Channel estimation techniques for filter bank multicarrier based transceivers for next generation of wireless networks

A dissertation submitted to Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering (Electrical and Information Engineering), August 2017The fourth generation (4G) of wireless communication system is designed based on the principles of cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM) where the cyclic prefix (CP) is used to combat inter-symbol interference (ISI) and inter-carrier interference (ICI) in order to achieve higher data rates in comparison to the previous generations of wireless networks. Various filter bank multicarrier systems have been considered as potential waveforms for the fast emerging next generation (xG) of wireless networks (especially the fifth generation (5G) networks). Some examples of the considered waveforms are orthogonal frequency division multiplexing with offset quadrature amplitude modulation based filter bank, universal filtered multicarrier (UFMC), bi-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (BFDM) and generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM). In perfect reconstruction (PR) or near perfect reconstruction (NPR) filter bank designs, these aforementioned FBMC waveforms adopt the use of well-designed prototype filters (which are used for designing the synthesis and analysis filter banks) so as to either replace or minimize the CP usage of the 4G networks in order to provide higher spectral efficiencies for the overall increment in data rates. The accurate designing of the FIR low-pass prototype filter in NPR filter banks results in minimal signal distortions thus, making the analysis filter bank a time-reversed version of the corresponding synthesis filter bank. However, in non-perfect reconstruction (Non-PR) the analysis filter bank is not directly a time-reversed version of the corresponding synthesis filter bank as the prototype filter impulse response for this system is formulated (in this dissertation) by the introduction of randomly generated errors. Hence, aliasing and amplitude distortions are more prominent for Non-PR. Channel estimation (CE) is used to predict the behaviour of the frequency selective channel and is usually adopted to ensure excellent reconstruction of the transmitted symbols. These techniques can be broadly classified as pilot based, semi-blind and blind channel estimation schemes. In this dissertation, two linear pilot based CE techniques namely the least square (LS) and linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE), and three adaptive channel estimation schemes namely least mean square (LMS), normalized least mean square (NLMS) and recursive least square (RLS) are presented, analyzed and documented. These are implemented while exploiting the near orthogonality properties of offset quadrature amplitude modulation (OQAM) to mitigate the effects of interference for two filter bank waveforms (i.e. OFDM/OQAM and GFDM/OQAM) for the next generation of wireless networks assuming conditions of both NPR and Non-PR in slow and fast frequency selective Rayleigh fading channel. Results obtained from the computer simulations carried out showed that the channel estimation schemes performed better in an NPR filter bank system as compared with Non-PR filter banks. The low performance of Non-PR system is due to the amplitude distortion and aliasing introduced from the random errors generated in the system that is used to design its prototype filters. It can be concluded that RLS, NLMS, LMS, LMMSE and LS channel estimation schemes offered the best normalized mean square error (NMSE) and bit error rate (BER) performances (in decreasing order) for both waveforms assuming both NPR and Non-PR filter banks. Keywords: Channel estimation, Filter bank, OFDM/OQAM, GFDM/OQAM, NPR, Non-PR, 5G, Frequency selective channel.CK201

Efficient and Virtualized Scheduling for OFDM-Based High Mobility Wireless Communications Objects

