In this dissertation novel methods are proposed for communicating in interference limited environments as well as detecting such interference. The methods include introducing redundancies into multicarrier signals to make them more robust, applying a novel filtering structure for mitigating radar interference to orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals and for exploiting the cyclostationary nature of signals to whiten the spectrum in blind signal detection. Data symbols are repeated in both time and frequency across orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, creating a cyclostationary nature in the signal. A Frequency Shift (FRESH) filter can then be applied to the cyclostationary signal, which is the optimal filter and is able to reject interference much better than a time-invariant filter such as the Wiener filter. A novel time-varying FRESH filter (TV-FRESH) filter is developed and its Minimum Mean Squared Error (MMSE) filter weights are found. The repetition of data symbols and their optimal combining with the TV-FRESH filter creates an effect of improving the Bit Error Rate (BER) at the receiver, similar to an error correcting code. The important distinction for the paramorphic method is that it is designed to operate within cyclostationary interference, and simulation results show that the symbol repetition can outperform other error correcting codes. Simulated annealing is used to optimize the signaling parameters, and results show that a balance between the symbol repetition and error correcting codes produces a better BER for the same spectral efficiency than what either method could have achieved alone. The TV-FRESH filter is applied to a pulsed chirp radar signal, demonstrating a new tool to use in radar and OFDM co-existence. The TV-FRESH filter applies a set of filter weights in a periodically time-varying fashion. The traditional FRESH filter is periodically time-varying due to the periodicities of the frequency shifters, but applies time-invariant filters after optimally combine any spectral redundancies in the signal. The time segmentation of the TV-FRESH filter allows spectral redundancies of the radar signal to be exploited across time due to its deterministic nature. The TV-FRESH filter improves the rejection of the radar signal as compared to the traditional FRESH filter under the simulation scenarios, improving the SINR and BER at the output of the filter. The improvement in performance comes at the cost of additional filtering complexity. A time-varying whitening filter is applied to blindly detect interference which overlaps with the desired signal in frequency. Where a time-invariant whitening filter shapes the output spectrum based on the power levels, the proposed time-varying whitener whitens the output spectrum based on the spectral redundancy in the desired signal. This allows signals which do not share the same cyclostationary properties to pass through the filter, improving the sensitivity of the algorithm and producing higher detection rates for the same probability of false alarm as compared to the time-invariant whitener. / Ph. D. / This dissertation proposes novel methods for building robust wireless communication links which can be used to improve their reliability and resilience while under interference. Wireless interference comes from many sources, including other wireless transmitters in the area or devices which emit electromagnetic waves such as microwaves. Interference reduces the quality of a wireless link and depending on the type and severity may make it impossible to reliably receive information. The contributions are both for communicating under interference and being able to detect interference. A novel method for increasing the redundancy in a wireless link is proposed which improves the resiliency of a wireless link. By transmitting additional copies of the desired information the wireless receiver is able to better estimate the original transmitted signal. The digital receiver structure is proposed to optimally combine the redundant information, and simulation results are used to show its improvement over other analogous methods. The second contribution applies a novel digital filter for mitigating interference from a radar signal to an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) signal, similar to the one which is being used in Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile phones. Simulation results show that the proposed method out performs other digital filters at the most of additional complexity. The third contribution applies a digital filter and trains it such that the output of the filter can be used to detect the presence of interference. An algorithm which detects interference can tip off an appropriate response, and as such is important to reliable wireless communications. Simulation results are used to show that the proposed method produces a higher probability of detection while reducing the false alarm rate as compared to a similar digital filter trained to produce the same effect.

Contemporary wireless systems have advanced toward smart and multifunctional radios such as software-defined or cognitive radios which access a wideband or multiband spectrum dynamically. It is desirable for the wireless systems to have high frequency selectivity early in the receiver chain at RF to relax the dynamic range requirements of subsequent stages. However, integration of high selectivity RF band-pass filters (BPF), or band-stop filters (BSF) is challenging because of limited quality factor (Q) of passive components in integrated circuit (IC) technology [1]. This proposed research achieves the followings: 1. Developing, and demonstrating innovative integrated band-pass filter that relaxes the performance tradeoffs in conventional LC filters to maximally increase filter reconfigurability in frequency tuning range (2-18 GHz), selectivity (Q=5~100) with superior dynamic range (DR>100 dB) at RF to microwave frequency range [2]. 2. Implementing active notch filter system comprised of a Q-enhancement band-pass filter (BPF) and an all-pass amplifier. The notch response is synthesized by subtracting the BPF output from the all-pass output. In the proposed synthetic notch filters, the BPF is responsible for defining selectivity while stop-band attenuation is primarily dependent on the gain matching between the BPF and all-pass amplifier. Therefore, notch attenuation is controllable independently from the bandwidth tuning, providing more operational flexibility. Further, the filter dynamic range is optimized in the all-pass amplifier independently from the selectivity control in the BPF, resolving entrenched tradeoff between selectivity and dynamic range in active filters [3]. 3. Demonstrating the mode reconfigurable LC filter that works in either BPF or BSF for a flexible blocker filtering adaptive to the dynamic blocker environments. 4. Implementing a novel feedback-based interference rejection system to improving the linearity of the BPF for high Q cases, in which the BPF Q is set to a specific value and further increase in Q is achieved using feedback gain. And finally, the second LC tank is added to increase the out of band rejection in band-pass characteristics. / Ph. D.

