ML symbol synchronization for OFDM-based WLANs in unknown frequency-selective fading channels

Based on the maximum-likelihood principle and the preamble structure of IEEE 802.11a WLAN standard, this paper proposes a new symbol synchronization algorithm for IEEE 802.11a WLANs over frequency-selective fading channels. In addition to the physical channel, the effects of filtering and unknown sampling phase offset are also considered. Loss in system performance due to synchronization error is used as a performance criterion. Computer simulations show that the proposed algorithm has comparable performances to the algorithm based on the generalized Akaike information criterion (GAIC), but the proposed algorithm exhibits reduced complexity. © 2004 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Detection of Linear Modulations in the Presence of Strong Phase and Frequency Instabilities

Noncoherent sequence detection algorithms, recently proposed by the authors, have a performance which approaches that of coherent detectors and are robust to phase and frequency instabilities. These schemes exhibit a negligible performance loss in the presence of a frequency offset, provided this offset does not exceed an order of 1 % of the signaling frequency. For higher values, the performance rapidly degrades. In this paper, detection schemes are proposed, characterized by high robustness to frequency offsets and capable of tolerating offset values up to 10 % of the signaling frequency. More generally, these detection schemes are very robust to rapidly varying phase and frequency instabilities. The general case of coded linear modulations is addressed, with explicit reference to-ary phase shift keying and quadrature amplitude modulation

On the use of multiple satellites to improve the spectral efficiency of broadcast transmissions

We consider the use of multiple co-located satellites to improve the spectral efficiency of broadcast transmissions. In particular, we assume that two satellites transmit on overlapping geographical coverage areas, with overlapping frequencies. We first describe the theoretical framework based on network information theory and, in particular, on the theory for multiple access channels. The application to different scenarios will be then considered, including the bandlimited additive white Gaussian noise channel with average power constraint and different models for the nonlinear satellite channel. The comparison with the adoption of frequency division multiplexing (FDM) is also provided. The main conclusion is that a strategy based on overlapped signals is convenient with respect to FDM, although it requires the adoption of a multiuser detection strategy at the receiver

Maximum likelihood sequence detection with closed-form metrics in OOK optical systems impaired by GVD and PMD

This paper thoroughly investigates the maximum-likelihood sequence detection (MLSD) receiver for the optical ON-OFF keying (OOK) channel in the presence of both polarization mode dispersion and group velocity dispersion (GVD). A reliable method is provided for computing the relevant performance for any possible value of the system parameters, with no constraint on the sampling rate. With one sample per bit time, a practically exact expression of the statistics of the received samples is found, and therefore the performance of a synchronous MLSD receiver is evaluated and compared with that of other electronic techniques such as combined feedforward and decision-feedback equalizers (FFE and DFE). It is also shown that the ultimate performance of electronic processing can be obtained by sampling the received signal at twice the bit rate. An approximate accurate closed-form expression of the receiver metrics is also identified, allowing for the implementation of a practically optimal MLSD receiver

Advanced transceivers for spectrally-efficient communications

In this thesis, we will consider techniques to improve the spectral efficiency of digital communication systems, operating on the whole transceiver scheme. First, we will focus on receiver schemes having detection algorithms with a complexity constraint. We will optimize the parameters of the reduced detector with the aim of maximizing the achievable information rate. Namely, we will adopt the channel shortening technique. Then, we will focus on a technique that is getting very popular in the last years (although presented for the first time in 1975): faster-than-Nyquist signaling, and its extension which is time packing. Time packing is a very simple technique that consists in introducing intersymbol interference on purpose with the aim of increasing the spectral efficiency of finite order constellations. Finally, in the last chapters we will combine all the presented techniques, and we will consider their application to satellite channels.Comment: PhD Thesi

