Advanced receivers for high data rate mobile communications

Improving the spectral efficiency is a key issue in the future wireless communication systems since the spectrum is a scarce resource. Both the number of users as well the demanded data rates are increasing all the time. Furthermore, in mobile communications the wireless link is required to be reliable even when the mobile is in a fast moving vehicle. Using Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) antennas is a well known technique to provide higher spectral efficiency as well as better link reliability. Additionally, higher order modulation methods can be used to provide higher data rates. In order to benefit from these enhancements in practise, sophisticated signal processing methods as well as accurate estimates of time-varying wireless channel parameters are needed. This thesis addresses the problem of designing multi-antenna receivers in high data rate systems. The case of multiple transmit antennas is also considered. System specific features of High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) which is part of 3rd generation (3G) Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) evolution are exploited in channel estimation methods and in MIMO receiver design. Additionally, complexity reduction methods for Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) equalization are addressed. Blind channel estimation methods are spectrally efficient, since no extra resources are needed for pilot signals. However, in mobile communications accurate estimates are needed also in fast fading channels. Consequently, semi-blind channel estimation methods where the receiver combines blind and pilot based channel estimation are an appealing alternative. In this thesis blind and semi-blind channel estimation methods based on knowledge of multiple spreading codes are derived. A novel semi-blind combining scheme for code multiplexed pilot signal and blind estimation is proposed. Another important factor in receiver design criteria is the structure of interference in the received signals. Interference mitigation techniques in MIMO systems have been shown to be potential methods for providing improved performance. A chip level inter-antenna interference cancellation method has been developed in this thesis for HSDPA. Furthermore, this multi-stage ordered interference canceler is combined with the semi-blind channel estimation scheme to enhance the system performance further.Langattomassa tiedonsiirrossa radiospektrin tehokas käyttö on tulevaisuuden suuria haasteita. Taajuuksia on käytössä vain rajoitetusti, kun taas käyttäjien määrä sekä vaaditut siirtonopeudet kasvavat jatkuvasti. Lisäksi langattomien yhteyksien on toimittava luotettavasti myös nopeasti liikkuvissa kulkuneuvoissa. Moniantennijärjestelmät, joissa on useita antenneita sekä tukiasemissa että päätelaitteissa mahdollistavat radiospektrin tehokkaamman käytön sekä parantavat yhteyksien laatua. Tiedonsiirtonopeutta voidaan myös kasvattaa erilaisilla modulaatiotekniikoilla. Hyötyjen saavutamiseksi käytännössä tarvitaan sekä kehittyneitä vastaanotinrakenteita että tarkkoja estimaatteja aikamuuttuvasta radiokanavasta. Tässä työssä on kehitetty vastaanotinrakenteita ja kanavan estimointimenetelmiä kolmannen sukupolven (3G) nopeiden datayhteyksien (HSPA) järjestelmissä. Työssä on johdettu menetelmiä, jotka hyödyntävät HSPA järjestelmien erikoispiirteitä tehokkaasti. Lisäksi on kehitetty laskennallisesti tehokkaita menetelmiä vastaanottimien signaalinkäsittelyyn. Ns. sokeat menetelmät mahdollistavat taajuuskaistan tehokkaan käytön, koska ne eivät vaadi tunnettuja harjoitussignaaleja. Mobiileissa tietolikennejärjestelmissä radiokanava saattaa kuitenkin muuttua hyvin nopeasti, jonka vuoksi kanavan estimoinnissa on tyypillisesti hyödynnetty tunnettua pilottisignaalia. Yhdistämällä pilottipohjainen ja sokea kanavaestimointimenetelmä, voidaan saavuttaa molempien menetelmien edut. Tässä työssä kehitettiin sokeita kanavaestimointimenetelmiä, jotka hyödyntävät useita tunnettuja hajoituskoodeja. Sokean ja koodijakoiseen pilottisignaaliin pohjautuvien kanavan estimaattien yhdistämiseksi kehitettiin uusi menetelmä. Signaalin laatua ja siten vastaanottimen suorituskykyä voidaan langattomissa järjestelmissä parantaa vaimentamalla interferenssiä eli häiriöitä. Vastaanottimen toimintaa voidaan tehostaa oleellisesti, jos häiriösignaalin rakenne tunnetaan. Käytettäessä useampaa lähetysantennia HSPA järjestelmissä vastaanotetussa signaalissa olevia häiriötä voidaan kumota usealla eri tasolla. Tässä työssä on kehitetty chippitasolla häiriöitä kumoava vastaanotinrakenne, joka hyödyntää HSPA järjestelmän ominaisuuksia. Vastaanottimen suorituskykyä on edelleen parannettu yhdistämällä se aiemmin esitettyyn puolisokeaan kanavan estimointimenetelmään.reviewe

