Power Allocation Strategies for Wireless Relay Networks with Analog Network Coding: Survey

Relay aided communication with network coding can bring spectacular performance enhancements for wireless networks. The proper design of power allocated to each of the nodes involved in the communication is essential as it has impact on the performance when Analog Network coding (ANC) is used. This paper presents a survey on recent power allocation strategies, intended objectives, practical constraints that have been considered, and corresponding performances for networks with ANC protocol

Energy efficiency and interference management in long term evolution-advanced networks.

Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Cellular networks are continuously undergoing fast extraordinary evolution to overcome technological challenges. The fourth generation (4G) or Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-Advanced) networks offer improvements in performance through increase in network density, while allowing self-organisation and self-healing. The LTE-Advanced architecture is heterogeneous, consisting of different radio access technologies (RATs), such as macrocell, smallcells, cooperative relay nodes (RNs), having various capabilities, and coexisting in the same geographical coverage area. These network improvements come with different challenges that affect users’ quality of service (QoS) and network performance. These challenges include; interference management, high energy consumption and poor coverage of marginal users. Hence, developing mitigation schemes for these identified challenges is the focus of this thesis. The exponential growth of mobile broadband data usage and poor networks’ performance along the cell edges, result in a large increase of the energy consumption for both base stations (BSs) and users. This due to improper RN placement or deployment that creates severe inter-cell and intracell interferences in the networks. It is therefore, necessary to investigate appropriate RN placement techniques which offer efficient coverage extension while reducing energy consumption and mitigating interference in LTE-Advanced femtocell networks. This work proposes energy efficient and optimal RN placement (EEORNP) algorithm based on greedy algorithm to assure improved and effective coverage extension. The performance of the proposed algorithm is investigated in terms of coverage percentage and number of RN needed to cover marginalised users and found to outperform other RN placement schemes. Transceiver design has gained importance as one of the effective tools of interference management. Centralised transceiver design techniques have been used to improve network performance for LTE-Advanced networks in terms of mean square error (MSE), bit error rate (BER) and sum-rate. The centralised transceiver design techniques are not effective and computationally feasible for distributed cooperative heterogeneous networks, the systems considered in this thesis. This work proposes decentralised transceivers design based on the least-square (LS) and minimum MSE (MMSE) pilot-aided channel estimations for interference management in uplink LTE-Advanced femtocell networks. The decentralised transceiver algorithms are designed for the femtocells, the macrocell user equipments (MUEs), RNs and the cell edge macrocell UEs (CUEs) in the half-duplex cooperative relaying systems. The BER performances of the proposed algorithms with the effect of channel estimation are investigated. Finally, the EE optimisation is investigated in half-duplex multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) relay systems. The EE optimisation is divided into sub-optimal EE problems due to the distributed architecture of the MU-MIMO relay systems. The decentralised approach is employed to design the transceivers such as MUEs, CUEs, RN and femtocells for the different sub-optimal EE problems. The EE objective functions are formulated as convex optimisation problems subject to the QoS and transmit powers constraints in case of perfect channel state information (CSI). The non-convexity of the formulated EE optimisation problems is surmounted by introducing the EE parameter substractive function into each proposed algorithms. These EE parameters are updated using the Dinkelbach’s algorithm. The EE optimisation of the proposed algorithms is achieved after finding the optimal transceivers where the unknown interference terms in the transmit signals are designed with the zero-forcing (ZF) assumption and estimation errors are added to improve the EE performances. With the aid of simulation results, the performance of the proposed decentralised schemes are derived in terms of average EE evaluation and found to be better than existing algorithms

