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Multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) wireless systems use multiple antenna elements at the transmitter and receiver to offer improved spectral efficiency over traditional single antenna systems. In these systems, properties of the transmit and receive antenna arrays play a key role in determining the overall performance of the system. This thesis derives an upper bound on ergodic (average) channel capacity which formally links good antenna diversity performance with good ergodic capacity. As a result of this derivation, antenna arrays with good ergodic capacity performance are designed in this thesis by designing antenna arrays with near-optimal diversity gain. Several approaches are developed to design antenna array elements which achieve near-optimal diversity. These design methods only require an array geometry and the power azimuth spectrum of the propagation environment. Examples and analysis are included that illustrate advantages and disadvantages of each design technique. Three different array geometries are also investigated. Diversity performance results for each design technique and array geometry, averaged over an ensemble of typical power azimuth spectrums, are presented and compared. This analysis shows that the diversity gain achieved by the best design approach is, on average, less than 1.5 dB below the optimal diversity gain.

No / Antenna array technology has attracted the attention of the research community as a means to increase system capacity and improve the signal reception. Space division multiple access (SDMA) is a multi-access scheme based on the use of antenna arrays to separate users by exploiting their positions in space. Several works have been carried out to examine the improvement in the system capacity provided by SDMA. A theoretical model to determine the blocking probability for SDMA is derived. A closed-form linear system of equations is obtained whose numerical solution gives the blocking probability. The formulation is employed to assess the capacity gain improvement of a single-cell system under specific conditions. It is found from the results that SDMA is not efficient for low traffic loads, whereas it is so for high traffic.

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Yes / An effective method is presented for suppressing mutual coupling between adjacent radiating elements which is based on metasurface isolation for MIMO and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems. This is achieved by choking surface current waves induced over the patch antenna by inserting a cross-shaped metasurface structure between the radiating elements. Each arm of the cross-shaped structure constituting the metasurface is etched with meander-line slot (MLS). Effectiveness of the metasurface is demonstrated for a2×2antenna array that operates over six frequency sub-bands in X, Ku and K-bands. With the proposed technique, the maximum improvement achieved in attenuating mutual coupling between neighbouring antennas is: 8.5 dB (8-8.4 GHz), 28 dB (9.6-10.8 GHz), 27 dB (11.7-12.6 GHz), 7.5 dB (13.4-14.2 GHz), 13 dB (16.5-16.8 GHz) and 22.5 dB (18.5-20.3 GHz). Furthermore, with the proposed technique (i) minimum center-to-center separation between the radiating elements can be reduced to 0.26λ0, where λ0 is 8.0 GHz; (ii) use of ground-plane or defected ground structures are unnecessary; (iii) use of short-circuited via-holes are avoided; (iv) it eliminates the issue with poor front-to-back ratio; and (v) it can be applied to existing arrays retrospectively. / H2020-MSCA-ITN-2016 SECRET-722424 and the financial support from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under grant EP/E0/22936/1

Ultra-Wideband Communication is increasingly being considered as an attractive solution for high data rate short range wireless and position location applications. Knowledge of the statistical nature of the channel is necessary to design wireless systems that provide optimum performance. This thesis investigates the spatial characteristics of the channel based on measurements conducted using UWB pulses in an indoor office environment. The statistics of the received signal energy illustrate the low spatial fading of UWB signals. The distribution of the Angle of arrival (AOA) of the multipath components is obtained using a two-dimensional deconvolution algorithm called the Sensor-CLEAN algorithm. A spatial channel model that incorporates the spatial and temporal features of the channel is developed based on the AOA statistics. The performance of the Sensor-CLEAN algorithm