Bit-interleaved coded modulation with iterative decoding (BICM-ID)is a spectral efficient coded modulation technique to improve the performance of digital communication systems. It has been widely known that for fixed signal constellation, interleaver and error control code, signal mapping plays an important role in determining the error performance of a BICM-ID system. This thesis concentrates on signal mapping designs for BICM-ID systems. To this end, the distance criteria to find the best mapping in terms of the asymptotic performance are first analytically derived for different channel models. Such criteria are then used to find good mappings for various two-dimensional 8-ary constellations. The usefulness of the proposed mappings of 8-ary constellations is verified by both the error floor bound and simulation results. Moreover, new mappings are also proposed for BICM-ID systems employing the quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) constellation. The new mappings are obtained by considering many QPSK symbols over a multiple symbol interval, which essentially creates hypercube constellations. Analytical and simulation results show that the use of the proposed mappings together with very simple convolutional codes can offer significant coding gains over the conventional BICM-ID systems for all the channel models considered. Such coding gains are achieved without any bandwidth nor power expansion and with a very small increase in the system complexity.

Bit-interleaved coded modulation with iterative decoding (BICM-ID)is a spectral efficient coded modulation technique to improve the performance of digital communication systems. It has been widely known that for fixed signal constellation, interleaver and error control code, signal mapping plays an important role in determining the error performance of a BICM-ID system. This thesis concentrates on signal mapping designs for BICM-ID systems. To this end, the distance criteria to find the best mapping in terms of the asymptotic performance are first analytically derived for different channel models. Such criteria are then used to find good mappings for various two-dimensional 8-ary constellations. The usefulness of the proposed mappings of 8-ary constellations is verified by both the error floor bound and simulation results. Moreover, new mappings are also proposed for BICM-ID systems employing the quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) constellation. The new mappings are obtained by considering many QPSK symbols over a multiple symbol interval, which essentially creates hypercube constellations. Analytical and simulation results show that the use of the proposed mappings together with very simple convolutional codes can offer significant coding gains over the conventional BICM-ID systems for all the channel models considered. Such coding gains are achieved without any bandwidth nor power expansion and with a very small increase in the system complexity.

Ingeniero Civil Electricista / La codificación modulada con entrelazado de bit (BICM) se ha convertido en una estrategia ampliamente utilizada en comunicaciones inalámbricas debido a su versatilidad y flexibilidad, lo que motiva estudiar su aplicación a la transmisión de datos entre picosatélites y la Tierra, tema central del presente trabajo en que se evalúa el desempeño del sistema resultante para un eventual uso en futuros diseños. Se presentan los resultados obtenidos con simulaciones de Monte Carlo, comenzando por análisis cercanos al escenario actual utilizado en la transmisión de datos del satélite, agregando paulatinamente elementos propios a un esquema BICM. Se analiza el desempeño mostrado por varias familias de códigos, así como por distintos entrelazadores y condiciones de canal. Finalmente se simula el sistema completo para un canal con ráfagas y también en un canal de ruido blanco aditivo Gaussiano. La complejidad necesaria en el extremo receptor y el mejor comportamiento para mensajes largos gracias al bloque entrelazador, hacen que BICM sea ideal para el enlace de bajada, siendo el desempeño igual o mejor que un sistema que utilice únicamente codificación algebraica. Así se incluye solo un codificador binario -que también se utiliza en un esquema tradicional- y un entrelazador de bit en el satélite. Mientras en el segmento terrestre se ubican los sistemas de mayor complejidad, comenzando por un demodulador suave y un desentrelazador de las métricas entregadas por el demodulador, para finalmente incluir un decodificador de decisión suave. A pesar de la mayor complejidad de estos elementos, se tiene la gran ventaja que en su diseño no es necesario incluir las limitaciones de energía y espacio propias de un picosatélite permitiendo el uso de hardware con mejores prestaciones, haciendo a BICM una buena opción para transmitir telemetría. Considerando el buen desempeño de BICM en esta aplicación, existen al menos dos vías de posibles desarrollos para trabajos derivados del presente. En el ámbito práctico se puede implementar en hardware los lineamientos acá expuestos, realizando las adaptaciones correspondientes. En cuanto al aspecto teórico, puede realizarse un análisis acabado del sistema, considerando un canal satelital con errores en ráfaga y las limitantes propias de sistemas de comunicaciones de pequeños satélites.

