Recently there has been a significant amount of interest in the area of wideband and ultra-wideband (UWB) signaling for use in indoor wireless systems. This interest is in part motivated by the notion that the use of large bandwidth signals makes systems less sensitive to the degrading effects of multipath propagation. By reducing the sensitivity to multipath, more robust and higher capacity systems can be realized. However, as signal bandwidth is increased, the complexity of a Rake receiver (or other receiver structure) required to capture the available power also increases. In addition, accurate channel estimation is required to realize this performance, which becomes increasingly difficult as energy is dispersed among more multipath components. In this thesis we quantify the channel response for six signal bandwidths ranging from continuous wave (CW) to 1 GHz transmission bandwidths. We present large scale and small scale fading statistics for both LOS and NLOS indoor channels based on an indoor measurement campaign conducted in Durham Hall at Virginia Tech. Using newly developed antenna positioning equipment we also quantify the spatial correlation of these signals. It is shown that the incremental performance gains due to reduced fading of large bandwidths level off as signals approach UWB bandwidths. Furthermore, we analyze the performance of Rake receivers for the different signal bandwidths and compare their performance for binary phase modulation (BPSK). It is shown that the receiver structure and performance is critical in realizing the reduced fading benefit of large signal bandwidths. We show practical channel estimation degrades performance more for larger bandwidths. We also demonstrate for a fixed finger Rake receiver there is an optimal signal bandwidth beyond which increased signal bandwidth produces degrading results. / Master of Science

Deployment of antenna arrays is a very promising solution to reduce the Multiple Access Interference (MAI) from high data rate users in the Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) system. Combining the antenna array with a RAKE receiver, both of which exploits multipath diversity, can significantly improve the system performance. In this research, we investigate the performance of these beamformer-RAKE receivers, also known as two-dimensional (2-D) RAKE receiver, for the reverse link of the W-CDMA system. We consider three different Pilot Symbol Assisted (PSA) beamforming techniques, Direct Matrix Inversion (DMI), Least-Mean Square (LMS) and Recursive Least Square (RLS) adaptive algorithms. Two different Geometrically Based Single Bounce (GBSB) statistical channel models are considered, one, which is more suitable for array processing, and the other is conductive to RAKE combining. The performances of the 2-D RAKE receivers are evaluated in these two channel models as a function of the number of antenna elements and RAKE fingers. It is shown that, in both the cases, the 2-D RAKE receiver outperforms the conventional RAKE receiver and the conventional beamformer by a significant margin. Also, the output SINR expression of a 2-D RAKE receiver with the general optimum beamformer is derived. / Master of Science

Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system that has been used widely both in civilian and military for positioning, navigation, timing and other position related applications. The hardware-based GPS receivers provide the least user flexibility. Thus, it is necessary to have Software-based GPS receivers for easy and quick implementation, simulation and analysis of algorithms. Software-based GPS receiver processes the GPS signal at the radio frequency or intermediate frequency depending on the hardware configuration of the receiver. In this development of the acquisition and tracking processes of the software receiver, the front-end device that converts the radio frequency signal from the antenna to an intermediate frequency is the Mitel 2021 GPS receiver board. An analog-to-digital (A/D) converter then digitizes the output signal from the RF front-end. The data is then processed using MATLAB programs to achieve acquisition and tracking of the GPS signals. The software GPS receiver can perform acquisition and tracking using different parameters and threshold values. This flexibility of operation allows weaker signals to be tracked and processed. In this software receiver design, the focus is on the acquisition and tracking of L1 band C/A code GPS signals used by most civilian applications. The purpose of this thesis is to develop the acquisition and tracking algorithms to extract the navigation data bits from the raw GPS signals. The navigation data bits provide all the necessary information to compute the pseudorange between the receiver and the visible satellites and determine the receiver location. Both MATLAB simulated GPS data and realistic GPS signals from a GSS 6560 simulator are used to verify the performance of the acquisition and tracking programs. The acquisition program is capable of locating the beginning of the C/A code and the carrier frequency to within the desired accuracy. From the output of the acquisition program, the tracking program can decode the navigation data bits. The tracking algorithm implemented is based on the block adjustment of synchronizing signal (BASS) method. / Master of Science

