Advanced Channel Estimation Techniques for Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Multi-Carrier Systems in Doubly-Dispersive Channels

Flexible numerology of the physical layer has been introduced in the latest release of 5G new radio (NR) and the baseline waveform generation is chosen to be cyclic-prefix based orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM). Thanks to the narrow subcarrier spacing and low complexity one tap equalization (EQ) of OFDM, it suits well to time-dispersive channels. For the upcoming 5G and beyond use-case scenarios, it is foreseen that the users might experience high mobility conditions. While the frame structure of the 5G NR is designed for long coherence times, the synchronization and channel estimation (CE) procedures are not fully and reliably covered for diverse applications. The research on alternative multi-carrier waveforms has brought up valuable results in terms of spectral efficiency, applications coexistence and flexibility. Nevertheless, the receiver design becomes more challenging for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) non-orthogonal multi-carriers because the receiver must deal with multiple dimensions of interference. This thesis aims to deliver accurate pilot-aided estimations of the wireless channel for coherent detection. Considering a MIMO non-orthogonal multi-carrier, e.g. generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM), we initially derive the classical and Bayesian estimators for rich multi-path fading channels, where we theoretically assess the choice of pilot design. Moreover, the well time- and frequency-localization of the pilots in non-orthogonal multi-carriers allows to reuse their energy from cyclic-prefix (CP). Taking advantage of this feature, we derive an iterative approach for joint CE and EQ of MIMO systems. Furthermore, exploiting the block-circularity of GFDM, we comprehensively analyze the complexity aspects, and propose a solution for low complexity implementation. Assuming very high mobility use-cases where the channel varies within the symbol duration, further considerations, particularly the channel coherence time must be taken into account. A promising candidate that is fully independent of the multi-carrier choice is unique word (UW) transmission, where the CP of random nature is replaced by a deterministic sequence. This feature, allows per-block synchronization and channel estimation for robust transmission over extremely doubly-dispersive channels. In this thesis, we propose a novel approach to extend the UW-based physical layer design to MIMO systems and we provide an in-depth study of their out-of-band emission, synchronization, CE and EQ procedures. Via theoretical derivations and simulation results, and comparisons with respect to the state-of-the-art CP-OFDM systems, we show that the proposed UW-based frame design facilitates robust transmission over extremely doubly-dispersive channels.:1 Introduction 1 1.1 Multi-Carrier Waveforms 1 1.2 MIMO Systems 3 1.3 Contributions and Thesis Structure 4 1.4 Notations 6 2 State-of-the-art and Fundamentals 9 2.1 Linear Systems and Problem Statement 9 2.2 GFDM Modulation 11 2.3 MIMO Wireless Channel 12 2.4 Classical and Bayesian Channel Estimation in MIMO OFDM Systems 15 2.5 UW-Based Transmission in SISO Systems 17 2.6 Summary 19 3 Channel Estimation for MIMO Non-Orthogonal Waveforms 21 3.1 Classical and Bayesian Channel Estimation in MIMO GFDM Systems 22 3.1.1 MIMO LS Channel Estimation 23 3.1.2 MIMO LMMSE Channel Estimation 24 3.1.3 Simulation Results 25 3.2 Basic Pilot Designs for GFDM Channel Estimation 29 3.2.1 LS/HM Channel Estimation 31 3.2.2 LMMSE Channel Estimation for GFDM 32 3.2.3 Error Characterization 33 3.2.4 Simulation Results 36 3.3 Interference-Free Pilot Insertion for MIMO GFDM Channel Estimation 39 3.3.1 Interference-Free Pilot Insertion 39 3.3.2 Pilot Observation 40 3.3.3 Complexity 41 3.3.4 Simulation Results 41 3.4 Bayesian Pilot- and CP-aided Channel Estimation in MIMO NonOrthogonal Multi-Carriers 45 3.4.1 Review on System Model 46 3.4.2 Single-Input-Single-Output Systems 47 3.4.3 Extension to MIMO 50 3.4.4 Application to GFDM 51 3.4.5 Joint Channel Estimation and Equalization via LMMSE Parallel Interference Cancellation 57 3.4.6 Complexity Analysis 61 3.4.7 Simulation Results 61 3.5 Pilot- and CP-aided Channel Estimation in Time-Varying Scenarios 67 3.5.1 Adaptive Filtering based on Wiener-Hopf Approac 68 3.5.2 Simulation Results 69 3.6 Summary 72 4 Design of UW-Based Transmission for MIMO Multi-Carriers 73 4.1 Frame Design, Efficiency and Overhead Analysis 74 4.1.1 Illustrative Scenario 74 4.1.2 CP vs. UW Efficiency Analysis 76 4.1.3 Numerical Results 77 4.2 Sequences for UW and OOB Radiation 78 4.2.1 Orthogonal Polyphase Sequences 79 4.2.2 Waveform Engineering for UW Sequences combined with GFDM 79 4.2.3 Simulation Results for OOB Emission of UW-GFDM 81 4.3 Synchronization 82 4.3.1 Transmission over a Centralized MIMO Wireless Channel 82 4.3.2 Coarse Time Acquisition 83 4.3.3 CFO Estimation and Removal 85 4.3.4 Fine Time Acquisition 86 4.3.5 Simulation Results 88 4.4 Channel Estimation 92 4.4.1 MIMO UW-based LMMSE CE 92 4.4.2 Adaptive Filtering 93 4.4.3 Circular UW Transmission 94 4.4.4 Simulation Results 95 4.5 Equalization with Imperfect Channel Knowledge 96 4.5.1 UW-Free Equalization 97 4.5.2 Simulation Results 99 4.6 Summary 102 5 Conclusions and Perspectives 103 5.1 Main Outcomes in Short 103 5.2 Open Challenges 105 A Complementary Materials 107 A.1 Linear Algebra Identities 107 A.2 Proof of lower triangular Toeplitz channel matrix being defective 108 A.3 Calculation of noise-plus-interference covariance matrix for Pilot- and CPaided CE 108 A.4 Bock diagonalization of the effective channel for GFDM 109 A.5 Detailed complexity analysis of Sec. 3.4 109 A.6 CRLB derivations for the pdf (4.24) 113 A.7 Proof that (4.45) emulates a circular CIR at the receiver 11

