Spectrum, environment and location awareness are key characteristics of cognitive radio (CR). Knowledge of a user’s location as well as the surrounding environment type may enhance various CR tasks, such as spectrum sensing, dynamic channel allocation and interference management. This dissertation deals with the optimisation of adaptive localisation techniques for CR. The first part entails the development and evaluation of an efficient bandwidth determination (BD) model, which is a key component of the cognitive positioning system. This bandwidth efficiency is achieved using the Cramer-Rao lower bound derivations for a single-input-multiple-output (SIMO) antenna scheme. The performances of the single-input-single-output (SISO) and SIMO BD models are compared using three different generalised environmental models, viz. rural, urban and suburban areas. In the case of all three scenarios, the results reveal a marked improvement in the bandwidth efficiency for a SIMO antenna positioning scheme, especially for the 1×3 urban case, where a 62% root mean square error (RMSE) improvement over the SISO system is observed. The second part of the dissertation involves the presentation of a multiband time-of arrival (TOA) positioning technique for CR. The RMSE positional accuracy is evaluated using a fixed and dynamic bandwidth availability model. In the case of the fixed bandwidth availability model, the multiband TOA positioning model is initially evaluated using the two-step maximum-likelihood (TSML) location estimation algorithm for a scenario where line-of-sight represents the dominant signal path. Thereafter, a more realistic dynamic bandwidth availability model has been proposed, which is based on data obtained from an ultra-high frequency spectrum occupancy measurement campaign. The RMSE performance is then verified using the non-linear least squares, linear least squares and TSML location estimation techniques, using five different bandwidths. The proposed multiband positioning model performs well in poor signal-to-noise ratio conditions (-10 dB to 0 dB) when compared to a single band TOA system. These results indicate the advantage of opportunistic TOA location estimation in a CR environment. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted

Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) communication using multiple antennas has received significant attention in recent years, both in the academia and industry, as they offer additional spatial dimensions for high-rate and reliable communication, without expending valuable bandwidth. However, exploiting these promised benefits of MIMO systems critically depends on fast and accurate acquisition of Channel State Information (CSI) at the Receiver (CSIR) and the Transmitter (CSIT). In Time Division Duplex (TDD) MIMO systems, where the forward channel and the reverse channel are the same, it is possible to exploit this reciprocity to reduce the overhead involved in acquiring CSI, both in terms of training duration and power. Further, many popular and efficient transmission schemes such as beam forming, spatial multiplexing over dominant channel modes, etc. do not require full CSI at the transmitter. In such cases, it is possible to reduce the Reverse Channel Training (RCT) overhead by only learning the part of the channel that is required for data transmission at the transmitter. In this thesis, we propose and analyze several novel channel-dependent RCT schemes for MIMO systems and analyze their performance in terms of (a) the mean-square error in the channel estimate, (b) lower bounds on the capacity, and (c) the diversity-multiplexing gain tradeoff. We show that the proposed training schemes offer significant performance improvement relative to conventional channel-agnostic RCT schemes. The main take-home messages from this thesis are as follows: • Exploiting CSI while designing the RCT sequence improves the performance. • The training sequence should be designed so as to convey only the part of the CSI required for data transmission by the transmitter. • Power-controlled RCT, when feasible, significantly outperforms fixed power RCT.