Ulm, Univ., Diss., 2008.

Zugl.: Hamburg, Harburg, Techn. Univ., Diss., 2009

The 5th generation mobile telecommunication system (5G) is currently being specified and developed, with large expectations on throughput and efficiency. While 4G and more specifically LTE might constitute a basis of the design of the network, there are some parts that should be improved. One thing to improve is the static signalling that occurs very frequently in a 4G network, of which system information such as synchronization signals, detection of network frequencies, operators, configurations etc. is a part. It has been shown that the static signalling requires both much energy and time-frequency resources. Since the system information is not intended for a single user it is always broadcast so that any user, and any amount of users can read it when needed. 5G will use a technique called massive MIMO, where the base station is equipped with a large number of antennas which can be used to direct signals in space, called beamforming. This thesis presents a new method for distribution of system information that can utilize the beamforming capabilities of massive MIMO. A simple model together with simulated user channel statistics from urban 4G scenarios are used to show that the new method outperforms the classical method of only broadcasting the information, with respect to time-frequency resources. Especially if there are high requirements on the latency of the system information, the new method results in a large gain.

In wireless systems, radio signals are corrupted due to fading, interference and noise. In order to handle the effects of fading and interference, modern systems employ various techniques including multi-antenna transceivers. Initially, multi-antenna systems were proposed only for point-point communication. More recently, multi-antenna transceivers have been proposed for multiuser (MU) wireless systems. There are various topologies in which multi-antenna transceivers can be used in a multiuser wireless environment. Among them, macrodiversity is an important concept driven by many scenarios, including base station cooperation, coordinated multipoint (CoMP) transmission and network multiple input multiple output (MIMO). A communication system where antenna elements at both source and receiver are widely (geographically) separated is described as a macrodiversity communication system. For these macrodiversity systems, every link may have a different average signal to noise ratio (SNR) since the sources and the receive antennas are all in different locations. This variation in average SNR across the links makes the performance analysis of such systems more complex. For this reason, most of the results currently available are based on simulation. However, the value of analytical results can be immense for efficient computation and optimized operation. Therefore, in this thesis we present a comprehensive, and rigorous analytical investigation of various aspects of multiuser macrodiversity MIMO systems. Two main aspects of macrodiversity MIMO systems are considered: the multiple access channel (MAC) and uplink user scheduling. In the earlier chapters of the thesis, we investigate the performance of uplink transmission employing multi-antenna transmitters and receivers. We analyze the signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR) performance, symbol error rate (SER) and ergodic sum capacity etc. In a later chapter, we consider multiuser scheduling issues in macrodiversity multiuser MIMO systems. The primary emphasis is on the MIMO-MAC where we present some systematic performance metrics and approaches to multiuser scheduling which only require the long term channel state information (CSI). These methods provide a double advantage over scheduling using instantaneous CSI. First, the computational burden is lower and secondly, the delay between obtaining and using channel estimation is reduced.

