Advanced Channel Estimation Techniques for Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Multi-Carrier Systems in Doubly-Dispersive Channels

Flexible numerology of the physical layer has been introduced in the latest release of 5G new radio (NR) and the baseline waveform generation is chosen to be cyclic-prefix based orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CP-OFDM). Thanks to the narrow subcarrier spacing and low complexity one tap equalization (EQ) of OFDM, it suits well to time-dispersive channels. For the upcoming 5G and beyond use-case scenarios, it is foreseen that the users might experience high mobility conditions. While the frame structure of the 5G NR is designed for long coherence times, the synchronization and channel estimation (CE) procedures are not fully and reliably covered for diverse applications. The research on alternative multi-carrier waveforms has brought up valuable results in terms of spectral efficiency, applications coexistence and flexibility. Nevertheless, the receiver design becomes more challenging for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) non-orthogonal multi-carriers because the receiver must deal with multiple dimensions of interference. This thesis aims to deliver accurate pilot-aided estimations of the wireless channel for coherent detection. Considering a MIMO non-orthogonal multi-carrier, e.g. generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM), we initially derive the classical and Bayesian estimators for rich multi-path fading channels, where we theoretically assess the choice of pilot design. Moreover, the well time- and frequency-localization of the pilots in non-orthogonal multi-carriers allows to reuse their energy from cyclic-prefix (CP). Taking advantage of this feature, we derive an iterative approach for joint CE and EQ of MIMO systems. Furthermore, exploiting the block-circularity of GFDM, we comprehensively analyze the complexity aspects, and propose a solution for low complexity implementation. Assuming very high mobility use-cases where the channel varies within the symbol duration, further considerations, particularly the channel coherence time must be taken into account. A promising candidate that is fully independent of the multi-carrier choice is unique word (UW) transmission, where the CP of random nature is replaced by a deterministic sequence. This feature, allows per-block synchronization and channel estimation for robust transmission over extremely doubly-dispersive channels. In this thesis, we propose a novel approach to extend the UW-based physical layer design to MIMO systems and we provide an in-depth study of their out-of-band emission, synchronization, CE and EQ procedures. Via theoretical derivations and simulation results, and comparisons with respect to the state-of-the-art CP-OFDM systems, we show that the proposed UW-based frame design facilitates robust transmission over extremely doubly-dispersive channels.:1 Introduction 1 1.1 Multi-Carrier Waveforms 1 1.2 MIMO Systems 3 1.3 Contributions and Thesis Structure 4 1.4 Notations 6 2 State-of-the-art and Fundamentals 9 2.1 Linear Systems and Problem Statement 9 2.2 GFDM Modulation 11 2.3 MIMO Wireless Channel 12 2.4 Classical and Bayesian Channel Estimation in MIMO OFDM Systems 15 2.5 UW-Based Transmission in SISO Systems 17 2.6 Summary 19 3 Channel Estimation for MIMO Non-Orthogonal Waveforms 21 3.1 Classical and Bayesian Channel Estimation in MIMO GFDM Systems 22 3.1.1 MIMO LS Channel Estimation 23 3.1.2 MIMO LMMSE Channel Estimation 24 3.1.3 Simulation Results 25 3.2 Basic Pilot Designs for GFDM Channel Estimation 29 3.2.1 LS/HM Channel Estimation 31 3.2.2 LMMSE Channel Estimation for GFDM 32 3.2.3 Error Characterization 33 3.2.4 Simulation Results 36 3.3 Interference-Free Pilot Insertion for MIMO GFDM Channel Estimation 39 3.3.1 Interference-Free Pilot Insertion 39 3.3.2 Pilot Observation 40 3.3.3 Complexity 41 3.3.4 Simulation Results 41 3.4 Bayesian Pilot- and CP-aided Channel Estimation in MIMO NonOrthogonal Multi-Carriers 45 3.4.1 Review on System Model 46 3.4.2 Single-Input-Single-Output Systems 47 3.4.3 Extension to MIMO 50 3.4.4 Application to GFDM 51 3.4.5 Joint Channel Estimation and Equalization via LMMSE Parallel Interference Cancellation 57 3.4.6 Complexity Analysis 61 3.4.7 Simulation Results 61 3.5 Pilot- and CP-aided Channel Estimation in Time-Varying Scenarios 67 3.5.1 Adaptive Filtering based on Wiener-Hopf Approac 68 3.5.2 Simulation Results 69 3.6 Summary 72 4 Design of UW-Based Transmission for MIMO Multi-Carriers 73 4.1 Frame Design, Efficiency and Overhead Analysis 74 4.1.1 Illustrative Scenario 74 4.1.2 CP vs. UW Efficiency Analysis 76 4.1.3 Numerical Results 77 4.2 Sequences for UW and OOB Radiation 78 4.2.1 Orthogonal Polyphase Sequences 79 4.2.2 Waveform Engineering for UW Sequences combined with GFDM 79 4.2.3 Simulation Results for OOB Emission of UW-GFDM 81 4.3 Synchronization 82 4.3.1 Transmission over a Centralized MIMO Wireless Channel 82 4.3.2 Coarse Time Acquisition 83 4.3.3 CFO Estimation and Removal 85 4.3.4 Fine Time Acquisition 86 4.3.5 Simulation Results 88 4.4 Channel Estimation 92 4.4.1 MIMO UW-based LMMSE CE 92 4.4.2 Adaptive Filtering 93 4.4.3 Circular UW Transmission 94 4.4.4 Simulation Results 95 4.5 Equalization with Imperfect Channel Knowledge 96 4.5.1 UW-Free Equalization 97 4.5.2 Simulation Results 99 4.6 Summary 102 5 Conclusions and Perspectives 103 5.1 Main Outcomes in Short 103 5.2 Open Challenges 105 A Complementary Materials 107 A.1 Linear Algebra Identities 107 A.2 Proof of lower triangular Toeplitz channel matrix being defective 108 A.3 Calculation of noise-plus-interference covariance matrix for Pilot- and CPaided CE 108 A.4 Bock diagonalization of the effective channel for GFDM 109 A.5 Detailed complexity analysis of Sec. 3.4 109 A.6 CRLB derivations for the pdf (4.24) 113 A.7 Proof that (4.45) emulates a circular CIR at the receiver 11