5G networks appear on the horizon with distinguished Quality of Service (QoS) requirements such as aggregated data rate and latency. Managing such networks in either a distributed or centralized manner to best utilize the available scarce resources is still a big challenge. Better mechanisms are needed for resource allocation. In this dissertation, we discuss three distinct research problems related to this theme. The first part addresses enhancing the solvability of network optimization problems. For the class of problems studied, we show that a traditionally-formulated model is insufficient from a problem-solving perspective. When the size of the problem increases, even state-of-the-art optimizers cannot obtain an optimal solution because of memory constraints. We show that augmenting the model with suitable additional constraints and structure enables the optimizer to derive optimal solutions, or significantly reduce the optimality gap. The second problem is optimal channel bonding in wireless LANs under demand uncertainty. An access point (AP) can aggregate multiple contiguous channels to satisfy demand. We discuss how to optimally utilize available frequency bands under uncertainty in AP demand using two stochastic optimization frameworks: a static scheme which minimizes the total occupied bandwidth while satisfying the demand of each AP with probability at least β and an adaptive scheme that allows adaptability of the bandwidth allocation in response to the AP demand variations. Given its complexity, we propose a novel framework to solve the adaptive stochastic optimization problem efficiently. The third problem is to allocate resources with receiver characteristic awareness in a multiple radio access technology environment. We propose a novel adjacent channel interference (ACI)-aware joint channel and power allocation framework that takes into account receiver imperfections arising due to (i) imperfect image frequency rejection and (ii) analog-to-digital converter aliasing. As the overall problem is in the form of Mixed-Integer-Linear-Programming (MILP) which is NP-hard, we develop an efficient algorithm to solve it. / Ph. D. / The applications of next generation wireless networks have distinct requirements such as high speed for video streaming, low delay for interactive applications, and scalability to manage huge numbers of wireless devices. Managing such networks is challenging given the scarcity of wireless resources. In this dissertation, we discuss three distinct research problems related to this theme. The first part addresses enhancing the solvability of network optimization problems. State-of-the-art commercial optimization tools are unable to solve these problems for reasonable network sizes. We propose multiple strategies that help the tool obtain optimal solutions quickly. The second part considers indoor wireless networks. For such a network, we propose a technique that matches the instantaneous resources allocated to each location in the network with the amount of data traffic currently at the location. The third part addresses a problem of a network with multiple wireless transmitters and receivers where each receiver suffers from interference from other transmitters differently. We develop an algorithm to allocate resources and adjust transmit power so that each pair can communicate while meeting a minimum required data rate. The three parts of the dissertation are useful in either saving resources and hence allowing more users to use the network, or providing higher service quality for wireless device users.

The wireless market of the future will demand inexpensive hardware, expandability, interoperability, and the implementation of advanced signal processing functions--i.e. a software radio. Configurable computing machines are often ideal software radio platforms. In particular, the Stallion reconfigurable processor's efficient hardware reuse and scalability fulfill these radios' demands. The advantages of Stallion-based design inspired an FPGA-based software radio - the proto-Stallion receiver. This thesis introduces the proto-Stallion architecture and details its implementation on the SLAAC-1V FPGA platform. Although this thesis presents a specific radio implementation, this architecture is flexible; it can support a variety of applications within its fixed framework. This implemented single-user DS-CDMA receiver utilizes an LMS adaptive filter that can combat MAI and constructively combine multipath; most notably, this receiver employs an adaptive tracking algorithm that harnesses the LMS algorithm to maintain symbol synchronization. The proto-Stallion receiver demonstrates the dependence of adaptive tracking on channel noise; the algorithm requires significant noise levels to maintain synchronization. / Master of Science