Services providers (SPs) in the radio platform technology standard long term evolution (LTE) systems are enduring many challenges in order to accommodate the rapid expansion of mobile data usage. The modern technologies demonstrate new challenges to SPs, for example, reducing the cost of the capital and operating expenditures while supporting high data throughput per customer, extending battery life-per-charge of the cell phone devices, and supporting high mobility communications with fast and seamless handover (HO) networking architecture. In this thesis, a variety of optimized techniques aimed at providing innovative solutions for such challenges are explored. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part outlines the benefits and challenges of deploying virtualized resource sharing concept. Wherein, SPs achieving a different schedulers policy are sharing evolved network B, allowing SPs to customize their efforts and provide service requirements; as a promising solution for reducing operational and capital expenditures, leading to potential energy savings, and supporting higher peak rates. The second part, formulates the optimized power allocation problem in a virtualized scheme in LTE uplink systems, aiming to extend the mobile devices’ battery utilization time per charge. While, the third part extrapolates a proposed hybrid-HO (HY-HO) technique, that can enhance the system performance in terms of latency and HO reliability at cell boundary for high mobility objects (up to 350 km/hr; wherein, HO will occur more frequent). The main contributions of this thesis are in designing optimal binary integer programmingbased and suboptimal heuristic (with complexity reduction) scheduling algorithms subject to exclusive and contiguous allocation, maximum transmission power, and rate constraints. Moreover, designing the HY-HO based on the combination of soft and hard HO was able to enhance the system performance in term of latency, interruption time and reliability during HO. The results prove that the proposed solutions effectively contribute in addressing the challenges caused by the demand for high data rates and power transmission in mobile networks especially in virtualized resources sharing scenarios that can support high data rates with improving quality of services (QoSs)

