Multiuser MIMO-OFDM for Next-Generation Wireless Systems

This overview portrays the 40-year evolution of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) research. The amelioration of powerful multicarrier OFDM arrangements with multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems has numerous benefits, which are detailed in this treatise. We continue by highlighting the limitations of conventional detection and channel estimation techniques designed for multiuser MIMO OFDM systems in the so-called rank-deficient scenarios, where the number of users supported or the number of transmit antennas employed exceeds the number of receiver antennas. This is often encountered in practice, unless we limit the number of users granted access in the base station’s or radio port’s coverage area. Following a historical perspective on the associated design problems and their state-of-the-art solutions, the second half of this treatise details a range of classic multiuser detectors (MUDs) designed for MIMO-OFDM systems and characterizes their achievable performance. A further section aims for identifying novel cutting-edge genetic algorithm (GA)-aided detector solutions, which have found numerous applications in wireless communications in recent years. In an effort to stimulate the cross pollination of ideas across the machine learning, optimization, signal processing, and wireless communications research communities, we will review the broadly applicable principles of various GA-assisted optimization techniques, which were recently proposed also for employment inmultiuser MIMO OFDM. In order to stimulate new research, we demonstrate that the family of GA-aided MUDs is capable of achieving a near-optimum performance at the cost of a significantly lower computational complexity than that imposed by their optimum maximum-likelihood (ML) MUD aided counterparts. The paper is concluded by outlining a range of future research options that may find their way into next-generation wireless systems

Dispensing with channel estimation: differentially modulated cooperative wireless communications

As a benefit of bypassing the potentially excessive complexity and yet inaccurate channel estimation, differentially encoded modulation in conjunction with low-complexity noncoherent detection constitutes a viable candidate for user-cooperative systems, where estimating all the links by the relays is unrealistic. In order to stimulate further research on differentially modulated cooperative systems, a number of fundamental challenges encountered in their practical implementations are addressed, including the time-variant-channel-induced performance erosion, flexible cooperative protocol designs, resource allocation as well as its high-spectral-efficiency transceiver design. Our investigations demonstrate the quantitative benefits of cooperative wireless networks both from a pure capacity perspective as well as from a practical system design perspective

Near-Instantaneously Adaptive HSDPA-Style OFDM Versus MC-CDMA Transceivers for WIFI, WIMAX, and Next-Generation Cellular Systems

Burts-by-burst (BbB) adaptive high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) style multicarrier systems are reviewed, identifying their most critical design aspects. These systems exhibit numerous attractive features, rendering them eminently eligible for employment in next-generation wireless systems. It is argued that BbB-adaptive or symbol-by-symbol adaptive orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) modems counteract the near instantaneous channel quality variations and hence attain an increased throughput or robustness in comparison to their fixed-mode counterparts. Although they act quite differently, various diversity techniques, such as Rake receivers and space-time block coding (STBC) are also capable of mitigating the channel quality variations in their effort to reduce the bit error ratio (BER), provided that the individual antenna elements experience independent fading. By contrast, in the presence of correlated fading imposed by shadowing or time-variant multiuser interference, the benefits of space-time coding erode and it is unrealistic to expect that a fixed-mode space-time coded system remains capable of maintaining a near-constant BER

Measurements, processing functions and laboratory test-bed experiments for evaluating diversity in broadcast network

This paper presents a test-bed development and measurement plan for evaluating transmit diversity and on-channel repeaters in the Digital Video Broadcasting Network. Transmit diversity reduces the complexity and improves the power consumption of the personal receiving devices by enhancing the transmission of signals in NLOS cluttered environments. It is more practical than receive diversity due to the difficulty of locating two receive antennas far enough apart in a small mobile device. The on-channel repeater is to extend the coverage of the DVB-T/H network in areas where services are inaccessible by receiving the DVB-T/H signals off air, amplifying and then retransmitting it on the same frequency as received. Test service scenarios were developed to illustrate the benefits of such technologies so that effectiveness can be researched in a variety of service and terrain scenarios using purpose built test systems.The work presented in this paper was supported by the European Commission IST project PLUTO

Initial synchronisation of wideband and UWB direct sequence systems: single- and multiple-antenna aided solutions

This survey guides the reader through the open literature on the principle of initial synchronisation in single-antenna-assisted single- and multi-carrier Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) as well as Direct Sequence-Ultra WideBand (DS-UWB) systems, with special emphasis on the DownLink (DL). There is a paucity of up-to-date surveys and review articles on initial synchronization solutions for MIMO-aided and cooperative systems - even though there is a plethora of papers on both MIMOs and on cooperative systems, which assume perfect synchronization. Hence this paper aims to ?ll the related gap in the literature

