A Survey of Blind Modulation Classification Techniques for OFDM Signals

Blind modulation classification (MC) is an integral part of designing an adaptive or intelligent transceiver for future wireless communications. Blind MC has several applications in the adaptive and automated systems of sixth generation (6G) communications to improve spectral efficiency and power efficiency, and reduce latency. It will become a integral part of intelligent software-defined radios (SDR) for future communication. In this paper, we provide various MC techniques for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals in a systematic way. We focus on the most widely used statistical and machine learning (ML) models and emphasize their advantages and limitations. The statistical-based blind MC includes likelihood-based (LB), maximum a posteriori (MAP) and feature-based methods (FB). The ML-based automated MC includes k-nearest neighbors (KNN), support vector machine (SVM), decision trees (DTs), convolutional neural networks (CNNs), recurrent neural networks (RNNs), and long short-term memory (LSTM) based MC methods. This survey will help the reader to understand the main characteristics of each technique, their advantages and disadvantages. We have also simulated some primary methods, i.e., statistical- and ML-based algorithms, under various constraints, which allows a fair comparison among different methodologies. The overall system performance in terms bit error rate (BER) in the presence of MC is also provided. We also provide a survey of some practical experiment works carried out through National Instrument hardware over an indoor propagation environment. In the end, open problems and possible directions for blind MC research are briefly discussed

Thirty Years of Machine Learning: The Road to Pareto-Optimal Wireless Networks

Future wireless networks have a substantial potential in terms of supporting a broad range of complex compelling applications both in military and civilian fields, where the users are able to enjoy high-rate, low-latency, low-cost and reliable information services. Achieving this ambitious goal requires new radio techniques for adaptive learning and intelligent decision making because of the complex heterogeneous nature of the network structures and wireless services. Machine learning (ML) algorithms have great success in supporting big data analytics, efficient parameter estimation and interactive decision making. Hence, in this article, we review the thirty-year history of ML by elaborating on supervised learning, unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning and deep learning. Furthermore, we investigate their employment in the compelling applications of wireless networks, including heterogeneous networks (HetNets), cognitive radios (CR), Internet of things (IoT), machine to machine networks (M2M), and so on. This article aims for assisting the readers in clarifying the motivation and methodology of the various ML algorithms, so as to invoke them for hitherto unexplored services as well as scenarios of future wireless networks.Comment: 46 pages, 22 fig

Automatic classification of digital communication signal modulations

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel UniversityAutomatic modulation classification detects the modulation type of received communication signals. It has important applications in military scenarios to facilitate jamming, intelligence, surveillance, and threat analysis. The renewed interest from civilian scenes has been fuelled by the development of intelligent communications systems such as cognitive radio and software defined radio. More specifically, it is complementary to adaptive modulation and coding where a modulation can be deployed from a set of candidates according to the channel condition and system specification for improved spectrum efficiency and link reliability. In this research, we started by improving some existing methods for higher classification accuracy but lower complexity. Machine learning techniques such as k-nearest neighbour and support vector machine have been adopted for simplified decision making using known features. Logistic regression, genetic algorithm and genetic programming have been incorporated for improved classification performance through feature selection and combination. We have also developed a new distribution test based classifier which is tailored for modulation classification with the inspiration from Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The proposed classifier is shown to have improved accuracy and robustness over the standard distribution test. For blind classification in imperfect channels, we developed the combination of minimum distance centroid estimator and non-parametric likelihood function for blind modulation classification without the prior knowledge on channel noise. The centroid estimator provides joint estimation of channel gain and carrier phase o set where both can be compensated in the following nonparametric likelihood function. The non-parametric likelihood function, in the meantime, provide likelihood evaluation without a specifically assumed noise model. The combination has shown to have higher robustness when different noise types are considered. To push modulation classification techniques into a more timely setting, we also developed the principle for blind classification in MIMO systems. The classification is achieved through expectation maximization channel estimation and likelihood based classification. Early results have shown bright prospect for the method while more work is needed to further optimize the method and to provide a more thorough validation.School of Engineering and Design Brunel University London, the Faculty of Engineering University of Liverpool, and the University of Liverpool Graduate Association (Hong Kong)

Blind recognition of analog modulation schemes for software defined radio

With the emergence of software defined radios (SDRs), an adaptive receiver is needed that can configure various parameters, such as carrier frequency, bandwidth, symbol timing, and signal to noise ratio (SNR), and automatically identify modulation schemes. In this dissertation research, several fundamental SDR tasks for analog modulations are investigated, since analog radios are often used by civil government agencies and some unconventional military forces. Hence, the detection and recognition of old technology analog modulations remain an important task both for civil and military electronic support systems and for notional cognitive radios. In this dissertation, a Cyclostationarity-Based Decision Tree classifier is developed to separate between analog modulations and digital modulations, and classify signals into several subsets of modulation types. In order to further recognize the specific modulation type of analog signals, more effort and work are, however, needed. For this purpose, two general methods for automatic modulation classification (AMC), feature- based method and likelihood-based method, are investigated in this dissertation for analog modulation schemes. For feature-based method, a multi-class SVM-based AMC classifier is developed. After training, the developed classifier can achieve high classification accuracy in a wide range of SNR. While the likelihood-based methods for digital modulation types have been well developed, it is noted that the likelihood-based methods for analog modulation types are seldom explored in the literature. Average-Likelihood-Ratio-Testing based AMC algorithms have been developed to automatically classify AM, DSB and FM signals in both coherent and non-coherent situations In addition, the Non-Data-Aided SNR estimation algorithms are investigated, which can be used to estimate the signal power and noise power either before or after modulation classification

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