Timing and Carrier Synchronization in Wireless Communication Systems: A Survey and Classification of Research in the Last 5 Years

Timing and carrier synchronization is a fundamental requirement for any wireless communication system to work properly. Timing synchronization is the process by which a receiver node determines the correct instants of time at which to sample the incoming signal. Carrier synchronization is the process by which a receiver adapts the frequency and phase of its local carrier oscillator with those of the received signal. In this paper, we survey the literature over the last 5 years (2010–2014) and present a comprehensive literature review and classification of the recent research progress in achieving timing and carrier synchronization in single-input single-output (SISO), multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), cooperative relaying, and multiuser/multicell interference networks. Considering both single-carrier and multi-carrier communication systems, we survey and categorize the timing and carrier synchronization techniques proposed for the different communication systems focusing on the system model assumptions for synchronization, the synchronization challenges, and the state-of-the-art synchronization solutions and their limitations. Finally, we envision some future research directions

High Performance LNAs and Mixers for Direct Conversion Receivers in BiCMOS and CMOS Technologies

The trend in cellular chipset design today is to incorporate support for a larger number of frequency bands for each new chipset generation. If the chipset also supports receiver diversity two low noise amplifiers (LNAs) are required for each frequency band. This is however associated with an increase of off-chip components, i.e. matching components for the LNA inputs, as well as complex routing of the RF input signals. If balanced LNAs are implemented the routing complexity is further increased. The first presented work in this thesis is a novel multiband low noise single ended LNA and mixer architecture. The mixer has a novel feedback loop suppressing both second order distortion as well as DC-offset. The performance, verified by Monte Carlo simulations, is sufficient for a WCDMA application. The second presented work is a single ended multiband LNA with programmable integrated matching. The LNA is connected to an on-chip tunable balun generating differential RF signals for a differential mixer. The combination of the narrow band input matching and narrow band balun of the presented LNA is beneficial for suppressing third harmonic downconversion of a WLAN interferer. The single ended architecture has great advantages regarding PCB routing of the RF input signals but is on the other hand more sensitive to common mode interferers, e.g. ground, supply and substrate noise. An analysis of direct conversion receiver requirements is presented together with an overview of different LNA and mixer architectures in both BiCMOS and CMOS technology

Analog Self-Interference Cancellation Using Auxiliary Transmitter Considering IQ Imbalance and Amplifier Nonlinearity

In-band full-duplex communication, which transmits and receives simultaneously on the same frequency, causes self-interference (SI). In this paper, to cancel SI present in the radio frequency (RF) domain, we propose a novel nonlinear SI cancellation approach using an auxiliary transmitter which is effective in the presence of IQ imbalance and nonlinear distortion. The proposed approach estimates the local transceiver channel by using a time-domain least squares method and creates a signal for SI cancellation based on estimation results and a finite impulse response filter, whose coefficients are derived in this paper. Additionally, we theoretically calculate the SI cancellation limit of the proposed approach. Information about the SI cancellation limit due to phase noise is important for meeting SI cancellation requirements and being able to compare the effects of RF impairments such as IQ imbalance and nonlinear distortion. From simulation results, we show that the proposed approach outperforms the conventional approach and the case of using a general adaptive algorithm for the proposed approach. Furthermore, the SI cancellation limit is improved by adjusting the propagation delay of the SI signal and the canceling signal in addition to sharing one local oscillator in the local transceiver

Hardware Implementation of Neural Self-Interference Cancellation

In-band full-duplex systems can transmit and receive information simultaneously on the same frequency band. However, due to the strong self-interference caused by the transmitter to its own receiver, the use of non-linear digital self-interference cancellation is essential. In this work, we describe a hardware architecture for a neural network-based non-linear self-interference (SI) canceller and we compare it with our own hardware implementation of a conventional polynomial based SI canceller. In particular, we present implementation results for a shallow and a deep neural network SI canceller as well as for a polynomial SI canceller. Our results show that the deep neural network canceller achieves a hardware efficiency of up to $312.8$ Msamples/s/mm$^2$ and an energy efficiency of up to $0.9$ nJ/sample, which is $2.1\times$ and $2\times$ better than the polynomial SI canceller, respectively. These results show that NN-based methods applied to communications are not only useful from a performance perspective, but can also be a very effective means to reduce the implementation complexity.Comment: Accepted for publication in IEEE Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and System

Achievable rates of full-duplex MIMO radios in fast fading channels with imperfect channel estimation

We study the theoretical performance of two full-duplex multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radio systems: a full-duplex bi-directional communication system and a full-duplex relay system. We focus on the effect of a (digitally manageable) residual self-interference due to imperfect channel estimation (with independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) Gaussian channel estimation error) and transmitter noise. We assume that the instantaneous channel state information (CSI) is not available the transmitters. To maximize the system ergodic mutual information, which is a non-convex function of power allocation vectors at the nodes, a gradient projection algorithm is developed to optimize the power allocation vectors. This algorithm exploits both spatial and temporal freedoms of the source covariance matrices of the MIMO links between transmitters and receivers to achieve higher sum ergodic mutual information. It is observed through simulations that the full-duplex mode is optimal when the nominal self-interference is low, and the half-duplex mode is optimal when the nominal self-interference is high. In addition to an exact closed-form ergodic mutual information expression, we introduce a much simpler asymptotic closed-form ergodic mutual information expression, which in turn simplifies the computation of the power allocation vectors