This dissertation examines multi-antenna transceiver design over flat-fading wireless channels. Bit Interleaved Coded Modulation (BICM) and MultiLevel Coded Modulation (MLCM) transmitter structures are considered, as well as the used of an optional spatial precoder under slow and quasi-static fading conditions. At the receiver, MultiStage Decoder (MSD) and Iterative Detection and Decoding (IDD) strategies are applied. Precoder, mapper and subcode designs are optimized for different receiver structures over the different antenna and fading scenarios. Under slow and quasi-static channel conditions, fade resistant multi-antenna transmission is achieved through a combination of linear spatial precoding and non-linear multi-dimensional mapping. A time-varying random unitary precoder is proposed, with significant performance gains over spatial interleaving. The fade resistant properties of multidimensional random mapping are also analyzed. For MLCM architectures, a group random labelling strategy is proposed for large antenna systems. The use of complexity constrained receivers in BICM and MLCM transmissions is explored. Two multi-antenna detectors are proposed based on a group detection strategy, whose complexity can be adjusted through the group size parameter. These detectors show performance gains over the the Minimum Mean Squared Error (MMSE)detector in spatially multiplexed systems having an excess number of transmitter antennas. A class of irregular convolutional codes is proposed for use in BICM transmissions. An irregular convolutional code is formed by encoding fractions of bits with different puncture patterns and mother codes of different memory. The code profile is designed with the aid of extrinsic information transfer charts, based on the channel and mapping function characteristics. In multi-antenna applications, these codes outperform convolutional turbo codes under independent and quasi-static fading conditions. For finite length transmissions, MLCM-MSD performance is affected by the mapping function. Labelling schemes such as set partitioning and multidimensional random labelling generate a large spread of subcode rates. A class of generalized Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes is proposed, to improve low-rate subcode performance. For MLCM-MSD transmissions, the proposed generalized LDPC codes outperform conventional LDPC code construction over a wide range of channels and design rates.

In this thesis, a novel iterative receiver and its improved version are proposed for relay-assisted multiuser communications, in which multiple users transmit to a destination with the help of a relay and using fast frequency-hopping modulation. Each user employs a channel encoder to protect its information and facilitate interference cancellation at the receiver. The signal received at the relay is either amplified, or partially decoded with a simple energy detector, before being forwarded to the destination. Under flat Rayleigh fading channels, the receiver at the destination can be implemented non-coherently, i.e., it does not require the instantaneous channel information to demodulate the users’ transmitted signals. The proposed iterative algorithm at the destination exploits the soft outputs of the channel decoders to successively extract the maximum likelihood symbols of the users and perform interference cancellation. The iterative method is successfully applied for both cases of amplify-and-forward and partial decode-and-forward relaying. The error performance of the proposed iterative receiver is investigated by computer simulation. Under the same spectral efficiency, simulation results demonstrate the excellent performance of the proposed receiver when compared to the performance of decoding without interference cancellation as well as the performance of the maximum likelihood multiuser detection previously developed for uncoded transmission. Simulation results also suggest that a proper selection of channel coding schemes can help to support significant more users without consuming extra system resources. In addition, to further enhance the receiver’s performance in terms of the bit error rate, an improved version of the iterative receiver is presented. Such an improved receiver invokes inner-loop iterations between the channel decoders and the demappers in such a way that the soft outputs of the channel decoders are also used to refine the outputs of the demappers for every outer-loop iteration. Simulation results indicate a performance gain of about 2.5dB by using the two-loop receiver when compared to the performance of the first proposed receiver.

