Preamble design using embedded signalling for OFDM broadcast systems based on reduced-complexity distance detection

The second generation digital terrestrial television broadcasting standard (DVB-T2) adopts the so-called P1 symbol as the preamble for initial synchronization. The P1 symbol also carries a number of basic transmission parameters, including the fast Fourier transform size and the single-input/single-output as well as multiple-input/single-output mode, in order to appropriately configure the receiver for carrying out the subsequent processing. In this contribution, an improved preamble design is proposed, where a pair of training sequences is inserted in the frequency domain and their distance is used for transmission parameter signalling. At the receiver, only a low-complexity correlator is required for the detection of the signalling. Both the coarse carrier frequency offset and the signalling can be simultaneously estimated by detecting the above-mentioned correlation. Compared to the standardised P1 symbol, the proposed preamble design significantly reduces the complexity of the receiver while retaining high robustness in frequency-selective fading channels. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the proposed preamble design achieves a better signalling performance than the standardised P1 symbol, despite reducing the numbers of multiplications and additions by about 40% and 20%, respectively

Modified quasi-orthogonal space-time block coding in distributed wireless networks

Cooperative networks have developed as a useful technique that can achieve the same advantage as multi-input and multi-output (MIMO) wireless systems such as spatial diversity, whilst resolving the difficulties of co-located multiple antennas at individual nodes and avoiding the effect of path-loss and shadowing. Spatial diversity in cooperative networks is known as cooperative diversity, and can enhance system reliability without sacrificing the scarce bandwidth resource or consuming more transmit power. It enables single-antenna terminals in a wireless relay network to share their antennas to form a virtual antenna array on the basis of their distributed locations. However, there remain technical challenges to maximize the benefit of cooperative communications, e.g. data rate, asynchronous transmission and outage. In this thesis, therefore, firstly, a modified distributed quasi-orthogonal space-time block coding (M-D-QO-STBC) scheme with increased code gain distance (CGD) for one-way and two-way amplify-and-forward wireless relay networks is proposed. This modified code is designed from set partitioning a larger codebook formed from two quasi-orthogonal space time block codes with different signal rotations then the subcodes are combined and pruned to arrive at the modified codebook with the desired rate in order to increase the CGD. Moreover, for higher rate codes the code distance is maximized by using a genetic algorithm to search for the optimum rotation matrix. This scheme has very good performance and significant coding gain over existing codes such as the open-loop and closed-loop QO-STBC schemes. In addition, the topic of outage probability analysis in the context of multi-relay selection from $N$ available relay nodes for one-way amplify-and-forward cooperative relay networks is considered together with the best relay selection, the $N^{th}$ relay selection and best four relay selection in two-way amplify-and-forward cooperative relay networks. The relay selection is performed either on the basis of a max-min strategy or one based on maximizing exact end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio. Furthermore, in this thesis, robust schemes for cooperative relays based on the M-D-QO-STBC scheme for both one-way and two-way asynchronous cooperative relay networks are considered to overcome the issue of a synchronism in wireless cooperative relay networks. In particular, an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) data structure is employed with cyclic prefix (CP) insertion at the source in the one-way cooperative relay network and at the two terminal nodes in the two-way cooperative network to combat the effects of time asynchronism. As such, this technique can effectively cope with the effects of timing errors. Finally, outage probability performance of a proposed amplify-and-forward cooperative cognitive relay network is evaluated and the cognitive relays are assumed to exploit an overlay approach. A closed form expression for the outage probability for multi-relay selection cooperation over Rayleigh frequency flat fading channels is derived for perfect and imperfect spectrum acquisitions. Furthermore, the M-QO-STBC scheme is also proposed for use in wireless cognitive relay networks. MATLAB and Maple software based simulations are employed throughout the thesis to support the analytical results and assess the performance of new algorithms and methods

Quantized Multimode Precoding in Spatially Correlated Multi-Antenna Channels

Multimode precoding, where the number of independent data-streams is adapted optimally, can be used to maximize the achievable throughput in multi-antenna communication systems. Motivated by standardization efforts embraced by the industry, the focus of this work is on systematic precoder design with realistic assumptions on the spatial correlation, channel state information (CSI) at the transmitter and the receiver, and implementation complexity. For spatial correlation of the channel matrix, we assume a general channel model, based on physical principles, that has been verified by many recent measurement campaigns. We also assume a coherent receiver and knowledge of the spatial statistics at the transmitter along with the presence of an ideal, low-rate feedback link from the receiver to the transmitter. The reverse link is used for codebook-index feedback and the goal of this work is to construct precoder codebooks, adaptable in response to the statistical information, such that the achievable throughput is significantly enhanced over that of a fixed, non-adaptive, i.i.d. codebook design. We illustrate how a codebook of semiunitary precoder matrices localized around some fixed center on the Grassmann manifold can be skewed in response to the spatial correlation via low-complexity maps that can rotate and scale submanifolds on the Grassmann manifold. The skewed codebook in combination with a lowcomplexity statistical power allocation scheme is then shown to bridge the gap in performance between a perfect CSI benchmark and an i.i.d. codebook design.Comment: 30 pages, 4 figures, Preprint to be submitted to IEEE Transactions on Signal Processin

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThis dissertation addresses several key challenges in multiple-antenna communications, including information-theoretical analysis of channel capacity, capacity-achieving signaling design, and practical statistical detection algorithms. The first part of the thesis studies the capacity limits of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) multiple access channel (MAC) via virtual representation (VR) model. The VR model captures the physical scattering environment via channel gains in the angular domain, and hence is a realistic MIMO channel model that includes many existing channel models as special cases. This study provides analytical characterization of the optimal input distribution that achieves the sum-capacity of MAC-VR. It also investigates the optimality of beamforming, which is a simple scalar coding strategy desirable in practice. For temporally correlated channels, beamforming codebook designs are proposed that can efficiently exploit channel correlation. The second part of the thesis focuses on statistical detection for time-varying frequency-selective channels. The proposed statistical detectors are developed based on Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques. The complexity of such detectors grows linearly in system dimensions, which renders them applicable to inter-symbol-interference (ISI) channels with long delay spread, for which the traditional trellis-based detectors fail due to prohibitive complexity. The proposed MCMC detectors provide substantial gain over the de facto turbo minimum-mean square-error (MMSE) detector for both synthetic channel and underwater acoustic (UWA) channels. The effectiveness of the proposed MCMC detectors is successfully validated through experimental data collected from naval at-sea experiments

Limited Feedback Precoding for Massive MIMO

The large-scale array antenna system with numerous low-power antennas deployed at the base station, also known as massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), can provide a plethora of advantages over the classical array antenna system. Precoding is important to exploit massive MIMO performance, and codebook design is crucial due to the limited feedback channel. In this paper, we propose a new avenue of codebook design based on a Kronecker-type approximation of the array correlation structure for the uniform rectangular antenna array, which is preferable for the antenna deployment of massive MIMO. Although the feedback overhead is quite limited, the codebook design can provide an effective solution to support multiple users in different scenarios. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed codebook outperforms the previously known codebooks remarkably