Adaptive Communications for Next Generation Broadband Wireless Access Systems

Un dels aspectes claus en el disseny i gestió de les xarxes sense fils d'accés de banda ampla és l'ús eficient dels recursos radio. Des del punt de vista de l'operador, l'ample de banda és un bé escàs i preuat que s´ha d'explotar i gestionar de la forma més eficient possible tot garantint la qualitat del servei que es vol proporcionar. Per altra banda, des del punt de vista del usuari, la qualitat del servei ofert ha de ser comparable al de les xarxes fixes, requerint així un baix retard i una baixa pèrdua de paquets per cadascun dels fluxos de dades entre la xarxa i l'usuari. Durant els darrers anys s´han desenvolupat nombroses tècniques i algoritmes amb l'objectiu d'incrementar l'eficiència espectral. Entre aquestes tècniques destaca l'ús de múltiples antenes al transmissor i al receptor amb l'objectiu de transmetre diferents fluxos de dades simultaneament sense necessitat d'augmentar l'ample de banda. Per altra banda, la optimizació conjunta de la capa d'accés al medi i la capa física (fent ús de l'estat del canal per tal de gestionar de manera optima els recursos) també permet incrementar sensiblement l'eficiència espectral del sistema.L'objectiu d'aquesta tesi és l'estudi i desenvolupament de noves tècniques d'adaptació de l'enllaç i gestió dels recursos ràdio aplicades sobre sistemes d'accés ràdio de propera generació (Beyond 3G). Els estudis realitzats parteixen de la premissa que el transmisor coneix (parcialment) l'estat del canal i que la transmissió es realitza fent servir un esquema multiportadora amb múltiples antenes al transmisor i al receptor. En aquesta tesi es presenten dues línies d'investigació, la primera per casos d'una sola antenna a cada banda de l'enllaç, i la segona en cas de múltiples antenes. En el cas d'una sola antena al transmissor i al receptor, un nou esquema d'assignació de recursos ràdio i priorització dels paquets (scheduling) és proposat i analitzat integrant totes dues funcions sobre una mateixa entitat (cross-layer). L'esquema proposat té com a principal característica la seva baixa complexitat i que permet operar amb transmissions multimedia. Alhora, posteriors millores realitzades per l'autor sobre l'esquema proposat han permès també reduir els requeriments de senyalització i combinar de forma óptima usuaris d'alta i baixa mobilitat sobre el mateix accés ràdio, millorant encara més l'eficiència espectral del sistema. En cas d'enllaços amb múltiples antenes es proposa un nou esquema que combina la selecció del conjunt optim d'antenes transmissores amb la selecció de la codificació espai- (frequència-) temps. Finalment es donen una sèrie de recomanacions per tal de combinar totes dues línies d'investigació, així con un estat de l'art de les tècniques proposades per altres autors que combinen en part la gestió dels recursos ràdio i els esquemes de transmissió amb múltiples antenes.Uno de los aspectos claves en el diseño y gestión de las redes inalámbricas de banda ancha es el uso eficiente de los recursos radio. Desde el punto de vista del operador, el ancho de banda es un bien escaso y valioso que se debe explotar y gestionar de la forma más eficiente posible sin afectar a la calidad del servicio ofrecido. Por otro lado, desde el punto de vista del usuario, la calidad del servicio ha de ser comparable al ofrecido por las redes fijas, requiriendo así un bajo retardo y una baja tasa de perdida de paquetes para cada uno de los flujos de datos entre la red y el usuario. Durante los últimos años el número de técnicas y algoritmos que tratan de incrementar la eficiencia espectral en dichas redes es bastante amplio. Entre estas técnicas destaca el uso de múltiples antenas en el transmisor y en el receptor con el objetivo de poder transmitir simultáneamente diferentes flujos de datos sin necesidad de incrementar el ancho de banda. Por otro lado, la optimización conjunta de la capa de acceso al medio y la capa física (utilizando información de estado del canal para gestionar de manera óptima los recursos) también permite incrementar sensiblemente la eficiencia espectral del sistema.El objetivo de esta tesis es el estudio y desarrollo de nuevas técnicas de adaptación del enlace y la gestión de los recursos radio, y su posterior aplicación sobre los sistemas de acceso radio de próxima generación (Beyond 3G). Los estudios realizados parten de la premisa de que el transmisor conoce (parcialmente) el estado del canal a la vez que se considera que la transmisión se realiza sobre un sistema de transmisión multiportadora con múltiple antenas en el transmisor y el receptor. La tesis se centra sobre dos líneas de investigación, la primera para casos de una única antena en cada lado del enlace, y la segunda en caso de múltiples antenas en cada lado. Para el caso de una única antena en el transmisor y en el receptor, se ha desarrollado un nuevo esquema de asignación de los recursos radio así como de priorización de los paquetes de datos (scheduling) integrando ambas funciones sobre una misma entidad (cross-layer). El esquema propuesto tiene como principal característica su bajo coste computacional a la vez que se puede aplicar en caso de transmisiones multimedia. Posteriores mejoras realizadas por el autor sobre el esquema propuesto han permitido también reducir los requisitos de señalización así como combinar de forma óptima usuarios de alta y baja movilidad. Por otro lado, en caso de enlaces con múltiples antenas en transmisión y recepción, se presenta un nuevo esquema de adaptación en el cual se combina la selección de la(s) antena(s) transmisora(s) con la selección del esquema de codificación espacio-(frecuencia-) tiempo. Para finalizar, se dan una serie de recomendaciones con el objetivo de combinar ambas líneas de investigación, así como un estado del arte de las técnicas propuestas por otros autores que combinan en parte la gestión de los recursos radio y los esquemas de transmisión con múltiples antenas.In Broadband Wireless Access systems the efficient use of the resources is crucial from many points of views. From the operator point of view, the bandwidth is a scarce, valuable, and expensive resource which must be exploited in an efficient manner while the Quality of Service (QoS) provided to the users is guaranteed. On the other hand, a tight delay and link quality constraints are imposed on each data flow hence the user experiences the same quality as in fixed networks. During the last few years many techniques have been developed in order to increase the spectral efficiency and the throughput. Among them, the use of multiple antennas at the transmitter and the receiver (exploiting spatial multiplexing) with the joint optimization of the medium access control layer and the physical layer parameters.In this Ph.D. thesis, different adaptive techniques for B3G multicarrier wireless systems are developed and proposed focusing on the SS-MC-MA and the OFDM(A) (IEEE 802.16a/e/m standards) communication schemes. The research lines emphasize into the adaptation of the transmission having (Partial) knowledge of the Channel State Information for both; single antenna and multiple antenna links. For single antenna links, the implementation of a joint resource allocation and scheduling strategy by including adaptive modulation and coding is investigated. A low complexity resource allocation and scheduling algorithm is proposed with the objective to cope with real- and/or non-real- time requirements and constraints. A special attention is also devoted in reducing the required signalling. However, for multiple antenna links, the performance of a proposed adaptive transmit antenna selection scheme jointly with space-time block coding selection is investigated and compared with conventional structures. In this research line, mainly two optimizations criteria are proposed for spatial link adaptation, one based on the minimum error rate for fixed throughput, and the second focused on the maximisation of the rate for fixed error rate. Finally, some indications are given on how to include the spatial adaptation into the investigated and proposed resource allocation and scheduling process developed for single antenna transmission

