Performance of Hybrid Direct-Sequence Time-Hopping Ultrawide Bandwidth Systems over Nakagami-m Fading Channels

This paper investigates and compares the performance of various ultrawide bandwidth (UWB) systems when communicating over Nakagami-m fading channels. Specifically, the direct-sequence (DS), time-hopping (TH) and hybrid direct-sequence time-hopping (DS-TH) UWB systems are considered. The performance of these UWB systems is studied associated with employing the conventional single-user correlation detector or minimum mean-square error (MMSE) multiuser detector. Our simulation results show that the hybrid DS-TH UWB system may outperform a corresponding pure TH-UWB or pure DS-UWB system in terms of the achievable error performance. Given the total spreading gain of the hybrid DS-TH UWB system, there is an optimal setting of the TH spreading factor and DS spreading factor, which results in the best error performance

Time-Hopping Multicarrier Code-Division Multiple-Access

A time-hopping multicarrier code-division multiple-access (TH/MC-CDMA) scheme is proposed and investigated. In the proposed TH/MC-CDMA each information symbol is transmitted by a number of time-domain pulses with each time-domain pulse modulating a subcarrier. The transmitted information at the receiver is extracted from one of the, say $M$, possible time-slot positions, i.e., assuming that $M$-ary pulse position modulation is employed. Specifically, in this contribution we concentrate on the scenarios such as system design, power spectral density (PSD) and single-user based signal detection. The error performance of the TH/MC-CDMA system is investigated, when each subcarrier signal experiences flat Nakagami-$m$ fading in addition to additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). According to our analysis and results, it can be shown that the TH/MC-CDMA signal is capable of providing a near ideal PSD, which is flat over the system bandwidth available, while decreases rapidly beyond that bandwidth. Explicitly, signals having this type of PSD is beneficial to both broadband and ultra-wide bandwidth (UWB) communications. Furthermore, our results show that, when optimum user address codes are employed, the single-user detector considered is near-far resistant, provided that the number of users supported by the system is lower than the number of subcarriers used for conveying an information symbol

Reduced-rank adaptive least bit-error-rate detection in hybrid direct-sequence time-hopping ultrawide bandwidth systems

Design of high-efficiency low-complexity detection schemes for ultrawide bandwidth (UWB) systems is highly challenging. This contribution proposes a reduced-rank adaptive multiuser detection (MUD) scheme operated in least bit-errorrate (LBER) principles for the hybrid direct-sequence timehopping UWB (DS-TH UWB) systems. The principal component analysis (PCA)-assisted rank-reduction technique is employed to obtain a detection subspace, where the reduced-rank adaptive LBER-MUD is carried out. The reduced-rank adaptive LBERMUD is free from channel estimation and does not require the knowledge about the number of resolvable multipaths as well as the knowledge about the multipaths’ strength. In this contribution, the BER performance of the hybrid DS-TH UWB systems using the proposed detection scheme is investigated, when assuming communications over UWB channels modeled by the Saleh-Valenzuela (S-V) channel model. Our studies and performance results show that, given a reasonable rank of the detection subspace, the reduced-rank adaptive LBER-MUD is capable of efficiently mitigating the multiuser interference (MUI) and inter-symbol interference (ISI), and achieving the diversity gain promised by the UWB systems

