Optimal Transmit Covariance for Ergodic MIMO Channels

In this paper we consider the computation of channel capacity for ergodic multiple-input multiple-output channels with additive white Gaussian noise. Two scenarios are considered. Firstly, a time-varying channel is considered in which both the transmitter and the receiver have knowledge of the channel realization. The optimal transmission strategy is water-filling over space and time. It is shown that this may be achieved in a causal, indeed instantaneous fashion. In the second scenario, only the receiver has perfect knowledge of the channel realization, while the transmitter has knowledge of the channel gain probability law. In this case we determine an optimality condition on the input covariance for ergodic Gaussian vector channels with arbitrary channel distribution under the condition that the channel gains are independent of the transmit signal. Using this optimality condition, we find an iterative algorithm for numerical computation of optimal input covariance matrices. Applications to correlated Rayleigh and Ricean channels are given.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures, Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Theor

Characterization, Avoidance and Repair of Packet Collisions in Inter-Vehicle Communication Networks

This work proposes a combined and accurate simulation of wireless channel, physical layer and networking aspects in order to bridge the gaps between the corresponding research communities. The resulting high fidelity simulations enable performance optimizations across multiple layers, and are used in the second part of this thesis to evaluate the impact of fast-fading channel characteristics on Carrier-Sense Multiple Access, and to quantify the benefit of successive interference cancellation

Characterization, Avoidance and Repair of Packet Collisions in Inter-Vehicle Communication Networks

This work proposes a combined and accurate simulation of wireless channel, physical layer and networking aspects in order to bridge the gaps between the corresponding research communities. The resulting high fidelity simulations enable performance optimizations across multiple layers, and are used in the second part of this thesis to evaluate the impact of fast-fading channel characteristics on Carrier-Sense Multiple Access, and to quantify the benefit of successive interference cancellation

Radio Channel Prediction Based on Parametric Modeling

Long range channel prediction is a crucial technology for future wireless communications. The prediction of Rayleigh fading channels is studied in the frame of parametric modeling in this thesis. Suggested by the Jakes model for Rayleigh fading channels, deterministic sinusoidal models were adopted for long range channel prediction in early works. In this thesis, a number of new channel predictors based on stochastic sinusoidal modeling are proposed. They are termed conditional and unconditional LMMSE predictors respectively. Given frequency estimates, the amplitudes of the sinusoids are modeled as Gaussian random variables in the conditional LMMSE predictors, and both the amplitudes and frequency estimates are modeled as Gaussian random variables in the unconditional LMMSE predictors. It was observed that a part of the channels cannot be described by the periodic sinusoidal bases, both in simulations and measured channels. To pick up this un-modeled residual signal, an adjusted conditional LMMSE predictor and a Joint LS predictor are proposed. Motivated by the analysis of measured channels and recently published physics based scattering SISO and MIMO channel models, a new approach for channel prediction based on non-stationary Multi-Component Polynomial Phase Signal (MC-PPS) is further proposed. The so-called LS MC-PPS predictor models the amplitudes of the PPS components as constants. In the case of MC-PPS with time-varying amplitudes, an adaptive channel predictor using the Kalman filter is suggested, where the time-varying amplitudes are modeled as auto-regressive processes. An iterative detection and estimation method of the number of PPS components and the orders of polynomial phases is also proposed. The parameter estimation is based on the Nonlinear LS (NLLS) and the Nonlinear Instantaneous LS (NILS) criteria, corresponding to the cases of constant and time-varying amplitudes, respectively. The performance of the proposed channel predictors is evaluated using both synthetic signals and measured channels. High order polynomial phase parameters are observed in both urban and suburban environments. It is observed that the channel predictors based on the non-stationary MC-PPS models outperform the other predictors in Monte Carlo simulations and examples of measured urban and suburban channels

