Design guidelines for spatial modulation

A new class of low-complexity, yet energyefficient Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) transmission techniques, namely the family of Spatial Modulation (SM) aided MIMOs (SM-MIMO) has emerged. These systems are capable of exploiting the spatial dimensions (i.e. the antenna indices) as an additional dimension invoked for transmitting information, apart from the traditional Amplitude and Phase Modulation (APM). SM is capable of efficiently operating in diverse MIMO configurations in the context of future communication systems. It constitutes a promising transmission candidate for large-scale MIMO design and for the indoor optical wireless communication whilst relying on a single-Radio Frequency (RF) chain. Moreover, SM may also be viewed as an entirely new hybrid modulation scheme, which is still in its infancy. This paper aims for providing a general survey of the SM design framework as well as of its intrinsic limits. In particular, we focus our attention on the associated transceiver design, on spatial constellation optimization, on link adaptation techniques, on distributed/ cooperative protocol design issues, and on their meritorious variants

A virtual MIMO dual-hop architecture based on hybrid spatial modulation

International audienceIn this paper, we propose a novel Virtual Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (VMIMO) architecture based on the concept of Spatial Modulation (SM). Using a dual-hop and Decode-and-Forward protocol, we form a distributed system, called Dual-Hop Hybrid SM (DH-HSM). DH-HSM conveys information from a Source Node (SN) to a Destination Node (DN) via multiple Relay Nodes (RNs). The spatial position of the RNs is exploited for transferring information in addition to, or even without, a conventional symbol. In order to increase the performance of our architecture, while keeping the complexity of the RNs and DN low, we employ linear precoding using Channel State Information (CSI) at the SN. In this way, we form a Receive-Spatial Modulation (R-SM) pattern from the SN to the RNs, which is able to employ a centralized coordinated or a distributed uncoordinated detection algorithm at the RNs. In addition, we focus on the SN and propose two regularized linear precoding methods that employ realistic Imperfect Channel State Information at the Transmitter. The power of each precoder is analyzed theoretically. Using the Bit Error Rate (BER) metric, we evaluate our architecture against the following benchmark systems: 1) single relay; 2) best relay selection; 3) distributed Space Time Block Coding (STBC) VMIMO scheme; and 4) the direct communication link. We show that DH-HSM is able to achieve significant Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) gains, which can be as high as 10.5 dB for a very large scale system setup. In order to verify our simulation results, we provide an analytical framework for the evaluation of the Average Bit Error Probability (ABEP)

Signal design for Multiple-Antenna Systems and Wireless Networks

This dissertation is concerned with the signal design problems for Multiple Input and Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna systems and wireless networks. Three related but distinct problems are considered.The first problem considered is the design of space time codes for MIMO systems in the case when neither the transmitter nor the receiver knows the channel. We present the theoretical concept of communicating over block fading channel using Layered Unitary Space Time Codes (LUSTC), where the input signal is formed as a product of a series of unitary matrices with corresponding dimensionality. We show the channel capacity using isotropically distributed (i.d.) input signaling and optimal decoding can be achieved by layered i.d. signaling scheme along with a low complexity successive decoding. The closed form layered channel capacity is obtained, which serves as a design guideline for practical LUSTC. In the design of LUSTC, a successive design method is applied to leverage the problem of optimizing over lots of parameters.The feedback of channel state information (CSI) to the transmitter in MIMO systems is known to increase the forward channel capacity. A suboptimal power allocation scheme for MIMO systems is then proposed for limited rate feedback of CSI. We find that the capacity loss of this simple scheme is rather small compared to the optimal water-filling solution. This knowledge is applied for the design of the feedback codebook. In the codebook design, a generalized Lloyd algorithm is employed, in which the computation of the centroid is formulated as an optimization problem and solved optimally. Numerical results show that the proposed codebook design outperforms the existing algorithms in the literature.While it is not feasible to deploy multiple antennas in a wireless node due to the space limitation, user cooperation is an alternative to increase performance of the wireless networks. To this end, a coded user cooperation scheme is considered in the dissertation, which is shown to be equivalent to a coding scheme with the encoding done in a distributive manner. Utilizing the coding theoretic bound and simulation results, we show that the coded user cooperation scheme has great advantage over the non-cooperative scheme

