Degrees of Freedom of the 3-User Rank-Deficient MIMO Interference Channel

We provide the degrees of freedom (DoF) characterization for the $3$-user $M_T\times M_R$ multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) interference channel (IC) with \emph{rank-deficient} channel matrices, where each transmitter is equipped with $M_T$ antennas and each receiver with $M_R$ antennas, and the interfering channel matrices from each transmitter to the other two receivers are of ranks $D_1$ and $D_2$, respectively. One important intermediate step for both the converse and achievability arguments is to convert the fully-connected rank-deficient channel into an equivalent partially-connected full-rank MIMO-IC by invertible linear transformations. As such, existing techniques developed for full-rank MIMO-IC can be incorporated to derive the DoF outer and inner bounds for the rank-deficient case. Our result shows that when the interfering links are weak in terms of the channel ranks, i.e., $D_1+D_2\leq \min(M_T, M_R)$, zero forcing is sufficient to achieve the optimal DoF. On the other hand, when $D_1+D_2> \min(M_T, M_R)$, a combination of zero forcing and interference alignment is in general required for DoF optimality. The DoF characterization obtained in this paper unifies several existing results in the literature.Comment: 28 pages, 7 figures. To appear in IEEE transactions on wireless communication

Cognitive Orthogonal Precoder for Two-tiered Networks Deployment

In this work, the problem of cross-tier interference in a two-tiered (macro-cell and cognitive small-cells) network, under the complete spectrum sharing paradigm, is studied. A new orthogonal precoder transmit scheme for the small base stations, called multi-user Vandermonde-subspace frequency division multiplexing (MU-VFDM), is proposed. MU-VFDM allows several cognitive small base stations to coexist with legacy macro-cell receivers, by nulling the small- to macro-cell cross-tier interference, without any cooperation between the two tiers. This cleverly designed cascaded precoder structure, not only cancels the cross-tier interference, but avoids the co-tier interference for the small-cell network. The achievable sum-rate of the small-cell network, satisfying the interference cancelation requirements, is evaluated for perfect and imperfect channel state information at the transmitter. Simulation results for the cascaded MU-VFDM precoder show a comparable performance to that of state-of-the-art dirty paper coding technique, for the case of a dense cellular layout. Finally, a comparison between MU-VFDM and a standard complete spectrum separation strategy is proposed. Promising gains in terms of achievable sum-rate are shown for the two-tiered network w.r.t. the traditional bandwidth management approach.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, accepted and to appear in IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications: Cognitive Radio Series, 2013. Copyright transferred to IEE

A Non-Orthogonal Multiple-Access Scheme Using Reliable Physical-Layer Network Coding and Cascade-Computation Decoding

© 2017 IEEE. This paper studies non-orthogonal transmission over a K -user fading multiple access channel. We propose a new reliable physical-layer network coding and cascade-computation decoding scheme. In the proposed scheme, K single-antenna users encode their messages by the same practical channel code and QAM modulation, and transmit simultaneously. The receiver chooses K linear coefficient vectors and computes the associated K layers of finite-field linear message combinations in a cascade manner. Finally, the K users' messages are recovered by solving the K linear equations. The proposed can be regarded as a generalized onion peeling. We study the optimal network coding coefficient vectors used in the cascade computation. Numerical results show the performance of the proposed approaches that of the iterative maximum a posteriori probability detection and decoding scheme, but without using receiver iteration. This results in considerable complexity reduction, processing delay, and easier implementation. Our proposed scheme significantly outperforms the iterative detection and decoding scheme with a single iteration, for example, by 1.7 dB for the two user case. The proposed scheme provides a competitive solution for non-orthogonal multiple access

Improving Macrocell - Small Cell Coexistence through Adaptive Interference Draining

The deployment of underlay small base stations (SBSs) is expected to significantly boost the spectrum efficiency and the coverage of next-generation cellular networks. However, the coexistence of SBSs underlaid to an existing macro-cellular network faces important challenges, notably in terms of spectrum sharing and interference management. In this paper, we propose a novel game-theoretic model that enables the SBSs to optimize their transmission rates by making decisions on the resource occupation jointly in the frequency and spatial domains. This procedure, known as interference draining, is performed among cooperative SBSs and allows to drastically reduce the interference experienced by both macro- and small cell users. At the macrocell side, we consider a modified water-filling policy for the power allocation that allows each macrocell user (MUE) to focus the transmissions on the degrees of freedom over which the MUE experiences the best channel and interference conditions. This approach not only represents an effective way to decrease the received interference at the MUEs but also grants the SBSs tier additional transmission opportunities and allows for a more agile interference management. Simulation results show that the proposed approach yields significant gains at both macrocell and small cell tiers, in terms of average achievable rate per user, reaching up to 37%, relative to the non-cooperative case, for a network with 150 MUEs and 200 SBSs

Vandermonde-subspace Frequency Division Multiplexing for Two-Tiered Cognitive Radio Networks

Vandermonde-subspace frequency division multiplexing (VFDM) is an overlay spectrum sharing technique for cognitive radio. VFDM makes use of a precoder based on a Vandermonde structure to transmit information over a secondary system, while keeping an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based primary system interference-free. To do so, VFDM exploits frequency selectivity and the use of cyclic prefixes by the primary system. Herein, a global view of VFDM is presented, including also practical aspects such as linear receivers and the impact of channel estimation. We show that VFDM provides a spectral efficiency increase of up to 1 bps/Hz over cognitive radio systems based on unused band detection. We also present some key design parameters for its future implementation and a feasible channel estimation protocol. Finally we show that, even when some of the theoretical assumptions are relaxed, VFDM provides non-negligible rates while protecting the primary system.Comment: 9 pages, accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Communication