Interference Suppression in WCDMA with Adaptive Thresholding based Decision Feedback Equaliser

WCDMA is considered as one of the 3G wireless standards by 3GPP. Capacity calculation shows that WCDMA systems have more capacity compared to any other multiple access technique such as time division multiple access (TDMA) or frequency division multiple access (FDMA). So it is widely used. Rake receivers are used for the detection of transmitted data in case of WCDMA communication systems due to its resistance to multipath fading. But rake receiver treat multiuser interference (MUI) as AWGN and have limitation in overcoming the effect of multiple access interference (MAI) when the SNR is high. A de-correlating matched filter has been used in this thesis, which eliminates and improves system performance. But the given receiver works well only in the noise free environment. A DFE, compared to linear equaliser, gives better performance at severe ISI condition. The only problem in this equalisation technique is to select the number of symbols that are to be fed back. This thesis gives an idea on multiple symbol selection, based on sparity where an adaptive thresholding algorithm is used that computes the number of symbols to feedback. Simulated results show a significant performance improvement for Regularised Rake receiver along with thresholding in terms of BER compared to a rake receiver, de-correlating rake receiver and regularised rake receiver. The performance of the receiver in different channels is also analysed

Adaptive implementation of turbo multi-user detection architecture

MULTI-access techniques have been adopted widely for communications in underwater acoustic channels, which present many challenges to the development of reliable and practical systems. In such an environment, the unpredictable and complex ocean conditions cause the acoustic waves to be affected by many factors such as limited bandwidth, large propagation losses, time variations and long latency, which limit the usefulness of such techniques. Additionally, multiple access interference (MAI) signals and poor estimation of the unknown channel parameters in the presence of limited training sequences are two of the major problems that degrade the performance of such technologies. In this thesis, two different single-element multi-access schemes, interleave division multiple access (IDMA) and code division multiple access (CDMA), employing decision feedback equalization (DFE) and soft Rake-based architectures, are proposed for multi-user underwater communication applications. By using either multiplexing pilots or continuous pilots, these adaptive turbo architectures with carrier phase tracking are jointly optimized based on the minimum mean square error (MMSE) criterion and adapted iteratively by exchanging soft information in terms of Log-Likelihood Ratio (LLR) estimates with the single-user’s channel decoders. The soft-Rake receivers utilize developed channel estimation and the detection is implemented using parallel interference cancellation (PIC) to remove MAI effects between users. These architectures are investigated and applied to simulated data and data obtained from realistic underwater communication trials using off-line processing of signals acquired during sea-trials in the North Sea. The results of different scenarios demonstrate the penalty in performance as the fading induces irreducible error rates that increase with channel delay spread and emphasize the benefits of using coherent direct adaptive receivers in such reverberant channels. The convergence behaviour of the detectors is evaluated using EXIT chart analyses and issues such as the adaptation parameters and their effects on the performance are also investigated. However, in some cases the receivers with partial knowledge of the interleavers’ patterns or codes can still achieve performance comparable to those with full knowledge. Furthermore, the thesis describes implementation issues of these algorithms using digital signal processors (DSPs), such as computational complexity and provides valuable guidelines for the design of real time underwater communication systems.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Adaptive implementation of turbo multi-user detection architecture