Design guidelines for spatial modulation

A new class of low-complexity, yet energyefficient Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) transmission techniques, namely the family of Spatial Modulation (SM) aided MIMOs (SM-MIMO) has emerged. These systems are capable of exploiting the spatial dimensions (i.e. the antenna indices) as an additional dimension invoked for transmitting information, apart from the traditional Amplitude and Phase Modulation (APM). SM is capable of efficiently operating in diverse MIMO configurations in the context of future communication systems. It constitutes a promising transmission candidate for large-scale MIMO design and for the indoor optical wireless communication whilst relying on a single-Radio Frequency (RF) chain. Moreover, SM may also be viewed as an entirely new hybrid modulation scheme, which is still in its infancy. This paper aims for providing a general survey of the SM design framework as well as of its intrinsic limits. In particular, we focus our attention on the associated transceiver design, on spatial constellation optimization, on link adaptation techniques, on distributed/ cooperative protocol design issues, and on their meritorious variants

Near-Instantaneously Adaptive HSDPA-Style OFDM Versus MC-CDMA Transceivers for WIFI, WIMAX, and Next-Generation Cellular Systems

Burts-by-burst (BbB) adaptive high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) style multicarrier systems are reviewed, identifying their most critical design aspects. These systems exhibit numerous attractive features, rendering them eminently eligible for employment in next-generation wireless systems. It is argued that BbB-adaptive or symbol-by-symbol adaptive orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) modems counteract the near instantaneous channel quality variations and hence attain an increased throughput or robustness in comparison to their fixed-mode counterparts. Although they act quite differently, various diversity techniques, such as Rake receivers and space-time block coding (STBC) are also capable of mitigating the channel quality variations in their effort to reduce the bit error ratio (BER), provided that the individual antenna elements experience independent fading. By contrast, in the presence of correlated fading imposed by shadowing or time-variant multiuser interference, the benefits of space-time coding erode and it is unrealistic to expect that a fixed-mode space-time coded system remains capable of maintaining a near-constant BER

Técnicas de igualização adaptativas com estimativas imperfeitas do canal para os futuros sistemas 5G

