<p>In this thesis, a MISO wireless communication system having even transmitter antennas and a single receiver antenna is considered, where neither the transmitter nor the receiver knows channel state information. Particularly when the number of transmitter antennas is two, a novel concept called a uniquely factorable constellation pair (UFCP) is first proposed for the systematic design of a noncoherent full diversity collaborative unitary space-time block code by normalizing two Alamouti codes. It is proved that such a unitary UFCP code assures the unique identification of both channel coefficients and transmitted signals in a noise-free case as well as full diversity for the noncoherent maximum likelihood (ML) receiver in a noise case. To further improve error performance, an optimal unitary UFCP code is designed by appropriately and uniquely factorizing a pair of energy-efficient cross quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) constellations to maximize the coding gain subject to a transmission bit rate constraint. After a deep investigation of the fractional coding gain function, a technical approach developed in this thesis to maximizing the coding gain is to carefully design an energy scale to compress the first three largest energy points in the corner of the QAM constellations in the denominator of the objective as well as carefully design a constellation triple forming two UFCPs, with one collaborating with the other two so as to make the accumulated minimum Euclidean distance along the two transmitter antennas in the numerator of the objective as large as possible and at the same time, to avoid as many corner points of the QAM constellations with the largest energy as possible to achieve the minimum of the numerator. In other words, the optimal coding gain is attained by intelligent constellations collaboration and efficient energy compression. Another contribution of this thesis is to generalize the design for the two transmitter antennas into that of the noncoherent system with any even number of transmitter antennas. Using the Alamouti coding scheme and the Toeplitz matrix structure, a novel noncoherent nonunitary space-time block code, which is called an Alamoutibased Toeplitz space-time block code, is proposed. By the fundamentals of Galois theory and algebraic number theory, two important properties on the two Alamouti codes generated from a pair of coprime phase shift keying (PSK) constellations, i.e., the uniqueness of factorization itself and the shift-invariant uniqueness of factorization, are first revealed and rigorously proved. Then, it is further shown that it is these two kinds of the unique factorizations that enable the unique blind identification of both the channel coefficients and the transmitted signals by only processing two block received signals as well as noncoherent full diversity with a generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) receiver. In addition, a full diversity unitary code design is also proposed by simply applying the QR decomposition to the full diversity nonunitary Alamoutibased Toeplitz space-time block code. Computer simulations demonstrate that error performance of both optimal unitary UFCP code and Alamouti-based Toeplitz code presented in this thesis outperform those of the differential code and the SNR-efficient training code, which is the best code in current literatures for the system.</p> / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Turbulent wakes generated from an aircraft or submarine vehicles has been of main interest to researchers due to the broad band noise associated with such wakes. One such case is the noise generated by spiral vortices shed of from one blade interacting with another oncoming blade of helicopter rotor. Consequently, researchers have been trying to understand the basic physics and evolution of such wakes. Although there has been numerous studies done on plane wakes, there has been little research being done on laterally curved wakes. Single and two-point velocity measurements were taken on a plane and laterally curved turbulent wakes to understand the evolution and effect of lateral curvature into the far wake region. The analyses provide useful information in modeling curved or spiral wakes such as turbulence field surrounding tip vortices shed from a wing. In order to achieve our objectives, the Virginia Tech 3’ x 2’ subsonic wind tunnel was used to take velocity measurements of toroidal ring model and a straight cylinder as a control case. Velocity measurements were done using four sensor hot-wire anemometers, to obtain all mean velocity, Reynolds stress, triple product components of the turbulence field. Single point, spectra and two-point measurements of the wakes were performed throughout the development into the far wake region. The single point results reveal the universality of the mean axial velocity, however the Reynolds stresses and triple products were not universal illustrating that the turbulence field has its own length and velocity scales different from that of the mean flow. The effect of lateral curvature is mainly evidenced in the early development of the curved ring wake. The turbulent energy budget reveals similar trend for both wakes and plane wake achieves approximate equilibrium. The spectra result reveals for the plane wake that self-preservation is achieved for all scales of motion, while the ring wake does not achieve such a state. While the longitudinal correlations of both wakes are similar in form, in general difference in form and orientation prevailed over all indicating the difference in the turbulent structure of both wakes. Linear stochastic estimation reveals the presence of spanwise and double-roller eddy structures in the plane wake and only spanwise eddies were detected for the ring wake. / Master of Science

No / An investigation into the wavelet packet transform (WPT) modulation scheme for Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) band-limited systems is presented. The implementation involves using the WPT as the base multiplexing technology at baseband, instead of the traditional Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) common in Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems. An investigation for a WPT-MIMO multicarrier system, using the Alamouti diversity technique, is presented. Results are consistent with those in the original Alamouti work. The scheme is then implemented for WPT-MIMO and FFTMIMO cases with extended receiver diversity, namely 2 ×Nr MIMO systems, where Nr is the number of receiver elements. It is found that the diversity gain decreases with increasing receiver diversity and that WPT-MIMO systems can be more advantageous than FFT-based MIMO-OFDM systems.

