Weighted Sum Rate Maximization for Downlink OFDMA with Subcarrier-pair based Opportunistic DF Relaying

This paper addresses a weighted sum rate (WSR) maximization problem for downlink OFDMA aided by a decode-and-forward (DF) relay under a total power constraint. A novel subcarrier-pair based opportunistic DF relaying protocol is proposed. Specifically, user message bits are transmitted in two time slots. A subcarrier in the first slot can be paired with a subcarrier in the second slot for the DF relay-aided transmission to a user. In particular, the source and the relay can transmit simultaneously to implement beamforming at the subcarrier in the second slot. Each unpaired subcarrier in either the first or second slot is used for the source's direct transmission to a user. A benchmark protocol, same as the proposed one except that the transmit beamforming is not used for the relay-aided transmission, is also considered. For each protocol, a polynomial-complexity algorithm is developed to find at least an approximately optimum resource allocation (RA), by using continuous relaxation, the dual method, and Hungarian algorithm. Instrumental to the algorithm design is an elegant definition of optimization variables, motivated by the idea of regarding the unpaired subcarriers as virtual subcarrier pairs in the direct transmission mode. The effectiveness of the RA algorithm and the impact of relay position and total power on the protocols' performance are illustrated by numerical experiments. The proposed protocol always leads to a maximum WSR equal to or greater than that for the benchmark one, and the performance gain of using the proposed one is significant especially when the relay is in close proximity to the source and the total power is low. Theoretical analysis is presented to interpret these observations.Comment: 8 figures, accepted and to be published in IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1301.293

Performance Evaluation of Communication Technologies and Network Structure for Smart Grid Applications

The design of an effective and reliable communication network supporting smart grid applications requires the selection of appropriate communication technologies and protocols. The objective of this study is to study and quantify the capabilities of an advanced metring infrastructure (AMI) to support the simultaneous operation of major smart grid functions. These include smart metring, price-induced controls, distribution automation, demand response, and electric vehicle charging/discharging applications in terms of throughput and latency. OPNET is used to simulate the performance of selected communication technologies and protocols. Research findings indicate that smart grid applications can operate simultaneously by piggybacking on an existing AMI infrastructure and still achieve their latency requirements

Space-time-frequency methods for interference-limited communication systems

textTraditionally, noise in communication systems has been modeled as an additive, white Gaussian noise process with independent, identically distributed samples. Although this model accurately reflects thermal noise present in communication system electronics, it fails to capture the statistics of interference and other sources of noise, e.g. in unlicensed communication bands. Modern communication system designers must take into account interference and non-Gaussian noise to maximize efficiencies and capacities of current and future communication networks. In this work, I develop new multi-dimensional signal processing methods to improve performance of communication systems in three applications areas: (i) underwater acoustic, (ii) powerline, and (iii) multi-antenna cellular. In underwater acoustic communications, I address impairments caused by strong, time-varying and Doppler-spread reverberations (self-interference) using adaptive space-time signal processing methods. I apply these methods to array receivers with a large number of elements. In powerline communications, I address impairments caused by non-Gaussian noise arising from devices sharing the powerline. I develop and apply a cyclic adaptive modulation and coding scheme and a factor-graph-based impulsive noise mitigation method to improve signal quality and boost link throughput and robustness. In cellular communications, I develop a low-latency, high-throughput space-time-frequency processing framework used for large scale (up to 128 antenna) MIMO. This framework is used in the world's first 100-antenna MIMO system and processes up to 492 Gbps raw baseband samples in the uplink and downlink directions. My methods prove that multi-dimensional processing methods can be applied to increase communication system performance without sacrificing real-time requirements.Electrical and Computer Engineerin

TV White Space Regulated Broadband Power Line Communication for Point-to-Multipoint Downlink IoT Networks: A Standard Perspective

