The Alamouti Scheme with CDMA-OFDM/OQAM

This paper deals with the combination of OFDM/OQAM with the Alamouti scheme. After a brief presentation of the OFDM/OQAM modulation scheme, we introduce the fact that the well-known Alamouti decoding scheme cannot be simply applied to this modulation. Indeed, the Alamouti coding scheme requires a complex orthogonality property; whereas OFDM/OQAM only provides real orthogonality. However, as we have recently shown, under some conditions, a transmission scheme combining CDMA and OFDM/OQAM can satisfy the complex orthogonality condition. Adding a CDMA component can thus be seen as a solution to apply the Alamouti scheme in combination with OFDM/OQAM. However, our analysis shows that the CDMA-OFDM/OQAM combination has to be built taking into account particular features of the transmission channel. Our simulation results illustrate the 2×1 Alamouti coding scheme for which CDMA-OFDM/OQAM and CP-OFDM are compared in two different scenarios: (i) CDMA is performed in the frequency domain, (ii) CDMA is performed in time domain

Conjugate-Root Offset-QAM for Orthogonal Multicarrier Transmission

Current implementations of OFDM/OQAM are restricted to band-limited symmetric filters. To circumvent this, non-symmetric conjugate root (CR) filters are proposed for OQAM modulation. The system is applied to Generalized Frequency Division Multiplexing (GFDM) and a method for achieving transmit diversity with OQAM modulation is presented. The proposal reduces implementation complexity compared to existing works and provides a more regular phase space. GFDM/CR-OQAM outperforms conventional GFDM in terms of symbol error rate in fading multipath channels and provides a more localized spectrum compared to conventional OQAM.Comment: 4pages, revised version submitted to IEEE WC

Square-root Nyquist filter design for QAM-based filter bank multicarrier systems

Filter bank multicarrier systems with quadrature amplitude modulation (FBMC/QAM) have drawn attentions to get the advantage of complex symbol transmission, as well as very low out of band radiation and relaxed synchronization requirements for asynchronous scenarios. In order to make this system viable for practical deployment, the biggest challenge is designing appropriate filters to minimize the interference between adjacent subcarriers, while maintaining the Nyquist property of the filter. We show that the deviation from the Nyquist property can be compensated through the fractional shift of the filtered symbols, which provides flexibility to optimize the stopband of the filter. The proposed design method shows advantages over the state of the art designs, and provides guidance for the filter design in practical FBMC/QAM systems

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThe demand for high speed communication has been increasing in the past two decades. Multicarrier communication technology has been suggested to address this demand. Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) is the most widely used multicarrier technique. However, OFDM has a number of disadvantages in time-varying channels, multiple access, and cognitive radios. On the other hand, filterbank multicarrier (FBMC) communication has been suggested as an alternative to OFDM that can overcome the disadvantages of OFDM. In this dissertation, we investigate the application of filtered multitone (FMT), a subset of FBMC modulation methods, to slow fading and fast fading channels. We investigate the FMT transmitter and receiver in continuous and discrete time domains. An efficient implementation of FMT systems is derived and the conditions for perfect reconstruction in an FBMC communication system are presented. We derive equations for FMT in slow fading channels that allow evaluation of FMT when applied to mobile wireless communication systems. We consider using fractionally spaced per tone channel equalizers with different number of taps. The numerical results are presented to investigate the performance of these equalizers. The numerical results show that single-tap equalizers suffice for typical wireless channels. The equalizer design study is advanced by introducing adaptive equalizers which use channel estimation. We derive equations for a minimum mean square error (MMSE) channel estimator and improve the channel estimation by considering the finite duration of channel impulse response. The results of optimum equalizers (when channel is known perfectly) are compared with those of the adaptive equalizers, and it is found that a loss of 1 dB or less incurs. We also introduce a new form of FMT which is specially designed to handle doubly dispersive channels. This method is called FMT-dd (FMT for doubly dispersive channels). The proposed FMT-dd is applied to two common methods of data symbol orientation in the time-frequency space grid; namely, rectangular and hexagonal lattices. The performance of these methods along with OFDM and the conventional FMT are compared and a significant improvement in performance is observed. The FMT-dd design is applied to real-world underwater acoustic (UWA) communication channels. The experimental results from an at-sea experiment (ACOMM10) show that this new design provides a significant gain over OFDM. The feasibility of implementing a MIMO system for multicarrier UWA communication channels is studied through computer simulations. Our study emphasizes the bandwidth efficiency of multicarrier MIMO communications .We show that the value of MIMO to UWA communication is very limited

