A low-cost time-hopping impulse radio system for high data rate transmission

We present an efficient, low-cost implementation of time-hopping impulse radio that fulfills the spectral mask mandated by the FCC and is suitable for high-data-rate, short-range communications. Key features are: (i) all-baseband implementation that obviates the need for passband components, (ii) symbol-rate (not chip rate) sampling, A/D conversion, and digital signal processing, (iii) fast acquisition due to novel search algorithms, (iv) spectral shaping that can be adapted to accommodate different spectrum regulations and interference environments. Computer simulations show that this system can provide 110Mbit/s at 7-10m distance, as well as higher data rates at shorter distances under FCC emissions limits. Due to the spreading concept of time-hopping impulse radio, the system can sustain multiple simultaneous users, and can suppress narrowband interference effectively.Comment: To appear in EURASIP Journal on Applied Signal Processing (Special Issue on UWB - State of the Art

Network lifetime extension, power conservation and interference suppression for next generation mobile wireless networks

Two major focus research areas related to the design of the next generation multihop wireless networks are network lifetime extension and interference suppression. In this dissertation, these two issues are addressed. In the area of interference suppression, a new family of projection multiuser detectors, based on a generalized, two-stage design is proposed. Projection multiuser detectors provide efficient protection against undesired interference of unknown power, while preserving simple design, with closed-form solution for error probabilities. It is shown that these detectors are linearly optimal, if the interference power is unknown. In the area of network lifetime extension, a new approach to minimum energy routing for multihop wireless networks in Rayleigh fading channels is proposed. It is based on the concept of power combining, whereby two users transmit same signal to the destination user, emulating transmit diversity with two transmit antennas. Analytical framework for the evaluation of the benefits of power combining, in terms of the total transmit power reduction, is defined. Simulation results, which match closely the analytical results, indicate that significant improvements, in terms of transmit power reduction and network lifetime extension, are achievable. The messaging load, generated by the new scheme, is moderate, and can be further optimized

Receiver Design and Security for Low Power Wireless Communications Systems

This dissertation focuses on two important areas in wireless communications: receiver design and security. In the first part of this dissertation we consider low data rate receiver design for ultra-wideband (UWB), a wideband radio technology that promises to help solve the frequency allocation problem that often inhibits narrowband systems. Reference-based receivers are promising candidates in the UWB regime, because the conventional rake receiver designs suffers from complexity limitations and inaccuracies in channel estimation. Many reference-based systems have arisen as viable solutions for receivers. We unify these systems as well as other systems into the general framework for performance analysis to suggest the optimal system for varying constraints. We improve the performance of frequency-shifted reference (FSR-UWB) for an average power constraint by halving the frequency offset and employing a sample-and-hold approach across the frame period. Also, we introduce a novel peak mitigation technique; tone reservation, for the multi-differential (MD) version of FSR-UWB, to reduce the high peak-to-average power ratio observed as the data carriers increase. The next part of this dissertation is about wireless security which is ubiquitous in modern news. Cryptography is widely use for security but it assumes limited computational abilities of an eavesdropper, is based on the unproven hardness of the underlying primitives, and allows for the message to be recorded and decrypted later. In this dissertation we consider an information-theoretic security approach to guaranteeing everlasting secrecy. We contribute a new secrecy rate pair outage formulation, where an outage event is based on the instantaneous rates of the destination and the eavesdropper being below and above desired thresholds, respectively. In our new secrecy rate pair outage formulation, two new unaccounted outage events emerge: secrecy breach, where the eavesdropper is above the targeted threshold; unreliable, where the destination is unable to successfully decode the message. The former case must be carefully avoided, while for the latter case we can exploit automatic retransmissions (ARQ) while maintaining the eavesdropper intercept probability below the target threshold. We look at both ``simple\u27\u27 receivers and also complex receivers that use a buffer to store previous messages to maximally combine signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Then we extend these results to the two-hop case where we maximize the end-to-end secure throughput by optimizing the intercept probability at each eavesdropper given a total end-to-end intercept constraint. Lastly, we consider the difficult case in information-theoretic security: the near eavesdropper case, where we contribute an optimal power allocation algorithm that leverages nearby chatter nodes to generate noise to reduce the probability of intercept by the eavesdropper while minimally impeding the source-to-destination communication. As shown in both one-hop and two-hop cases, allowing a slight outage at the destination for cases of when the eavesdropper is above a specific threshold greatly improves secrecy performance