The advent of spectrum sharing has increased the need for robust interference rejection methods. The Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band is soon to be occupied by LTE waveforms and License Assisted Access (LAA) will have LTE signals coexisting with other signals in the 5 GHz band. In anticipation of this need, we present a method for interference rejection of cyclostationary signals, which can also help avoid interference through better detection of low power co-channel signals. The method proposed in this thesis consists of a frequency-shift (FRESH) filter which acts as a whitening filter, canceling the interference by exploiting its cyclostationarity. It learns the cyclostationary characteristics of the interferer blindly, through a property restoration algorithm which aims to drive the spectrum to white noise. The property restoration algorithm, inspired by the constant modulus algorithm (CMA), is applied to each frequency bin to determine the optimal coefficients for the proposed CMA FRESH whitening filter (CFW). The performance of the CFW in interference rejection is compared to a time-invariant version, and proposed use cases are analyzed. The use cases consist of the rejection of a high powered, wider bandwidth interferer which is masking the signal-of-interest (SOI). The interferer is rejected blindly, with no knowledge of its characteristics. We analyzed signal detection performance in the case that the SOI is another user with much lower power, for multiple types of SOIs ranging from BPSK to OFDM. We also deal with the case that the SOI is to be received and demodulated; we recover it and compare resulting bit error rates to state of the art FRESH filters. The results show significantly better signal detection and recovery. / Master of Science / Wireless communication is complicated by the fact that multiple radios may be attempting to transmit at the same frequency, time and location concurrently. This scenario may be a due to malicious intent by certain radios (jamming), or mere confusion due to a lack of knowledge that another radio is transmitting in the same channel. The latter scenario is more common due to congested wireless spectrum, as the number of devices increases exponentially. In either case, interference results. We present a novel interference rejection method in this work, one that is blind to the properties of the interferer and adapts to cancel it. It follows the philosophy of property restoration as extolled by the constant modulus algorithm (CMA) and is a frequency shift (FRESH) filter, hence the name. The process of restoring the wireless spectrum to white noise is what makes it a whitening filter, and is also how it adapts to cancel interference. Such a filter has myriad possible uses, and we examine the use case of rejecting interference to detect or recover the signal-of-interest (SOI) that we are attempting to receive. We present performance results in both cases and compare with conventional time-invariant filters and state of the art FRESH filters.

The capacity of a direct-sequence spread-spectrum code division multiple access (DSSS-CDMA) system is limited by multiple access interference (MAJ) and the near-far problem. There are two approaches to mitigating these problems: multiuser detection and single-user detection techniques. Multiuser detection techniques cancel the interference and enhance system capacity, but have large computational requirements and require the knowledge of MAI parameters. Single-user detection techniques require only the knowledge of the desired user’s spreading code and timing, and have a complexity comparable to the conventional receiver. This thesis reviews a wide range of DSSS-CDMaA single-user detectors found in the literature. The receivers are explained with a common approach using an adaptive antenna array perspective and noting that single-user detectors exploit spectral redundancy, while adaptive arrays exploit spatial redundancy. Commonly used trained adaptation algorithms for single-user detection are first presented, and are followed by newly proposed blind adaptation algorithms. These new blind algorithms are Griffiths’ algorithm, and the linearly constrained constant modulus algorithm (LCCMA ). Through simulation, a blindly-adapted single-user detector is shown to greatly outperform the conventional receiver in terms of bit-error-rate (BER) performance, and to perform almost as well as in the case of trained adaptation. The receivers are shown to be near-far resistant, and are computationally attractive for a mobile receiver. Both receivers have good convergence properties and don’t suffer from catastrophic failure. / Master of Science

Mobile arrays employing diversity combining and adaptive beamforming techniques overcome multipath fading, improve coverage, and increase capacity in wireless communications systems. In this thesis, diversity combining and adaptive beamforming performance of different four element arrays for mobile (vehicular speed) and portable (pedestrian speed) terminals is investigated. The performance of four element arrays with different configurations and with different element patterns is compared using the square array of four half-wave dipole elements as the baseline. Results from diversity and beamforming measurements, performed in urban and suburban environments for both line-of-sight (LOS) and obstructed multipath channels are used to analyze and compare the performances of different four element arrays. At cumulative probabilities of 10%, 1% and 0.1%, diversity gain and improvement in signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio (SINR) are calculated from the diversity combining measurements and interference rejection measurements respectively. Experimental results illustrating the dependence of diversity gain on power imbalance, envelope correlation and diversity-combining scheme are presented. Measurements were performed at 2.05 GHz using the handheld antenna array testbed (HAAT). Low profile linear arrays are shown to provide diversity gain values of 5 to 8 dB and 11 to 16 dB, respectively for switched and maximal ratio combining at the 99% reliability level in non-line-of-sight urban channel. Interference cancellation of 24 to 28 dB was recorded in urban and suburban line-of-sight (LOS) channels for the sectorized square array. Results of vehicular measurements with the arrays mounted on a ground plane supported above the vehicle roof are also reported. / Master of Science

It is known that a matched filter is optimal for a signal corrupted by Gaussian noise. In a wireless environment, the received signal may be corrupted by Gaussian noise and a variety of other channel disturbances: cochannel interference, multiple access interference, large and small-scale fading, etc. Adaptive filtering is the usual approach to mitigating this channel distortion. Existing adaptive filtering techniques usually attempt to minimize the mean square error (MSE) of some aspect of the received signal, with respect to the desired aspect of that signal. Adaptive minimization of MSE does not always guarantee minimization of bit error rate (BER). The main focus of this research involves estimation of the probability density function (PDF) of the received signal; this PDF estimate is used to adaptively determine a solution that minimizes BER. To this end, a new adaptive procedure called the Minimum BER Estimation (MBE) algorithm has been developed. MBE shows improvement over the Least Mean Squares (LMS) algorithm for most simulations involving interference and in some multipath situations. Furthermore, the new algorithm is more robust than LMS to changes in algorithm parameters such as stepsize and window width. / Master of Science