Waveform Design for 5G and beyond Systems

5G traffic has very diverse requirements with respect to data rate, delay, and reliability. The concept of using multiple OFDM numerologies adopted in the 5G NR standard will likely meet these multiple requirements to some extent. However, the traffic is radically accruing different characteristics and requirements when compared with the initial stage of 5G, which focused mainly on high-speed multimedia data applications. For instance, applications such as vehicular communications and robotics control require a highly reliable and ultra-low delay. In addition, various emerging M2M applications have sparse traffic with a small amount of data to be delivered. The state-of-the-art OFDM technique has some limitations when addressing the aforementioned requirements at the same time. Meanwhile, numerous waveform alternatives, such as FBMC, GFDM, and UFMC, have been explored. They also have their own pros and cons due to their intrinsic waveform properties. Hence, it is the opportune moment to come up with modification/variations/combinations to the aforementioned techniques or a new waveform design for 5G systems and beyond. The aim of this Special Issue is to provide the latest research and advances in the field of waveform design for 5G systems and beyond

RESOURCE ALLOCATION FOR WIRELESS RELAY NETWORKS

In this thesis, we propose several resource allocation strategies for relay networks in the context of joint power and bandwidth allocation and relay selection, and joint power allocation and subchannel assignment for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems. Sharing the two best ordered relays with equal power between the two users over Rayleigh flat fading channels is proposed to establish full diversity order for both users. Closed form expressions for the outage probability, and bit error probability (BEP) performance measures for both amplify and forward (AF) and decode and forward (DF) cooperative communication schemes are developed for different scenarios. To utilize the full potentials of relay-assisted transmission in multi user systems, we propose a mixed strategy of AF relaying and direct transmission, where the user transmits part of the data using the relay, and the other part is transmitted using the direct link. The resource allocation problem is formulated to maximize the sum rate. A recursive algorithm alternating between power allocation and bandwidth allocation steps is proposed to solve the formulated resource allocation problem. Due to the conflict between limited wireless resources and the fast growing wireless demands, Stackelberg game is proposed to allocate the relay resources (power and bandwidth) between competing users, aiming to maximize the relay benefits from selling its resources. We prove the uniqueness of Stackelberg Nash Equilibrium (SNE) for the proposed game. We develop a distributed algorithm to reach SNE, and investigate the conditions for the stability of the proposed algorithm. We propose low complexity algorithms for AF-OFDMA and DF-OFDMA systems to assign the subcarriers to the users based on high SNR approximation aiming to maximize the weighted sum rate. Auction framework is proposed to devise competition based solutions for the resource allocation of AF-OFDMA aiming tomaximize either vi the sum rate or the fairness index. Two auction algorithms are proposed; sequential and one-shot auctions. In sequential auction, the users evaluate the subcarrier based on the rate marginal contribution. In the one-shot auction, the users evaluate the subcarriers based on an estimate of the Shapley value and bids on all subcarriers at once