Massive multiple-input-multiple-output (MM) is becoming a promising candidate for wireless communications. The idea behind MM is to use a very large number of antennas to increase throughput and energy efficiency by one or more orders of magnitude. In order to make MM feasible, many challenges remain. In the uplink a fundamental question is whether to deploy single massive arrays or to build a virtual array using cooperative base stations. Also, in such large arrays the signal processing involved in receiver combining is non-trivial. Therefore, low complexity receiver designs and deployment scenarios are essential aspects of MM and the thesis mainly focuses on these two areas. In the first part, we investigate three deployment scenarios: (i) a massive co-located array at the cell center; (ii) a massive array clustered at B discrete locations; and (iii) a massive distributed array with a uniform distribution of individual antennae. We also study the effect of propagation parameters, system size, correlation and channel estimation error. We demonstrate by analysis and simulation that in the absence of any system imperfections, a massive distributed array is preferable. However, an intermediate deployment such as a massive array clustered at a few discrete locations can be more practical to implement and more robust to imperfect channel state information. We then focus on the performance of the co-located scenario with different types of antenna array, uniform square and linear arrays. With MM, it may be the case that large numbers of antennas are closely packed to fit in some available space. Hence, channel correlations become important and therefore we investigate the space requirements of different array shapes. In particular, we evaluate the system performance of uniform square and linear arrays by using ergodic capacity and capacity outage. For a range of correlation models, we demonstrate that the uniform square array can yield similar performance to a uniform linear array while providing considerable space saving. In the second part of the thesis we focus on low complexity receiver designs. Due to the high dimension of MM systems there is a considerable interest in detection schemes with a better complexity-performance trade-off. We focus on linear receivers (zero forcing (ZF) and maximum ratio combining (MRC)) used in conjuction with a Vertical Bell Laboratories Layered Space Time (V-BLAST) structure. Our first results show that the performance of MRC V-BLAST approaches that of ZF V-BLAST under a range of imperfect CSI levels, different channel powers and different types of arrays as long as the channel correlations are not too high. Subsequently, we propose novel low complexity receiver designs which maintain the same performance as ZF or ZF V-BLAST. We show that the performance loss of MRC relative to ZF can be removed in certain situations through the use of V-BLAST. The low complexity ordering scheme based on the channel norm (C-V-BLAST) results in a V-BLAST scheme with MRC that has much less complexity than a single ZF linear combiner. An analysis of the SINR at each stage of the V-BLAST approach is also given to support the findings of the proposed technique. We also show that C-V-BLAST remains similar to ZF for more complex adaptive modulation systems and in the presence of channel estimation error, C-V-BLAST can be superior. These results are analytically justified and we derive an exhaustive search algorithm for power control (PC) to bound the potential gains of PC. Using this bound, we demonstrate that C-V-BLAST performs well without the need for additional PC. The final simplification is based on the idea of ordering users based on large scale fading information rather than instantaneous channel knowledge for a V-BLAST scheme with MRC (P-V-BLAST). An explicit closed form analysis for error probability for both co-located and distributed BSs is provided along with a number of novel performance metrics which are useful in designing MM systems. It is shown that the error performance of the distributed scenario can be well approximated by a modified version of a co-located scenario. Another potential advantage of P-V-BLAST is that the ordering can be obtained as soon as the link gains are available. Hence, it is possible that mean SINR values could be used for scheduling and other link control functions. These mean values are solely functions of the link gains and hence, scheduling, power adaptation, rate adaptation, etc. can all be performed more rapidly with P-V-BLAST. Hence, the P-V-BLAST structure may have further advantages beyond a lower complexity compared to C-V-BLAST.

Ce mémoire est scindé en deux parties. La première partie traite de l'estimation de l'optimum combiner. Traditionnellement, l'optimum combiner est estimé à travers l'estimation du canal du signal désiré et la matrice de covariance de l'interférence plus bruit. Dans cette première partie, on propose d'estimer l'optimum combiner à travers l'estimation de deux filtres séparés, à savoir un filtre qui suppose que la transmission est sans bruit (ce filtre prend en compte l'interférence mais pas le bruit) et un filtre qui suppose que la transmission est sans interférences (ce filtre prend en compte le bruit mais pas l'interférence). Néanmoins ce type d'estimation reste optimal seulement dans le cas où le récepteur est composé de deux antennes et/ou la transmission n'est perturbée que par une seule source d'interférence, indépendamment du nombre d'antennes. Le cas d'une transmission avec un récepteur à deux antennes et une source d'interférence est simulé puis implémenté sur une cible type DSP en virgule fixe au format 16 bits.La deuxième partie est dédiée à l'estimation aveugle du canal où deux méthodes sont proposées. Ces deux méthodes sont basées sur les moments d'ordre supérieurs. La première méthode est une extension de l'algorithme de Viterbi & Viterbi avec résolution de l'ambiguïté inter sous-porteuses, pour le cas d'une transmission basée sur une forme d'onde OFDM. La deuxième méthode est construite autour du principe de l'auto déconvolution. On propose aussi dans cette partie une extension aux systèmes MIMO par l'introduction d'un précodage et d'un postcodage spatio-temporel adapté à la méthode d'estimation du canal et au type de la transmission. Enfin une étude de cas d'utilisation de cette extension MIMO est donnée pour un système de transmission basé sur le standard IEEE 802.11. / This thesis is split into two parts. The first part deals with the estimation of the optimum combiner. Traditionally, the optimum combiner is estimated through the estimation of both the desired signal channel and the covariance matrix of interference plus noise.In this first part, we propose to estimate the optimum combiner by estimating two separate filters, namely a filter which assumes that the transmission is noiseless (taking into account the interference but not the noise) and a filter which assumes that the transmission is no interfered (taking into account the noise but not the interference). However this method of estimation is optimal only in the case where the receiver has two antennas and/or transmission undergone a single source of interference regardless of the number of antennas. The case of a transmission with a receiver equipped with two antennas and interfered by a single source of interference, is simulated and implemented on a fixed-point DSP target in 16 bit format.The second part is dedicated to the blind channel estimation where two methods are proposed. Both methods are based on the higher order moments. The first method can be viewed as an extension of the Viterbi & Viterbi algorithm, with inter subcarrier ambiguity solving, for the case of an OFDM waveform. The second method is built around the principle of self deconvolution. In this section, an extension to MIMO systems based on a space-time pre-coding and postcoding is introduced. Finally a case of application of this extension, for a MIMO transmission system based on the IEEE 802.11 standard, is analysed and simulated.