The high frequency (HF) band lies within 2-30 MHz of the electromagnetic spectrum. For decades, the HF band has been recognized as the primary means of long-range wireless communications. When satellite communication first emerged in 1960s, HF technology was considered to be obsolete. However, with its enduring qualities, HF communication survived through this competition and positioned itself as a powerful complementary and/or alternative technology to satellite communications. HF systems have been traditionally associated with low-rate data transmission. With the shift from analog to digital in voice communication, and increasing demands for high-rate data transmission (e.g., e-mail, Internet, FTP), HF communication has been going through a renaissance. Innovative techniques are required to push the capacity limits of the HF band. In this dissertation, we consider cooperative communication as an enabling technology to meet the challenging expectations of future generation HF communication systems. Cooperative communication exploits the broadcast nature of wireless transmission and relies on the cooperation of users relaying the information to one another. We address the design, analysis, and optimization of cooperative HF communication systems considering both multi-carrier and single-carrier architectures. As the multi-carrier HF system, we consider the combination of the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with the bit interleaved coded modulation (BICM) as the underlying physical layer platform. It is assumed that cooperating nodes may use different HF propagation mechanisms, such as near-vertical-incidence sky wave (NVIS) and surface wave, to relay their received signals to the destination in different environmental scenarios. Diversity gain analysis, optimum relay selection strategy and power allocation between the source and relays are investigated for the proposed cooperative HF system. For single-carrier HF systems, we first derive a matched-filer-bound (MFB) on the error rate performance of the non-regenerative cooperative systems. The results from the MFB analysis are also used for relay selection and power allocation in the multi-relay cooperative systems. To overcome the intersymbol interference impairment induced by frequency-selectivity of the HF channel, equalization is inevitable at the destination in a single-carrier system. In this work, we investigate the minimum-mean-square-error (MMSE) based linear/decision-feedback frequency domain equalizers (FDEs). Both symbol-spaced and fractionally-spaced implementations of the proposed FDEs are considered and their performance is compared under different channel conditions and sampling phase errors at the relay and destination nodes.

This dissertation examines multi-antenna transceiver design over flat-fading wireless channels. Bit Interleaved Coded Modulation (BICM) and MultiLevel Coded Modulation (MLCM) transmitter structures are considered, as well as the used of an optional spatial precoder under slow and quasi-static fading conditions. At the receiver, MultiStage Decoder (MSD) and Iterative Detection and Decoding (IDD) strategies are applied. Precoder, mapper and subcode designs are optimized for different receiver structures over the different antenna and fading scenarios. Under slow and quasi-static channel conditions, fade resistant multi-antenna transmission is achieved through a combination of linear spatial precoding and non-linear multi-dimensional mapping. A time-varying random unitary precoder is proposed, with significant performance gains over spatial interleaving. The fade resistant properties of multidimensional random mapping are also analyzed. For MLCM architectures, a group random labelling strategy is proposed for large antenna systems. The use of complexity constrained receivers in BICM and MLCM transmissions is explored. Two multi-antenna detectors are proposed based on a group detection strategy, whose complexity can be adjusted through the group size parameter. These detectors show performance gains over the the Minimum Mean Squared Error (MMSE)detector in spatially multiplexed systems having an excess number of transmitter antennas. A class of irregular convolutional codes is proposed for use in BICM transmissions. An irregular convolutional code is formed by encoding fractions of bits with different puncture patterns and mother codes of different memory. The code profile is designed with the aid of extrinsic information transfer charts, based on the channel and mapping function characteristics. In multi-antenna applications, these codes outperform convolutional turbo codes under independent and quasi-static fading conditions. For finite length transmissions, MLCM-MSD performance is affected by the mapping function. Labelling schemes such as set partitioning and multidimensional random labelling generate a large spread of subcode rates. A class of generalized Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes is proposed, to improve low-rate subcode performance. For MLCM-MSD transmissions, the proposed generalized LDPC codes outperform conventional LDPC code construction over a wide range of channels and design rates.

Cette thèse est consacrée à l'analyse de l'association de codes LDPC non-binaires (LDPC-NB) à des modulations d’ordre élevé. Cette association vise à améliorer l’efficacité spectrale pour les futurs systèmes de communication sans fil. Notre approche a consisté à tirer au maximum profit de l'association directe des symboles d’un code LDPC-NB sur un corps de Galois avec une constellation de même cardinalité. Notre première contribution concerne la diversité spatiale obtenue dans un canal de Rayleigh avec et sans effacement en faisant subir une rotation à la constellation. Nous proposons d’utiliser l'information mutuelle comme paramètre d’optimisation de l’angle de rotation, et ce pour les modulations de type « BICM » et les modulations codées. Cette étude permet de mettre en évidence les avantages de la modulation codée par rapport à la modulation BICM de l’état de l’art. Par simulation de Monte-Carlo, nous montrons que les gains de codage théoriques se retrouvent dans les systèmes pratiques. Notre deuxième contribution consiste à concevoir conjointement l'étiquetage des points de constellation et le choix des coefficients d'une équation de parité en fonction de la distance euclidienne, et non plus de la distance de Hamming. Une méthode d’optimisation est proposée. Les codes ainsi construits offrent des gains de performance de 0.2 dB et ce, sans ajout de complexité. / This thesis is devoted to the analysis of the association of non-binary LDPC codes (NB-LDPC) with high-order modulations. This association aims to improve the spectral efficiency of future wireless communication systems. Our approach tries to take maximum advantage of the straight association between NB-LDPC codes over a Galois Field with modulation constellations of the same cardinality. We first investigate the optimization of the signal space diversity technique obtained with the Rayleigh channel (with and without erasure) thanks to the rotation of the constellation. To optimize the rotation angle, the mutual information analysis is performed for both coded modulation (CM) and bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) schemes. The study shows the advantages of coded modulations over the state-of-the-art BCIM modulations. Using Monte Carlo simulation, we show that the theoretical gains translate into actual gains in practical systems. In the second part of the thesis, we propose to perform a joint optimization of constellation labeling and parity-check coefficient choice, based on the Euclidian distance instead of the Hamming distance. An optimization method is proposed. Using the optimized matrices, a gain of 0.2 dB in performance is obtained with no additional complexity.