Compensation of Physical Impairments in Multi-Carrier Communications

Among various multi-carrier transmission techniques, orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) is currently a popular choice in many wireless communication systems. This is mainly due to its numerous advantages, including resistance to multi-path distortions by using the cyclic prefix (CP) and a simple one-tap channel equalization, and efficient implementations based on the fast Fourier and inverse Fourier transforms. However, OFDM also has disadvantages which limit its use in some applications. First, the high out-of-band (OOB) emission in OFDM due to the inherent rectangular shaping filters poses a challenge for opportunistic and dynamic spectrum access where multiple users are sharing a limited transmission bandwidth. Second, a strict orthogonal synchronization between sub-carriers makes OFDM less attractive in low-power communication systems. Furthermore, the use of the CP in OFDM reduces the spectral efficiency and thus it may not be suitable for short-packet and low-latency transmission applications. Generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM) and circular filter-bank multi-carrier offset quadrature amplitude modulation (CFBMC-OQAM) have recently been considered as alternatives to OFDM for the air interface of wireless communication systems because they can overcome certain disadvantages in OFDM. Specifically, these two systems offer a flexibility in choosing the shaping filters so that the high OOB emission in OFDM can be avoided. Moreover, the strict orthogonality requirement in OFDM is relaxed in GFDM and CFBMC-OQAM which are, respectively, non-orthogonal and real-field orthogonal systems. Although a CP is also used in these two systems, the CP is added for a block of many symbols instead of only one symbol as in OFDM, which, therefore, improves the spectral efficiency. Given that the performance of a wireless communication system is affected by various physical impairments such as phase noise (PN), in-phase and quadrature (IQ) imbalance and imperfect channel estimation, this thesis proposes a number of novel signal processing algorithms to compensate for physical impairments in multi-carrier communication systems, including OFDM, GFDM and CFBMC-OQAM. The first part of the thesis examines the use of OFDM in full-duplex (FD) communication under the presence of PN, IQ imbalance and nonlinearities. FD communication is a promising technique since it can potentially double the spectral efficiency of the conventional half-duplex (HD) technique. However, the main challenge in implementing an FD wireless device is to cope with the self-interference (SI) imposed by the device's own transmission. The implementation of SI cancellation (SIC) faces many technical issues due to the physical impairments. In this part of research, an iterative algorithm is proposed in which the SI cancellation and detection of the desired signal benefit from each other. Specifically, in each iteration, the SI cancellation performs a widely linear estimation of the SI channel and compensates for the physical impairments to improve the detection performance of the desired signal. The detected desired signal is in turn removed from the received signal to improve SI channel estimation and SI cancellation in the next iteration. Results obtained show that the proposed algorithm significantly outperforms existing algorithms in SI cancellation and detection of the desired signal. In the next part of the thesis, the impact of PN and its compensation for CFBMC-OQAM systems are considered. The sources of performance degradation are first quantified. Then, a two-stage PN compensation algorithm is proposed. In the first stage, the channel frequency response and PN are estimated based on the transmission of a preamble, which is designed to minimize the channel mean squared error (MSE). In the second stage the PN compensation is performed using the estimate obtained from the first stage together with the transmitted pilot symbols. Simulation results obtained under practical scenarios show that the proposed algorithm effectively estimates the channel frequency response and compensates for the PN. The proposed algorithm is also shown to outperform an existing algorithm that implements iterative PN compensation when the PN impact is high. As a further development from the second part, the third part of the thesis considers the impacts of both PN and IQ imbalance and proposes a unified two-stage compensation algorithm for a general multi-carrier system, which can include OFDM, GFDM and CFBMC-OQAM. Specifically, in the first stage, the channel impulse response and IQ imbalance parameters are first estimated based on the transmission of a preamble. Given the estimates obtained from the first stage, in the second stage the IQ imbalance and PN are compensated in that order based on the pilot symbols for the rest of data transmission blocks. The preamble is designed such that the estimation of IQ imbalance does not depend on the channel and PN estimation errors. The proposed algorithm is then further extended to a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system. For such a MIMO system, the preamble design is generalized so that the multiple IQ imbalances as well as channel impulse responses can be effectively estimated based on a single preamble block. Simulation results are presented and discussed in a variety of scenarios to show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm

Radio Communications

In the last decades the restless evolution of information and communication technologies (ICT) brought to a deep transformation of our habits. The growth of the Internet and the advances in hardware and software implementations modified our way to communicate and to share information. In this book, an overview of the major issues faced today by researchers in the field of radio communications is given through 35 high quality chapters written by specialists working in universities and research centers all over the world. Various aspects will be deeply discussed: channel modeling, beamforming, multiple antennas, cooperative networks, opportunistic scheduling, advanced admission control, handover management, systems performance assessment, routing issues in mobility conditions, localization, web security. Advanced techniques for the radio resource management will be discussed both in single and multiple radio technologies; either in infrastructure, mesh or ad hoc networks