Belgium Herbarium image of Meise Botanic Garden

Resource Management in Multicarrier Based Cognitive Radio Systems

The ever-increasing growth of the wireless application and services affirms the importance of the effective usage of the limited radio spectrum. Existing spectrum management policies have led to significant spectrum under-utilization. Recent measurements showed that large range of the spectrum is sparsely used in both temporal and spatial manner. This conflict between the inefficient usage of the spectrum and the continuous evolution in the wireless communication calls upon the development of more flexible management policies. Cognitive radio (CR) with the dynamic spectrum access (DSA) is considered to be a key technology in making the best solution of this conflict by allowing a group of secondary users (SUs) to share the radio spectrum originally allocated to the primary user (PUs). The operation of CR should not negatively alter the performance of the PUs. Therefore, the interference control along with the highly dynamic nature of PUs activities open up new resource allocation problems in CR systems. The resource allocation algorithms should ensure an effective share of the temporarily available frequency bands and deliver the solutions in timely fashion to cope with quick changes in the network. In this dissertation, the resource management problem in multicarrier based CR systems is considered. The dissertation focuses on three main issues: 1) design of efficient resource allocation algorithms to allocate subcarriers and powers between SUs such that no harmful interference is introduced to PUs, 2) compare the spectral efficiency of using different multicarrier schemes in the CR physical layer, specifically, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and filter bank multicarrier (FBMC) schemes, 3) investigate the impact of the different constraints values on the overall performance of the CR system. Three different scenarios are considered in this dissertation, namely downlink transmission, uplink transmission, and relayed transmission. For every scenario, the optimal solution is examined and efficient sub-optimal algorithms are proposed to reduce the computational burden of obtaining the optimal solution. The suboptimal algorithms are developed by separate the subcarrier and power allocation into two steps in downlink and uplink scenarios. In the relayed scenario, dual decomposition technique is used to obtain an asymptotically optimal solution, and a joint heuristic algorithm is proposed to find the suboptimal solution. Numerical simulations show that the proposed suboptimal algorithms achieve a near optimal performance and perform better than the existing algorithms designed for cognitive and non-cognitive systems. Eventually, the ability of FBMC to overcome the OFDM drawbacks and achieve more spectral efficiency is verified which recommends the consideration of FBMC in the future CR systems.El crecimiento continuo de las aplicaciones y servicios en sistemas inal´ambricos, indica la importancia y necesidad de una utilizaci´on eficaz del espectro radio. Las pol´ıticas actuales de gesti´on del espectro han conducido a una infrautilizaci´on del propio espectro radioel´ectrico. Recientes mediciones en diferentes entornos han mostrado que gran parte del espectro queda poco utilizado en sus ambas vertientes, la temporal, y la espacial. El permanente conflicto entre el uso ineficiente del espectro y la evoluci´on continua de los sistemas de comunicaci´on inal´ambrica, hace que sea urgente y necesario el desarrollo de