Intelligent Processing in Wireless Communications Using Particle Swarm Based Methods

There are a lot of optimization needs in the research and design of wireless communica- tion systems. Many of these optimization problems are Nondeterministic Polynomial (NP) hard problems and could not be solved well. Many of other non-NP-hard optimization problems are combinatorial and do not have satisfying solutions either. This dissertation presents a series of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) based search and optimization algorithms that solve open research and design problems in wireless communications. These problems are either avoided or solved approximately before. PSO is a bottom-up approach for optimization problems. It imposes no conditions on the underlying problem. Its simple formulation makes it easy to implement, apply, extend and hybridize. The algorithm uses simple operators like adders, and multipliers to travel through the search space and the process requires just five simple steps. PSO is also easy to control because it has limited number of parameters and is less sensitive to parameters than other swarm intelligence algorithms. It is not dependent on initial points and converges very fast. Four types of PSO based approaches are proposed targeting four different kinds of problems in wireless communications. First, we use binary PSO and continuous PSO together to find optimal compositions of Gaussian derivative pulses to form several UWB pulses that not only comply with the FCC spectrum mask, but also best exploit the avail- able spectrum and power. Second, three different PSO based algorithms are developed to solve the NLOS/LOS channel differentiation, NLOS range error mitigation and multilateration problems respectively. Third, a PSO based search method is proposed to find optimal orthogonal code sets to reduce the inter carrier interference effects in an frequency redundant OFDM system. Fourth, a PSO based phase optimization technique is proposed in reducing the PAPR of an frequency redundant OFDM system. The PSO based approaches are compared with other canonical solutions for these communication problems and showed superior performance in many aspects. which are confirmed by analysis and simulation results provided respectively. Open questions and future Open questions and future works for the dissertation are proposed to serve as a guide for the future research efforts

Generalized discrete Fourier transform with non-linear phase : theory and design

Constant modulus transforms like discrete Fourier transform (DFT), Walsh transform, and Gold codes have been successfully used over several decades in various engineering applications, including discrete multi-tone (DMT), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and code division multiple access (CDMA) communications systems. Among these popular transforms, DFT is a linear phase transform and widely used in multicarrier communications due to its performance and fast algorithms. In this thesis, a theoretical framework for Generalized DFT (GDFT) with nonlinear phase exploiting the phase space is developed. It is shown that GDFT offers sizable correlation improvements over DFT, Walsh, and Gold codes. Brute force search algorithm is employed to obtain orthogonal GDFT code sets with improved correlations. Design examples and simulation results on several channel types presented in the thesis show that the proposed GDFT codes, with better auto and cross-correlation properties than DFT, lead to better bit-error-rate performance in all multi-carrier and multi-user communications scenarios investigated. It is also highlighted how known constant modulus code families such as Walsh, Walsh-like and other codes are special solutions of the GDFT framework. In addition to theoretical framework, practical design methods with computationally efficient implementations of GDFT as enhancements to DFT are presented in the thesis. The main advantage of the proposed method is its ability to design a wide selection of constant modulus orthogonal code sets based on the desired performance metrics mimicking the engineering .specs of interest. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a leading candidate to be adopted for high speed 4G wireless communications standards due to its high spectral efficiency, strong resistance to multipath fading and ease of implementation with Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithms. However, the main disadvantage of an OFDM based communications technique is of its high PAPR at the RF stage of a transmitter. PAPR dominates the power (battery) efficiency of the radio transceiver. Among the PAPR reduction methods proposed in the literature, Selected Mapping (SLM) method has been successfully used in OFDM communications. In this thesis, an SLM method employing GDFT with closed form phase functions rather than fixed DFT for PAPR reduction is introduced. The performance improvements of GDFT based SLM PAPR reduction for various OFDM communications scenarios including the WiMAX standard based system are evaluated by simulations. Moreover, an efficient implementation of GDFT based SLM method reducing computational cost of multiple transform operations is forwarded. Performance simulation results show that power efficiency of non-linear RF amplifier in an OFDM system employing proposed method significantly improved

Energy Efficient Peak Power Reduction in OFDM with Amplitude Predistortion Aided by Orthogonal Pilots

The high Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR) is a main drawback of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems. We propose a two-step technique to reduce the PAPR consisting of a metric-based constellation extension method, such as Simple Amplitude Predistortion (SAP) algorithm, aided by Orthogonal Pilot Sequences (OPS) in a previous step, where we also provide a low-complex implementation of OPS scheme. We show that our proposal, named OP-SAP, outperforms previous approaches in terms of PAPR reduction, due to joining the benefits of Orthogonal Pilots with SAP algorithm. Moreover, it is energy efficient within two aspects: transmitted energy and implementation energy. OP-SAP saves up to 57% of transmitted energy per predistorted symbol compared to SAP. Regarding implementation energy, PAPR reduction techniques introduce some additional computational complexity, which requires extra cycles in the processor that demand energy consumption. We present an exhaustive analysis on computational power cost that shows the low power consumption of OP-SAP compared to other methods as SeLected Mapping (SLM), what yields a remarkable energy saving in its practical implementation.This work was supported in part by the Spanish National Projects GRE3N-SYST (TEC2011-29006-C03-03) and COMONSENS (CSD2008-00010), Fundación Carolina (Spain), and SENESCYT (Ecuador).Publicad