The advent of software radio technology has enabled radio developers to design and implement radios with great ease and flexibility. Software radios are effective in experimentation and development of radio designs. However, they have limitations when it comes to high-speed, high-throughput designs. This limitation can be overcome by introducing a hardware element to the software radio platform. Enhancing GNU Radio for Hardware Accelerated Radio Design project implements such a scheme by augmenting an FPGA co-processor to a conventional GNU Radio flow. In this thesis, this novel platform is evaluated in terms of performance of a radio design, as well as hardware and software system requirements. A simple and efficient Zigbee receiver design is presented. Implementation of this receiver is used as a proof-of-concept for the effectiveness and design methodology of the modified GNU Radio. This work also proposes a scheme to extend this idea for design of ultra-wideband radio systems based on multiband-OFDM. / Master of Science

In cellular and personal communications services (PCS) systems based on code division multiple access (CDMA), a pilot signal is used on the forward link for synchronization, coherent detection, soft handoff, maintaining orthogonality between base stations, and, in the future, position location. It is critical that the percentage of power allocated to the pilot signal transmitted by each base station be fixed properly to ensure the ability of the CDMA network to support subscriber demand. This thesis reports on the design and implementation of a prototype receiver for measuring pilot signals in CDMA PCS systems. Since the pseudonoise (PN) signal of the pilot channel is a priori information, the receiver searches for pilot signals by digitally correlating the received signal with this known, locally generated pilot signal. By systematically changing the phase of this locally generated pilot signal, the receiver scans the received signal to identify all possible signs of pilot signal activity. Large values of correlation indicate the presence of a pilot signal at the particular phase of the locally generated pilot signal. The receiver can also detect multipath components of the pilot signal transmitted from a given base station. One issue associated with this receiver is its ability to keep the signal power within the dynamic range of the analog-to-digital (A/D) converter at its input. This necessitated the design of an automatic gain control (AGC) mechanism, which is digitally implemented in this receiver. Simulation studies were undertaken to assist in the design and implementation of the pilot signal scanning receiver. These simulations were used to quantify how various non-idealities related to the radio frequency (RF) front-end and A/D converter adversely affect the ability of the digital signal processing algorithms to detect and measure pilot signals. Because the period of the pilot signal is relatively long, methods were developed to keep the receiver's update period as small as possible without compromising its detection ability. Furthermore, the high sampling rate required strains the ability of the digital logic to produce outputs at a rate commensurate with real-time operation. This thesis presents techniques that allow the pilot signal scanning receiver to achieve real-time operation. These techniques involve the judicious use of partial correlations and windowing the received signal to decrease the transfer rate from the A/D converter to the digital signal processor. This thesis provides a comprehensive discussion of these and other issues associated with the actual hardware implementation of the pilot signal scanning receiver. / Master of Science

Research efforts have shown that capacity in a DS/CDMA cellular system can be increased through the use of digital signal processing techniques that exploit the nature of the multiple access interference (MAI). By jointly demodulating the users in the system, this interference can be characterized and reduced thus decreasing the overall probability of error in the system. Numerous multiuser structures exist, each with varying degrees of complexity and performance. However, the size and complexity of these structures is large relative to a conventional receiver. This effort demonstrates a practical approach to implementing parallel interference cancellation applied to DBPSK DS/CDMA on an FPGA-based configurable computing platform. The system presented acquires, tracks, cancels, and demodulates four users independently and performs various levels of interference cancellation. The performance gain of the receiver in a four-user environment under various levels of noise and cancellation are presented. / Master of Science

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

Advances in fiber optic communications and the convergence of the optical-wireless network will dramatically increase the network heterogeneity and complexity. The goal of our research is to create smart receivers that can autonomously identify and demodulate, without prior knowledge, nearly any signal emerging from the next-generation of high-speed optical communication networks.