esquemas de gesti´on del espectro m´as flexibles. Se considera el acceso din´amico (DSA) al espectro en los sistemas cognitivos como una tecnolog´ıa clave para resolver este conflicto al permitir que un grupo de usuarios secundarios (SUs) puedan compartir y acceder al espectro asignado inicialmente a uno o varios usuarios primarios (PUs). Las operaciones de comunicaci´on llevadas a cabo por los sistemas radio cognitivos no deben en ning´un caso alterar (interferir) los sistemas primarios. Por tanto, el control de la interferencia junto al gran dinamismo de los sistemas primarios implica nuevos retos en el control y asignaci´on de los recursos radio en los sistemas de comunicaci´on CR. Los algoritmos de gesti´on y asignaci´on de recursos (Radio Resource Management-RRM) deben garantizar una participaci´on efectiva de las bandas con frecuencias disponibles temporalmente, y ofrecer en cada momento oportunas soluciones para hacer frente a los distintos cambios r´apidos que influyen en la misma red. En esta tesis doctoral, se analiza el problema de la gesti´on de los recursos radio en sistemas multiportadoras CR, proponiendo varias soluciones para su uso eficaz y coexistencia con los PUs. La tesis en s´ı, se centra en tres l´ıneas principales: 1) el dise˜no de algoritmos eficientes de gesti´on de recursos para la asignaci´on de sub-portadoras y distribuci´on de la potencia en sistemas segundarios, evitando asi cualquier interferencia que pueda ser perjudicial para el funcionamiento normal de los usuarios de la red primaria, 2) analizar y comparar la eficiencia espectral alcanzada a la hora de utilizar diferentes esquema de transmisi´on multiportadora en la capa f´ısica del sistema CR, espec´ıficamente en sistemas basados en OFDM y los basados en banco de filtros multiportadoras (Filter bank Multicarrier-FBMC), 3) investigar el impacto de las diferentes limitaciones en el rendimiento total del sistema de CR. Los escenarios considerados en esta tesis son tres, es decir; modo de transmisi´on descendente (downlink), modo de transmisi´on ascendente (uplink), y el modo de transmisi´on ”Relay”. En cada escenario, la soluci´on ´optima es examinada y comparada con algoritmos sub- ´optimos que tienen como objetivo principal reducir la carga computacional. Los algoritmos sub-´optimos son llevados a cabo en dos fases mediante la separaci´on del propio proceso de distribuci´on de subportadoras y la asignaci´on de la potencia en los modos de comunicaci´on descendente (downlink), y ascendente (uplink). Para los entornos de tipo ”Relay”, se ha utilizado la t´ecnica de doble descomposici´on (dual decomposition) para obtener una soluci´on asint´oticamente ´optima. Adem´as, se ha desarrollado un algoritmo heur´ıstico para poder obtener la soluci´on ´optima con un reducido coste computacional. Los resultados obtenidos mediante simulaciones num´ericas muestran que los algoritmos sub-´optimos desarrollados logran acercarse a la soluci´on ´optima en cada uno de los entornos analizados, logrando as´ı un mayor rendimiento que los ya existentes y utilizados tanto en entornos cognitivos como no-cognitivos. Se puede comprobar en varios resultados obtenidos en la tesis la superioridad del esquema multiportadora FBMC sobre los sistemas basados en OFDM para los entornos cognitivos, causando una menor interferencia que el OFDM en los sistemas primarios, y logrando una mayor eficiencia espectral. Finalmente, en base a lo analizado en esta tesis, podemos recomendar al esquema multiportadora FBMC como una id´onea y potente forma de comunicaci´on para las futuras redes cognitivas