This work deals with the design of MT transmit, MR receive antenna MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) communication system where the transmitter performs a linear operation on data. This linear precoding model includes systems which involve signal shaping for achieving higher data rates, uncoded MIMO Multicarrier and Single-Carrier systems and, the more recent, MIMO-OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) systems employing full diversity Space-Frequency codes. The objective of this work is to design diversity centric and rate centric linear precoded MIMO systems whose performance is better than the existing designs. In particular, we consider MIMO-OFDM systems, Zero Padded MIMO systems and MIMO systems with limited rate feedback. Design of full diversity MIMO-OFDM systems of rate symbol per channel use (1 s/ pcu) : In literature, MIMO-OFDM systems exploiting full diversity at a rate of 1 s/ pcu are based on a few specific Space-Frequency (SF)/ Space-Time-Frequency (STF) codes. In this work, we devise a general parameterized framework for the design of MIMO-OFDM systems employing full diversity STF codes of rate 1 s/ pcu. This framework unifies all existing designs and provides tools for the design of new systems with interesting properties and superior performance. Apart from rate and diversity, the parameters of the framework are designed for a low complexity receiver. The parameters of the framework usually depend on the channel characteristics (number of multipath, Delay Profile (DP)). When channel characteristics are available at the transmitter, a procedure to optimize the performance of STF codes is provided. The resulting codes are termed as DP optimized codes. Designs obtained using the optimization are illustrated and their performance is shown to be better than the existing ones. To cater to the scenarios where channel characteristics are not available at the transmitter, a complete characterization of a class of full diversity DP Independent (DPI) STF codes is provided. These codes exploit full diversity on channels with a given number of multipath irrespective of their characteristics. Design of DP optimized STF codes and DPI codes from the same framework highlights the flexibility of the framework. Design of Zero Padded (ZP) MIMO systems : While the MIMO-OFDM transmitter needs to precode data for exploiting channel induced multipath diversity, ZP MIMO systems with ML receivers are shown to exploit multipath diversity without any precoding. However, the receiver complexity of such systems is enormous and hence a study ZP MIMO system with linear receivers is undertaken. Central to this study involves devising low complexity receivers and deriving the diversity gain of linear receivers. Reduced complexity receiver implementations are presented for two classes of precoding schemes. An upper bound on the diversity gain of linear receivers is evaluated for certain precoding schemes. For uncoded systems operating on a channel of length L, this bound is shown to be MRL_MT +1 for uncoded transmissions, i.e, such systems tend to exploit receiver and multipath diversities. On the other hand, MIMO-OFDM systems designed earlier have to trade diversity with receiver complexity. These observations motivate us to use ZP MIMO systems with linear receivers for channels with large delay spread when receiver complexity is at a premium. Design examples highlighting the attractiveness of ZP systems when employed on channels with large delay spread are also presented. Efficient design of MIMO systems with limited feedback : Literature presents a number of works that consider the design of MIMO systems with partial feedback. The works that consider feedback of complete CSI, however, do not provide for an efficient system design. In this work, we consider two schemes, Correlation matrix feedback and Channel information feedback that convey complete CSI to the transmitter. This CSI is perturbed due to various impairments. A perturbation analysis is carried out to study the variations in mutual information for each of the proposed schemes. For ergodic channels, this analysis is used to design a MIMO system with a limited rate feedback. Using a codebook based approach, vector quantizers are designed to minimize the loss in ergodic capacity for each of the proposed schemes. The efficiency of the design stems from the ability to obtain closed-form expression for centroids during the iterative vector quantizer design. The performance of designed vector quantizers compare favorably with the existing designs. The vector quantizer design for channel information feedback is robust in the sense that the same codebook can be used across all operating SNR. Use of vector quantizers for improving the outage performance is also presented.

