Compensation of biased excitation effects for MLS-based nonlinear systems' identification

MLS-based identification of nonlinear systems is largely affected by deviations in the excitation signal amenable to the combined effect of DC-offset and an arbitrary gain. These induce orthogonality loss in the MLS filter bank output, thus invalidating the underlying identification construction. In this paper we present a correction algorithm to derive the corrected Volterra kernels from the biased estimations provided by the standard MLS-based procedure

M-sequence-based ultra-wideband sensor network for vitality monitoring of elders at home

Abstract: The western societies are increasingly faced with the challenges of enabling a self-determined and safe life for a growing number of elderly people. Remote monitoring of vitality is an important tool for health risk mitigation but many of the current methods either deliver only infrequent information or require conscious cooperation of the senior. The authors propose an ultrawideband (UWB) radio sensor network based on M-sequence technology specifically designed for the vitality monitoring of persons living alone. It uses the frequency band in the range from 6 to 8.5 GHz (electronic communications committee (ECC)-band), and provides precise localisation, captures breathing motion during rests, can be used for fall detection and allows the extraction of gait features. The sensor network can be installed in common living spaces. It operates continuously in the background without any user interaction. Vitality monitoring by radar sensors is based on motion detection and tracking. This poses some challenges to radar devices because of the harsh multi-path conditions in apartments. This study discusses these challenges, illustrates how to meet them and gives examples for vitality features which can be extracted from UWB-radar data

Mixed-numerology for radio access network slicing

Network slicing is a sustainable solution to support the various service types in future networks. In general, network slicing is composed of core network slicing and radio access network (RAN) slicing. The former can be realized by allocating dedicated virtualized core network functionalities to specific slices. Similarly, RAN slicing includes the virtualization and allocation of the limited RAN resources. From the physical layer perspective, supporting RAN slicing implies the need of unique radio-frequency (RF) and baseband (BB) configurations, i.e., numerology, for each slice to fulfil its quality of service requirements. To support such a heterogeneous mixed-numerology (MN) system, the transceiver architecture and widely used signal processing algorithms in the traditional single-service system need to be significantly changed. A clear understanding of mixed-numerology signals multiplexing and isolation is of importance to enable spectrum and computation efficient RAN slicing. Meanwhile, an effective channel estimation is the guarantee of performing almost all receiver signal processing. Fundamental channel estimation investigations also constitute a crucial piece of MN study. This thesis aims to systematically investigate the OFDM-based MN wireless communication systems in terms of system modeling, channel equalization/ estimation, and power allocation. First, a comprehensive mixed-numerology framework with two numerologies is proposed and characterized by physical layer parameters. According to the BB and RF configurations imparities among numerologies, four scenarios are categorized and elaborated on the configuration relationships of different numerologies. System models considering the most generic scenario are established for both uplink and downlink transmissions. Two theorems are proposed as the basis of MN algorithms design, which generalize the original circular convolution property of the discrete Fourier transform. The proposed theorems verifies the feasibility of the one-tap channel equalization in MN systems. However, they also indicate that both BB and RF configuration differences result in inter-numerology-interference (INI). Besides, severe signal distortion may occur when the transmitter and receiver numerologies are different. Therefore, a pre-coding algorithm is designed by utilizing the theorems to compensate the system degradation resulting from the signal distortion. INI cancellation algorithms are proposed based on collaboration detection scheme and joint numerologies signal models for downlink and uplink, respectively. Numerical results shows that the proposed algorithms are able to significantly improve the system performance. Another objective of this thesis is to verify the effectiveness of the existing channel estimation algorithms and to develop new ones in the presence of MN. To achieve these goals, three channel estimation methods, i.e., least-square linear interpolation, least-square ‘sinc’ interpolation, and minimum mean square error ‘sinc’ interpolation are implemented and theoretically analyzed in both single-user and multi-user scenarios. The analysis reveals that the pilot signal to noise ratio, pilot distance, and position of pilot signals jointly affect the channel estimation. In particular, a signal distortion factor caused by the RF configuration difference is spotted to seriously affect the channel estimation performance, whose values are mainly decided by the degree of configuration mismatch. On the other hand, INI also degrades the channel estimation in the MN system. The existence of interference-free subcarriers is demonstrated based on the derived closed-form expression of the INI. Pilot design principles in terms of pilot signal placement are developed according to the analyses. Numerical results shows that minimum mean square error based channel estimation has the best performance and robustness to the configuration mismatch. In addition, the proposed pilot design principles could produce comparable channel estimation results with the legacy OFDM systems where no INI and signal distortion exist. The two problems associated with the MN system, i.e., signal distortion and INI, could negatively affect the power distribution of the received MN signals, and the system performance in terms of spectrum efficiency may be seriously degraded. Consequently, it becomes outstandingly important to introduce an efficient subcarrier-level power allocation scheme in such kinds of systems to counter the performance degradation caused by the configuration mismatch. As such, this thesis makes the attempt to extend the two-numerology model to contain ‘M’ different numerologies. Based on the model, closed-form expressions of desired signal, interference, and noise are derived. The derivation shows that interference generated from different numeroloies are linearly superimposed in the frequency domain. The distribution of signal-to-interference-plus-noiseratio (SINR) is analyzed theoretically. An iterative convex approximation power allocation algorithm is proposed by applying the derived SINR. Results show that the power allocation algorithm contributes to remarkable spectrum efficiency improvement compare to the other schemes, and an extra subband filtering process could bring about even higher performance. The work presented in this thesis provides guidance for multi-numerology system design in terms of parameter selection, and the frame structure and algorithms design. Moreover, it presents a solution as to how the radio access network slicing can be underpinned in the physical layer in a spectrum efficient way

