achieve. Fortunately, using multiple antennae improves performance in wireless transmission by providing space diversity, spatial multiplexing, and power gains. However, in wireless ad-hoc networks multiple antennae may not be acceptable due to limitations in size, cost, and hardware complexity. As a result, cooperative relaying strategies have attracted considerable attention because of their abilities to take advantage of multi-antenna by using multiple single-antenna relays. This study is to explore cooperative signaling for different relay networks, such as multi-hop relay networks formed by multiple single-antenna relays and multi-stage relay networks formed by multiple relaying stages with each stage holding several single-antenna relays. The main contribution of this study is the development of a new relaying scheme for networks using symbol-level modulation, such as binary phase shift keying (BPSK) and quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK). We also analyze effects of this newly developed scheme when it is used with space-time coding in a multi-stage relay network. Simulation results demonstrate that the new scheme outperforms previously proposed schemes: amplify-and-forward (AF) scheme and decode-and-forward (DF) scheme

Detect-and-forward relaying aided cooperative spatial modulation for wireless networks

A novel detect-and-forward (DeF) relaying aided cooperative SM scheme is proposed, which is capable of striking a flexible tradeoff in terms of the achievable bit error ratio (BER), complexity and unequal error protection (UEP). More specifically, SM is invoked at the source node (SN) and the information bit stream is divided into two different sets: the antenna index-bits (AI-bits) as well as the amplitude and phase modulation-bits (APM-bits). By exploiting the different importance of the AI-bits and the APM-bits in SM detection, we propose three low-complexity, yet powerful relay protocols, namely the partial, the hybrid and the hierarchical modulation (HM) based DeF relaying schemes. These schemes determine the most appropriate number of bits to be re-modulated by carefully considering their potential benefits and then assigning a specific modulation scheme for relaying the message. As a further benefit, the employment of multiple radio frequency (RF) chains and the requirement of tight inter-relay synchronization (IRS) can be avoided. Moreover, by exploiting the benefits of our low-complexity relaying protocols and our inter-element interference (IEI) model, a low-complexity maximum-likelihood (ML) detector is proposed for jointly detecting the signal received both via the source-destination (SD) and relay-destination (RD) links. Additionally, an upper bound of the BER is derived for our DeF-SM scheme. Our numerical results show that the bound is asymptotically tight in the high-SNR region and the proposed schemes provide beneficial system performance improvements compared to the conventional MIMO schemes in an identical cooperative scenario.<br/