Adaptive Communication for Wireless Massive MIMO Systems

The demand for high data rates in wireless communications is increasing rapidly. One way to provide reliable communication with increased rates is massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems where a large number of antennas is deployed. We analyze three systems utilizing a large number of antennas to provide enhancement in the performance of wireless communications. First, we consider a general form of spatial modulation (SM) systems where the number of transmitted data streams is allowed to vary and we refer to it as generalized spatial modulation with multiplexing (GSMM). A Gaussian mixture model (GMM) is shown to accurately model the transmitted spatially modulated signal using a precoding framework. Using this transmit model, a general closed-form expression for the achievable rate when operating over Rayleigh fading channels is evaluated along with a tight upper and a lower bounds for the achievable rate. The obtained expressions are flexible enough to accommodate any form of SM by adjusting the precoding set. Followed by that, we study quantized distributed wireless relay networks where a relay consisting of many geographically dispersed nodes is facilitating communication between unconnected users. Due to bandwidth constraints, distributed relay networks perform quantization at the relay nodes, and hence they are referred to as quantized distributed relay networks. In such systems, users transmit their data simultaneously to the relay nodes through the uplink channel that quantize their observed signals independently to a few bits and broadcast these bits to the users through the downlink channel. We develop algorithms that can be employed by the users to estimate the uplink channels between all users and all relay nodes when the relay nodes are performing simple sign quantization. This setup is very useful in either extending coverage to unconnected regions or replacing the existing wireless infrastructure in case of disasters. Using the uplink channel estimates, we propose multiple decoders that can be deployed at the receiver side. We also study the performance of each of these decoders under different system assumptions. A different quantization framework is also proposed for quantized distributed relay networking where the relay nodes perform vector quantization instead of sign quantization. Applying vector quantization at the relay nodes enables us to propose an algorithm that allocates quantization resources efficiently among the relay nodes inside the relay network. We also study the beamforming design at the users’ side in this case where beamforming design is not trivial due to the quantization that occurs at the relay network. Finally, we study a different setup of distributed communication systems called cell-free massive MIMO. In cell-free massive MIMO, regular cellular communication is replaced by multiple access points (APs) that are placed randomly over the coverage area. All users in the coverage area are sharing time and frequency resources and all APs are serving all UEs while power allocation is done in a central processor that is connected to the APs through a high speed backhaul network. We study the power allocation in cell-free massive MIMO system where APs are equipped with few antennas and how the distribution of the available antennas among access points affects both the performance and the infrastructure cost