is evaluated briefly by application to known artificial channels. UWB systems co-exist with narrowband and other wideband systems. Even though they enjoy the advantage of processing gain (the ratio of bandwidth to data rate) the low energy per pulse may cause these narrow band interferers (NBI) to severely degrade the UWB system's performance. A technique to suppress NBI using multiple antennas is presented in this thesis which exploits the spatial fading characteristics. This method exploits the vast difference in fading characteristics between UWB signals and NBI by implementing a simple selection diversity scheme. It is shown that this simple scheme can provide strong benefits in performance. / Master of Science

Ce travail porte sur la conception de réseaux large bande à double polarisation basées sur des antennes spirales d'Archimède. Ces antennes sont connues pour avoir une bande passante très large. Mais, dans un réseau, la bande passante est diminuée du fait de l'apparition de lobes de réseaux. Pour que le réseau fonctionne à double polarisation, il est nécessaire d'utiliser des éléments de polarisations opposées, ce qui accroit encore la distance entre les éléments possédant la même polarisation. Ceci fait ainsi apparaître les lobes de réseaux à des fréquences inférieures par rapport au cas à mono polarisation. Dans ce travail, une méthode analytique a été développée pour estimer la bande passante des réseaux d'antennes spirales. Cette méthode a montré que la bande passante maximale d'un réseau à distribution spatiale uniforme est d'environ une octave pour le cas à mono polarisation et inexistant pour le cas à double polarisation. Pendant la validation de la méthode d'estimation quelques résonances ont été observées. Des explications de ce phénomène sont présentées, ainsi que des possibles solutions. Pour élargir la bande passante du réseau, nous montrons qu'il est possible d'utiliser en même temps les deux tendances actuelles de conception de réseaux d'antennes large bande. En utilisant deux techniques issues de ces deux tendances, nous avons pu réaliser un réseau présentant une bande passante de 6:1. Des perspectives sont aussi présentées. / This work focuses on the design of wideband dual polarized arrays using spiral antennas. These antennas are known for having wideband properties. But, due to the presence of the grating lobes, the bandwidth is decreased when using an array instead of a single antenna. In order to obtain a dual polarized array, it is needed to use elements of opposite polarization, which creates great distances between same polarization elements, meaning an earlier presence of the grating lobes. In this work, an analytic method was developed to estimate the bandwidth of the spiral arrays. This method showed that the maximum bandwidth of uniform spiral arrays is about an octave, for the mono-polarized case, and nonexistent for the dual polarized case. Working on the validation of the method, some resonances were observed. Explanations are presented, as well as possible solutions. Trying to expand the bandwidth of the array, it was found that it is possible and suitable to use at the same time the two current design paradigms for wideband arrays. Using this idea, a 6:1 bandwidth concentric rings array using connected spirals was achieved. Perspectives are also presented.

Aquesta tesi gira al voltant del disseny de receptors per a sistemes globals de navegació per satèl·lit (Global Navigation Satellite Systems, GNSS). El terme GNSS fa referència a tots aquells sistemes de navegació basats en una constel·lació de satèl·lits que emeten senyals de navegació útils per a posicionament. El més popular és l'americà GPS, emprat globalment. Els esforços d'Europa per a tenir un sistema similar veuran el seu fruit en un futur proper, el sistema s'anomena Galileo. Altres sistemes globals i regionals existeixen dissenyats per al mateix objectiu: calcular la posició dels receptors. Inicialment la tesi presenta l'estat de l'art en GNSS, a nivell de l'estructura dels actuals senyals de navegació i pel que fa a l'arquitectura dels receptors.El disseny d'un receptor per a GNSS consta d'un seguit de blocs funcionals. Començant per l'antena receptora fins al càlcul final de la posició del receptor, el disseny proporciona una gran motivació per a la recerca en diversos àmbits. Tot i que la cadena de Radiofreqüència del receptor també és comentada a la tesis, l'objectiu principal de la recerca realitzada recau en els algorismes de processament de senyal emprats un cop realitzada la digitalització del senyal rebut. En un receptor per a GNSS, aquests algorismes es poden dividir en dues classes: els de sincronisme i els de posicionament. Aquesta classificació correspon als dos grans processos que típicament realitza el receptor. Primer, s'estima la distancia relativa entre el receptor i el conjunt de satèl·lits visibles. Aquestes distancies es calculen estimant el retard patit pel senyal des de que és emès pel corresponent satèl·lit fins que és rebut pel receptor. De l'estimació i seguiment del retard se n'encarrega l'algorisme de sincronisme. Un cop calculades la distancies relatives als satèl·lits, multiplicant per la velocitat de la llum el retards estimats, l'algorisme de posicionament pot operar. El posicionament es realitza típicament pel procés de trilateralització: intersecció del conjunt d'esferes centrades als satèl·lits visibles i de radi les distancies estimades relatives al receptor GNSS. Així doncs, sincronització i posicionament es realitzen de forma seqüencial i ininterrompudament. La tesi fa contribucions a ambdues parts, com explicita el subtítol del document.Per una banda, la tesi investiga l'ús del filtrat Bayesià en el seguiment dels paràmetres de sincronisme (retards, desviaments Doppler i phases de portadora) del senyal rebut. Una de les fonts de degradació de la precisió en receptors GNSS és la presència de repliques del senyal directe, degudes a rebots en obstacles propers. És per això que els algorismes proposats en aquesta part de la tesi tenen com a objectiu la mitigació de l'efecte multicamí. La dissertació realitza una introducció dels fonaments teòrics del filtrat Bayesià, incloent un recull dels algorismes més populars. En particular, el Filtrat de Partícules (Particle Filter, PF) s'estudia com una de les alternatives més interessants actualment per a enfrontar-se a sistemes no-lineals i/o no-Gaussians. Els PF són mètodes basats en el mètode de Monte Carlo que realitzen una caracterització discreta de la funció de probabilitat a posteriori del sistema. Al contrari d'altres mètodes basats en simulacions, els PF tenen resultats de convergència que els fan especialment atractius en casos on la solució òptima no es pot trobar. En aquest sentit es proposa un PF que incorpora un seguit de característiques que el fan assolir millors prestacions i robustesa que altres algorismes, amb un nombre de partícules reduït. Per una banda, es fa un seguiment dels estats lineals del sistema mitjançant un Filtre de Kalman (KF), procediment conegut com a Rao-Blackwellization. Aquest fet provoca que la variància de les partícules decreixi i que un menor nombre d'elles siguin necessàries per a assolir una certa precisió en l'estimació de la distribució a posteriori. D'altra banda, un dels punts crítics en el disseny de PF és el disseny d'una funció d'importància (emprada per a generar les partícules) similar a l'òptima, que resulta ésser el posterior. Aquesta funció òptima no està disponible en general. En aquesta tesi, es proposa una aproximació de la funció d'importància òptima basada en el mètode de Laplace. Paral·lelament es proposen algorismes com l'Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) i l'Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF), comparant-los amb el PF proposat mitjançant simulacions numèriques.Per altra banda, la presentació d'un nou enfocament al problema del posicionament és una de les aportacions originals de la tesi. Si habitualment els receptors operen en dos passos (sincronització i posicionament), la proposta de la tesi rau en l'Estimació Directa de la Posició (Direct Position Estimation, DPE) a partir del senyal digital. Tenint en compte la novetat del mètode, es proporcionen motivacions qualitatives i quantitatives per a l'ús de DPE enfront al mètode convencional de posicionament. Se n'ha estudiat l'estimador de màxima versemblança (Maximum Likelihood, ML) i un algorisme per a la seva implementació pràctica basat en l'algorisme Accelerated Random Search (ARS). Els resultats de les simulacions numèriques mostren la robustesa de DPE a escenaris on el mètode convencional es veu degradat, com per exemple el cas d'escenaris rics en multicamí. Una de les reflexions fruit dels resultats és que l'ús conjunt dels senyals provinents dels satèl·lits visibles proporciona millores en l'estimació de la posició, doncs cada senyal està afectada per un canal de propagació independent. La tesi també presenta l'extensió de DPE dins el marc Bayesià: Bayesian DPE (BDPE). BDPE manté la filosofia de DPE, tot incloent-hi possibles fonts d'informació a priori referents al moviment del receptor. Es comenten algunes de les opcions com l'ús de sistemes de navegació inercials o la inclusió d'informació