Massive MIMO is a Reality -- What is Next? Five Promising Research Directions for Antenna Arrays

Massive MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) is no longer a "wild" or "promising" concept for future cellular networks - in 2018 it became a reality. Base stations (BSs) with 64 fully digital transceiver chains were commercially deployed in several countries, the key ingredients of Massive MIMO have made it into the 5G standard, the signal processing methods required to achieve unprecedented spectral efficiency have been developed, and the limitation due to pilot contamination has been resolved. Even the development of fully digital Massive MIMO arrays for mmWave frequencies - once viewed prohibitively complicated and costly - is well underway. In a few years, Massive MIMO with fully digital transceivers will be a mainstream feature at both sub-6 GHz and mmWave frequencies. In this paper, we explain how the first chapter of the Massive MIMO research saga has come to an end, while the story has just begun. The coming wide-scale deployment of BSs with massive antenna arrays opens the door to a brand new world where spatial processing capabilities are omnipresent. In addition to mobile broadband services, the antennas can be used for other communication applications, such as low-power machine-type or ultra-reliable communications, as well as non-communication applications such as radar, sensing and positioning. We outline five new Massive MIMO related research directions: Extremely large aperture arrays, Holographic Massive MIMO, Six-dimensional positioning, Large-scale MIMO radar, and Intelligent Massive MIMO.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Digital Signal Processin

Multiband Spectrum Access: Great Promises for Future Cognitive Radio Networks

Cognitive radio has been widely considered as one of the prominent solutions to tackle the spectrum scarcity. While the majority of existing research has focused on single-band cognitive radio, multiband cognitive radio represents great promises towards implementing efficient cognitive networks compared to single-based networks. Multiband cognitive radio networks (MB-CRNs) are expected to significantly enhance the network's throughput and provide better channel maintenance by reducing handoff frequency. Nevertheless, the wideband front-end and the multiband spectrum access impose a number of challenges yet to overcome. This paper provides an in-depth analysis on the recent advancements in multiband spectrum sensing techniques, their limitations, and possible future directions to improve them. We study cooperative communications for MB-CRNs to tackle a fundamental limit on diversity and sampling. We also investigate several limits and tradeoffs of various design parameters for MB-CRNs. In addition, we explore the key MB-CRNs performance metrics that differ from the conventional metrics used for single-band based networks.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures; published in the Proceedings of the IEEE Journal, Special Issue on Future Radio Spectrum Access, March 201

Fractionally sampled decorrelating detectors for time-varying rayleigh fading CDMA channels

In this dissertation, we propose novel decorrelating multiuser detectors in DSCDMA time-varying frequency-nonselective and frequency-selective fading channels and analyze their performance. We address the common shortcomings of existing multiuser detectors in a mobile environment, such as detector complexity and the error floor. An analytical approach is employed almost exclusively and Monte Carlo simulation is used to confirm the theoretical results. Practical channel models, such as Jakes\u27 and Markovian, are adopted in the numerical examples. The proposed detectors are of the decorrelating type and utilize fractional sampling to simultaneously achieve two goals: (1) the novel realization of a decorrelator with lower computational complexity and shorter processing latency; and (2) the significant reduction of the probability of error floor associated with time-varying fading. The analysis of the impact of imperfect power control on IS-95 multiple access interference is carried out first and the ineffectiveness of IS-95 power control in a mobile radio environment is demonstrated. Fractionally-spaced bit-by-bit decorrelator structures for the frequency-nonselective and frequency-selective channels are then proposed. The matrix singularity problem associated with decorrelation is also addressed, and its solution is suggested. A decorrelating receiver employing differentially coherent detection for an asynchronous CDMA, frequency-nonselective time-varying Rayleigh fading channel is proposed. A maximum likelihood detection principle is applied at the fractionally spaced decorrelator output, resulting in a significantly reduced error floor. For coherent detection, a novel single-stage and two-stage decision feedback (DF) maximum a posteriori (MAP) channel estimator is proposed. These estimators are applicable to a channel with an arbitrary spaced-time correlation function. The fractionally-spaced decorrelating detector is then modified and extended to a frequency-selective time-varying fading channel, and is shown to be capable of simultaneously eliminating MAI, ISI, and path cross-correlation interference. The implicit equivalent frequency diversity is exploited through multipath combining, and the effective time diversity is achieved by fractional sampling for significant performance improvement. The significance of the outcome of this research is in the design of new lower complexity multiuser detectors that do not exhibit the usual deficiencies and limitations associated with a time-varying fading and multipath CDMA mobile environment