Les techniques à base d’antennes multiples constituent une solution intéressante à l’augmentation du débit sans accroître la bande passante. Cependant, la conception de systèmes à base de diversité soulève de nouveaux défis quant à leur intégration au sein de terminaux à encombrement réduit. Le travail présenté consiste à prendre en compte conjointement les éléments déterminant les performances de communication multi-antennes et les contraintes d’intégration liées aux terminaux. Les systèmes développés fonctionnent dans deux bandes LTE: 790-862 MHz et 2.5-2.69 GHz; certains couvrent également la partie haute de la bande TVWS (TV White Space): 700-790 MHz afin d’offrir des applications de radio cognitive. Pour la première conception, la démarche consiste à obtenir un système performant sans rechercher, dans un premier temps une forte intégration. Néanmoins, le système proposé est intégrable dans des terminaux émergeant dans le marché actuel comme l’hybride téléphone-tablette. Des performances très satisfaisantes en termes de bandes et d’isolation sont atteintes. Ensuite, on privilégie la compacité du système tout en offrant des performances acceptables. Cette démarche permet la conception de trois prototypes, dont le dernier est intégrable dans un téléphone.D’autre part, l’influence de la présence d’un utilisateur mais également de l’intégration dans un terminal multimédia sur les performances des systèmes est étudiée. Enfin, les performances en diversité sont évaluées dans différentes configurations d’environnements. Les résultats ont montré que ces systèmes sont adaptés à la technologie LTE et offrent la possibilité d’établir des communications sans fil MIMO. / Multiple antennas techniques are an interesting solution to increase throughput without increasing the bandwidth. This is an advantage in a context where the proliferation of users and services leads to a saturation of spectrum. However, the systems based on diversity raise new challenges for their integration into terminals. The work presented in this thesis is to consider jointly the performance of multi-antennas systems and integration into terminals constraints. Developed systems operate in two bands LTE: 790-862 MHz and 2.5-2.69 GHz, and cover also for some of them the upper part of the band TVWS (TVWhite Space): 700-790 MHz to provide cognitive radio applications. The first study is concentrated on designing an efficient system while maintaining a reasonable size. The proposed system is integrated into the terminals emerging in the market today such as mini-tablets, the tablet-phone hybrid or laptop. Very satisfactory performance in terms of bands and isolation are achieved. Aiming the size reduction, we propose an alternative compact system providing acceptable performances. For this purpose, three prototypes are proposed where the last could be integrated into a mobile phone. For all systems, we have evaluated the diversity performances in terms of correlation coefficient and Mean Effective Gain. It has been founded that the systems provide good diversity performances even if the terminal's position is changed during the communication. Moreover, the influence on the antennas performances with a presence of users is studied. The results show that these systems are suitable for LTE and can be used for MIMO wireless communications.

Afin de répondre au besoin de capacité dans les réseaux sans fil, les techniques de transmission, et les modèles pour les étudier, ont évolués rapidement. Des communications point à point avec une seule antenne nous sommes passé aux réseaux cellulaires de nos jours: de multiples cellules et de multiples antennes. Progressivement, plusieurs hypothèses ont été faites, soit afin d'avoir des modèles réalistes, mais aussi parfois pour permettre une analyse plus simple. Nous analysons l'impact de trois aspects des réseaux réels. Nous nous concentrons sur le délai dans l'acquisition des coefficients des canaux par l'émetteur puisque sa prise en compte détériore grandement le gain de multiplexage du canal si rien n'est fait pour utiliser efficacement le temps mort au cours duquel les émetteurs ne transmettent pas et n'ont pas encore la connaissance du canal. Nous proposons des schémas de transmission pour utiliser efficacement ce temps mort afin d'améliorer le gain de multiplexage. Dans les réseaux multi-cellulaires, un schéma de transmission optimal est proposé et permet de n'avoir aucune perte de gain de multiplexage même en cas de retard important dans la connaissance de canal. Concernant le nombre d'utilisateurs, nous proposons un nouveau critère pour la sélection des utilisateurs de les configurations à une seule cellule afin de bénéficier de la diversité multi-utilisateurs, et nous proposons deux schémas d'alignement d'interférence pour systèmes multicellulaires afin de bénéficier du fait qu'il y a généralement plusieurs utilisateurs dans chaque cellule. Des schémas bénéficiant de la connectivité partielle pour augmenter le gain de multiplexage sont également proposés. / In order to meet ever-growing needs for capacity in wireless networks, transmission techniques and the system models used to study their performances have rapidly evolved. From single-user single-antenna point-to-point communications to modern multi-cell multi-antenna networks there have been large advances in technology. Along the way, several assumptions are made in order to have either more realistic models, but also to allow simpler analysis. We analyze three aspects of actual networks and try to benefit from them when possible or conversely, to mitigate their negative impact. We focus on the delay in the CSI acquisition. Precisely, when taken into account, this delay greatly impairs the channel multiplexing gain if nothing is done to use the dead time during which the transmitters are not transmitting and do not yet have the CSI. We review and propose different schemes to efficiently use this dead time to improve the multiplexing gain in both the BC and the interference channel (IC). We evaluate the more relevant net multiplexing gain, taking intoaccount the training and feedback overhead. Results are surprising because potential schemes to fight delay reveal to be burdened byimpractical overheads in the BC. In the IC, an optimal scheme is proposed. It allows avoiding any loss of multiplexing gain even forsignificant delay in the CSI acquisition. Concerning the number of users, we propose a new criterion for the greedy user selection in a BC to benefit of the multi-user diversity, and two interference alignment schemes for the IC to benefit of having multiple users in each cell. Finally, partially connected cellular networks are considered and schemes to benefit from said partial connectivity to increase the multiplexing gain are proposed.

