The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Project is an international effort to build the world’s largest radio telescope. It will be 100 times more sensitive than any other radio telescope currently in existence and will consist of thousands of dishes placed at baselines up to 3000 km. In addition to its increased sensitivity it will operate over a very wide frequency range (current specification is 100 MHz - 22 GHz) and will use frequency bands not primarily allocated to radio astronomy. Because of this the telescope needs to be located at a site with low levels of radio frequency interference (RFI). This implies a site that is remote and away from human activity. In bidding to host the SKA, South Africa was required to conduct an RFI survey at its proposed site for a period of 12 months. Apart from this core site, where more than half the SKA dishes may potentially be deployed, the measurement of remote sites in Southern Africa was also required. To conduct measurements at these sites, three mobile measurement systems were designed and built by the South African SKA Project. The design considerations, implementation and RFI measurements recorded during this campaign will be the focus for this dissertation.

In this thesis, the process of optimizing Cooperative Spectrum Sensing in Cognitive Radio has been investigated in fast-fading environments where simulation results have shown that its performance is limited by the Probability of Reporting Errors. By proposing a transmit diversity scheme using Differential space-time block codes (D-STBC) where channel state information (CSI) is not required and regarding multiple pairs of Cognitive Radios (CR's) with single antennas as a virtual MIMO antenna arrays in multiple clusters, Differential space-time coding is applied for the purpose of decision reporting over Rayleigh channels. Both Hard and Soft combination schemes were investigated at the fusion center to reveal performance advantages for Hard combination schemes due to their minimal bandwidth requirements and simplistic implementation. The simulations results show that this optimization process achieves full transmit diversity, albeit with slight performance degradation in terms of power with improvements in performance when compared to conventional Cooperative Spectrum Sensing over non-ideal reporting channels. Further research carried out in this thesis shows performance deficits of Cooperative Spectrum Sensing due to interference on sensing channels of Cognitive Radio. Interference Alignment (IA) being a revolutionary wireless transmission strategy that reduces the impact of interference seems well suited as a strategy that can be used to optimize the performance of Cooperative Spectrum Sensing. The idea of IA is to coordinate multiple transmitters so that their mutual interference aligns at their receivers, facilitating simple interference cancellation techniques. Since its inception, research efforts have primarily been focused on verifying IA's ability to achieve the maximum degrees of freedom (an approximation of sum capacity), developing algorithms for determining alignment solutions and designing transmission strategies that relax the need for perfect alignment but yield better performance. With the increased deployment of wireless services, CR's ability to opportunistically sense and access the unused licensed frequency spectrum, without causing harmful interference to the licensed users becomes increasingly diminished, making the concept of introducing IA in CR a very attractive proposition. For a multiuser multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) overlay CR network, a space-time opportunistic IA (ST-OIA) technique has been proposed that allows spectrum sharing between a single primary user (PU) and multiple secondary users (SU) while ensuring zero interference to the PUs. With local CSI available at both the transmitters and receivers of SUs, the PU employs a space-time WF (STWF) algorithm to optimize its transmission and in the process, frees up unused eigenmodes that can be exploited by the SU. STWF achieves higher performance than other WF algorithms at low to moderate signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regimes, which makes it ideal for implementation in CR networks. The SUs align their transmitted signals in such a way their interference impairs only the PU's unused eigenmodes. For the multiple SUs to further exploit the benefits of Cooperative Spectrum Sensing, it was shown in this thesis that IA would only work when a set of conditions were met. The first condition ensures that the SUs satisfy a zero interference constraint at the PU's receiver by designing their post-processing matrices such that they are orthogonal to the received signal from the PU link. The second condition ensures a zero interference constraint at both the PU and SUs receivers i.e. the constraint ensures that no interference from the SU transmitters is present at the output of the post-processing matrices of its unintended receivers. The third condition caters for the multiple SUs scenario to ensure interference from multiple SUs are aligned along unused eigenmodes. The SU system is assumed to employ a time division multiple access (TDMA) system such that the Principle of Reciprocity is employed towards optimizing the SUs transmission rates. Since aligning multiple SU transmissions at the PU is always limited by availability of spatial dimensions as well as typical user loads, the third condition proposes a user selection algorithm by the fusion centre (FC), where the SUs are grouped into clusters based on their numbers (i.e. two SUs per cluster) and their proximity to the FC, so that they can be aligned at each PU-Rx. This converts the cognitive IA problem into an unconstrained standard IA problem for a general cognitive system. Given the fact that the optimal power allocation algorithms used to optimize the SUs transmission rates turns out to be an optimal beamformer with multiple eigenbeams, this work initially proposes combining the diversity gain property of STBC, the zero-forcing function of IA and beamforming to optimize the SUs transmission rates. However, this solution requires availability of CSI, and to eliminate the need for this, this work then combines the D-STBC scheme with optimal IA precoders (consisting of beamforming and zero-forcing) to maximize the SUs data rates.

Radio spectrum is a vital national asset; proper management of this finite resource is essential to the operation and development of telecommunications, radio-navigation, radio astronomy, and passive remote sensing services. To maximize the utility of the radio spectrum, knowledge of its current usage is beneficial. As a result, several spectrum studies have been conducted in urban Atlanta, suburban Atlanta, and rural North Carolina. These studies improve upon past spectrum studies by resolving spectrum usage by nearly all its possible parameters: frequency, time, polarization, azimuth, and location type. The continuous frequency range from 400MHz to 7.2 GHz was measured with a custom-designed system. More than 8 billion spectrum measurements were taken over several months of observation. A multi-parameter spectrum usage detection method was developed and analyzed with data from the spectrum studies. This method was designed to exploit all the characteristics of spectral information that was available from the spectrum studies. Analysis of the spectrum studies showed significant levels of underuse. The level of spectrum usage in time and azimuthal space was determined to be only 6.5 % for the urban Atlanta, 5.3 % for suburban Atlanta, and 0.8 % for the rural North Carolina spectrum studies. Most of the frequencies measured never experienced usage. Interference was detected in several protected radio astronomy and sensitive radio navigation bands. A cognitive radio network architecture to share spectrum with fixed microwave systems was developed. The architecture uses a broker-based sharing method to control spectrum access and investigate interference issues.

The area of deterministic noise cancellation in mobile radio communication systems is investigated and analyzed. Several interoperation problems in the mobile wireless radio space are identified and interference concerns for the Bluetooth - WLAN networks are characterized and quantified in the physical layer. A mathematical framework has been created for describing interference in the 2.4 GHz band. An adaptive noise suppression system has been developed that is able to alleviate the encroachment of the aggressor signal on the victim without sacrificing any of the original signal. This system is demonstrated to improve the victim SNR in a spread spectrum communication scenario. The research is extended to construct an interference canceller that is easy to assimilate into existing RF front-ends. A low-power small form-factor analog active canceller has been designed in 0.18-ìm Si-CMOS IC technology that delivers adequate noise suppression performance while operating in the RF domain. This includes novel implementations of phase rotator circuits based on delay interpolation and an integrated low-current quadrature modulator-based continuously variable analog phase shifter. This canceller is capable of up to 30 dB of in-band cancellation for the Bluetooth - WLAN problem. Other versions of the canceller are configured to protect GPS and DVB-H receivers from unintentional radiators transmitting in the vicinity. These demonstrate noise mitigation of at least 15 dB in their respective bands while generating very low broadband noise at the output. A simple low-power mixed-signal automatic control mechanism is also developed to operate the canceller adaptively. The work described in this dissertation advances the state-of-the-art in the area of mobile wireless radio coexistence.

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Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The extension of the Karoo Array Telescope (KAT), MeerKAT, will be the most sensitive radio telescope in the southern hemisphere until it is superseded by the completion of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). These instruments are to be constructed in the Karoo which is an area in South-Africa that is protected against Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) by the Astronomy Geographical Advantage (AGA) act. However, the telescope is also vulnerable to self-generated interference and specialised measurement systems are required to monitor RFI levels. The development of a ReAl Time Transient AnalYser (RATTY) is described and two Experimental Development Models (XDM) are compared. The first uses a mixing philosophy, and the second direct-sampling. The selection of these models was based on the evaluation of several analogue Front-End (FE) designs. A stripline-filter design process is presented along with the results obtained for custom filters developed for the FEs. Several analyses were compared to measurements performed with one of the devices and good agreement was shown between the system characteristics. Issues regarding the Spurious Free Dynamic Range (SFDR) of the FE designs were identified in the process and measurement-corrected simulations used to predict the achievable ranges. The outcome of the XDM comparison promotes the continued development of a direct-sampling strategy to fulfil the short-term goals of the project. A static calibration procedure is demonstrated for the mixing system and implemented to account for different FE configurations. An overview of the digital and software components of the RATTY system is given and Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) principles are applied during the construction of both systems. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die finale fase van die Karoo Reeks Teleskoop (KAT), MeerKAT, sal die sensitiefste radio teleskoop in die suidelike halfrond wees. Dit sal egter oortref word deur die vierkante kilometer reeks, wat die sensitiefste radio teleskoop ter wêreld sal word. Beide instrumente sal vatbaar wees vir radiofrekwensie steurings en sal opgerig word in ‘n wet-beskermde omgewing. Die teleskope is ook vatbaar vir radiofrekwensie steurings wat deur interne stelsels opgewek kan word. Dus word gespesialiseerde meetapparate benodig om die betrokke area en substelsels van die teleskope te monitor. Die ontwikkeling van ‘n meetinstrument vir die ontleding van kort-durasie tydseine (RATTY) word beskryf en twee eksperimentele ontwikkelings modelle word vergelyk. Hierdie modelle is gebaseer op die verfyning van voorafgaande ontwerpe vir die analoog substelsel van die instrument en hierdie proses word verduidelik. Die eerste model volg ‘n menger strategie waar die tweede model direkte-monstering implementeer. ‘n Dubbel-laag, mikrostrookfilter ontwerpsproses word beskryf en die gemete resultate vir die ontwikkelde filters word bespreek. Verskeie ontledings is aangewend en vergelyk met die gemete resultate van die stelsels. Hieruit word bevredigende ooreenkomste getref. Die beperkings van die modelle, weens interne distorsie, word geïdentifiseer in dié proses en verdere skattings word gemaak d.m.v. simulasies. Die eksperimentele modelle word vergelyk en die voorkeur van ‘n direkte-monsterings stelsel word gemotiveer. Die digitale en sagteware komponente word oorsigtelik behandel. Tydens die konstruksie van die modelle word die toepassing van elektromagnetiese verenigbaarheids beginsels verduidelik. Laastens word ‘n eenvoudige kalibrasie toegepas op die menger stelsel en ‘n toepassing daarvan word behandel.

Orientador: Celso de Almeida / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-26T09:28:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MinangoNegrete_JuanCarlos_M.pdf: 1358924 bytes, checksum: 0b87bf307832cb8c65d04765674c0306 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: O uso da técnica de multiplex espacial, transmissão de feixes de símbolos independentes usando múltiplas antenas de transmissão, tem sido proposta para atingir a exigência de taxas de dados maiores dos futuros sistemas de comunicações sem fio de banda larga. No entanto, quando a técnica de multiplex espacial é aplicada a uma rede celular, seu desempenho é afetado pela interferência de co-canal. Este trabalho avalia e compara os efeitos da interferência de co-canal na taxa de erro de bit média, BER, entre sistemas de transmissão digital com multiplex espacial e sistemas de transmissão digital com uma única antena de transmissão, onde os parâmetros da potência de transmissão e eficiência espectral são levados em consideração, a fim de se fazer comparações justas entre os dois sistemas. O enlace direto em um ambiente com desvanecimento plano e lento do tipo Rayleigh na presença de um interferente de co-canal dominante foi considerado. Além disso, o uso do detector ótimo, MV, no receptor e os esquemas de modulação BPSK, QPSK e M-QAM foram também considerados. Simulações de Monte Carlo foram feitas para a obtenção dos