Beamforming optimization for two-way relay channel

In this thesis, we focus on the optimization of the two-way relay channel (TWRC), which can double the data rate of communications comparing to the traditional one-way relay channel (OWRC). Because of the broadcasting nature of wireless transmissions, secure transmission is an appealing research topic. We take secrecy rate consideration into the optimization of the TWRC. Overall we provide near-optimal solutions for the secrecy rate maximization problems of the TWRC with imperfect channel state information (ICSI). A much lower complexity optimal SOCP solution is provided for SNR balancing of the TWRC without secrecy consideration. We first look at a flat fading TWRC network model with a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relay where perfect channel state information (CSI) is assumed available. We then formulate an optimization problem, with the objective to minimize the relay’s power usage under the constraints that the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the two transceivers should exceed a preset threshold. A low-complexity optimal beamforming solution is provided to this optimization problem by reformulating it in the form of second-order cone programming (SOCP). Later in the thesis, we consider the presence of an eavesdropper and address the beamforming optimization for minimizing the relay’s power with the constraints of the secrecy rates of the two transceivers. A semi-definite programming (SDP) based searching algorithm is proposed to find a near-optimal solution. For each search of the proposed approach, the previous non-convex optimization problem is transferred into an SDP problem, which can guarantee the optimality of the beamforming matrix. Afterwards, more realistic imperfect CSI (ICSI) situations are considered for the TWRC network models. As ICSI completely changes the structure and the property of the optimization problems, we reformulate the optimization problems into two scenarios. For the first case, we consider that the relay is an untrusted eavesdropper and in this case an SDP solution is provided to maximize the joint-decoding sum-secrecy rate. For the second case, we investigate the robust beamforming problems where the relay is trusted but there is an external eavesdropper, another SDP solution is provided to maximize the sum-secrecy rate

Outage Probability of Multi-hop Networks with Amplify-and-Forward Full-duplex Relaying

abstract: Full-duplex communication has attracted significant attention as it promises to increase the spectral efficiency compared to half-duplex. Multi-hop full-duplex networks add new dimensions and capabilities to cooperative networks by facilitating simultaneous transmission and reception and improving data rates. When a relay in a multi-hop full-duplex system amplifies and forwards its received signals, due to the presence of self-interference, the input-output relationship is determined by recursive equations. This thesis introduces a signal flow graph approach to solve the problem of finding the input-output relationship of a multi-hop amplify-and-forward full-duplex relaying system using Mason's gain formula. Even when all links have flat fading channels, the residual self-interference component due to imperfect self-interference cancellation at the relays results in an end-to-end effective channel that is an all-pole frequency-selective channel. Also, by assuming the relay channels undergo frequency-selective fading, the outage probability analysis is performed and the performance is compared with the case when the relay channels undergo frequency-flat fading. The outage performance of this system is performed assuming that the destination employs an equalizer or a matched filter. For the case of a two-hop (single relay) full-duplex amplify-and-forward relaying system, the bounds on the outage probability are derived by assuming that the destination employs a matched filter or a minimum mean squared error decision feedback equalizer. For the case of a three-hop (two-relay) system with frequency-flat relay channels, the outage probability analysis is performed by considering the output SNR of different types of equalizers and matched filter at the destination. Also, the closed-form upper bounds on the output SNR are derived when the destination employs a minimum mean squared error decision feedback equalizer which is used in outage probability analysis. It is seen that for sufficiently high target rates, full-duplex relaying with equalizers is always better than half-duplex relaying in terms of achieving lower outage probability, despite the higher RSI. In contrast, since full-duplex relaying with MF is sensitive to RSI, it is outperformed by half-duplex relaying under strong RSI.Dissertation/ThesisMasters Thesis Electrical Engineering 201