Cognitive Radio Systems

Cognitive radio is a hot research area for future wireless communications in the recent years. In order to increase the spectrum utilization, cognitive radio makes it possible for unlicensed users to access the spectrum unoccupied by licensed users. Cognitive radio let the equipments more intelligent to communicate with each other in a spectrum-aware manner and provide a new approach for the co-existence of multiple wireless systems. The goal of this book is to provide highlights of the current research topics in the field of cognitive radio systems. The book consists of 17 chapters, addressing various problems in cognitive radio systems

Enabling Technologies for Internet of Things: Licensed and Unlicensed Techniques

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a novel paradigm which is shaping the evolution of the future Internet. According to the vision underlying the IoT, the next step in increasing the ubiquity of the Internet, after connecting people anytime and everywhere, is to connect inanimate objects. By providing objects with embedded communication capabilities and a common addressing scheme, a highly distributed and ubiquitous network of seamlessly connected heterogeneous devices is formed, which can be fully integrated into the current Internet and mobile networks, thus allowing for the development of new intelligent services available anytime, anywhere, by anyone and anything. Such a vision is also becoming known under the name of Machine-to-Machine (M2M), where the absence of human interaction in the system dynamics is further emphasized. A massive number of wireless devices will have the ability to connect to the Internat through the IoT framework. With the accelerating pace of marketing such framework, the new wireless communications standards are studying/proposing solutions to incorporate the services needed for the IoT. However, with an estimate of 30 billion connected devices, a lot of challenges are facing the current wireless technology. In our research, we address a variety of technology candidates for enabling such a massive framework. Mainly, we focus on the nderlay cognitive radio networks as the unlicensed candidate for IoT. On the other hand, we look into the current efforts done by the standardization bodies to accommodate the requirements of the IoT into the current cellular networks. Specifically, we survey the new features and the new user equipment categories added to the physical layer of the LTE-A. In particular, we study the performance of a dual-hop cognitive radio network sharing the spectrum of a primary network in an underlay fashion. In particular, the cognitive network consists of a source, a destination, and multiple nodes employed as amplify-and-forward relays. To improve the spectral efficiency, all relays are allowed to instantaneously transmit to the destination over the same frequency band. We present the optimal power allocation that maximizes the received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the destination while satisfying the interference constrains of the primary network. The optimal power allocation is obtained through an eigen-solution of a channel-dependent matrix, and is shown to transform the transmission over the non-orthogonal relays into parallel channels. Furthermore, while the secondary destination is equipped with multiple antennas, we propose an antenna selection scheme to select the antenna with the highest SNR. To this end, we propose a clustering scheme to subgroup the available relays and use antenna selection at the receiver to extract the same diversity order. We show that random clustering causes the system to lose some of the available degrees of freedom. We provide analytical expression of the outage probability of the system for the random clustering and the proposed maximum-SNR clustering scheme with antenna selection. In addition, we adapt our design to increase the energy-efficiency of the overall network without significant loss in the data rate. In the second part of this thesis, we will look into the current efforts done by the standardization bodies to accommodate the equirements of the IoT into the current cellular networks. Specifically, we present the new features and the new user equipment categories added to the physical layer of the LTE-A. We study some of the challenges facing the LTE-A when dealing with Machine Type communications (MTC). Specifically, the MTC Physical Downlink control channel (MPDCCH) is among the newly introduced features in the LTE-A that carries the downlink control information (DCI) for MTC devices. Correctly decoding the PDCCH, mainly depends on the channel estimation used to compensate for the channel errors during transmission, and the choice of such technique will affect both the complexity and the performance of the user equipment. We propose and assess the performance of a simple channel estimation technique depends in essence on the Least Squares (LS) estimates of the pilots signal and linear interpolations for low-Doppler channels associated with the MTC application