Wireless communication networks have been continuously experiencing an exponential growth since their inception. The overwhelming demand for high data rates, support of a large number of users while mitigating disruptive interference are the constant research focus and it has led to the creation of new technologies and efficient techniques. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is the most common example of a technology that has come to the fore in this past decade as it provided a simple and generally ideal platform for wireless data transmission. It’s drawback of a rather high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) and sensitivity to phase noise, which in turn led to the adoption of alternative techniques, such as the single carrier systems with frequency domain equalization (SC-FDE) or the multi carrier systems with code division multiple access (MC-CDMA), but the nonlinear Frequency Domain Equalizers (FDE) have been of special note due to their improved performance. From these, the Iterative Block Decision Feedback Equalizer (IB-DFE) has proven itself especially promising due to its compatibility with space diversity, MIMO systems and CDMA schemes. However, the IB-DFE requires the system to have constant knowledge of the communication channel properties, that is, to have constantly perfect Channel State Information (CSI), which is both unrealistic and impractical to implement. In this dissertation we shall design an altered IB-DFE receiver that is able to properly detect signals from SC-FDMA based transmitters, even with constantly erroneous channel states. The results shall demonstrate that the proposed equalization scheme is robust to imperfect CSI (I-CSI) situations, since its performance is constantly close to the perfect CSI case, within just a few iterations.Redes sem fios têm crescido de maneira contínua e exponencial desde a sua incepção. A tremenda exigência para altas taxas de dados e o suporte para um elevado número de utilizadores sem aumentar a interferência disruptiva originada por estes são alguns dos focos que levaram ao desenvolvimento de técnicas de compensação e novas tecnologias. “Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing” (OFDM) é um dos exemplos de tecnologias que se destacaram nesta última década, visto ter fornecido uma plataforma para transmissão de dados sem-fio eficaz e simples. O seu maior problema é a alta “peak-to-average power ratio” (PAPR) e a sua sensibilidade a ruído de fase que deram motivo à adoção de técnicas alternativas, tais como os sistemas “single carrier” com “frequency domain equalization” (SC-FDE) ou os sistemas “multi-carrier” com “code division multiple access” (MC-CDMA), mas equalizadores não lineares no domínio de frequência têm sido alvo de especial atenção devido ao seu melhor desempenho. Destes, o “iterative block decision feedback equalizer” (IB-DFE) tem-se provado especialmente promissor devido à sua compatibilidade com técnicas de diversidade no espaço, sistemas MIMO e esquemas CDMA. No entanto, IB-DFE requer que o sistema tenha constante conhecimento das propriedades dos canais usados, ou seja, necessita de ter perfeito “channel state information” (CSI) constantemente, o que é tanto irrealista como impossível de implementar. Nesta dissertação iremos projetar um recetor IB-DFE alterado de forma a conseguir detetar sinais dum transmissor baseado em tecnologia SC-FDMA, mesmo com a informação de estado de canal errada. Os resultados irão então demonstrar que o novo esquema de equalização proposto é robusto para situações de CSI imperfeito (I-CSI), visto que o seu desempenho se mantém próximo dos valores esperados para CSI perfeito, em apenas algumas iterações.Mestrado em Engenharia Eletrónica e Telecomunicaçõe

Multiuser MIMO-OFDM for Next-Generation Wireless Systems

This overview portrays the 40-year evolution of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) research. The amelioration of powerful multicarrier OFDM arrangements with multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems has numerous benefits, which are detailed in this treatise. We continue by highlighting the limitations of conventional detection and channel estimation techniques designed for multiuser MIMO OFDM systems in the so-called rank-deficient scenarios, where the number of users supported or the number of transmit antennas employed exceeds the number of receiver antennas. This is often encountered in practice, unless we limit the number of users granted access in the base station’s or radio port’s coverage area. Following a historical perspective on the associated design problems and their state-of-the-art solutions, the second half of this treatise details a range of classic multiuser detectors (MUDs) designed for MIMO-OFDM systems and characterizes their achievable performance. A further section aims for identifying novel cutting-edge genetic algorithm (GA)-aided detector solutions, which have found numerous applications in wireless communications in recent years. In an effort to stimulate the cross pollination of ideas across the machine learning, optimization, signal processing, and wireless communications research communities, we will review the broadly applicable principles of various GA-assisted optimization techniques, which were recently proposed also for employment inmultiuser MIMO OFDM. In order to stimulate new research, we demonstrate that the family of GA-aided MUDs is capable of achieving a near-optimum performance at the cost of a significantly lower computational complexity than that imposed by their optimum maximum-likelihood (ML) MUD aided counterparts. The paper is concluded by outlining a range of future research options that may find their way into next-generation wireless systems

Space-time block coding with imperfect channel estimates

Space-time block coding (STBC) is a method that combines diversity and coding without a corresponding increase in bandwidth and with minimal complexity in the receiver. The performance of STBC with perfect channel state information (CSI) being available at the receiver has been shown to provide approximately 10 dB of improvement over uncoded transmission in Rayleigh fading when using Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) at a bit error rate of 10 -3. In this thesis, the performance of space-time block codes is analyzed when the receiver must rely on noisy, or imperfect, estimates of the channel. It is shown that for a QPSK signal constellation the system is robust to errors introduced into the amplitude of the channel estimate, but exhibits extreme performance degradation with errors in the phase of the estimate. In fact, as phase error approaches 0.5 radians the performance breaks down completely. A pilot sequence estimation scheme will be shown that provides performance within 2 dB of the case of perfect CSI at half the data rate

Orthogonal Time Frequency Space for Integrated Sensing and Communication: A Survey

Sixth-generation (6G) wireless communication systems, as stated in the European 6G flagship project Hexa-X, are anticipated to feature the integration of intelligence, communication, sensing, positioning, and computation. An important aspect of this integration is integrated sensing and communication (ISAC), in which the same waveform is used for both systems both sensing and communication, to address the challenge of spectrum scarcity. Recently, the orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) waveform has been proposed to address OFDM's limitations due to the high Doppler spread in some future wireless communication systems. In this paper, we review existing OTFS waveforms for ISAC systems and provide some insights into future research. Firstly, we introduce the basic principles and a system model of OTFS and provide a foundational understanding of this innovative technology's core concepts and architecture. Subsequently, we present an overview of OTFS-based ISAC system frameworks. We provide a comprehensive review of recent research developments and the current state of the art in the field of OTFS-assisted ISAC systems to gain a thorough understanding of the current landscape and advancements. Furthermore, we perform a thorough comparison between OTFS-enabled ISAC operations and traditional OFDM, highlighting the distinctive advantages of OTFS, especially in high Doppler spread scenarios. Subsequently, we address the primary challenges facing OTFS-based ISAC systems, identifying potential limitations and drawbacks. Then, finally, we suggest future research directions, aiming to inspire further innovation in the 6G wireless communication landscape

Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer in 5G communication

Green communication technology is expected to be widely adopted in future generation networks to improve energy efficiency and reliability of wireless communication network. Among the green communication technologies,simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) is adopted for its flexible energy harvesting technology through the radio frequency (RF) signa lthati sused for information transmission. Even though existing SWIPT techniques are flexible and adoptable for the wireless communication networks, the power and time resources of the signal need to be shared between infor- mation transmission and RF energy harvesting, and this compromises the quality of the signal. Therefore,SWIP Ttechniques need to be designed to allow an efficient resource allocation for communication and energy harvesting. The goal oft his thesisis to design SWIP Ttechniques that allow efficient,reliable and secure joint communications and power transference. A problem associated to SWIPT techniques combined with multi carrier signals is that the increased power requirements inherent to energy harvesting purposes can exacerbate nonlinear distortion effects at the transmitter. Therefore, we evaluate nonlinear distortion and present feasible solutions to mitigate the impact of nonlinear distortion effects on the performance.Another goal of the thesisis to take advantage of the energy harvesting signals in SWIP Ttechniques for channel estimation and security purposes.Theperformance of these SWIPT techniques is evaluated analytically, and those results are validated by simulations. It is shownthatthe proposed SWIPT schemes can have excellent performance, out performing conventional SWIPT schemes.Espera-se que aschamadas tecnologiasde green communications sejam amplamente ado- tadas em futuras redes de comunicação sem fios para melhorar a sua eficiência energética a fiabilidade.Entre estas,encontram-se as tecnologias SWIPT (Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transference), nas quais um sinal radio é usado para transferir simultaneamente potência e informações.Embora as técnicas SWIPT existentes sejam fle- xíveis e adequadas para as redes de comunicações sem fios, os recursos de energia e tempo do sinal precisam ser compartilhados entre a transmissão de informações e de energia, o que pode comprometer a qualidade do sinal. Deste modo,as técnicas SWIPT precisam ser projetadas para permitir uma alocação eficiente de recursos para comunicação e recolha de energia. O objetivo desta tese é desenvolver técnicas SWIPT que permitam transferência de energia e comunicações eficientes,fiáveis e seguras.Um problema associado às técnicas SWIPT combinadas com sinais multi-portadora são as dificuldades de amplificação ine- rentes à combinação de sinais de transmissão de energia com sinais de transferência de dados, que podem exacerbar os efeitos de distorção não-linear nos sinais transmitidos. Deste modo, um dos objectivos desta tese é avaliar o impacto da distorção não-linear em sinais SWIPT, e apresentar soluções viáveis para mitigar os efeitos da distorção não-linear no desempenho da transmissão de dados.Outro objetivo da tese é aproveitar as vantagens dos sinais de transferência de energia em técnicas SWIPT para efeitos de estimação de canal e segurança na comunicação.Os desempenhos dessas técnicas SWIPT são avaliados analiticamente,sendo os respectivos resultados validados por simulações.É mostrado que os esquemas SWIPT propostos podem ter excelente desempenho, superando esquemas SWIPT convencionais