Generalized DFT: extensions in communications

Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) is a restricted version of Generalized DFT (GDFT) which offers a very limited number of sets to be used in a multicarrier communication system. In contrast, as an extension on Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) from the linear phase to non-linear phase, the proposed GDFT provides many possible carrier sets of various lengths with comparable or better performance than DFT. The availability of the rich library of orthogonal constant amplitude transforms with good performance allows people to design adaptive systems where user code allocations are made dynamically to exploit the current channel conditions in order to deliver better performance. For MIMO Radar systems, the ideal case to detect a moving target is when all waveforms are orthogonal, which can provide an accurate estimation. But this is not practical in distributed MIMO radars, where sensors are at varying distances from a target. Orthogonal waveforms with low auto- and cross-correlations are of great interest for MIMO radar applications with distributed antennas. Finite length orthogonal codes are required in real-world applications where frequency selectivity and signal correlation features of the optimal subspace are compromised. In the first part of the dissertation, a method is addressed to design optimal waveforms which meets above requirements for various radar systems by designing the phase shaping function (PSF) of GDFT framework with non-linear phase. Multicarrier transmission such as orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) has seen a rise in popularity in wireless communication, as it offers a promising choice for high speed data rate transmission. Meanwhile, high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) is one of the well-known drawbacks of the OFDM system due to reduced power efficiency in non-linear modules. Such a situation leads to inefficient amplification and increases the cost of the system, or increases in interference and signal distortion. Therefore, PAPR reduction techniques play an essential role to improve power efficiency in the OFDM systems. There has been a variety of PAPR reduction methods emphasizing different aspects proposed in the literature. The trade-off for PAPR reduction in the existing methods is either increased average power and/or added computational complexity. A new PAPR reduction scheme is proposed that implements a pre-designed symbol alphabet modifier matrix (SAM) to jointly modify the amplitude and phase values of the original data symbol alphabets prior to the IFFT operation of an OFDM system at the transmitter. The method formulated with the GDFT offers a low-complexity framework in four proposed cases devised to be independent of original data symbols. Without degrading the bit error rate (BER) performance, it formulates PAPR reduction problem elegantly and outperforms partial transmit sequences (PTS), selected mapping technique (SLM) and Walsh Hadamard transform (WHT-OFDM) significantly for the communication scenarios considered in the dissertation

Multicarrier communication systems with low sensibility to nonlinear amplification

Actualment estem entrant a una nova era de la informació amb gran demanda de sistemes de comunicació sense fils. Nous serveis com dades i video requereixen transmissions fiables d'alta velocitat, fins i tot en escenaris d'alta mobilitat. A més a més, la dificultat d'assignar el limitat espectre radioelèctric juntament amb la necessitat d'incrementar el temps de vida de les bateries dels terminals mòbils, requereix el diseny de transceptors que usin la potència i l'ampla de banda disponibles de manera eficient. Les comunicacions multiportadora basades en OFDM són capaces de satisfer la majoria d'aquests requeriments. Però, entre altres reptes, reduir la sensibilitat a la amplificació no-lineal és un factor clau durant el diseny. En aquesta tesi doctoral s'analitza la sensibilitat dels sistemes multiportadora basats en OFDM a l'amplificació no-lineal i es consideren formes eficients per superar aquest problema. La tesi s'enfoca principalment al problema de reduir les fluctuacions de l'envolupant del senyal transmès. En aquest sentit es presenta també un estudi de les mètriques de l'envolupant del senyal, PAPR i CM. A més a més, basant-nos en l'anàlisis presentat es proposen noves tècniques per sistemes OFDM i MC-SS. Per MC-SS, també es tracta el diseny d'una tècnica de postprocessament en forma de detector multiusuari per canals no-lineals.Actualmente estamos entrando en una nueva era de la información donde se da una gran demanda de sistemas de comunicación inalámbricos. Nuevos servicios como datos y vídeo requieren transmisiones fiables de alta velocidad, incluso en escenarios de alta movilidad. Además, la dificultad de asignar el limitado espectro radioeléctrico junto con la necesidad de incrementar el tiempo de vida de las baterías de los terminales móviles, requiere el diseño de transceptores que usen eficientemente la potencia y el ancho de banda disponibles. Las comunicaciones multiportadora basadas en OFDM son capaces de satisfacer la mayoría de dichos requerimientos. Sin embargo, entre otros retos, reducir su sensibilidad a la amplificación no-lineal es un factor clave durante el diseño. En esta tesis se analiza la sensibilidad de los sistemas multiportadora basados en OFDM a la amplificación no-lineal y se consideran formas eficientes para superar dicho problema. La tesis se enfoca principalmente al problema de reducir las fluctuaciones de la envolvente. En este sentido también se presenta un estudio de las métricas de la señal, PAPR y CM. Además, basándonos en el análisis presentado se proponen nuevas técnicas para OFDM y MC-SS. Para MC-SS, también se trata el diseño de un detector multiusuario para canales no-lineales.We are now facing a new information age with high demand of wireless communication systems. New services such as data and video require achieving reliable high-speed transmissions even in high mobility scenarios. Moreover, the difficulty to allocate so many wireless communication systems in the limited frequency band in addition to the demand for long battery life requires designing spectrum and power efficient transceivers. Multicarrier communications based on OFDM are known to fulfill most of the requirements of such systems. However, among other challenges, reducing the sensitivity to nonlinear amplification has become a design key. In this thesis the sensitivity of OFDM-based multicarrier systems to nonlinear amplification is analyzed and efficient ways to overcome this problem are considered. The focus is mainly on the problem of reducing the envelope fluctuations. Therefore, a study of the signal metrics, namely PAPR and CM, is also presented. From the presented analysis, several new techniques for OFDM and MC-SS are proposed. For MC-SS, the design of a post-processing technique in the form of a multiuser detector for nonlinearly distorted MC-SS symbols is also addressed