Blind channel estimation for space-time block codes : novel methods and performance Studies

[abstract] This work is based on a study of blind source separation techniques in order to estimate coe cients in transmission systems using Alamouti codi cation with two transmit antennas and one receive antenna. Most of present standards include pilot symbols to estimate the channel in reception. Since these symbols do not deliver user's data, their use decrease transferring quantity and also the system capacity. On the other hand, algorithms of blind separation are less precise when estimating channel coe cients than those supervised, but achieving a higher transferring rate. In this work we will deal with Alamouti codi cation system as a typical problem of blind sources separation where the signals transmitted and the channel coe cients must be estimated according to lineal and instantaneous mixtures (observations). Orthogonal structure required by Alamouti codi cation allows us to solve this problem by decomposing eigenvalues and eigenvectors of matrices calculated from di erent statistics of the observations. These algorithms could be classi ed as those using second order statistics and those using higher order statistics. Algorithms based on second order statistics work with correlation matrix of observations. They are computationally less expensive, but require a lineal precoder in order to balance the power of the signals transmitted. One of our contributions is being able to determine in an empirical way how the power decompensation should be done in order to reduce the proabibility of error in the system. On the other hand, algorithms dealing with high level statistics are based on diagonalize one or several high level cumulant matrices deriving into a major computational cost in the receiver. As an advantage we must point out that they do not require to include a lineal precoder to do the power decompensation. In this work we will prove that the output of these techniques depends on the level of eigenvalue of the diagonalized matrix spreading. This idea will be used by us in order to achieve the optimal cumulant matrix and also to propose a new algorithm that increases the output in relation to those already proposed by other authors. Another important contribution of this present study is to propose a detailed comparison between channel estimation techniques in simulated scenarios, considering channels with Rayleigh and Rice distribution, and in real scenarios in ISM of 2.4 GHz band, by using a MIMO testbed developed in Universidade da Coruña. [Resumen] En este trabajo se realiza un estudio de técnicas de separación ciega de fuentes para la estimación de los coeficientes en sistemas de transmisión que emplean la codificación de Alamouti con 2 antenas transmisoras y 1 antena receptora. La mayoría de los estándares actuales incluyen símbolos piloto para estimar el canal en recepción. Dado que estos símbolos no transportan datos del usuario, su utilización decrementa la tasa de transferencia y degrada el rendimiento del sistema. Por otro lado, los algoritmos de separación ciega son menos precisos en la estimación de los coeficientes de canal que los supervisados pero consiguen una tasa de transferencia mayor. En el presente trabajo, modelaremos el sistema de codificación de Alamouti como un problema típico de separación ciega de fuentes donde las se~nales transmitidas y los coeficientes del canal deben ser estimados a partir de mezclas lineales e instantáneas (observaciones). La estructura ortogonal impuesta por la codificación de Alamouti permite resolver este problema mediante la descomposición de autovalores y autovectores de matrices calculadas a partir de diferentes estadísticos de las observaciones. Estos algoritmos pueden ser clasificados en aquellos que utilizan estadísticos de segundo orden y aquellos que emplean estadísticos de orden superior. Los algoritmos que emplean estadísticos de segundo orden trabajan con la matriz de correlación de las observaciones, son computacionalmente poco costosos pero requieren de un precodificador lineal para descompensar la potencia de las se~nales transmitidas. Una de nuestras aportaciones es la de determinar de forma empírica cómo debe realizarse la descompesación de potencia de cara a reducir la probabilidad de error del sistema. Por otro lado, los algoritmos que trabajan con estadísticos de orden superior se basan en diagonalizar una o varias matrices de cumulantes de orden superior, lo que conlleva un mayor coste computacional en el receptor. Como ventaja debe resaltarse que no requieren incluir un precodificador lineal que realice la descompensación de potencia. En este trabajo mostraremos que el rendimiento de estas técnicas depende del grado de dispersión de los autovalores de la matriz que se diagonaliza. Utilizaremos esta idea para obtener la matriz de cumulantes óptima y para formular un nuevo algoritmo que supera en rendimiento a los propuestos previamente por otros autores. Otra aportación relevante del presente trabajo es presentar una detallada comparación de las técnicas de estimación de canal en entornos simulados, considerando canales con ditribución Rayleigh y Rice, y en entornos reales en la banda ISM de 2.4 GHz mediante el empleo de una plataforma de transmisión MIMO desarrollada en la Universidade da Coruña

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