MULTI-access techniques have been adopted widely for communications in underwater acoustic channels, which present many challenges to the development of reliable and practical systems. In such an environment, the unpredictable and complex ocean conditions cause the acoustic waves to be affected by many factors such as limited bandwidth, large propagation losses, time variations and long latency, which limit the usefulness of such techniques. Additionally, multiple access interference (MAI) signals and poor estimation of the unknown channel parameters in the presence of limited training sequences are two of the major problems that degrade the performance of such technologies. In this thesis, two different single-element multi-access schemes, interleave division multiple access (IDMA) and code division multiple access (CDMA), employing decision feedback equalization (DFE) and soft Rake-based architectures, are proposed for multi-user underwater communication applications. By using either multiplexing pilots or continuous pilots, these adaptive turbo architectures with carrier phase tracking are jointly optimized based on the minimum mean square error (MMSE) criterion and adapted iteratively by exchanging soft information in terms of Log-Likelihood Ratio (LLR) estimates with the single-user’s channel decoders. The soft-Rake receivers utilize developed channel estimation and the detection is implemented using parallel interference cancellation (PIC) to remove MAI effects between users. These architectures are investigated and applied to simulated data and data obtained from realistic underwater communication trials using off-line processing of signals acquired during sea-trials in the North Sea. The results of different scenarios demonstrate the penalty in performance as the fading induces irreducible error rates that increase with channel delay spread and emphasize the benefits of using coherent direct adaptive receivers in such reverberant channels. The convergence behaviour of the detectors is evaluated using EXIT chart analyses and issues such as the adaptation parameters and their effects on the performance are also investigated. However, in some cases the receivers with partial knowledge of the interleavers’ patterns or codes can still achieve performance comparable to those with full knowledge. Furthermore, the thesis describes implementation issues of these algorithms using digital signal processors (DSPs), such as computational complexity and provides valuable guidelines for the design of real time underwater communication systems.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Cyclic Prefix-Free MC-CDMA Arrayed MIMO Communication Systems

The objective of this thesis is to investigate MC-CDMA MIMO systems where the antenna array geometry is taken into consideration. In most MC-CDMA systems, cyclic pre xes, which reduce the spectral e¢ ciency, are used. In order to improve the spectral efficiency, this research study is focused on cyclic pre x- free MC-CDMA MIMO architectures. Initially, space-time wireless channel models are developed by considering the spatio-temporal mechanisms of the radio channel, such as multipath propaga- tion. The spatio-temporal channel models are based on the concept of the array manifold vector, which enables the parametric modelling of the channel. The array manifold vector is extended to the multi-carrier space-time array (MC-STAR) manifold matrix which enables the use of spatio-temporal signal processing techniques. Based on the modelling, a new cyclic pre x-free MC- CDMA arrayed MIMO communication system is proposed and its performance is compared with a representative existing system. Furthermore, a MUSIC-type algorithm is then developed for the estimation of the channel parameters of the received signal. This proposed cyclic pre x-free MC-CDMA arrayed MIMO system is then extended to consider the effects of spatial diffusion in the wireless channel. Spatial diffusion is an important channel impairment which is often ignored and the failure to consider such effects leads to less than satisfactory performance. A subspace-based approach is proposed for the estimation of the channel parameters and spatial spread and reception of the desired signal. Finally, the problem of joint optimization of the transmit and receive beam- forming weights in the downlink of a cyclic pre x-free MC-CDMA arrayed MIMO communication system is investigated. A subcarrier-cooperative approach is used for the transmit beamforming so that there is greater flexibility in the allocation of channel symbols. The resulting optimization problem, with a per-antenna transmit power constraint, is solved by the Lagrange multiplier method and an iterative algorithm is proposed