Fiber link design considerations for cloud-Radio Access Networks

Analog radio over fiber (RoF) links may offer advantages for cloud-Radio Access Networks in terms of component cost, but the behavior of the distortion with large numbers of subcarriers needs to be understood. In this paper, this is presented in terms of the variation between subcarriers. Memory polynomial predistortion is also shown to compensate for RoF and wireless path distortion. Whether for digitized or analog links, it is shown that appropriate framing structure parameters must be used to assure performance, especially of time-division duplex systems

Digital Predistortion in Large-Array Digital Beamforming Transmitters

In this article, we propose a novel digital predistortion (DPD) solution that allows to considerably reduce the complexity resulting from linearizing a set of power amplifiers (PAs) in single-user large-scale digital beamforming transmitters. In contrast to current state-of-the art solutions that assume a dedicated DPD per power amplifier, which is unfeasible in the context of large antenna arrays, the proposed solution only requires a single DPD in order to linearize an arbitrary number of power amplifiers. To this end, the proposed DPD predistorts the signal at the input of the digital precoder based on minimizing the nonlinear distortion of the combined signal at the intended receiver direction. This is a desirable feature, since the resulting emissions in other directions get partially diluted due to less coherent superposition. With this approach, only a single DPD is required, yielding great complexity and energy savings.Comment: 8 pages, Accepted for publication in Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computer

Low-Complexity Sub-band Digital Predistortion for Spurious Emission Suppression in Noncontiguous Spectrum Access

Noncontiguous transmission schemes combined with high power-efficiency requirements pose big challenges for radio transmitter and power amplifier (PA) design and implementation. Due to the nonlinear nature of the PA, severe unwanted emissions can occur, which can potentially interfere with neighboring channel signals or even desensitize the own receiver in frequency division duplexing (FDD) transceivers. In this article, to suppress such unwanted emissions, a low-complexity sub-band DPD solution, specifically tailored for spectrally noncontiguous transmission schemes in low-cost devices, is proposed. The proposed technique aims at mitigating only the selected spurious intermodulation distortion components at the PA output, hence allowing for substantially reduced processing complexity compared to classical linearization solutions. Furthermore, novel decorrelation based parameter learning solutions are also proposed and formulated, which offer reduced computing complexity in parameter estimation as well as the ability to track time-varying features adaptively. Comprehensive simulation and RF measurement results are provided, using a commercial LTE-Advanced mobile PA, to evaluate and validate the effectiveness of the proposed solution in real world scenarios. The obtained results demonstrate that highly efficient spurious component suppression can be obtained using the proposed solutions

Modeling and Efficient Cancellation of Nonlinear Self-Interference in MIMO Full-Duplex Transceivers

This paper addresses the modeling and digital cancellation of self-interference in in-band full-duplex (FD) transceivers with multiple transmit and receive antennas. The self-interference modeling and the proposed nonlinear spatio-temporal digital canceller structure takes into account, by design, the effects of I/Q modulator imbalances and power amplifier (PA) nonlinearities with memory, in addition to the multipath self-interference propagation channels and the analog RF cancellation stage. The proposed solution is the first cancellation technique in the literature which can handle such a self-interference scenario. It is shown by comprehensive simulations with realistic RF component parameters and with two different PA models to clearly outperform the current state-of-the-art digital self-interference cancellers, and to clearly extend the usable transmit power range.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures. To be presented in the 2014 International Workshop on Emerging Technologies for 5G Wireless Cellular Network

A B-ISDN-compatible modem/codec

Coded modulation techniques for development of a broadband integrated services digital network (B-ISDN)-compatible modem/codec are investigated. The selected baseband processor system must support transmission of 155.52 Mbit/s of data over an INTELSAT 72-MHz transponder. Performance objectives and fundamental system parameters, including channel symbol rate, code rate, and the modulation scheme are determined. From several candidate codes, a concatenated coding system consisting of a coded octal phase shift keying modulation as the inner code and a high rate Reed-Solomon as the outer code is selected and its bit error rate performance is analyzed by computer simulation. The hardware implementation of the decoder for the selected code is also described

Impact of Spatial Filtering on Distortion from Low-Noise Amplifiers in Massive MIMO Base Stations

In massive MIMO base stations, power consumption and cost of the low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) can be substantial because of the many antennas. We investigate the feasibility of inexpensive, power efficient LNAs, which inherently are less linear. A polynomial model is used to characterize the nonlinear LNAs and to derive the second-order statistics and spatial correlation of the distortion. We show that, with spatial matched filtering (maximum-ratio combining) at the receiver, some distortion terms combine coherently, and that the SINR of the symbol estimates therefore is limited by the linearity of the LNAs. Furthermore, it is studied how the power from a blocker in the adjacent frequency band leaks into the main band and creates distortion. The distortion term that scales cubically with the power received from the blocker has a spatial correlation that can be filtered out by spatial processing and only the coherent term that scales quadratically with the power remains. When the blocker is in free-space line-of-sight and the LNAs are identical, this quadratic term has the same spatial direction as the desired signal, and hence cannot be removed by linear receiver processing

End to End Deep Neural Network Frequency Demodulation of Speech Signals

Frequency modulation (FM) is a form of radio broadcasting which is widely used nowadays and has been for almost a century. We suggest a software-defined-radio (SDR) receiver for FM demodulation that adopts an end-to-end learning based approach and utilizes the prior information of transmitted speech message in the demodulation process. The receiver detects and enhances speech from the in-phase and quadrature components of its base band version. The new system yields high performance detection for both acoustical disturbances, and communication channel noise and is foreseen to out-perform the established methods for low signal to noise ratio (SNR) conditions in both mean square error and in perceptual evaluation of speech quality score

Programmable digital modem

The design of the Programmable Digital Modem (PDM) is outlined. The PDM will be capable of operating with numerous modulation techniques including: 2-, 4-, 8- and 16-ary phase shift keying (PSK), minimum shift keying (MSK), and 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), with spectral occupancy from 1.2x to 2x the data symbol rate. It will also be programmable for transmission rates ranging from 2.34 to 300 Mbit/s, where the maximum symbol rate is 75 Msymbol/s. Furthermore, these parameters will be executable in independent burst, dependent burst, or continuous mode. In dependent burst mode the carrier and clock oscillator sources are common from burst to burst. To achieve as broad a set of requirements as these, it is clear that the essential signal processing must be digital. In addition, to avoid hardware changes when the operational parameters are changed, a fixed interface to an analog intermediate frequency (IF) is necessary for transmission; and, common system level architectures are necessary for the modulator and demodulator. Lastly, to minimize size and power, as much of the design as possible will be implemented with application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips