A Novel Data-Aided Channel Estimation with Reduced Complexity for TDS-OFDM Systems

In contrast to the classical cyclic prefix (CP)-OFDM, the time domain synchronous (TDS)-OFDM employs a known pseudo noise (PN) sequence as guard interval (GI). Conventional channel estimation methods for TDS-OFDM are based on the exploitation of the PN sequence and consequently suffer from intersymbol interference (ISI). This paper proposes a novel dataaided channel estimation method which combines the channel estimates obtained from the PN sequence and, most importantly, additional channel estimates extracted from OFDM data symbols. Data-aided channel estimation is carried out using the rebuilt OFDM data symbols as virtual training sequences. In contrast to the classical turbo channel estimation, interleaving and decoding functions are not included in the feedback loop when rebuilding OFDM data symbols thereby reducing the complexity. Several improved techniques are proposed to refine the data-aided channel estimates, namely one-dimensional (1-D)/two-dimensional (2-D) moving average and Wiener filtering. Finally, the MMSE criteria is used to obtain the best combination results and an iterative process is proposed to progressively refine the estimation. Both MSE and BER simulations using specifications of the DTMB system are carried out to prove the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm even in very harsh channel conditions such as in the single frequency network (SFN) case

Cross-Layer Resource Allocation for MB-OFDM UWB Systems

ISBN 978-953-3076461-0International audienc

Scalable and rate adaptive wireless multimedia multicast

The methods that are described in this work enable highly efficient audio-visual streaming over wireless digital communication systems to an arbitrary number of receivers. In the focus of this thesis is thus point-to-multipoint transmission at constrained end-to-end delay. A fundamental difference as compared to point-to-point connections between exactly two communicating sending and receiving stations is in conveying information about successful or unsuccessful packet reception at the receiver side. The information to be transmitted is available at the sender, whereas the information about successful reception is only available to the receiver. Therefore, feedback about reception from the receiver to the sender is necessary. This information may be used for simple packet repetition in case of error, or adaptation of the bit rate of transmission to the momentary bit rate capacity of the channel, or both. This work focuses on the single transmission (including retransmissions) of data from one source to multiple destinations at the same time. A comparison with multi-receiver sequentially redundant transmission systems (simulcast MIMO) is made. With respect to feedback, this work considers time division multiple access systems, in which a single channel is used for data transmission and feedback. Therefore, the amount of time that can be spent for transmitting feedback is limited. An increase in time used for feedback transmissions from potentially many receivers results in a decrease in residual time which is usable for data transmission. This has direct impact on data throughput and hence, the quality of service. In the literature, an approach to reduce feedback overhead which is based on simultaneous feedback exists. In the scope of this work, simultaneous feedback implies equal carrier frequency, bandwidth and signal shape, in this case orthogonal frequency-division multiplex signals, during the event of the herein termed feedback aggregation in time. For this scheme, a constant amount of time is spent for feedback, independent of the number of receivers giving feedback about reception. Therefore, also data throughput remains independent of the number of receivers. This property of audio-visual digital transmission is taken for granted for statically configured, single purpose systems, such as terrestrial television. In the scope of this work are, however, multi-user and multi-purpose digital communication networks. Wireless LANs are a well-known example and are covered in detail herein. In suchlike systems, it is of great importance to remain independent of the number of receivers, as otherwise the service of ubiquitous digital connectivity is at the risk of being degraded. In this regard, the thesis at hand elaborates at what bit rates audio-visual transmission to multiple receivers may take place in conjunction with feedback aggregation. It is shown that the scheme achieves a multi-user throughput gain when used in conjunction with adaptivity of the bit rate to the channel. An assumption is the use of an ideal overlay packet erasure correcting code in this case. Furthermore, for delay constrained transmission, such as in so-called live television, throughput bit rates are examined. Applications have to be tolerant to a certain level of residual error in case of delay constrained transmission. Improvement of the rate adaptation algorithm is shown to increase throughput while residual error rates are decreased. Finally, with a consumer hardware prototype for digital live-TV re-distribution in the local wireless network, most of the mechanisms as described herein can be demonstrated.Die in vorliegender Arbeit aufgezeigten Methoden der paketbasierten drahtlosen digitalen Kommunikation ermöglichen es, Fernsehinhalte, aber auch audio-visuelle Datenströme im Allgemeinen, bei hoher Effizienz an beliebig große Gruppen von Empfängern zu verteilen. Im Fokus dieser Arbeit steht damit die Punkt- zu Mehrpunktübertragung bei begrenzter Ende-zu-Ende Verzögerung. Ein grundlegender Unterschied zur Punkt-zu-Punkt Verbindung zwischen genau zwei miteinander kommunizierenden Sender- und Empfängerstationen liegt in der Übermittlung der Information über erfolgreichen oder nicht erfolgreichen Paketempfang auf Seite der Empfänger. Da die zu übertragende Information am Sender vorliegt, die Information über den Erfolg der Übertragung jedoch ausschließlich beim jeweiligen Empfänger, muss eine Erfolgsmeldung auf dem Rückweg von Empfänger zu Sender erfolgen. Diese Information wird dann zum Beispiel zur einfachen Paketwiederholung im nicht erfolgreichen Fall genutzt, oder aber um die Übertragungsrate an die Kapazität des Kanals anzupassen, oder beides. Grundsätzlich beschäftigt sich diese Arbeit mit der einmaligen, gleichzeitigen Übertragung von Information (einschließlich Wiederholungen) an mehrere Empfänger, wobei ein Vergleich zu an mehrere Empfänger sequentiell redundant übertragenden Systemen (Simulcast MIMO) angestellt wird. In dieser Arbeit ist die Betrachtung bezüglich eines Rückkanals auf Zeitduplexsysteme beschränkt. In diesen Systemen wird der Kanal für Hin- und Rückweg zeitlich orthogonalisiert. Damit steht für die Übermittlung der Erfolgsmeldung eine beschränkte Zeitdauer zur Verfügung. Je mehr an Kanalzugriffszeit für die Erfolgsmeldungen der potentiell vielen Empfänger verbraucht wird, desto geringer wird die Restzeit, in der dann entsprechend weniger audio-visuelle Nutzdaten übertragbar sind, was sich direkt auf die Dienstqualität auswirkt. Ein in der Literatur weniger ausführlich betrachteter Ansatz ist die gleichzeitige Übertragung von Rückmeldungen mehrerer Teilnehmer auf gleicher Frequenz und bei identischer Bandbreite, sowie unter Nutzung gleichartiger Signale (hier: orthogonale Frequenzmultiplexsignalformung). Das Schema wird in dieser Arbeit daher als zeitliche Aggregation von Rückmeldungen, engl. feedback aggregation, bezeichnet. Dabei wird, unabhängig von der Anzahl der Empfänger, eine konstante Zeitdauer für Rückmeldungen genutzt, womit auch der Datendurchsatz durch zusätzliche Empfänger nicht notwendigerweise sinkt. Diese Eigenschaft ist aus statisch konfigurierten und für einen einzigen Zweck konzipierten Systemen, wie z. B. der terrestrischen Fernsehübertragung, bekannt. In dieser Arbeit werden im Gegensatz dazu jedoch am Beispiel von WLAN Mehrzweck- und Mehrbenutzersysteme betrachtet. Es handelt sich in derartigen Systemen zur digitalen Datenübertragung dabei um einen entscheidenden Vorteil, unabhängig von der Empfängeranzahl zu bleiben, da es sonst unweigerlich zu Einschränkungen in der Güte der angebotenen Dienstleistung der allgegenwärtigen digitalen Vernetzung kommen muss. Vorliegende Arbeit zeigt in diesem Zusammenhang auf, welche Datenraten unter Benutzung von feedback aggregation in der Verteilung an mehrere Empfänger und in verschiedenen Szenarien zu erreichen sind. Hierbei zeigt sich, dass das Schema im Zusammenspiel mit einer Adaption der Datenrate an den Übertragungskanal inhärent einen Datenratengewinn durch Mehrbenutzerempfang zu erzielen vermag, wenn ein überlagerter idealer Paketauslöschungsschutz-Code angenommen wird. Des weiteren wird bei der Übertragung mit zeitlich begrenzter Ausführungsdauer, z. B. dem sogenannten Live-Fernsehen, aufgezeigt, wie sich die erreichbare Datenrate reduziert und welche Restfehlertoleranz an die Übertragung gestellt werden muss. Hierbei wird ebenso aufgezeigt, wie sich durch Verbesserung der Ratenadaption erstere erhöhen und zweitere verringern lässt. An einem auf handelsüblichen Computer-Systemen realisiertem Prototypen zur Live-Fernsehübertragung können die hierin beschriebenen Mechanismen zu großen Teilen gezeigt werden

Design of a simulation platform to test next generation of terrestrial DVB

Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting (DTTB) is a member of our daily life routine, and nonetheless, according to new users’ necessities in the fields of communications and leisure, new challenges are coming up. Moreover, the current Standard is not able to satisfy all the potential requirements. For that reason, first of all, a review of the current Standard has been performed within this work. Then, it has been identified the needing of developing a new version of the standard, ready to support enhanced services, as for example broadcasting transmissions to moving terminals or High Definition Television (HDTV) transmissions, among others. The main objective of this project is the design and development of a physical layer simulator of the whole DVB-T standard, including both the complete transmission and reception procedures. The simulator has been developed in Matlab. A detailed description of the simulator both from a functional and an architectural point of view is included. The simulator is the base for testing any possible modifications that may be included into the DVB-T2 future standard. In fact, several proposed enhancements have already been carried out and their performance has been evaluated. Specifically, the use of higher order modulation schemes, and the corresponding modifications in all the system blocks, have been included and evaluated. Furthermore, the simulator will allow testing other enhancements as the use of more efficient encoders and interleavers, MIMO technologies, and so on. A complete set of numerical results showing the performance of the different parts of the system, are presented in order to validate the correctness of the implementation and to evaluate both the current standard performance and the proposed enhancements. This work has been performed within the context of a project called FURIA, which is a strategic research project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce. A brief description of this project and its consortium has been also included herein, together with an introduction to the current situation of the DTTB in Spain (called TDT in Spanish)

Design of a simulation platform to test next generation of terrestrial DVB

Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting (DTTB) is a member of our daily life routine, and nonetheless, according to new users’ necessities in the fields of communications and leisure, new challenges are coming up. Moreover, the current Standard is not able to satisfy all the potential requirements. For that reason, first of all, a review of the current Standard has been performed within this work. Then, it has been identified the needing of developing a new version of the standard, ready to support enhanced services, as for example broadcasting transmissions to moving terminals or High Definition Television (HDTV) transmissions, among others. The main objective of this project is the design and development of a physical layer simulator of the whole DVB-T standard, including both the complete transmission and reception procedures. The simulator has been developed in Matlab. A detailed description of the simulator both from a functional and an architectural point of view is included. The simulator is the base for testing any possible modifications that may be included into the DVB-T2 future standard. In fact, several proposed enhancements have already been carried out and their performance has been evaluated. Specifically, the use of higher order modulation schemes, and the corresponding modifications in all the system blocks, have been included and evaluated. Furthermore, the simulator will allow testing other enhancements as the use of more efficient encoders and interleavers, MIMO technologies, and so on. A complete set of numerical results showing the performance of the different parts of the system, are presented in order to validate the correctness of the implementation and to evaluate both the current standard performance and the proposed enhancements. This work has been performed within the context of a project called FURIA, which is a strategic research project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce. A brief description of this project and its consortium has been also included herein, together with an introduction to the current situation of the DTTB in Spain (called TDT in Spanish)

A flexible statistical framework for the characterization and modelling of noise in powerline communication channels.