Performance Improvement in Muli-user MIMO Networks via Interference Alignment

Almost all wireless networks are interference limited. Interference management has been always a primary concern for large section of current wireless networks with exponentially growing devices, lack of centralized medium access, power management. Because of broadcast nature of the wireless channel, all signals from simultaneous transmissions from devices apart in the same space, are added to the desired signal at the receiver end. Therefore optimal spectrum efficiency in such systems mandates distributed, low complexity interference management strategies with very less overhead which should be far more superior than existing successive interference cancellation, highly complex multiuser detection techniques. In this thesis, a novel interference management scheme- “Interference alignment” scheme for multi user scenario is investigated and analysed supporting the arguments with numerical results for most scenarios. Firstly, the concept of interference channel, Degrees of Freedom were well established which are prerequisite in understanding the predicament of multi user wireless channels. Later on, interference alignment concept has been put forward stating its origin back from linear algebra. IA for K-user MIMO is studied. In a fully connected K-user network with perfect channel state information, IA minimizes the interference space dimension at intended receivers thus maximizing the achievable capacity of the entire channel and increasing the Multiplexing gain. Later on the idea of IA is extended to multi-hop networks. A practical cellular multi-hop wireless network is considered and distributed interference alignment technique is implemented which shows superior performance even in high interference case. All IA schemes assume that the channels are full rank richly scattered environments which in practise is not always possible. The idea of using relays to act as external scatters which increase the rank of effective channel observed is considered. So two novel distributed relaying schemes have been proposed modifying the existing IA scheme to fit the case for rank deficient channels and still achieve multiplexing gain on par with full rank channels. The proposed algorithms doesn’t require global channel state information at all nodes except at relay nodes, doesn’t need large symbol extensions, and still are able to enhance the sum capacity of the networ

Integrated Data and Energy Communication Network: A Comprehensive Survey

OAPA In order to satisfy the power thirsty of communication devices in the imminent 5G era, wireless charging techniques have attracted much attention both from the academic and industrial communities. Although the inductive coupling and magnetic resonance based charging techniques are indeed capable of supplying energy in a wireless manner, they tend to restrict the freedom of movement. By contrast, RF signals are capable of supplying energy over distances, which are gradually inclining closer to our ultimate goal – charging anytime and anywhere. Furthermore, transmitters capable of emitting RF signals have been widely deployed, such as TV towers, cellular base stations and Wi-Fi access points. This communication infrastructure may indeed be employed also for wireless energy transfer (WET). Therefore, no extra investment in dedicated WET infrastructure is required. However, allowing RF signal based WET may impair the wireless information transfer (WIT) operating in the same spectrum. Hence, it is crucial to coordinate and balance WET and WIT for simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT), which evolves to Integrated Data and Energy communication Networks (IDENs). To this end, a ubiquitous IDEN architecture is introduced by summarising its natural heterogeneity and by synthesising a diverse range of integrated WET and WIT scenarios. Then the inherent relationship between WET and WIT is revealed from an information theoretical perspective, which is followed by the critical appraisal of the hardware enabling techniques extracting energy from RF signals. Furthermore, the transceiver design, resource allocation and user scheduling as well as networking aspects are elaborated on. In a nutshell, this treatise can be used as a handbook for researchers and engineers, who are interested in enriching their knowledge base of IDENs and in putting this vision into practice