A STUDY ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATION ERROR PERFORMANCE AND PATH LOSS PREDICTION

One channel model that characterises multipath fading effect of a wireless channel is called Flat Rayleigh Fading channel model. Given the properties of Flat Rayleigh Fading channel, an equation to find the capacity of a Flat Rayleigh fading channel with hard decision decoding is derived. The difference of power requirement to achieve the Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) capacity over a Flat Rayleigh Fading channel fading is found to increase exponentially with Es /N0 . Upper and lower bounds of error performance of linear block codes over a Flat Rayleigh Fading channel are also studied. With the condition that the excess delay of a channel is known earlier, it is shown that a correlator with shorter length, according to excess delay of the channel, can be constructed for use in wireless channel response measurements. Therefore, a rule of construction of a shorter length correlator is defined, involving concatenation of parts of a Constant Amplitude Zero Auto-Correlation (CAZAC) sequence. Simulation of [136,68,24] Double Circulant Code with Dorsch List Decoding is also done in order to evaluate error performance of the channel coding scheme over one of the IEEE Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WirelessMAN) channel models, the Stanford University Interim Channel Model No. 5 (SUI-5) channel. Performance of the channel cod- ing was severely degraded over the SUI-5 channel when it is compared to its performance over the AWGN channel. Indoor path losses within three multifloor office buildings were investigated at 433 MHz, 869 MHz and 1249 MHz. The work involved series of extensive received signal strength measurements within the buildings for all of the considered frequencies. Results have shown that indoor path loss is higher within a square footprint building than indoor path loss in a rectangular building. Parameters of Log-Distance Path Loss and Floor Attenuation Factor Path Loss models have been derived from the measurement data. In addition, a new indoor path loss prediction model was derived to cater for path loss pre- diction within multifloor buildings with indoor atriums. The model performs with better prediction accuracy when compared with Log-Distance Path Loss and Floor Attenuation Factor Path Loss models.Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Malaysi

Application of network coding in satellite broadcast and multiple access channels

