In this thesis, a precoding scheme is proposed for channel estimation in orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The precoding scheme utilizes a special code matrix before the inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) at the transmitter. The row vectors of the matrix have constant amplitudes in both time domain and frequency domain. With the prcoding scheme, a semi-blind channel estimation method is proposed by using the characteristics of the row code sequences. In the proposed scheme, the channel frequency responses of all sub-carriers can be obtained by using only one pilot sub-carrier, and the proposed architecture can not only increase the data rate, but also avoid interpolation error in channel estimation. In addition, the normalized mean square error (NMSE) function is derived and parameters are optimized to improve system performance. The proposed precoding architecture and channel estimation scheme are shown to have better performances in bit error rate by conducting computer simulation experiments.

<p> In this thesis, we consider a multiuser downlink OFDM system for which the channel state information ( CSI) is known to both the transmitter and the receiver. </p> <p> For such a system, we design an optimal precoder that minimizes the total mean square error (MSE) subject to a total power constraint for which a minimum MSE (MMSE) equalizer is employed. We show that, the MMSE precoder can be obtained by optimally allocating the subcarriers and optimally allocating the power. This problem can be solved by a two-stage process, in which we minimize the lower bound of the MSE to obtain the optimal power for each subcarrier, followed by seeking an optimal precoder to achieve this minimized lower bound. Specifically, our subcarrier allocation strategy states that, each subcarrier should be allocated to only one user that has the largest subchannel gain in that subcarrier. </p> <P> Moreover, based on this subcarrier allocation strategy, we perform an optimal power loading and design the corresponding optimal precoder that minimizes the average bit error rate (BER). Here, the MMSE equalizer is also employed. This optimization problem is solved by two stages. In the first stage, we derive the lower bound of the average BER and minimize this lower bound. After we employ the MMSE subcarrier allocation strategy, the optimal power loading problem can be efficiently solved by interior point methods. In order to reduce computation complexity, an alternative, efficient power loading method is proposed here, which is much more efficient when the number of subcarriers is large. In the second stage, to achieve the minimized lower bound, we seek a design of an optimal precoder. Simulation results show that for moderate to high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the performance of the minimum BER {MBER) precoder employed with the MMSE equalizer design is superior to several other design methods, including the MMSE precoder design. </p> / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing¡]OFDM¡^systems play an important role in modern wireless communications due to following advantages: bandwidth saving¡Bcombat with frequency selective fading channel and high throughput. The performance of wireless communications is often degraded by fading channel . adaptive modulation and subcarrier allocation are proposed to overcome the degration to meet the quality of servie¡]QoS¡^. Lagrange method and heuristics method, two of the subcarrier allocation technology under multi-user OFDM, can achieve the goal that maximizing bit rate with minimizing transmitted power. However, significantly high complexity of either Lagrange method or heuristics method makes the implementation difficult. Zhang and Letaief proposed a method of making subcarriers detected one by one to reduce the complexity. However, in piratical, an OFDM system accommodates hundred of , or even thousand of subcarriers, so the method can be improved. In this thesis, we propose a subcarrier allocation method. The users that are not satisfied with the QOS requirement are named demander, and the users satisfied with the QOS requirement are named supplier. In the proposed subcarrier allocation method, we evaluate the number of subcarriers that demanders need and remove the subcarriers from supplier to directly compensate demander. Then the system has lower complexity due to less iterations.

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) techniques have been used in many wireless communication systems to improve the system capacity and achieve high data-rate. It possesses good spectral efficiency and robustness against interferences. The OFDM system has been adopted in many communication standards, such as the 802.11a/g standards for the high-speed WLAN, HIPERLAN2, and IEEE 802.16 standard, and meanwhile, it is also employed in the European DAB and DVB systems. To avoid the inter-block interference (IBI), usually, in the transmitter of OFDM systems the redundancy with sufficient length is introduced, it allows us to overcome the IBI problem, due to highly dispersive channel. Many redundancy insertion methods have been proposed in the literatures, there are cyclic prefix (CP), zero padding (ZP) and the pseudorandom postfix (PRP). Under such system we have still to know the correct channel state information for equalizing the noisy block signal. Especially, in time-varying channel, the incorrect channel state information may introduce serious inter-symbol interference (ISI), if the channel estimation could not perform correctly. In this thesis, the PRP-OFDM system is considered. According to the PRP-OFDM scheme, the redundancy with pseudorandom postfix (PRP) approach is employed to make semi-blind channel estimation with order-one statistics of the received signal. But these statistic characteristics may not be available under time-varying channel. Hence, in this thesis, we propose a modified PRP-OFDM system with assistant training sequences, which is equipped with minimum mean-square-error equalizer and utilize Kalman filter algorithm to implement time-varying channel estimation. To do so, we first model time-varying channel estimation problem with a dynamic system, and adopt the Kalman filter algorithm to estimate the true channel coefficients. Unfortunately, since most parameters in dynamic system are random and could not to be known in advance. We need to apply effective estimation schemes to estimate the statistics of true parameters for implementing the Kalman filter algorithm. When the channel state information is known, MMSE equalizer follows to suppress the inter-symbol interference (ISI). Moreover, after making decision the binary data can be used to re-modulate PRP-OFDM symbol and to be re-used in Kalman filter to obtain more accurate CSI to improve the effectiveness of the equalizer. Via computer simulations, we verify that desired performance in terms of bit error rate (BER), can be achieved compared with the CP-OFDM systems.