Backscatter Communication: Design and Optimisation For Emerging Use-Cases

Backscatter communication (BackCom) holds significant potential to improve the pervasiveness and energy efficiency of future wireless networks, through its passive modulation and reuse of existing radiofrequency signals. In order to function as a key technology under the Internet of Things paradigm, issues relating to BackCom, such as its limited coverage and deployment flexibility, low data rates, and the difficulty of channel estimation, need to be addressed. To complement this, a wider range of use-cases and deployment scenarios also need to be established. This thesis focuses on addressing these issues inherent to BackCom, by exploring a series of system setups which push the boundaries in terms of coverage and flexible deployment, and then future-proofs BackCom through the study of the assistance from another emerging technology, the intelligent reflecting surface (IRS). The first half of the thesis focuses on the coverage and deployment flexibility of BackCom devices under conventional wireless communication settings. First, we study a novel use-case in which BackCom devices replace conventional, actively transmitting relays to assist an information transmission from a source to a destination. We introduce the decode-and-forward (DF) BackCom relaying scheme and perform a detailed bit error rate (BER) characterisation of the DF BackCom scheme alongside the amplify-and-forward (AF) BackCom 'reflection' scheme. The feasibility and practical range of the BackCom relay is demonstrated through a case study, and our findings indicate that with careful selection of relay parameters, the DF scheme can improve the functionality of BackCom relays through the decoding operation, while resulting in minimal BER differences compared to the AF 'reflection' scheme. Second, we study the coverage maximisation of bistatic BackCom systems in wide-area environmental monitoring applications through judicious power beacon (PB) placement. We propose a straightforward metric to characterise coverage, the guaranteed coverage distance (GCD), to overcome the complex shape of each PB's coverage area when the performance of the BackCom link is dependent on the strength of the energy transfer link. We find that a single-tier symmetric deployment of PBs performs favourably under a practical number (24 or less) of PBs, with a GCD of more than 100m being readily achievable. The second half of the thesis studies the incorporation of the IRS into BackCom systems, with the aim of improving BackCom performance. The IRS-assisted bistatic BackCom system is studied first, where we solve a transmit power minimisation problem at the carrier emitter involving the joint optimisation of the transmit and receive beamforming, the IRS phase shifts and the BackCom splitting coefficients. We present a unique signal model arising from this system, where a signal originating from the carrier emitter may be reflected by the IRS twice before reaching the reader, and account for this added complexity in our algorithm design. Our results indicate that transmit power savings of over 6 dB may be achieved with a moderately-sized IRS, which may be converted to nearly 50m of range increase. Then, we study the use of the IRS in an ambient BackCom system, with the goal of reducing direct-link interference and improving detection performance. We assume the absence of all ambient signal and channel knowledge, which is a practical assumption given the passively reflecting nature of both BackCom devices and IRSs. We propose a deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based algorithm which maximises the backscatter channel difference (that is, the ratio of the energies of the direct-link interference and overall received signal) based on instantaneous signal samples, which may be converted to BER reductions. We find that the DRL approach with no channel knowledge can achieve a backscatter channel difference within 25% of that obtained using benchmarks with full channel knowledge

Analysis and Design of Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) Techniques for Next Generation Wireless Communication Systems

The current surge in wireless connectivity, anticipated to amplify significantly in future wireless technologies, brings a new wave of users. Given the impracticality of an endlessly expanding bandwidth, there’s a pressing need for communication techniques that efficiently serve this burgeoning user base with limited resources. Multiple Access (MA) techniques, notably Orthogonal Multiple Access (OMA), have long addressed bandwidth constraints. However, with escalating user numbers, OMA’s orthogonality becomes limiting for emerging wireless technologies. Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA), employing superposition coding, serves more users within the same bandwidth as OMA by allocating different power levels to users whose signals can then be detected using the gap between them, thus offering superior spectral efficiency and massive connectivity. This thesis examines the integration of NOMA techniques with cooperative relaying, EXtrinsic Information Transfer (EXIT) chart analysis, and deep learning for enhancing 6G and beyond communication systems. The adopted methodology aims to optimize the systems’ performance, spanning from bit-error rate (BER) versus signal to noise ratio (SNR) to overall system efficiency and data rates. The primary focus of this thesis is the investigation of the integration of NOMA with cooperative relaying, EXIT chart analysis, and deep learning techniques. In the cooperative relaying context, NOMA notably improved diversity gains, thereby proving the superiority of combining NOMA with cooperative relaying over just NOMA. With EXIT chart analysis, NOMA achieved low BER at mid-range SNR as well as achieved optimal user fairness in the power allocation stage. Additionally, employing a trained neural network enhanced signal detection for NOMA in the deep learning scenario, thereby producing a simpler signal detection for NOMA which addresses NOMAs’ complex receiver problem

D11.2 Consolidated results on the performance limits of wireless communications

Deliverable D11.2 del projecte europeu NEWCOM#The report presents the Intermediate Results of N# JRAs on Performance Limits of Wireless Communications and highlights the fundamental issues that have been investigated by the WP1.1. The report illustrates the Joint Research Activities (JRAs) already identified during the first year of the project which are currently ongoing. For each activity there is a description, an illustration of the adherence and relevance with the identified fundamental open issues, a short presentation of the preliminary results, and a roadmap for the joint research work in the next year. Appendices for each JRA give technical details on the scientific activity in each JRA.Peer ReviewedPreprin