Game theoretic aspects of distributed spectral coordination with application to DSL networks

In this paper we use game theoretic techniques to study the value of cooperation in distributed spectrum management problems. We show that the celebrated iterative water-filling algorithm is subject to the prisoner's dilemma and therefore can lead to severe degradation of the achievable rate region in an interference channel environment. We also provide thorough analysis of a simple two bands near-far situation where we are able to provide closed form tight bounds on the rate region of both fixed margin iterative water filling (FM-IWF) and dynamic frequency division multiplexing (DFDM) methods. This is the only case where such analytic expressions are known and all previous studies included only simulated results of the rate region. We then propose an alternative algorithm that alleviates some of the drawbacks of the IWF algorithm in near-far scenarios relevant to DSL access networks. We also provide experimental analysis based on measured DSL channels of both algorithms as well as the centralized optimum spectrum management

Optimal multi-user spectrum balancing for digital subscriber lines

Crosstalk is a major issue in modern digital subscriber line (DSL) systems such as ADSL and VDSL. Static spectrum management, which is the traditional way of ensuring spectral compatibility, employs spectral masks that can be overly conservative and lead to poor performance. This paper presents a centralized algorithm for optimal spectrum balancing in DSL. The algorithm uses the dual decomposition method to optimize spectra in an efficient and computationally tractable way. The algorithm shows significant performance gains over existing dynamic spectrum management (DSM) techniques, e.g., in one of the cases studied, the proposed centralized algorithm leads to a factor-of-four increase in data rate over the distributed DSM algorithm iterative waterfilling

A Near-Optimal Linear Crosstalk Canceler for Upstream VDSL

Crosstalk is the major source of performance degradation in VDSL. Several crosstalk cancelers have been proposed to address this. Unfortunately, they suffer from error propagation, high complexity, and long latency. This paper presents a simple, linear zero-forcing (ZF) crosstalk canceler. This design has a low complexity and no latency and does not suffer from error propagation. Furthermore, due to the well-conditioned structure of the VDSL channel matrix, the ZF design causes negligible noise enhancement. A lower bound on the performance of the linear ZF canceler is derived. This allows performance to be predicted without explicit knowledge of the crosstalk channels, which simplifies service provisioning considerably. This bound shows that the linear ZF canceler operates close to the single-user bound. Therefore, the linear ZF canceler is a low-complexity, low-latency design with predictable near-optimal performance. The combination of spectral optimization and crosstalk cancellation is also considered. Spectra optimization in a multiaccess channel generally involves a complex optimization problem. Since the linear ZF canceler decouples transmission on each line, the spectrum on each modem can be optimized independently, leading to a significant reduction in complexity

A near-optimal linear crosstalk precoder for downstream VDSL

This paper presents a linear crosstalk precoder for VDSL that has a low run-time complexity. A lower bound on the data-rate of the precoder is developed and guarantees that the precoder achieves near-optimal performance in 99% of VDSL channels

A Near-Optimal Linear Crosstalk Precoder for VDSL

Crosstalk is the major source of performance degradation in VDSL. In downstream transmission crosstalk precoding can be applied. The transmitted signal is predistorted, such that the predistortion annihilates with the crosstalk introduced in the binder. Several crosstalk precoders have been proposed. Unfortunately they either give poor performance or require non-linear operations, which results in a high complexity. In this paper we present a simple, linear diagonalizing crosstalk precoder with low run-time complexity. A lower bound on the performance of the DP is derived. This allows performance to be predicted without explicit knowledge of the crosstalk channels, which simplies service provisioning considerably. This bound shows that the DP operates close to the single-user bound. So the DP is a low complexity design with predictable, near-optimal performance. The combination of spectra optimization and crosstalk precoding is also considered. Spectra optimization in a broadcast channel generally involves a highly complex optimization problem. Since the DP decouples transmission on each line, the spectrum on each modem can be optimized through a dual decomposition, leading to a significant reduction in complexity

A Near-Optimal Linear Crosstalk Canceler for VDSL

Crosstalk is the major source of performance degradation in VDSL. Several crosstalk cancelers have been proposed to address this. Unfortunately they suffer from error propagation, high complexity and long latency. In this paper we present a simple, linear zero forcing (ZF) crosstalk canceler. This design has a low complexity, no latency and does not suffer from error propagation. Furthermore, due to the well conditioned structure of the VDSL channel matrix, the ZF design causes negligible noise enhancement. A lower bound on the performance of the linear ZF canceler is derived. This allows performance to be predicted without explicit knowledge of the crosstalk channels, which simplies service provisioning considerably. This bound shows that the linear ZF canceler operates close to the single user bound. So the linear ZF canceler is a low complexity, low latency design with predictable, near-optimal performance. The combination of spectral optimization and crosstalk cancellation is also considered. Spectra optimization in a multi-access channel generally involves a highly complex optimization problem. Since the linear ZF canceler decouples transmission on each line, the spectrum on each modem can be optimized independently, leading to a signicant reduction in complexity.