desempenhos em termos da BER como uma função da relação sinal-ruído por bit, Eb/N0, e da relação sinal-interferência, SIR. Os resultados da avaliação e comparação de desempenho entre os sistemas com multiplex espacial e com uma única antena de transmissão apresentados neste trabalho, constituem uma ferramenta importante a fim de se conhecer os benefícios reais da técnica de multiplex espacial aplicada a uma rede celular, como por exemplo nos padrões WiMAX ou LTE / Abstract: Spatial multiplexing technique, consisting of independent symbol transmission on multiple transmission antennas, has been proposed to meet the requirement for higher data rates of future wireless broadband communication systems. However, when spatial multiplexing technique is applied to a cellular network, the performance is affected by co-channel interference. This work evaluates and compares the effects of co-channel interference on the mean bit error rate, BER, of spatial multiplexing systems and single transmission antenna systems, where transmit power and spectral efficiency parameters are taken into consideration, in order to make a fair comparison between both systems. The downlink of a cellular network in slowly-varying flat Rayleigh fading environment and in the presence of a dominant co-channel interferer is considered. Furthermore, the use of Optimum Detector on the receiver and BPSK, QPSK and M-QAM modulations is also considered. Monte Carlo simulations are realized for obtaining the performance in terms of the BER as a function of per-bit signal-to-noise ratio, Eb/N0, and signal-to-interference ratio, SIR. The evaluation and comparison performance results between spatial multiplexing and a single transmission antenna systems presented in this work, are important tools in order to know the real benefits of spatial multiplexing technique applied to a cellular network, as the standards WiMAX or LTE / Mestrado / Telecomunicações e Telemática / Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica

Orientador: Celso de Almeida / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-19T05:03:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 BenitezOlivo_EdgarEduardo_M.pdf: 1173114 bytes, checksum: 1fc0181244059954a5184599ee11635c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: A análise da eficiência espectral de uma rede celular é fundamental para se otimizar o aproveitamento da banda com cobertura na célula. Neste trabalho, o desempenho do enlace reverso de redes celulares é obtido em termos de sua eficiência espectral média. O cenário estudado considera um canal com perda de propagação exponencial, desvanecimento plano e lento Rayleigh e interferência de co-canal (ICC). A modelagem matemática do sistema leva em consideração vários parâmetros de planejamento, incluindo o fator de reuso de frequência, arranjo de antenas na estação rádio base (ERB), esquema de combinação por diversidade do tipoMRC (maximal ratio combining), modulação adaptativa e controle de potência. Neste contexto, uma expressão analítica da probabilidade de erro de bit (PEB) para o esquema de modulação M-QAM (multilevel quadrature amplitude modulation) é obtida em função da relação sinal-ruído por bit (Eb/N0) e da relação sinal-interferência (SIR, do inglês signal-to-interference power ratio), considerando a presença de um interferente dominante. Esta expressão constitui uma ferramenta importante para a avaliação correta do desempenho de sistemas digitais celulares. Os resultados mostram que utilizar um fator de reuso de 1, conjuntamente com controle de potência, em geral, é a maneira mais eficiente de se usar o espectro, garantindo cobertura total na célula / Abstract: The analysis of the spectral efficiency of a cellular network is essential to optimize the bandwidth usage with coverage, which is one of the major limitations on network planning. In this work, the performance of the uplink of cellular networks in terms of the mean spectral efficiency is obtained. The studied scenario considers a channel with exponential path-loss, slowly-varying flat Rayleigh fading and co-channel interference (CCI). The mathematical modeling of the system takes in consideration many parameters, including frequency reuse factor, antenna array at the base station, maximal ratio combining (MRC) diversity scheme, adaptive modulation and power control. In this context, an analytical expression of the bit error probability for the M-QAM (multilevel quadrature amplitude modulation) scheme as a function of the signal-to-noise ratio per bit (Eb/N0) and the signal-tointerference power ratio (SIR) is obtained, by considering the presence of a single dominant interferer. This expression is an important tool for the correct evaluation of the performance of digital cellular systems. The results show that using a frequency reuse of 1, jointly with power control, in general, is the most efficient way to use the spectrum, by ensuring full coverage in the cell / Mestrado / Telecomunicações e Telemática / Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica

To solve the spectrum scarcity problem caused by the high number of wireless applications and users, the concept of cognitive radio (CR) was proposed in the past few years. Cognitive radio networks (CRNs) provide dynamic spectrum access (DSA), where the unlicensed users can access the spectrum without causing unacceptable level of interference to the primary user (PU). DSA was based on conventional spectrum sensing information or geolocation databases. Later, radio environment map (REM) as an improved geolocation database was introduced to enhance the DSA process. It is a comprehensive map consists of different integrated databases, and the interference field information is one of its databases. In this thesis, a description of the REM concept and its construction methods will be presented. The focus will be for the indirect methods for constructing interference map, which represents a layer of the REM. Indirect method refers to the methods that utilize known model information, to first estimate the primary transmitter parameters and then generate REM. Two indirect methods under lognormal shadowing were presented and compared. The better of these two methods is further investigated in different scenarios. These scenarios include different number of sensors, varied size of measurements, several shadowing spread values, different percentages of error in path-loss exponent, and the effect of the number of moving sensors and their speeds to the REM quality. The performance is evaluated using these metrics: “localization error, signal power error and correct detection zone ratio (CDZR). The results show that performance is enhanced as the number of sensors and the size of measurements increase, whereas clear degradation in REM quality is shown when shadowing spread increases or the model parameters are not well calibrated. Also, as the number of moving sensors or their speeds increase, the REM performance becomes less effective

Orientador: Celso de Almeida / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-26T13:51:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 OrozcoGarzon_NathalyVeronica_M.pdf: 2420238 bytes, checksum: 44b2e62e1f4262ea3a2a169999209c79 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: A principal contribuição desta tese é a proposta de um mecanismo com transmissão oportunista. Este método de transmissão é realizado apenas quando o desvanecimento no receptor estiver acima de um certo limiar. Neste sistema oportunista o transmissor e o receptor estão em constante comunicação através de um canal de realimentação e o receptor indica ao transmissor quando ele deve transmitir. Para a análise de desempenho do sistema oportunista vamos considerar um canal com ruído e desvanecimento plano e lento Rayleigh e também interferência de co-canal (CCI) vamos também considerar diferentes esquemas de modulação (BPSK, QPSK, 4-QAM, 16-QAM e 64-QAM). A análise de desempenho do sistema proposto baseia-se na probabilidade de erro de bit média (BER), para a qual expressões analíticas foram obtidas. Estas expressões foram verificadas usando o método de simulação de Monte Carlo, com excelente concordância entre os dois resultados. Além disso, foram consideradas a eficiência espectral e a potência de transmissão do sistema. Os resultados obtidos mostram que a transmissão oportunista pode combater o desvanecimento de forma eficiente, pois o sistema oportunista elimina os efeitos do desvanecimento quase em sua totalidade. Foi feita também uma comparação entre o sistema oportunista e um sistema ordinário para a comparação de desempenho. Além disso, a transmissão oportunista é menos sensível à interferência de co-canal. Várias curvas são apresentadas ilustrando a eficiência do mecanismo oportunista proposto em termos da probabilidade de erro de bit média / Abstract: This thesis proposes, as the main contribution, a new mechanism with an opportunistic transmission. This transmission method is realized just when the fading at receiver is above a threshold value. In this opportunistic system the transmitter and the receiver are in constant communication through a feedback link and the receiver indicates when the transmitter should transmit. To analyze the performance of the opportunistic system we consider a noise channel and a flat and slow Rayleigh fading channel in the presence of co-channel interference (ICC). We also consider different modulation schemes (BPSK, QPSK, 4-QAM, 16-QAM e 64-QAM). The performance analysis of the proposed system is based on the mean bit error probability (BER), for which analytical expressions are established. These expressions are verified using Monte-Carlo simulation method with excellent agreement between both results. Furthermore, we consider the spectral efficiency and the power transmission of this system. The opportunistic transmission can combat the fading efficiently. That is, once it eliminates the fading effects almost entirely. Moreover, it is made a comparison between the opportunistic system and the ordinary system performance. Furthermore, the opportunistic transmission is less sensitive to co-channel interference. Several figures are presented illustrating the efficiency of the proposed mechanism in terms of mean bit error probability / Mestrado / Telecomunicações e Telemática / Mestra em Engenharia Elétrica