Space time transceiver design over multipath fading channels

Imperial Users onl

3G Wideband CDMA : packet-based optimisation for high data-rate downlink transmission

A third generation (3G) of mobile communication systems, based on Wideband CDMA, are intended to offer high-speed packet-based services. Network operators wish to maximise the throughput in the downlink of3G systems, which requires efficient allocation ofresources. This thesis considers the problem ofmaximising throughput in an interference dominated channel. Cooperative broadcasting is a theoretical technique to mitigate this problem. Its implementation in practical systems requires efficient resource allocati.on to maximise the thr(oughput whilst meeting system and user-imposed constramts. A resource allocation approach is presented for implementing cooperative broadcasting. Users are paired and a teclmique for allocating resources between the pair is developed. Then, a method for pairing the users is considered. Simulation results are presented, which show a throughput improvement over existing resource allocation approaches. The problem ofcontrolling the distribution ofrandomly arriving data to meet the resource allocation specifications is examined. A single-threshold buffer is proposed, which requires fewer calculations than an existing double-threshold buffer. Simulation results are presented which show a throughput improvement may be realised, greater than that which would achievable using other rate control schemes. Cooperative broadcasting may lead to transmissions to some users being allocated low power. When full channel infonnation is available at the transmitter, a water filling solution may be used to maximise capacity. However, when combined with buffer management, erasure may result. This erasure may be overcome using an erasure protection code. Such a code is examined. When combined with Turbo coding, ajoint detector may be used for providing error and erasure protection. Analysis ofthis detector shows a lower limit on the error rate, dependent on the probability of erasure. Simulation results show that using this approach the error rate is significantly improved. This code can then be used to increase capacity, whilst achieving low error rates.Imperial Users onl

In defense of wireless carrier sense

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2009.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references.Carrier sense, or clear channel assessment (CCA), is widely used in wireless medium access control (MAC) protocols as the means to arbitrate access and regulate concurrency, striking a balance between interference protection and spatial reuse. Criticized widely in the literature, carrier sense has been subject to many replacement attempts with sophisticated and complex alternatives, yet it remains extremely popular. Is the search for a superior alternative justified? In this thesis, we develop a physically motivated theoretical model for average case carrier sense behavior in the two-sender case, based upon radio propagation theory and Shannon capacity. We argue from our model that common notions about carrier sense, such as the hidden and exposed terminal phenomena, are inherently misleading in the context of adaptive bitrate, casting in black and white terms effects that often cause only mild reduction in throughput. The frequency of severe misbehavior is low. We also demonstrate that it is possible to choose a fixed sense threshold which performs well across a wide range of scenarios, in large part due to the role of the noise floor. The noise floor has a significant effect on fairness as well. Using our model, we show that, when implemented well, average-case carrier sense performance is surprisingly close to optimal. We conclude with experimental results from our indoor 802.11 testbed, which corroborate these claims.by Micah, Z. Brodsky.S.M