Abstract Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques have been adopted since the third generation (3G) wireless communication standard to increase the spectral efficiency, data rate and reliability. The blessings of MIMO technologies for the baseband transceiver comes with the price of added complexity. Therefore, research on VLSI architectures for MIMO signal processing has generated a lot of interest over the past two decades. The advent of massive MIMO as a key technology for the fifth generation (5G) era also increased the interest in VLSI architectures related to MIMO communication research. In this thesis, we explored different VLSI architectures for MIMO detection and precoding algorithms. The detection and precoding are the most complex parts of a MIMO baseband transceiver. We focused on algorithm and architecture optimization and presented several VLSI architectures for MIMO detection and precoding. The thesis proposed an application specific instruction-set processor (ASIP) for a multimode small-scale MIMO detector. In a single design the detector supports minimum mean-square error (MMSE), selective spanning with fast enumeration (SSFE) and list sphere detection (LSD). In addition, a multiprocessor architecture is proposed in this thesis for a lattice reduction (LR) algorithm. A modified Lenstra-Lenstra-Lovasz (LLL) algorithm is proposed for LR to reduce the complexity of the original LLL algorithm. We also propose a massive MIMO detection algorithm based on alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM). The algorithm is referred to as ADMM based infinity norm (ADMIN) constrained equalization. The ADMIN detection algorithm is implemented as an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and for field programmable gate array (FPGA). A multimode precoder ASIP is also proposed in this thesis. In a single design, the ASIP supports norm-based scheduling, QR-decomposition, MMSE precoding and dirty paper coding (DPC) based precoding. / Tiivistelmä Moni-tulo moni-lähtö (MIMO) -tekniikoita on sopeutettu kolmannen sukupolven (3G) langattomasta viestintästandardista alkaen spektritehokkuuden, tiedonsiirtonopeuden ja luotettavuuden parantamiseksi. MIMO-teknologioilla on useita hyviä puolia suhteessa peruskaistan vastaanottimeen, mutta samalla monimutkaisuus on lisääntynyt. VLSI-arkkitehtuurien tutkimus MIMO-signaalinkäsittelyssä on sen vuoksi herättänyt paljon kiinnostusta viimeisen kahden vuosikymmenen aikana. Myös MIMO:n saavuttama asema viidennen sukupolven (5G) viestintästandardin pääteknologiana on lisännyt kiinnostusta VLSI-arkkitehtuureihin MIMO-viestinnän tutkimuksessa. Tässä tutkielmassa on tutkittu erilaisia VLSI-arkkitehtuureja MIMO-signaalien tunnistus- ja esikoodausalgoritmeissa. Signaalien tunnistus ja esikoodaus ovat peruskaistaa käyttävän MIMO-vastaanottimen monimutkaisimmat osa-alueet. Tutkielmassa on keskitytty algoritmien ja arkkitehtuurien optimointiin ja esitetty useita VLSI-arkkitehtuureja MIMO-signaalien tunnistusta ja esikoodausta varten. Tutkielmassa on ehdotettu sovelluskohtaisen prosessorin (Application Specific Instruction-set Processor eli ASIP) käyttä pienen mittakaavan monimuotodetektorissa. Detektorin rakenne tukee samanaikaisesti keskineliöpoikkeaman minimointia (MMSE), SSFE (Selective Spanning with Fast Enumeration) -algoritmia ja LSD (List Sphere Detection) -algoritmia. Lisäksi tässä tutkielmassa ehdotetaan monisuoritinarkkitehtuuria hilan redusointialgoritmille (Lattice Reduction eli LR). LR-algoritmia varten ehdotetaan muokattua Lenstra-Lenstra-Lovasz (LLL) -algoritmia vähentämään alkuperäisen LLL-algoritmin monimutkaisuutta. Lisäksi MIMO-signaalien tunnistusalgoritmin perustaksi ehdotetaan vuorottelevaa kertoimien suuntaustapaa Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers eli ADMM). ADMM-perustaisesta taajuusvasteen rajoitetusta ääretön-normi-korjauksesta (infinity norm constrained equalization) käytetään nimitystä ADMIN-algoritmi. ADMIN-tunnistusalgoritmi toteutetaan sovelluskohtaisena integroituna piirinä (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit eli ASIC) ohjelmoitavaa porttimatriisia (Field Programmable Gate Array eli FPGA) varten. Lisäksi ehdotetaan ASIP-monimuotoesikooderin käyttöä. ASIP-esikooderin rakenne tukee normiperustaista aikataulutusta, QR-hajotelmaa, MMSE-esikoodausta ja likaisen paperin koodaukseen (Dirty Paper Coding eli DPC) perustuvaa esikoodausta.

The ball and plate system is a nonlinear MIMO system that has interesting characteristics which are also present in aerospace and industrial systems, such as: instability, subactuation, nonlinearities such as friction, backlash, and delays in the measurements. In this work, the modeling of the system is based on the Lagrange approach. Then it is represented in the state-space form with plate accelerations as inputs to the system. These have a similar effect as applying torques. In addition, the use of an internal loop of the servo system is considered. From the obtained model, we proceed to carry out the analysis of controllability and observability resulting in that the system is globally weak observable and locally controllable in the operating range. Then, the Jacobi linearization is performed to use the linearized model in the design of linear controllers for stabilization. On the other hand, analyzing the internal dynamics of the ball and plate system turns out to be a non-minimum phase system, which makes it difficult to design the tracking control using the exact model. This is the reason why we proceed to make approximations. Using the approximate model, nonlinear controllers are designed for tracking using different approaches as: feedback linearization for tracking with and without integral action, backstepping and sliding mode. In addition, linear and nonlinear observers are designed to provide full state information to the controller. Simulation tests are performed comparing the different control and observation approaches. Moreover, the effect of the delay in the measurement is analyzed, where it is seen that the greater the frequency of the reference signal the more the error is increased. Then, adding the Smith predictor compensates the delay and reduces the tracking error. Finally, tests performed with the real system. The system was successfully controlled for stabilization and tracking using the designed controllers. However, it is noticed that the effect of the friction, the spring oscillation and other non-modeled characteristics significantly affect the performance of the control. / Tesis