Acoustic Measurement of Snow

Instrumentation commonly used to measure snowpack stratigraphy, snow density, Snow Water Equivalent (SWE), temperature and liquid water content is usually invasive and requires disruption of the snowpack. Most measurement techniques modify the snow medium and more than one sample cannot be taken at the same location. This does not permit continuous monitoring of these parameters using a single measurement instrument. An acoustic wave sent into the snowpack was used to measure snow. To provide the theory required to make acoustic measurements, the Biot-Stoll model of sound wave propagation in porous media was modified using a mixture theory so that it was applicable to a multiphase porous medium. The combined model is called the Unified Thermoacoustic Model (UTAM) for snow. An acoustic measurement device, the System for the Acoustic Sensing of Snow (SAS2), was designed to send sound waves into snow and to receive the reflected sound waves using a loudspeaker and a microphone array. A stationary version of the SAS2 was deployed on a met station and a portable version of the SAS2 was placed on a roving ski-based platform. The systems were deployed at field sites in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, Alberta. The results showed that the SAS2 was able to measure snow density, temperature, and liquid water content and serve as a replacement technology for snowtube and snowpit measurements. Snow density was estimated more accurately by the SAS2 than from commonly-used snow tube techniques

Modulation and detection schemes based on chaotic attractors properties : application to wideband transmissions

Au cours des vingt dernières années, les systèmes de communications basés sur le chaos ont été étudiés, avec pour objectif la possibilité de générer les signaux large-bande par des circuits électroniques simples, permettant une faible complexité des circuits émetteurs-récepteurs. Cette thèse concerne l’étude de systèmes de transmissions large-bande basés sur le chaos, en utilisant certaines propriétés des attracteurs chaotiques. Tout d’abord, un système dynamique a été choisi et étudié, permettant de générer des signaux chaotiques qui possèdent des composantes périodiques. L’analyse de ces attracteurs chaotiques cycliques (CCA) met en évidence des propriétés spécifiques en lien avec leur période. Ensuite, deux schémas de modulation basés sur les CCAs sont proposés. Les détections non-cohérentes associées sont réalisées par l’observation des propriétés spécifiques des signaux rec¸us. L’évaluation des performances des systèmes basés sur les CCAs dans le cas d’un canal de bruit additif Gaussien montre des performances meilleures que celles des systèmes dits ”differential chaos shift keying (DCSK)”, en bas débit de symboles. En outre, les performances dans le cas multi-trajet sont comparables dans la bande de 2,4 GHz. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the past twenty years, chaos-based communication systems have been studied, considering the possibility of generating wideband signals by simple electronic circuits, hence low complexity in transceiver. The aim of this thesis is to study the chaos-based wideband transmission systems relying on the properties of chaotic attractors. Firstly, a dynamical system is selected and studied, allowing to generate the chaotic signals with a periodic component. The analysis of such chaotic cyclic attractors (CCA) shows the specific properties. Then, two CCA-based modulation schemes are proposed, with the simple noncoherent detections realized by observing the specific properties of the received signals. The performance evaluation of CCA-based systems in the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel shows a better noise performance with long symbol duration, compared to the one of differentially chaos shift keying (DCSK). In addition, they have a comparable multipath performance in the 2.4 GHz ISM environmen