Wireless communication systems such as multipoint communication systems (MCS) are becoming attractive as cost-effective means for providing network access in sparsely populated, rugged, or developing areas of the world. Since the radio spectrum is limited, it is desirable to use spectrally efficient modulation methods such as quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) for high data rate channels. Many MCS employ time division multiple access (TDMA) and/or time division duplexing (TDD) techniques, in which transmissions operate in bursts. In many cases, a preamble of known symbols is appended to the beginning of each burst for carrier and symbol timing recovery (symbol timing is assumed known in this thesis). Preamble symbols consume bandwidth and power and are not used to convey information. In order for burst-mode communications to provide efficient data throughput, the synchronization time must be short compared to the user data portion of the burst. <p> Traditional methods of communication system synchronization such as phase-locked loops (PLLs) have demonstrated reduced performance when operated in burst-mode systems. In this thesis, a feedforward (FF) digital carrier recovery technique to achieve rapid carrier synchronization is proposed. The estimation algorithms for determining carrier offsets in carrier acquisition and tracking in a linear channel environment corrupted by additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) are described. The estimation algorithms are derived based on the theory of maximum likelihood (ML) parameter estimation. The estimations include data-aided (DA) carrier frequency and phase estimations in acquisition and non-data-aided (NDA) carrier phase estimation in tracking. The DA carrier frequency and phase estimation algorithms are based on oversampling of a known preamble. The NDA carrier phase estimation makes use of symbol timing knowledge and estimates are extracted from the random data portion of the burst. The algorithms have been simulated and tested using Matlab® to verify their functionalities. The performance of these estimators is also evaluated in the burst-mode operations for 16-QAM and compared in the presence of non-ideal conditions (frequency offset, phase offset, and AWGN). The simulation results show that the carrier recovery techniques presented in this thesis proved to be applicable to the modulation schemes of 16-QAM. The simulations demonstrate that the techniques provide a fast carrier acquisition using a short preamble (about 111 symbols) and are suitable for burst-mode communication systems.

Wireless communication systems such as multipoint communication systems (MCS) are becoming attractive as cost-effective means for providing network access in sparsely populated, rugged, or developing areas of the world. Since the radio spectrum is limited, it is desirable to use spectrally efficient modulation methods such as quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) for high data rate channels. Many MCS employ time division multiple access (TDMA) and/or time division duplexing (TDD) techniques, in which transmissions operate in bursts. In many cases, a preamble of known symbols is appended to the beginning of each burst for carrier and symbol timing recovery (symbol timing is assumed known in this thesis). Preamble symbols consume bandwidth and power and are not used to convey information. In order for burst-mode communications to provide efficient data throughput, the synchronization time must be short compared to the user data portion of the burst. <p> Traditional methods of communication system synchronization such as phase-locked loops (PLLs) have demonstrated reduced performance when operated in burst-mode systems. In this thesis, a feedforward (FF) digital carrier recovery technique to achieve rapid carrier synchronization is proposed. The estimation algorithms for determining carrier offsets in carrier acquisition and tracking in a linear channel environment corrupted by additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) are described. The estimation algorithms are derived based on the theory of maximum likelihood (ML) parameter estimation. The estimations include data-aided (DA) carrier frequency and phase estimations in acquisition and non-data-aided (NDA) carrier phase estimation in tracking. The DA carrier frequency and phase estimation algorithms are based on oversampling of a known preamble. The NDA carrier phase estimation makes use of symbol timing knowledge and estimates are extracted from the random data portion of the burst. The algorithms have been simulated and tested using Matlab® to verify their functionalities. The performance of these estimators is also evaluated in the burst-mode operations for 16-QAM and compared in the presence of non-ideal conditions (frequency offset, phase offset, and AWGN). The simulation results show that the carrier recovery techniques presented in this thesis proved to be applicable to the modulation schemes of 16-QAM. The simulations demonstrate that the techniques provide a fast carrier acquisition using a short preamble (about 111 symbols) and are suitable for burst-mode communication systems.

Le réseau sans fil sur le corps humain ou « wireless body area network (WBAN) » est une nouvelle technologie de réseau sans fil dédié à la surveillance des paramètres physiologiques d’une personne. Le réseau est composé de dispositifs électroniques miniatures, appelés nœuds, disposés aux alentours ou à l’intérieur du corps humain. Chaque nœud est doté d’un ou plusieurs capteurs mesurant les paramètres physiologiques de la personne, comme l’électrocardiogramme ou bien la température du corps, et les caractéristiques de l’environnement qui l’entoure. Ces nœuds sont surtout soumis à une contrainte énergétique importante puisque la miniaturisation a réduit les dimensions de leurs batteries. Puisque les nœuds consomment la majorité de l’énergie pour transmettre les données, une solution pour diminuer leur consommation consisterait à compresser les données avant la transmission. Les méthodes classiques de compression ne sont pas adaptées pour le WBAN particulièrement à cause de la puissance de calcul requise et la consommation qui en résulterait. Dans cette thèse, pour contourner ces problèmes, nous utilisons une méthode à base de l’acquisition comprimée pour compresser et reconstruire les données provenant des nœuds. Nous proposons un encodeur simple et facile à mettre en œuvre pour compresser les signaux. Nous présentons aussi un algorithme permettant de réduire la complexité de la phase de reconstruction des signaux. Un travail collaboratif avec l’entreprise TEA (Technologie Ergonomie Appliquées) nous a permis de valider expérimentalement une version numérique de l’encodeur et l’algorithme de reconstruction. Nous avons aussi développé et validé une version analogique de l’encodeur en utilisant des composants standards. / A wireless body area network (WBAN) is a new class of wireless networks dedicated to monitor human physiological parameters. It consists of small electronic devices, also called nodes, attached to or implanted in the human body. Each node comprises one or many sensors which measure physiological signals, such as electrocardiogram or body heat, and the characteristics of the surrounding environment. These nodes are mainly subject to a significant energy constraint due to the fact that the miniaturization has reduced the size of their batteries. A solution to minimize the energy consumption would be to compress the sensed data before wirelessly transmitting them. Indeed, research has shown that most of the available energy are consumed by the wireless transmitter. Conventional compression methods are not suitable for WBANs because they involve a high computational power and increase the energy consumption. To overcome these limitations, we use compressed sensing (CS) to compress and recover the sensed data. We propose a simple and efficient encoder to compress the data. We also introduce a new algorithm to reduce the complexity of the recovery process. A partnership with TEA (Technologie Ergonomie Appliquées) company allowed us to experimentally evaluate the performance of the proposed method during which a numeric version of the encoder has been used. We also developed and validated an analog version of the encoder.