Collaborative modulation multiple access for single hop and multihop networks

While the bandwidth available for wireless networks is limited, the world has seen an unprecedented growth in the number of mobile subscribers and an ever increasing demand for high data rates. Therefore efficient utilisation of bandwidth to maximise link spectral efficiency and number of users that can be served simultaneously are primary goals in the design of wireless systems. To achieve these goals, in this thesis, a new non-orthogonal uplink multiple access scheme which combines the functionalities of adaptive modulation and multiple access called collaborative modulation multiple access (CMMA) is proposed. CMMA enables multiple users to access the network simultaneously and share the same bandwidth even when only a single receive antenna is available and in the presence of high channel correlation. Instead of competing for resources, users in CMMA share resources collaboratively by employing unique modulation sets (UMS) that differ in phase, power, and/or mapping structure. These UMS are designed to insure that the received signal formed from the superposition of all users’ signals belongs to a composite QAM constellation (CC) with a rate equal to the sum rate of all users. The CC and its constituent UMSs are designed centrally at the BS to remove ambiguity, maximize the minimum Euclidian distance (dmin) of the CC and insure a minimum BER performance is maintained. Users collaboratively precode their transmitted signal by performing truncated channel inversion and phase rotation using channel state information (CSI ) obtained from a periodic common pilot to insure that their combined signal at the BS belongs to the CC known at the BS which in turn performs a simple joint maximum likelihood detection without the need for CSI. The coherent addition of users’ power enables CMMA to achieve high link spectral efficiency at any time without extra power or bandwidth but on the expense of graceful degradation in BER performance. To improve the BER performance of CMMA while preserving its precoding and detection structure and without the need for pilot-aided channel estimation, a new selective diversity combining scheme called SC-CMMA is proposed. SC-CMMA optimises the overall group performance providing fairness and diversity gain for various users with different transmit powers and channel conditions by selecting a single antenna out of a group of L available antennas that minimises the total transmit power required for precoding at any one time. A detailed study of capacity and BER performance of CMMA and SC-CMMA is carried out under different level of channel correlations which shows that both offer high capacity gain and resilience to channel correlation. SC-CMMA capacity even increase with high channel correlation between users’ channels. CMMA provides a practical solution for implementing the multiple access adder channel (MAAC) in fading environments hence a hybrid approach combining both collaborative coding and modulation referred to as H-CMMA is investigated. H-CMMA divides users into a number of subgroups where users within a subgroup are assigned the same modulation set and different multiple access codes. H-CMMA adjusts the dmin of the received CC by varying the number of subgroups which in turn varies the number of unique constellation points for the same number of users and average total power. Therefore H-CMMA can accommodate many users with different rates while flexibly managing the complexity, rate and BER performance depending on the SNR. Next a new scheme combining CMMA with opportunistic scheduling using only partial CSI at the receiver called CMMA-OS is proposed to combine both the power gain of CMMA and the multiuser diversity gain that arises from users’ channel independence. To avoid the complexity and excessive feedback associated with the dynamic update of the CC, the BS takes into account the independence of users’ channels in the design of the CC and its constituent UMSs but both remain unchanged thereafter. However UMS are no longer associated with users, instead channel gain’s probability density function is divided into regions with identical probability and each UMS is associated with a specific region. This will simplify scheduling as users can initially chose their UMS based on their CSI and the BS will only need to resolve any collision when the channels of two or more users are located at the same region. Finally a high rate cooperative communication scheme, called cooperative modulation (CM) is proposed for cooperative multiuser systems. CM combines the reliability of the cooperative diversity with the high spectral efficiency and multiple access capabilities of CMMA. CM maintains low feedback and high spectral efficiency by restricting relaying to a single route with the best overall channel. Two possible variations of CM are proposed depending on whether CSI available only at the users or just at the BS and the selected relay. The first is referred to Precode, Amplify, and Forward (PAF) while the second one is called Decode, Remap, and Forward (DMF). A new route selection algorithm for DMF based on maximising dmin of random CC is also proposed using a novel fast low-complexity multi-stage sphere based algorithm to calculate the dmin at the relay of random CC that is used for both relay selection and detection

Scaling up MIMO: Opportunities and Challenges with Very Large Arrays

This paper surveys recent advances in the area of very large MIMO systems. With very large MIMO, we think of systems that use antenna arrays with an order of magnitude more elements than in systems being built today, say a hundred antennas or more. Very large MIMO entails an unprecedented number of antennas simultaneously serving a much smaller number of terminals. The disparity in number emerges as a desirable operating condition and a practical one as well. The number of terminals that can be simultaneously served is limited, not by the number of antennas, but rather by our inability to acquire channel-state information for an unlimited number of terminals. Larger numbers of terminals can always be accommodated by combining very large MIMO technology with conventional time- and frequency-division multiplexing via OFDM. Very large MIMO arrays is a new research field both in communication theory, propagation, and electronics and represents a paradigm shift in the way of thinking both with regards to theory, systems and implementation. The ultimate vision of very large MIMO systems is that the antenna array would consist of small active antenna units, plugged into an (optical) fieldbus.Comment: Accepted for publication in the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, October 201