Synchronization in all-digital QAM receivers

The recent advance in Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology has been largely embraced by the communication industry, which views this technology as an effective and economical alternative to the design of Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). The primary reasons for switching to FPGAs are lower development and non-recurring engineering costs, the flexibility to design to a preliminary standard and adapt the design as the standard evolves, as well as the option of performing software updates in the field. A sector with strong interest in FPGAs is the coaxial cable TV/Internet distribution industry. The creation of soft preliminary standards by the standards organization governing the industry has been the main catalyst for the massive adoption of FPGAs by small to medium size companies, which see this technology as an opportunity to compete in this open market. Both the circuit speed and the economy of FPGA technology depend upon using algorithms that map efficiently into its fabric. Often it is prudent to sacrifice performance to improve either clock speed or economy when developing with FPGAs. The purpose of this research is to both revise and devise synchronization algorithms / structures for cable digital receivers that are to be implemented in FPGA. The main communication scheme used by the coaxial cable distribution industry is digital Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM). The problem of synchronizing to the QAM signal in the receiver is not a new topic and several synchronization-related circuits, which were devised with ASICs implementation in mind, can be found in the open literature. Of interest in this thesis is the non-data-aided digital timing synchronizer that was proposed by D'Andrea to recover timing with no knowledge of the transmitted data. Accurate timing estimation was achieved by reshaping the received signal with a prefilter prior to estimating the timing. A problem with D'Andrea's synchronizer is that the prefilter for reshaping the signal is a relatively long Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter, whose implementation requires a large number of multipliers. This may not have been an issue with ASICs in as much as the number of hardwired multipliers on a chip is not limited as it is in an FPGA chip. One contribution in this research is to propose an alternative to D'Andrea's synchronizer by replacing the long FIR filter with two single-pole Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) filters that are directly placed inside the timing recovery loop. This novel architecture, which drastically reduces the number of multipliers, is well suited for FPGA implementation. Non-data-aided feedforward synchronizers, which use the same prefilter as D'Andrea's synchronizer, have been receiving significant attention in recent years. Detailed performance analysis for these synchronizers can be found in the open literature. These synchronizers have the advantage of using a feedfordward structure rather than a feedback structure, as it is the case in D'Andrea's synchronizer, to estimate the timing. While D'Andrea's synchronizer has an advantage in performance over a non-data-aided feedforward synchronizer, this has not been reported in the literature. In this thesis a second contribution consists of thoroughly analyzing the steady state timing jitter in D'Andrea synchronizer by deriving a closed-form expression for the noise power spectrum and a simple equation to estimate the timing jitter variance. A third contribution is a novel low-complexity and fast acquisition coherent detector for the detection of Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) (i.e., 4-QAM) symbols. This detector performs carrier phase synchronization much faster than a conventional coherent detector. The acquisition time is comparable to that of a differential detector. The fast acquisition comes at the expense of phase jitter, and the end result is a 1 dB performance loss over theoretical coherent detection. This detector can be used in place of the differential detector with no economic penalty. Doing so yields a performance advantage of about 2 dB over differential detection