Transceiver design and system optimization for ultra-wideband communications

This dissertation investigates the potential promises and proposes possible solutions to the challenges of designing transceivers and optimizing system parameters in ultra-wideband (UWB) systems. The goal is to provide guidelines for UWB transceiver implementations under constraints by regulation, existing interference, and channel estimation. New UWB pulse shapes are invented that satisfy the Federal Communications Commission spectral mask. Parameters are designed to possibly implement the proposed pulses. A link budget is quantified based on an accurate frequency-dependent path loss calculation to account for variations across the ultra-wide bandwidth of the signal. Achievable information rates are quantified as a function of transmission distance over additive white Gaussian noise and multipath channels under specific UWB constraints: limited power spectral density, specific modulation formats, and a highly dispersive channel. The effect of self-interference (SI) and inter-symbol interference (ISI) on channel capacity is determined, and modulation formats that mitigate against this effect is identified. Spreading gains of familiar UWB signaling formats are evaluated, and UWB signals are proved to be spread spectrum. Conditions are formulated for trading coding gain with spreading gain with only a small impact on performance. Numerical results are examined to demonstrate that over a frequency-selective channel, the spreading gain may be beneficial in reducing the SI and ISI resulting in higher information rates. A reduced-rank adaptive filtering technique is applied to the problem of interference suppression and optimum combining in UWB communications. The reduced-rank combining method, in particular the eigencanceler, is proposed and compared with a minimum mean square error Rake receiver. Simulation results are evaluated to show that the performance of the proposed method is superior to the minimum mean square error when the correlation matrix is estimated from limited data. Impact of channel estimation on UWB system performance is investigated when path delays and path amplitudes are jointly estimated. Cramér-Rao bound (CRB) expressions for the variance of path delay and amplitude estimates are formulated using maximum likelihood estimation. Using the errors obtained from the CRB, the effective signal-to-noise ratio for UWB Rake receivers employing maximum ratio combining (MRC) is devised in the presence of channel path delay and amplitude errors. An exact expression of the bit error rate (BER) for UWB Rake receivers with MRC is derived with imperfect estimates of channel path delays and amplitudes. Further, this analysis is applied to design optimal transceiver parameters. The BER is used as part of a binary symmetric channel and the achievable information rates are evaluated. The optimum power allocation and number of symbols allocated to the pilot are developed with respect to maximizing the information rate. The optimal signal bandwidth to be used for UWB communications is determined in the presence of imperfect channel state information. The number of multipath components to be collected by Rake receivers is designed to optimize performance with non-ideal channel estimation

Self-concatenated coding for wireless communication systems

In this thesis, we have explored self-concatenated coding schemes that are designed for transmission over Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) and uncorrelated Rayleigh fading channels. We designed both the symbol-based Self-ConcatenatedCodes considered using Trellis Coded Modulation (SECTCM) and bit-based Self- Concatenated Convolutional Codes (SECCC) using a Recursive Systematic Convolutional (RSC) encoder as constituent codes, respectively. The design of these codes was carried out with the aid of Extrinsic Information Transfer (EXIT) charts. The EXIT chart based design has been found an efficient tool in finding the decoding convergence threshold of the constituent codes. Additionally, in order to recover the information loss imposed by employing binary rather than non-binary schemes, a soft decision demapper was introduced in order to exchange extrinsic information withthe SECCC decoder. To analyse this information exchange 3D-EXIT chart analysis was invoked for visualizing the extrinsic information exchange between the proposed Iteratively Decoding aided SECCC and soft-decision demapper (SECCC-ID). Some of the proposed SECTCM, SECCC and SECCC-ID schemes perform within about 1 dB from the AWGN and Rayleigh fading channels’ capacity. A union bound analysis of SECCC codes was carried out to find the corresponding Bit Error Ratio (BER) floors. The union bound of SECCCs was derived for communications over both AWGN and uncorrelated Rayleigh fading channels, based on a novel interleaver concept.Application of SECCCs in both UltraWideBand (UWB) and state-of-the-art video-telephone schemes demonstrated its practical benefits.In order to further exploit the benefits of the low complexity design offered by SECCCs we explored their application in a distributed coding scheme designed for cooperative communications, where iterative detection is employed by exchanging extrinsic information between the decoders of SECCC and RSC at the destination. In the first transmission period of cooperation, the relay receives the potentially erroneous data and attempts to recover the information. The recovered information is then re-encoded at the relay using an RSC encoder. In the second transmission period this information is then retransmitted to the destination. The resultant symbols transmitted from the source and relay nodes can be viewed as the coded symbols of a three-component parallel-concatenated encoder. At the destination a Distributed Binary Self-Concatenated Coding scheme using Iterative Decoding (DSECCC-ID) was employed, where the two decoders (SECCC and RSC) exchange their extrinsic information. It was shown that the DSECCC-ID is a low-complexity scheme, yet capable of approaching the Discrete-input Continuous-output Memoryless Channels’s (DCMC) capacity.Finally, we considered coding schemes designed for two nodes communicating with each other with the aid of a relay node, where the relay receives information from the two nodes in the first transmission period. At the relay node we combine a powerful Superposition Coding (SPC) scheme with SECCC. It is assumed that decoding errors may be encountered at the relay node. The relay node then broadcasts this information in the second transmission period after re-encoding it, again, using a SECCC encoder. At the destination, the amalgamated block of Successive Interference Cancellation (SIC) scheme combined with SECCC then detects and decodes the signal either with or without the aid of a priori information. Our simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme is capable of reliably operating at a low BER for transmission over both AWGN and uncorrelated Rayleigh fading channels. We compare the proposed scheme’s performance to a direct transmission link between the two sources having the same throughput