Cyclic Distributed Space–Time Codes for Wireless Relay Networks With No Channel Information

In this paper, we present a coding strategy for half duplex wireless relay networks, where we assume no channel knowledge at any of the transmitter, receiver, or relays. The coding scheme uses distributed space–time coding, that is, the relay nodes cooperate to encode the transmitted signal so that the receiver senses a space–time codeword. It is inspired by noncoherent differential techniques. The proposed strategy is available for any number of relays nodes. It is analyzed, and shown to yield a diversity linear in the number of relays. We also study the resistance of the scheme to relay node failures, and show that a network with R relay nodes and d of them down behaves, as far as diversity is concerned, as a network with R-d nodes. Finally, our construction can be easily generalized to the case where the transmitter and receiver nodes have several antennas

Impact of Power Allocation and Antenna Directivity in the Capacity of a Multiuser Cognitive Ad Hoc Network

This paper studies the benefits that power control and antenna directivity can bring to the capacity of a multiuser cognitive radio network. The main objective is to optimize the secondary network sum rate under the capacity constraint of the primary network. Exploiting location awareness, antenna directivity, and the power control capability, the cognitive radio ad hoc network can broaden its coverage and improve capacity. Computer simulations show that by employing the proposed method the system performance is significantly enhanced compared to conventional fixed power allocation

Braess's Paradox in Wireless Networks: The Danger of Improved Technology

When comparing new wireless technologies, it is common to consider the effect that they have on the capacity of the network (defined as the maximum number of simultaneously satisfiable links). For example, it has been shown that giving receivers the ability to do interference cancellation, or allowing transmitters to use power control, never decreases the capacity and can in certain cases increase it by $\Omega(\log (\Delta \cdot P_{\max}))$, where $\Delta$ is the ratio of the longest link length to the smallest transmitter-receiver distance and $P_{\max}$ is the maximum transmission power. But there is no reason to expect the optimal capacity to be realized in practice, particularly since maximizing the capacity is known to be NP-hard. In reality, we would expect links to behave as self-interested agents, and thus when introducing a new technology it makes more sense to compare the values reached at game-theoretic equilibria than the optimum values. In this paper we initiate this line of work by comparing various notions of equilibria (particularly Nash equilibria and no-regret behavior) when using a supposedly "better" technology. We show a version of Braess's Paradox for all of them: in certain networks, upgrading technology can actually make the equilibria \emph{worse}, despite an increase in the capacity. We construct instances where this decrease is a constant factor for power control, interference cancellation, and improvements in the SINR threshold ($\beta$), and is $\Omega(\log \Delta)$ when power control is combined with interference cancellation. However, we show that these examples are basically tight: the decrease is at most O(1) for power control, interference cancellation, and improved $\beta$, and is at most $O(\log \Delta)$ when power control is combined with interference cancellation

A Real-Time GPP Software-Defined Radio Testbed for the Physical Layer of Wireless Standards

We present our contribution to the general-purpose-processor-(GPP)-based radio. We describe a baseband software-defined radio testbed for the physical layer of wireless LAN standards. All physical layer functions have been successfully mapped on a Pentium 4 processor that performs these functions in real time. The testbed consists of a transmitter PC with a DAC board and a receiver PC with an ADC board. In our project, we have implemented two different types of standards on this testbed, a continuous-phase-modulation-based standard, Bluetooth, and an OFDM-based standard, HiperLAN/2. However, our testbed can easily be extended to other standards, because the only limitation in our testbed is the maximal channel bandwidth of 20 MHz and of course the processing capabilities of the used PC. The transmitter functions require at most 714 M cycles per second and the receiver functions need 1225 M cycles per second on a Pentium 4 processor. In addition, baseband experiments have been carried out successfully