Performance Analysis of Non-Ideal MIMO Systems in Fading Channels

En esta tesis se aborda el análisis de prestaciones de sistemas MIMO bajo ciertas condiciones no ideales. Se han considerado limitaciones realistas como son las interferencias co-canal, el canal de retorno con velocidad limitada, y la correlación espacial entre antenas. Bajo estas condiciones, se han analizado las probabilidades de error y de outage para sistemas MIMO que incluyen técnicas de conformación de haz en el transmisor y/o distintas técnicas de diversidad espacial en el receptor. Con el fin de obtener expresiones cerradas y exactas par los indicadores de rendimiento mencionados, se han desarrollo nuevos métodos o herramientas matemáticas que facilitan o, en algunos casos, hacen posible el análisis. En primer lugar, se han obtenido nuevas expresiones cerradas para las integrales del tipo Lipschitz-Hankel y para la distribución de los elementos de la diagonal de matrices Wishart complejas. Posteriormente, estos resultados han sido aplicados al análisis de prestaciones de distintos sistemas MIMO en condiciones no-ideales. Concretamente, se han obtenido nuevas expresiones cerrradas de la probabilidad de outage para: sistemas MRC con interferencia co-canal, sistemas MIMO con correlación espacial entre antenas, y sistemas MIMO MRC con un canal de retorno limitado en velocidad. Además, se han obtenido expresiones cerradas para la probabilidad de error en sistemas de diversidad en recepción que emplean modulaciones no coherentes y no ortogonales

Performance Limits of Fluid Antenna Systems

Fluid antenna represents a concept where a mechanically flexible antenna can switch its location freely within a given space. Recently, it has been reported that even with a tiny space, a single-antenna fluid antenna system (FAS) can outperform an L-antenna maximum ratio combining (MRC) system in terms of outage probability if the number of locations (or ports) the fluid antenna can be switched to, is large enough. This letter aims to study if extraordinary capacity can also be achieved by FAS with a small space. We do this by deriving the ergodic capacity, and a capacity lower bound. This letter also derives the level crossing rate (LCR) and average fade duration (AFD) for the FAS.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Fluid Antenna Systems

Over the past decades, multiple antenna technologies have appeared in many different forms, most notably as multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), to transform wireless communications for extraordinary diversity and multiplexing gains. The variety of technologies has been based on placing a number of antennas at fixed locations which dictates the fundamental limit on the achievable performance. By contrast, this paper envisages the scenario where the physical position of an antenna can be switched freely to one of the N positions over a fixed-length line space to pick up the strongest signal in the manner of traditional selection combining. We refer to this system as a fluid antenna system (FAS) for tremendous flexibility in its possible shape and position. The aim of this paper is to study the achievable performance of a single-antenna FAS system with a fixed length and N in arbitrarily correlated Rayleigh fading channels. Our contributions include exact and approximate closed-form expressions for the outage probability of FAS. We also derive an upper bound for the outage probability, from which it is shown that a single-antenna FAS given any arbitrarily small space can outperform an L-antenna maximum ratio combining (MRC) system if N is large enough. Our analysis also reveals the minimum required size of the FAS, and how large N is considered enough for the FAS to surpass MRC.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figure

An Accurate Sample Rejection Estimator of the Outage Probability With Equal Gain Combining

We evaluate the outage probability (OP) for L-branch equal gain combining (EGC) receivers operating over fading channels, i.e., equivalently the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the sum of the L channel envelopes. In general, closed form expressions of OP values are out of reach. The use of Monte Carlo (MC) simulations is not a good alternative as it requires a large number of samples for small values of OP. In this paper, we use the concept of importance sampling (IS), being known to yield accurate estimates using fewer simulation runs. Our proposed IS scheme is based on sample rejection where the IS density is the truncation of the underlying density over the L dimensional sphere. It assumes the knowledge of the CDF of the sum of the L channel gains in closed-form. Such an assumption is not restrictive since it holds for various challenging fading models. We apply our approach to the case of independent Rayleigh, correlated Rayleigh, and independent and identically distributed Rice fading models. Next, we extend our approach to the interesting scenario of generalised selection combining receivers combined with EGC under the independent Rayleigh environment. For each case, we prove the desired bounded relative error property. Finally, we validate these theoretical results through some selected experiments

Three Branch Diversity Systems for Multi-Hop IoT Networks

Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging technological paradigm connecting numerous smart objects for advanced applications ranging from home automation to industrial control to healthcare. The rapid development of wireless technologies and miniature embedded devices has enabled IoT systems for such applications, which have been deployed in a variety of environments. One of the factors limiting the performance of IoT devices is the multipath fading caused by reflectors and attenuators present in the environment where these devices are deployed. Leveraging polarization diversity is a well-known technique to mitigate the deep signal fades and depolarization effects caused by multipath. However, neither experimental validation of the performance of polarization diversity antenna with more than two branches nor the potency of existing antenna selection techniques on such antennas in practical scenarios has received much attention. The objectives of this dissertation are threefold. First, to demonstrate the efficacy of a tripolar antenna, which is specifically designed for IoT devices, in harsh environments through simulations and experimental data. Second, to develop antenna selection strategies to utilize polarized signals received at the antenna, considering the restrictions imposed due to resource limitations of the IoT devices. Finally, to conduct comparative analyses on the existing standard diversity techniques and proposed approaches, in conjunction with experimental data. Accordingly, this dissertation presents the testing results of tripolar antenna integrated with Arduino based IoT devices deployed in environments likely to be experienced by IoT devices in real life applications. Both simulation and experimental results from single point-to-point wireless links demonstrate the advantage of utilizing tripolar antennas in harsh propagation conditions over single branch antenna. Motivated by these empirical results, we deploy a small-scale IoT network with tripolar antenna based nodes to analyze the impact of tripolar antenna on neighbor nodes performance as well as to investigate end-to-end network performance. This work illustrates that the selection of antenna branches, while considering network architecture and the level of congestion on the repeater nodes, minimizes excessive antenna switching and energy consumption. Similar results are shown for IoT networks with predetermined and dynamic routing protocols, where the proposed techniques yielded lower energy consumption than the conventional diversity schemes. Furthermore, a probabilistic, low complexity antenna selection approach based on Hidden Markov model is proposed and implemented on wireless sensor nodes aiming to reduce energy consumption and improve diversity gain. Finally, we develop a dual-hop based technique where a node selects the antenna element for optimal performance based on its immediate network neighbors antenna configuration status during selection. The performance of the proposed technique, which is verified through simulation and measured data, illustrates the importance of considering network-wide evaluations of antenna selection techniques