Doctor of Philosophy in Electronic Engineering.One communication medium that has received a lot of interest in recent years is the power line channel, especially for the delivery of broadband content. This channel has been traditionally used to carry electrical power only. But with the recent advancements in digital signal processing, it is now possible to realize communications through the power grid, both in narrowband and broadband. The use of the power line network for telecommunication purposes constitutes what is referred to as powerline carrier communications or simply powerline communications (PLC). The biggest incentive for PLC technology use is the fact that the power line network is already in place, which greatly reduces the communication network set up cost, since no new cabling layout is required. PLC technology is widely applied in home networking, broadband internet provision and smart grid solutions. However, the PLC channel presents a very hostile communication environment. And as such, no consideration has been made in the design of traditional power line network to accommodate communication services. Of all the PLC channel impairments which include frequency-dependent attenuation, frequency selectivity, multipath and noise, noise is the biggest threat to communication signals. This noise manifests itself in form of coloured background noise, narrowband interference and impulsive noise. A thorough understanding of this noise distribution is therefore crucial for the design of a reliable and high performing PLC system. A proper understanding of the noise characteristics in the PLC channel can only be realized through noise measurements in live power networks, and then analyzing and modeling the noise appropriately. Moreover, the noise scenario in power line networks is very complex and therefore cannot be modeled through mere analytical methods. Additionally, most of the models that have been proposed for the PLC noise previously are mere adaptations of the measured noise to some existing impulsive noise models. These earlier modeling approaches are also rigid and model the noise via a fixed set of parameters. In the introductory work in this thesis, a study of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) as the modulation of choice for PLC systems is presented. A thorough survey of the salient features of this modulation scheme that make it the perfect candidate for PLC modulation needs is presented. In the end, a performance analysis study on the impact of impulsive noise on an OFDM based binary phase shift keying (BPSK) system is done. This study differs from earlier ones in that its focus is on how the elementary parameters that define the impulsive noise affect the system, a departure from the usual norm of considering the overall noise distribution. This study focuses on the impact of interarrival times (IAT), pulse amplitudes as well as pulse widths, among other parameters. In the first part of the main work in this thesis, results of an intensive noise measurement campaign for indoor low voltage power line noise carried out in various power line networks, in the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering buildings at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard campus are presented. The noise measurements are carried out in both time and frequency domains. Next, the noise measurements are then analyzed and modeled using two very flexible data modeling tools; nonparametric kernel density estimators and parametric alpha stable (α-stable) distributions. The kernel method’s ability to overcome all the shortcomings of the primitive histogram method makes it very attractive. In this method, the noise data structure is derived straight from the data itself, with no prior assumptions or restrictions on the data structure, thus effectively overcoming the rigidity associated with previous noise models for power line channels. As such, it results in density estimates that “hug” the measured density as much as possible. The models obtained using the kernel methods are therefore better than any parametric equivalent; something that can always be proven through goodness of fit tests. These models therefore form an excellent reference for parametric modeling of the power line noise. This work forms the author’s first main contribution to PLC research. As a demonstration of the kernel models suitability to act as a reference, parametric models of the noise distribution using the alpha stable (α-stable) distribution are also developed. This distribution is chosen due to its flexibility and ability to capture impulsiveness (long-tailed behaviour), such as the one found in power line noise. Stable distributions are characterized by long/fat tails than those of the Gaussian distribution, and that is the main reason why they are preferable here since the noise characteritics obtained in the kernel technique show visible long/heavy tailed behavior. A parameter estimation technique that is based on quantiles and another on the empirical characteristic function are employed in the extraction of the four parameters that define the characteristic function of the α-stable distribution. The application of the α-stable distribution in other signal processing problems has often been over-simplied by considering the symmetric alpha stable distribution, but in this thesis, the general α-stable distribution is used to model the power line noise. This is necessary so as to ensure that no features of the noise distribution are missed. All the models obtained are validated through error analysis and Chi-square fitness tests. This work forms the author’s second main contribution to PLC research. The author’s last contribution in this thesis is the development of an algorithm for the synthesis of the power line as a Levy stable stochastic process. The algorithm developed is then used to generate the PLC noise process for a random number of alpha stable noise samples using the alpha stable noise parameters obtained in the parametric modeling using stable distributions. This algorithm is generalized for all admissible values of alpha stable noise parameters and therefore results for a Levy stable Gaussian process are also presented for the same number of random noise samples for comparison purposes