Satellite broadcasting and relaying capabilities enable mobile broadcast systems over wide geographical areas, which opens large market possibilities for handheld, vehicular and fixed user terminals. The geostationary (GEO) satellite orbit is highly suited for such applications, as it spares the need for satellite terminals to track the movement of the spacecraft, with important savings in terms of complexity and cost. The large radius of the GEO orbit (more than 40000 km) has two main drawbacks. One is the large free space loss experienced by a signal traveling to or from the satellite, which limits the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) margins in the link budget with respect to terrestrial systems. The second drawback of the GEO orbit is the large propagation delay (about 250 msec) that limits the use of feedback in both the forward (satellite to satellite terminal) and the reverse (satellite terminal to satellite) link. The limited margin protection causes loss of service availability in environments where there is no direct line of sight to the satellite, such as urban areas. The large propagation delay on its turn, together with the large terminal population size usually served by a GEO satellite, limit the use of feedback, which is at the basis of error-control. In the reverse link, especially in the case of fixed terminals, packet losses are mainly due to collisions, that severely limit the access to satellite services in case a random access scheme is adopted. The need for improvements and further understanding of these setups lead to the development of our work. In this dissertation we study the application of network coding to counteract the above mentioned channel impairments in satellite systems. The idea of using network coding stems from the fact that it allows to efficiently exploit the diversity, either temporal or spatial, present in the system. In the following we outline the original contributions included in each of the chapters of the dissertation. Chapter 3. This chapter deals with channel impairments in the forward link, and specifically with the problem of missing coverage in Urban environments for land mobile satellite (LMS) networks. By applying the Max-flow Min-cut theorem we derive a lower bound on the maximum coverage that can be achieved through cooperation. Inspired by this result, we propose a practical scheme, keeping in mind the compatibility with the DVB-SH standard. We developed a simulator in Matlab/C++ based on the physical layer abstraction and used it to test the performance gain of our scheme with a benchmark relaying scheme that does allow coding at packet level. Chapter 4. The second chapter of contributions is devoted to the information theoretical study of real-time streaming transmissions over fading channels with channel state information at the transmitter only. We introduce this new channel model and propose several transmission schemes, one of which is proved to be asymptotically optimal in terms of throughput. We also provide an upper bound on the achievable throughput for the proposed channel model and compare it numerically with the proposed schemes over a Rayleigh fading channel. Chapter 5. Chapter 5 is devoted to the study of throughput and delay in non-real-time streaming transmission over block fading channels. We derive bounds on the throughput and the delay for this channel and propose different coding techniques based on time-sharing. For each of them we carry out an analytical study of the performance. Finally, we compare numerically the performance of the proposed schemes over a Rayleigh fading channel. Chapter 6. In the last technical chapter we propose a collision resolution method for the return link based on physical layer network coding over extended Galois field (EGF). The proposed scheme extracts information from the colliding signals and achieves important gains with respect to Slotted ALOHA systems as well as with respect to other collision resolution schemes.Una de les característiques mes importants de les plataformes de comunicacions per satèl.lit és la seva capacitat de retransmetre senyals rebuts a un gran número de terminals. Això es fonamental en contextes com la difusió a terminals mòbils o la comunicació entre màquines. Al mateix temps, la disponibilitat d’un canal de retorn permet la creació de sistemes de comunicacions per satèl.lit interactius que, en principi, poden arribar a qualsevol punt del planeta. Els satèl.lits Geoestacionaris son particularment adequats per a complir amb aquesta tasca. Aquest tipus de satèl.lits manté una posició fixa respecte a la Terra, estalviant als terminals terrestres la necessitat de seguir el seu moviment en el cel. Per altra banda, la gran distància que separa la Terra dels satèl.lits Geoestacionaris introdueix grans retrassos en les comunicacions que, afegit al gran número de terminals en servei, limita l’ús de tècniques de retransmissió basades en acknowledgments en cas de pèrdua de paquets. Per tal de sol.lucionar el problema de la pèrdua de paquets, les tècniques més utilitzades son el desplegament de repetidors terrestres, anomenats gap fillers, l’ús de codis de protecció a nivell de paquet i mecanismes proactius de resolució de col.lisions en el canal de retorn. En aquesta tesi s’analitzen i s’estudien sol.lucions a problemes en la comunicació per satèl.lit tant en el canal de baixada com el de pujada. En concret, es consideren tres escenaris diferents. El primer escenari es la transmissió a grans poblacions de terminals mòbils en enorns urbans, que es veuen particularment afectats per la pèrdua de paquets degut a l’obstrucció, per part dels edificis, de la línia de visió amb el satèl.lit. La sol.lució que considerem consisteix en la utilització de la cooperació entre terminals. Una vegada obtinguda una mesura del guany que es pot assolir mitjançant cooperació en un model bàsic de xarxa, a través del teorema Max-flow Min-cut, proposem un esquema de cooperació compatible amb estàndards de comunicació existents. El segon escenari que considerem es la transmissió de vídeo, un tipus de tràfic particularment sensible a la pèrdua de paquets i retards endògens als sistemes de comunicació per satèl.lit. Considerem els casos de transmissió en temps real i en diferit, des de la perspectiva de teoria de la informació, i estudiem diferents tècniques de codificació analítica i numèrica. Un dels resultats principals obtinguts es l’extensió del límit assolible de la capacitat ergòdica del canal en cas que el transmissor rebi les dades de manera gradual, enlloc de rebre-les totes a l’inici de la transmissió. El tercer escenari que considerem es l’accés aleatori al satèl.lit. Desenvolupem un esquema de recuperació dels paquets perduts basat en la codificació de xarxa a nivell físic i en extensions a camps de Galois, amb resultats molt prometedors en termes de rendiment. També estudiem aspectes relacionats amb la implementació pràctica d’aquest esquema