스마트 그리드를 위한 전력선 통신의 신뢰성 향상 기법 연구

학위논문 (박사)-- 서울대학교 대학원 : 전기·컴퓨터공학부, 2014. 8. 김성철.지구 온난화, 증가하는 에너지 요구 및 최대 부하에 따른 위험 문제 등을 해결하기 위해, 스마트 그리드 구축을 위한 많은 노력들이 진행 중이다. 스마트 그리드를 구현하기 위해서는 향상된 정보통신 기술이 필요하며, 이는 통신 네트워크를 통한 안정성 있는 데이터 전송 여부에 달려있다. 스마트 그리드를 위한 여러 통신기술 후보 중 전력선통신 (PLC), 특히 중전압 (MV) 전력선 상의 고속 PLC에 집중하였다. 전력선 통신 네트워크의 신뢰성은 전력선이 스마트 그리드의 통신 매체로 올바르게 동작하기 위한 선결 조건이다. 본 논문에서는 전력선 통신을 보다 신뢰성 있고 강건하게 만들기 위한 방안에 대하여 연구한다. 이를 위해 OFDM 기반의 전력선 통신 시스템에서 최대비합성 (MRC) 다이버시티 구조를 고안한다. 이러한 시스템에서 최대비합성 다이버시티 이득을 최대화하기 위한 최적의 부반송파 페어링 (subcarrier pairing) 기법을 제안한다. 모의실험을 통해 제안하는 기법의 성능 향상 여부를 검증한다. 다이버시티 이득은 주파수 효율의 감소를 유발한다. 앞의 제안된 부반송파 페어링 기법으로 인해 본질적으로 발생하는 주파수 효율 감소를 해결하기 위해, 무선 MIMO 채널의 전처리 (precoding) 기법을 적용한다. 모의실험 결과를 통해, 높은 변조 지수로 페어링 기법을 이용하는 것이 매우 많은 계산량이 필요한 전처리 기법과 비교하여 유사한 성능을 나타냄을 알 수 있다. 다음으로 최대비합성 기반 최적 부반송파 페어링 기법을 전력선/무선 다이버시티 시스템에 확장한다. 이 시스템에서 전력선과 무선시스템의 각 부반송파들은 짝을 이루어 최대비합성을 수행한다. 전체 데이터 전송률을 최대화하기 위해 앞과 유사한 최적 부반송파 페어링 기법을 제안한다. 모의실험 결과를 통해 제안된 기법이 데이터 전송률과 아웃티지 확률 측면에서 상당한 성능 향상을 나타낸다.To solve the problems of global warming effects, rising energy-hungry demands, and risks of peak loads, many efforts to build a Smart Grid system are underway. A smart grid requires advanced information, and communication technologies to support its intelligent features, and it depends on the reliable data transmission via a communication network. Among the candidates of communication technology for smart grid, we focus on a power line communications (PLC), especially a broadband PLC over a medium voltage (MV) powerline network. The reliability of the PLC network are prerequisite for an appropriate communication medium for smart grid. This dissertation considers a strategy to make the PLC network more reliable and robust. We consider a maximal ratio combining (MRC) diversity scheme for a power line orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system. An optimal subcarrier pairing scheme is proposed to maximize the MRC gain. Numerical results are presented to verify that the proposed scheme provides enhanced performance. Diversity gain comes at the expense of spectral loss. We adopt the precoding scheme proposed for wireless MIMO system to compensate the spectral loss due to the inherent transmission mechanism of the above subcarrier pairing scheme. It is shown that the proposed pairing scheme with higher modulation order achieves a comparable performance to the precoding scheme which requires high computational cost. We extend the optimal subcarrier pairing with MRC approach to powerline/wireless diversity system, where the powerline and wireless subcarriers are paired to perform maximal ratio combining (MRC). An similar optimal subcarrier pairing scheme is proposed to maximize the data rate for MRC reception in powerline/wireless diversity OFDM systems. Numerical results show that, by using the proposed optimal subcarrier pairing, significant performance enhancement can be achieved in terms of Ergodic data rate and outage probability.1 Introduction 1 1.1 Smart Grid 1 1.2 Communication and Networking in the Smart Grid 5 1.2.1 Network Topologies 6 1.2.2 Communication Technologies for the Smart Grid 8 1.3 Dissertation Outline 11 2 Power Line Communications for Smart Grid 12 2.1 Power Line Channel Characteristics 15 2.2 PLC Channel Modeling 15 2.3 PLC Channel Noise Characteristics 17 2.4 MV Channel Description for This Dissertation 19 2.4.1 Implementation of Powerline Channel 19 2.4.2 Typical Topology 22 2.5 MV Powerline Noise 25 3 Optimal Subcarrier Pairing for Maximal Ratio Combining in OFDM Power Line Communications 27 3.1 Motivation 27 3.2 Optimal Subcarrier Pairing for Maximal Ratio Combining 28 3.2.1 System Model 28 3.2.2 Optimal Subcarrier Pairing 31 3.3 Numerical Results 33 3.3.1 Simulation Environments 33 3.3.2 SER Performance Analysis 35 3.3.3 Performance Comparison with Equal Gain Combining 38 3.4 Precoding Scheme to Compensate Spectral Loss Due to Diversity Transmission 40 3.4.1 Review of the Minimum Distance-Based Precoder for MIMO Spatial Multiplexing Systems 41 3.4.2 Optimal Minimum Distance-Based Precoder for QPSK Constellation 41 3.4.3 Application to PLC OFDM System 44 3.4.4 Performance Comparison of max-dmin Precoder for QPSK Modulation 44 3.4.5 Performance Comparison of max-dmin Precoder for 16-QAM Modulation 49 3.4.6 Complexity Analysis 53 3.5 Conclusion 53 4 Optimal Subcarrier Pairing for MRC in Powerline/Wireless Diversity OFDM Systems 55 4.1 Motivation 55 4.2 Powerline/Wireless Diversity OFDM Systems 57 4.3 Optimal Subcarrier Pairing for Powerline/Wireless Diversity 60 4.4 Numerical Results 62 4.4.1 Channel Models 63 4.4.2 Performance Comparison 67 4.5 Conclusion 76 5 Concluding Remarks 77 5.1 Summary 77 5.2 Future Works 78Docto