atmosfèrica. Tot i així, cal tenir en compte que la llista només està limitada per la imaginació i l'aplicació concreta on el marc BDPE s'implementi.Finalment, la tesi els límits teòrics en la precisió dels receptors GNSS. Alguns d'aquests límits teòrics eren ja coneguts, d'altres veuen ara la llum. El límit de Cramér-Rao (Cramér-Rao Bound, CRB) ens prediu la mínima variància que es pot obtenir en estimar un paràmetre mitjançant un estimador no esbiaixat. La tesi recorda el CRB dels paràmetres de sincronisme, resultat ja conegut. Una de les aportacions és la derivació del CRB de l'estimador de la posició pel cas convencional i seguint la metodologia DPE. Aquests resultats proporcionen una comparativa asimptòtica dels dos procediments pel posicionament de receptors GNSS. D'aquesta manera, el CRB de sincronisme pel cas Bayesià (Posterior Cramér-Rao Bound, PCRB) es presenta, com a límit teòric dels filtres Bayesians proposats en la tesi. / This dissertation deals with the design of satellite-based navigation receivers. The term Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) refers to those navigation systems based on a constellation of satellites, which emit ranging signals useful for positioning. Although the american GPS is probably the most popular, the european contribution (Galileo) will be operative soon. Other global and regional systems exist, all with the same objective: aid user's positioning. Initially, the thesis provides the state-of-the-art in GNSS: navigation signals structure and receiver architecture. The design of a GNSS receiver consists of a number of functional blocks. From the antenna to the final position calculation, the design poses challenges in many research areas. Although the Radio Frequency chain of the receiver is commented in the thesis, the main objective of the dissertation is on the signal processing algorithms applied after signal digitation. These algorithms can be divided into two: synchronization and positioning. This classification corresponds to the two main processes typically performed by a GNSS receiver. First, the relative distance between the receiver and the set of visible satellites is estimated. These distances are calculated after estimating the delay suffered by the signal traveling from its emission at the corresponding satellite to its reception at the receiver's antenna. Estimation and tracking of these parameters is performed by the synchronization algorithm. After the relative distances to the satellites are estimated, the positioning algorithm starts its operation. Positioning is typically performed by a process referred to as trilateration: intersection of a set of spheres centered at the visible satellites and with radii the corresponding relative distances. Therefore, synchronization and positioning are processes performed sequentially and in parallel. The thesis contributes to both topics, as expressed by the subtitle of the dissertation.On the one hand, the thesis delves into the use of Bayesian filtering for the tracking of synchronization parameters (time-delays, Doppler-shifts and carrier-phases) of the received signal. One of the main sources of error in high precision GNSS receivers is the presence of multipath replicas apart from the line-of-sight signal (LOSS). Wherefore the algorithms proposed in this part of the thesis aim at mitigating the multipath effect on synchronization estimates. The dissertation provides an introduction to the basics of Bayesian filtering, including a compendium of the most popular algorithms. Particularly, Particle Filters (PF) are studied as one of the promising alternatives to deal with nonlinear/nonGaussian systems. PF are a set of simulation-based algorithms, based on Monte-Carlo methods. PF provide a discrete characterization of the posterior distribution of the system. Conversely to other simulation-based methods, PF are supported by convergence results which make them attractive in cases where the optimal solution cannot be analytically found. In that vein, a PF that incorporates a set of features to enhance its performance and robustness with a reduced number of particles is proposed. First, the linear part of the system is optimally handled by a Kalman Filter (KF), procedure referred to as Rao-Blackwellization. The latter causes a reduction on the variance of the particles and, thus, a reduction on the number of required particles to attain a given accuracy when characterizing the posterior distribution. A second feature is the design of an importance density function (from which particles are generated) close to the optimal, not available in general. The