Spectrally efficient systems for satellite communications

In questa Tesi verranno proposte tre diverse soluzioni il cui scopo è l'incremento dell'efficienza spettrale nei sistemi satellitari. Per prima cosa, considereremo uno scenario multi-utente a multiplazione di frequenza, che è uno degli scenari inclusi nello standard DVB-RCS. Useremo modulazioni a fase continua (CPM) concatenate serialmente ad un codificatore tramite un interleaver. La già elevata efficienza spettrale delle CPM può essere ulteriormente aumentata sfruttando la tecnica del "frequency packing". Un tale incremento però rende necessaria un'accurata sincronizzazione affinché il ricevitore funzioni correttamente. Pertanto verranno progettati e testati degli stimatori iterativi di fase e frequenza. In seguito, ci concentreremo su sistemi a divisione di codice basati sulle CPM. Verrà quindi proposta una nuova tecnica di espansione spettrale, progettata ad hoc per le CPM. Mostreremo come ottenere facilmente delle densità spettrali di potenza larghe, piatte e lisce, senza ricorrere a sequenze di spreading, e senza tutte le problematiche di progettazione a queste collegate. Inoltre, ricaveremo degli algoritmi di rivelazione multi-utente subottimi che saranno impiegati per mostrare come il sistema proposto possa superare le prestazioni di tutti gli altri sistemi in letteratura, sia in termini di probabilità d'errore che di efficienza spettrale. Infine, considerando lo scenario previsto dallo standard DVB-S2, proporremo di incrementarne l'efficienza spettrale attraverso la tecnica del "time and frequency packing". Questa tecnica causa l'insorgenza di interferenza intersimbolica e intercanale, che a loro volta provocano l'aumento del numero di simboli pilota necessari per una corretta sincronizzazione di fase e frequenza. Sarà pertanto introdotto un nuovo design dei piloti, e saranno derivati opportuni algoritmi di rivelazione ottimi e subottimi a ridotta complessità. Mostreremo come il sistema proposto possa superare le prestazioni dello standard DVB-S2 sia in termini di probabilità d'errore che di efficienza spettrale.In this Thesis we propose three different solutions aiming at increasing the spectral efficiency in satellite communications. First, we will consider a multi-user scenario with frequency multiplexing, that is one of the scenarios included in the DVB-RCS standard. We will adopt continuous phase modulations (CPMs) serially concatenated with an outer code through an interleaver. The high spectral efficiency of CPMs can be further increased exploiting the frequency packing technique. Such an improvement does not come for free, in fact an accurate synchronization has to be guaranteed to allow the detector to work properly. To this purpose, new iterative frequency and phase estimators will be derived and the synchronization accuracy tested. Then, we will focus on code division multiple access (CDMA) systems employing CPMs. A brand new spectral spreading technique, especially tailored to CPMs, will be presented. We will show how to easily obtain a large, flat, and smooth power spectral density, without resorting to spreading sequences and then getting rid of all the design problems that come with. Moreover, we will derive some suboptimal multi-user detectors that will be employed to show that the proposed system outperforms all the other considered systems, found in the literature, in terms of bit error rate and spectral efficiency. Finally, considering the DVB-S2 scenario, we will propose to increase the spectral efficiency through time and frequency packing. This technique will cause intersymbol and interchannel interferences to arise, requiring a significant increase in the number of pilots used to carry out frequency and phase synchronization. Therefore, new pilot designs will be introduced, and suited optimal and suboptimal reduced-complexity algorithms derived. We will show that the proposed systems may outperform the DVB-S2 standard in terms of bit error rate and spectral efficiency

New advances in symbol timing synchronization of single-carrier, multi-carrier and space-time multiple-antenna systems

In this dissertation, the problem of symbol timing synchronization for the following three different communication systems is studied: 1) conventional single-carrier transmissions with single antenna in both transmitter and receiver; 2) single-carrier transmissions with multiple antennas at both transmitter and receiver; and 3) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) based IEEE 802.11a wireless local area networks (WLANs). For conventional single-carrier, single-antenna systems, a general feedforward symbol-timing estimation framework is developed based on the conditional maximum likelihood principle. The proposed algorithm is applied to linear modulations and two commonly used continuous phase modulations: MSK and GMSK. The performance of the proposed estimator is analyzed analytically and via simulations. Moreover, using the newly developed general estimation framework, all the previously proposed digital blind feedforward symbol timing estimators employing second-order statistics are cast into a unified framework. The finite sample mean-square error expression for this class of estimators is established and the best estimators are determined. Simulation results are presented to corroborate the analytical results. Moving on to single-carrier, multiple-antenna systems, we present two algorithms. The first algorithm is based on a heuristic argument and it improves the optimum sample selection algorithm by Naguib et al. so that accurate timing estimates can be obtained even if the oversampling ratio is small. The performance of the proposed algorithm is analyzed both analytically and via simulations. The second algorithm is based on the maximum likelihood principle. The data aided (DA) and non-data aided (NDA) ML symbol timing estimators and their cor- responding CCRB and MCRB in MIMO correlated ??at-fading channels are derived. It is shown that the improved algorithm developed based on the heuristic argument is just a special case of the DA ML estimator. Simulation results under different operating conditions are given to assess and compare the performances of the DA and NDA ML estimators with respect to their corresponding CCRBs and MCRBs. In the last part of this dissertation, the ML timing synchronizer for IEEE 802.11a WLANs on frequency-selective fading channels is developed. The proposed algorithm is compared with four of the most representative timing synchronization algorithms, one specically designed for IEEE 802.11a WLANs and three other algorithms designed for general OFDM frame synchronization