<p>Soft multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) demodulators are a core component of iterative receivers for MIMO communication systems that employ bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM). The role of these demodulators is to extract a good approximation of the posterior likelihood of each bit transmitted at each channel use. The main challenge in designing a soft MIMO demodulator is to achieve the desired level of performance at a reasonable computational cost. This is important because in the case of a memoryless MIMO channel, the computational cost of the exact soft demodulator increases exponentially with the number of bits transmitted per channel use, and the cost grows faster in the case of the channels with memory.</p> <p>Several approximate low-complexity soft demodulators for memoryless channels have been proposed in the literature. In this thesis, we develop a low-complexity soft MIMO demodulator that is based on semidefinite relaxation (SDR) and uses the max-log approximation to reduce the cost of the demodulation. In particular, we develop a customized dual-scaling algorithm to solve the semidefinite program that constitutes the core computational task of the SDR-based soft demodulator. The computational cost per iteration of the customized dual algorithm is about half that of the existing customized primal-dual algorithm, and this leads to a reduction in the overall computational cost. We apply the customized dual-scaling algorithm to two different list-based soft demodulators, the list-SDR and single-SDR demodulators, and compare the performance, computational cost, and EXIT chart characteristics of these demodulators with other existing methods. This comparison shows that the developed demodulator provides a desirable trade-off between performance and complexity.</p> / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

La géométrie de l’information est la théorie mathématique qui applique les méthodes de la géométrie différentielle dans le domaine des statistiques et de la théorie de l’information. C’est une technique très prometteuse pour l’analyse et l’illustration des algorithmes itératifs utilisés en communications numériques. Cette thèse porte sur l’application de cette technique ainsi que d’autre technique d’optimisation bien connue, l’algorithme itératif du point proximal, sur les algorithmes itératifs en général. Nous avons ainsi trouvé des interprétations géométriques (basée sur la géométrie de l’information) et proximales (basée sur l’algorithme du point proximal)intéressantes dans le cas d’un algorithme itératif de calcul de la capacité des canaux discrets sans mémoire, l’algorithme de Blahut-Arimoto. L’idée étant d’étendre cette application sur une classe d’algorithmes itératifs plus complexes. Nous avons ainsi choisi d’analyser l’algorithme de décodage itératif des modulations codées à bits entrelacés afin de trouver quelques interprétations et essayer de proposer des liens existant avec le critère optimal de maximum de vraisemblance et d’autres algorithmes bien connus dans le but d’apporter certaines améliorations par rapport au cas classique de cet algorithme, en particulier l’étude de la convergence.Mots-clefs : Géométrie de l’information, algorithme du point proximal, algorithme de Blahut-Arimoto, décodage itératif, Modulations codées à bits entrelacés, maximum de vraisemblance. / Information geometry is a mathematical theory that applies methods of differential geometryin the fields of statistics and information theory. It is a very promising technique foranalyzing iterative algorithms used in digital communications. In this thesis, we apply this technique, in addition to the proximal point algorithm, to iterative algorithms. First, we have found some geometrical and proximal point interpretations in the case of an iterative algorithmfor computing the capacity of discrete and memoryless channel, the Blahut-Arimoto algorithm.Interesting results obtained motivated us to extend this application to a larger class of iterative algorithms. Then, we have studied in details iterative decoding algorithm of Bit Interleaved Coded Modulation (BICM) in order to analyse and propose some ameliorations of the classical decoding case. We propose a proximal point interpretation of this iterative process and find the link with some well known decoding algorithms, the Maximum likelihood decoding.