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationWireless communications pervade all avenues of modern life. The rapid expansion of wireless services has increased the need for transmission schemes that are more spectrally efficient. Dynamic spectrum access (DSA) systems attempt to address this need by building a network where the spectrum is used opportunistically by all users based on local and regional measurements of its availability. One of the principal requirements in DSA systems is to initialize and maintain a control channel to link the nodes together. This should be done even before a complete spectral usage map is available. Additionally, with more users accessing the spectrum, it is important to maintain a stable link in the presence of significant interference in emergency first-responders, rescue, and defense applications. In this thesis, a new multicarrier spread spectrum (MC-SS) technique based on filter banks is presented. The new technique is called filter bank multicarrier spread spectrum (FB-MC-SS). A detailed theory of the underlying properties of this signal are given, with emphasis on the properties that lend themselves to synchronization at the receiver. Proposed algorithms for synchronization, channel estimation, and detection are implemented on a software-defined radio platform to complete an FB-MC-SS transceiver and to prove the practicality of the technique. FB-MC-SS is shown through physical experimentation to be significantly more robust to partial band interference compared to direct sequence spread spectrum. With a higher power interfering signal occupying 90% of its band, FB-MC-SS maintains a low bit error rate. Under the same interference conditions, DS-SS fails completely. This experimentation leads to a theoretical analysis that shows in a frequency selective channel with additive white noise, the FB-MC-SS system has performance that equals that obtained by a DS-SS system employing an optimal rake receiver. This thesis contains a detailed chapter on implementation and design, including lessons learned while prototyping the system. This is to assist future system designers to quickly gain proficiency in further development of this technology

Façonnement de l'Interférence en vue d'une Optimisation Globale d'un Système Moderne de Communication

A communication is impulsive whenever the information-bearing signal is burst-like in time. Examples of the impulsive concept are: impulse-radio signals, that is, wireless signals occurring within short intervals of time; optical signals conveyed by photons; speech signals represented by sound pressure variations; pulse-position modulated electrical signals; a sequence of arrival/departure events in a queue; neural spike trains in the brain. Understanding impulsive communications requires to identify what is peculiar to this transmission paradigm, that is, different from traditional continuous communications.In order to address the problem of understanding impulsive vs. non-impulsive communications, the framework of investigation must include the following aspects: the different interference statistics directly following from the impulsive signal structure; the different interaction of the impulsive signal with the physical medium; the actual possibility for impulsive communications of coding information into the time structure, relaxing the implicit assumption made in continuous transmissions that time is a mere support. This thesis partially addresses a few of the above issues, and draws future lines of investigation. In particular, we studied: multiple access channels where each user adopts time-hopping spread-spectrum; systems using a specific prefilter at the transmitter side, namely the transmit matched filter (also known as time reversal), particularly suited for ultrawide bandwidhts; the distribution function of interference for impulsive systems in several different settings.Une communication est impulsive chaque fois que le signal portant des informations est intermittent dans le temps et que la transmission se produit à rafales. Des exemples du concept impulsife sont : les signaux radio impulsifs, c’est-à-dire des signaux très courts dans le temps; les signaux optiques utilisé dans les systèmes de télécommunications; certains signaux acoustiques et, en particulier, les impulsions produites par le système glottale; les signaux électriques modulés en position d’impulsions; une séquence d’événements dans une file d’attente; les trains de potentiels neuronaux dans le système neuronal. Ce paradigme de transmission est différent des communications continues traditionnelles et la compréhension des communications impulsives est donc essentielle. Afin d’affronter le problème des communications impulsives, le cadre de la recherche doit inclure les aspects suivants : la statistique d’interférence qui suit directement la structure des signaux impulsifs; l’interaction du signal impulsif avec le milieu physique; la possibilité pour les communications impulsives de coder l’information dans la structure temporelle. Cette thèse adresse une partie des questions précédentes et trace des lignes indicatives pour de futures recherches. En particulier, nous avons étudié: un système d'accès multiple où les utilisateurs adoptent des signaux avec étalement de spectre par saut temporel (time-hopping spread spectrum) pour communiquer vers un récepteur commun; un système avec un préfiltre à l'émetteur, et plus précisément un transmit matched filter, également connu comme time reversal dans la littérature de systèmes à bande ultra large; un modèle d'interférence pour des signaux impulsifs