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a multicarrier modulation technique which is robust against multipath fading and very easy to implement in transmitters and receivers using the inverse fast Fourier transform and the fast Fourier transform. A guard interval using cyclic prefix is inserted in each OFDM symbol to avoid the inter-symbol interference. This guard interval should be at least equal to, or longer than the maximum delay spread of the channel to combat against inter-symbol interference properly.<p> In coherent detection, channel estimation is required for the data detection of OFDM systems to equalize the channel effects. One of the popular techniques is to insert pilot tones (reference signals) in OFDM symbols. In conventional method, pilot tones are inserted into every OFDM symbols. Channel capacity is wasted due to the transmission of a large number of pilot tones. To overcome this transmission loss, incoherent data detection is introduced in OFDM systems, where it is not needed to estimate the channel at first. We use differential modulation based incoherent detection in this thesis for the data detection of OFDM systems. Data can be encoded in the relative phase of consecutive OFDM symbols (inter-frame modulation) or in the relative phase of an OFDM symbol in adjacent subcarriers (in-frame modulation). We use higher order differential modulation for in-frame modulation to compare the improvement of bit error rate. It should be noted that the single differential modulation scheme uses only one pilot tone, whereas the double differential uses two pilot tones and so on. Thus overhead due to the extra pilot tones in conventional methods are minimized and the detection delay is reduced. It has been observed that the single differential scheme works better in low SNRs (Signal to Noise Ratios) with low channel taps and the double differential works better at higher SNRs. Simulation results show that higher order differential modulation schemes don¡¯t have any further advantages. For inter-frame modulation, we use single differential modulation where only one OFDM symbol is used as a reference symbol. Except the reference symbol, no other overhead is required. We also perform channel estimation using differential modulation. Channel estimation using differential modulation is very easy and channel coefficients can be estimated very accurately without increasing any computational complexity. Our simulation results show that the mean square channel estimation error is about ¡¼10¡½^(-2) at an SNR of 30 dB for double differential in-frame modulation scheme, whereas channel estimation error is about ¡¼10¡½^(-4) for single differential inter-frame modulation. Incoherent data detection using classical DPSK (Differential Phase Shift Keying) causes an SNR loss of approximately 3 dB compared to coherent detection. But in our method, differential detection can estimate the channel coefficients very accurately and our estimated channel can be used in simple coherent detection to improve the system performance and minimize the SNR loss that happens in conventional method.

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a multicarrier modulation technique which is robust against multipath fading and very easy to implement in transmitters and receivers using the inverse fast Fourier transform and the fast Fourier transform. A guard interval using cyclic prefix is inserted in each OFDM symbol to avoid the inter-symbol interference. This guard interval should be at least equal to, or longer than the maximum delay spread of the channel to combat against inter-symbol interference properly.<p> In coherent detection, channel estimation is required for the data detection of OFDM systems to equalize the channel effects. One of the popular techniques is to insert pilot tones (reference signals) in OFDM symbols. In conventional method, pilot tones are inserted into every OFDM symbols. Channel capacity is wasted due to the transmission of a large number of pilot tones. To overcome this transmission loss, incoherent data detection is introduced in OFDM systems, where it is not needed to estimate the channel at first. We use differential modulation based incoherent detection in this thesis for the data detection of OFDM systems. Data can be encoded in the relative phase of consecutive OFDM symbols (inter-frame modulation) or in the relative phase of an OFDM symbol in adjacent subcarriers (in-frame modulation). We use higher order differential modulation for in-frame modulation to compare the improvement of bit error rate. It should be noted that the single differential modulation scheme uses only one pilot tone, whereas the double differential uses two pilot tones and so on. Thus overhead due to the extra pilot tones in conventional methods are minimized and the detection delay is reduced. It has been observed that the single differential scheme works better in low SNRs (Signal to Noise Ratios) with low channel taps and the double differential works better at higher SNRs. Simulation results show that higher order differential modulation schemes don¡¯t have any further advantages. For inter-frame modulation, we use single differential modulation where only one OFDM symbol is used as a reference symbol. Except the reference symbol, no other overhead is required. We also perform channel estimation using differential modulation. Channel estimation using differential modulation is very easy and channel coefficients can be estimated very accurately without increasing any computational complexity. Our simulation results show that the mean square channel estimation error is about ¡¼10¡½^(-2) at an SNR of 30 dB for double differential in-frame modulation scheme, whereas channel estimation error is about ¡¼10¡½^(-4) for single differential inter-frame modulation. Incoherent data detection using classical DPSK (Differential Phase Shift Keying) causes an SNR loss of approximately 3 dB compared to coherent detection. But in our method, differential detection can estimate the channel coefficients very accurately and our estimated channel can be used in simple coherent detection to improve the system performance and minimize the SNR loss that happens in conventional method.

In orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, when transmitted blocks of signal through the multipath channel, the present transmitted blocks of signal will be interfered by the previous one due to the effect of channel delay spread. In order to solve this problem, conventionally we introduce a guard interval in transmitted blocks of signal to avoid inter-block interference (IBI). The most popular methods of the guard interval insertion are zero-padding (ZP) and cyclic prefixing (CP). ZP insert the guard interval at the end of the transmitted blocks of signal, in which all elements are zeros. The length of this interval must be equal to or greater then the channel order. In this way we can avoid IBI, at the expense of lossing the orthogonality between subcarrier due to the multipath channel. However, we can use CP to cope whit this problem. In CP we copy the 25% length at the end of the transmitted blocks of signal, and put it in front of the transmitted block to suppress the inter-block interference and inter-carrier interference. In this thesis, we consider OFDM system without the guard interval, hence the received signal contains IBI and ICI. In our proposed scheme, we use an oblique projector (OB) to suppress IBI at first. Then we combine it with a generalized sidelobe canceller (GSC) based equalizer [1] for ICI supppression and demodulate the receiver signal. In computer simulations, we use the GSC-based equalizer with oblique projector to suppress IBI/ICI in the time-invariant channel and time-varying channel. As we will see, in the CP-free OFDM system, the oblique projector can suppress IBI exactly. Moreover we can get better performance in channel with larger order.

This thesis analyzes the Bit Error Rate (BER) performance of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems in mobile multi-hop relaying channels. We consider the uplink scenario and quantify the effects of mobile channel impairments such as Doppler Shift due to user mobility per hop, high-power amplifier distortions when amplifying the transmitted/relayed OFDM symbol per hop, as well as the cumulative effects of these impairments over multi-hop relaying channels. It is shown that the resulting inter-carrier interference (ICI) due to the cumulative effects of the phase noise generated by these impairments per hop becomes very significant in a multi-hop relaying communication system, and severely degrades the BER performance of the system. Simulation results agree well with, and validate the analysis. / Thesis (Ph.D, Electrical & Computer Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2011-05-05 15:15:39.576

Research in wireless communications has been actively carried out in recent years. In order to enable a high data transmission rate, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications has been proposed and commonly adopted. Accurate channel identification and reliable data detection are major challenges in the implementation of a communications system operating over a wireless fading channel. These issues become even more challenging in MIMO systems since there are many more parameters involved in the estimation processes. This thesis, consisting of four major parts, focuses on applying convex optimization to solve design problems in both MIMO channel estimation and data detection. The first part proposes a novel orthogonal affine precoding technique for jointly optimal channel estimation and symbol detection in a general MIMO frequency-selective fading channel. Additionally, the optimal power allocation between the data and training signals is also analytically derived. The proposed technique is shown to perform much better than other affine precoding techniques in terms of detection error probability and computational complexity. The second part is concerned with the MIMO orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The superimposed training technique developed in the first part is applied and extended for MIMO-OFDM systems where all the involved transmitters and receivers are assumed to be uncorrelated. Analytical and numerical results confirm that the proposed design can efficiently identify the unknown wireless channel as well as effectively recover the data symbols, while conserving the transmission bandwidth. The third part considers training and precoding designs for OFDM under colored noise environment. The superiority of the proposed design over the previously-known design under colored noise is thoroughly demonstrated. The last part of the thesis develops the orthogonal affine precoder for spatially correlated MIMO-OFDM systems. The optimal superimposed training sequences are solved by tractable semi-definite programming. To have a better computational efficiency, two approximate design techniques are also presented. Furthermore, the non-redundancy precoder proposed in the third part is employed to combat channel correlation. As a result, the proposed designs are demonstrated to outperform other known designs in terms of channel estimation and data detection.

No description available.