Algorithms for channel impairment mitigation in broadband wireless communications

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Recent Advances in Wireless Communications and Networks

This book focuses on the current hottest issues from the lowest layers to the upper layers of wireless communication networks and provides "real-time" research progress on these issues. The authors have made every effort to systematically organize the information on these topics to make it easily accessible to readers of any level. This book also maintains the balance between current research results and their theoretical support. In this book, a variety of novel techniques in wireless communications and networks are investigated. The authors attempt to present these topics in detail. Insightful and reader-friendly descriptions are presented to nourish readers of any level, from practicing and knowledgeable communication engineers to beginning or professional researchers. All interested readers can easily find noteworthy materials in much greater detail than in previous publications and in the references cited in these chapters

Space-time diversity for CDMA systems over frequency-selective fading channels

Supporting the expected high data rates required by wireless Internet and high-speed multimedia services is one of the basic requirements in broadband mobile wireless systems. However, the achievable capacity and data rate of wireless communication systems are limited by the time-varying nature of the channel. Efficient techniques for combating the time-varying effects of wireless channels can be achieved by utilizing different forms of diversity. In recent years, transmit diversity based on space-time coding (STC) has received more attention as an effective technique for combating fading. On the other hand, most existing space-time diversity techniques have been developed for flat-fading channels. Given the fact that wireless channels are generally frequency-selective, in this thesis, we aim to investigate the performance of space-time diversity schemes for wideband code-division multiple-access (WCDMA) systems over frequency-selective fading channels. The proposed receiver in this case is a rake-type receiver, which exploits the path diversity inherent to multipath propagation. Then, a decorrelator detector is used to mitigate the multiple access interference (MAI) and the known near-far problem. We derive the bit error rate (BER) expression over frequency-selective fading channels considering both the fast and slow fading cases. Finally, we show that our proposed receiver achieves the full system diversity through simulation and analytical results. Most of the work conducted in this area considers perfect knowledge of the channel at the receiver. Hence, channel identification brings significant challenges to multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) CDMA systems. In light of this, we propose a channel estimation and data detection scheme based on the superimposed training-based approach. The proposed scheme enhances the performance by eliminating the MAI from both the channel and data estimates by employing two decorrelators; channel and data decorrelators. The performance of the proposed estimation technique is investigated over frequency-selective slow fading channels where we derived a closed-form expression for the BER as a function of the number of users, K , the number resolvable paths, L , and the number of receive antennas, V . Finally, our proposed scheme is shown to be more robust to channel estimation errors. Furthermore, both the analytical and simulation results indicate that the full system diversity is achieved. Considering that training estimation techniques suffer either from low spectral efficiency (i.e., conventional training approach) or from high pilot power consumption (i.e., superimposed training-based approach), in the last part of the thesis, we present an iterative joint detection and estimation (JDE) using the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm for MIMO CDMA systems over frequency-selective fading channels. We also derive a closed-form expression for the optimized weight coefficients of the EM algorithm, which was shown to provide significant performance enhancement relative to the conventional equal-weight EM-based signal decomposition. Finally, our simulation results illustrate that the proposed receiver achieves near-optimum performance with modest complexity using very few training symbols