selection of this function is typically a key issue in PF designs. The dissertation proposes an approximation of the optimal importance function using Laplace's method. In parallel, Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) algorithms are considered, comparing these algorithms with the proposed PF by computer simulations.On the other hand, a novel point of view in the positioning problem constitutes one of the original contributions of the thesis. Whereas conventional receivers operate in a two-steps procedure (synchronization and positioning), the proposal of the thesis is a Direct Position Estimation (DPE) from the digitized signal. Considering the novelty of the approach, the dissertation provides both qualitative and quantitative motivations for the use of DPE instead of the conventional two-steps approach. DPE is studied following the Maximum Likelihood (ML) principle and an algorithm based on the Accelerated Random Search (ARS) is considered for a practical implementation of the derived estimator. Computer simulation results carried show the robustness of DPE in scenarios where the conventional approach fails, for instance in multipath-rich scenarios. One of the conclusions of the thesis is that joint processing of satellite's signals provides enhance positioning performances, due to the independent propagation channels between satellite links. The dissertation also presents the extension of DPE to the Bayesian framework: Bayesian DPE (BDPE). BDPE maintains DPE's philosophy, including the possibility of accounting for sources of side/prior information. Some examples are given, such as the use of Inertial Measurement Systems and atmospheric models. Nevertheless, we have to keep in mind that the list is only limited by imagination and the particular applications were BDPE is implemented. Finally, the dissertation studied the theoretical lower bounds of accuracy of GNSS receivers. Some of those limits were already known, others see the light as a result of the research reported in the dissertation. The Cramér-Rao Bound (CRB) is the theoretical lower bound of accuracy of any unbiased estimator of a parameter. The dissertation recalls the CRB of synchronization parameters, result already known. A novel contribution ofthe thesis is the derivation of the CRB of the position estimator for either conventional and DPE approaches. These results provide an asymptotical comparison of both GNSS positioning approaches. Similarly, the CRB of synchronization parameters for the Bayesian case (Posterior Cramér-Rao Bound, PCRB) is given, used as a fundamental limit of the Bayesian filters proposed in the thesis.

An antenna array is an indispensable portion of a direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation operation. A number of error sources in the arrays degrade the DOA estimation accuracy. Mutual coupling effect is one of the main error sources and should be corrected for any antenna array. In this thesis, a system theoretic approach is presented for mutual coupling characterization of antenna arrays. In this approach, the idea is to model the mutual coupling effect through a simple linear transformation between the measured and the ideal array data. In this context, a measurement reduction method (MRM) is proposed to decrease the number of calibration measurements. This new method dramatically reduces the number of calibration measurements for omnidirectional antennas. It is shown that a single calibration measurement is sufficient for uniform circular arrays when MRM is used. The method is extended for the arrays composed of non-omnidirectional (NOD) antennas. It is shown that a single calibration matrix can not properly model the mutual coupling effect in an NOD antenna array. Therefore, a sectorized calibration approach is proposed for NOD antenna arrays where the mutual coupling calibration is done in angular sectors. Furthermore, mutual coupling problem is also investigated for antenna arrays over a perfect electric conductor plate. In this case, reflections from the plate lead to gain/phase mismatches in the antenna elements. In this context, a composite matrix approach is proposed where mutual coupling and gain/phase mismatch are jointly modelled by using a single composite calibration matrix. The proposed methods are evaluated over DOA estimation accuracies using Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC) algorithm. The calibration measurements are obtained using the numerical electromagnetic simulation tool FEKO. The evaluation results show that the proposed methods effectively realize the mutual coupling calibration of antenna arrays.