Saskatchewan is the only province in Canada to have routinely tested the antimicrobial susceptibility of all provincially reported human cases of campylobacteriosis. From 1999 to 2006, 1378 human Campylobacter species infections were tested for susceptibility at the Saskatchewan Disease Control Laboratory using the Canadian Integrated Program for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance panel and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) breakpoints. Of these, 1200 were C. jejuni, 129 were C. coli, with the remaining made up of C. lari, C. laridis, C. upsaliensis and undifferentiated Campylobacter species. Campylobacter coli had significantly higher prevalences of ciprofloxacin resistance (CIPr), erythromycin resistance (ERYr), combined CIPr-ERYr resistance and multidrug resistance (to three or greater drug classes) than C. jejuni. Logistic regression models indicated that CIPr in C. jejuni decreased from 1999 to 2004 and subsequently increased in 2005 and 2006. The risk of CIPr was significantly increased in the winter months (January to March) compared to other seasons. A comparison of logistic regression and Cox proportional hazard survival models found that the latter were better able to detect significant temporal trends in CIPr and tetracycline resistance by directly modeling MICs, but that these trends were more difficult to interpret. Scan statistics detected significant spatial clusters of CIPr C. jejuni infections in urban centers (Saskatoon and Regina) and temporal clusters in the winter months; the space-time permutation model did not detect any space-time clusters. Bernoulli scan tests were computationally the fastest for cluster detection, compared to ordinal MIC and multinomial antibiogram models. eBURST analysis of antibiogram patterns showed a marked distinction between case and non-case isolates from the scan statistic clusters. Multilevel logistic regression models detected significant individual and regional contextual risk factors for infection with CIPr C. jejuni. Patients infected in the winter, that were between the ages of 40-45 years of age, that lived in urban regions and that lived in regions of moderately high poultry density had higher risks of a resistant infection. These results advance the epidemiologic knowledge of CIPr C. jejuni in Saskatchewan and provide novel analytical methods for antimicrobial resistance surveillance data in Canada. / Saskatchewan Disease Control Laboratory (Saskatchewan Ministry of Health); Laboratory for Foodborne Zoonoses (Public Health Agency of Canada); Centre for Foodborne, Environmental and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (Public Health Agency of Canada); Ontario Veterinary College Blake Graham Fellowship

Space-Time Block Coding is an efficient communication technique used in multiple-input multiple-output wireless systems. The complexity with which a Space-Time Block Code (STBC) can be decoded is important from an implementation point of view since it directly affects the receiver complexity and speed. In this thesis, we address the problem of designing low complexity decoding techniques for STBCs, and constructing STBCs that achieve high rate and full-diversity with these decoders. This thesis is divided into two parts; the first is concerned with the optimal decoder, viz. the maximum-likelihood (ML) decoder, and the second with non-ML decoders. An STBC is said to be multigroup ML decodable if the information symbols encoded by it can be partitioned into several groups such that each symbol group can be ML decoded independently of the others, and thereby admitting low complexity ML decoding. In this thesis, we first give a new framework for constructing low ML decoding complexity STBCs using codes over the Klein group, and show that almost all known low ML decoding complexity STBCs can be obtained by this method. Using this framework we then construct new full-diversity STBCs that have the least known ML decoding complexity for a large set of choices of number of transmit antennas and rate. We then introduce the notion of Asymptotically-Good (AG) multigroup ML decodable codes, which are families of multigroup ML decodable codes whose rate increases linearly with the number of transmit antennas. We give constructions for full-diversity AG multigroup ML decodable codes for each number of groups g > 1. For g > 2, these are the first instances of g-group ML decodable codes that are AG or have rate more than 1. For g = 2 and identical delay, the new codes match the known families of AG codes in terms of rate. In the final section of the first part we show that the upper triangular matrix R encountered during the sphere-decoding of STBCs can be rank-deficient, thus leading to higher sphere-decoding complexity, even when the rate is less than the minimum of the number of transmit antennas and the number receive antennas. We show that all known AG multigroup ML decodable codes suffer from such rank-deficiency, and we explicitly derive the sphere-decoding complexities of most known AG multigroup ML decodable codes. In the second part of this thesis we first study a low complexity non-ML decoder introduced by Guo and Xia called Partial Interference Cancellation (PIC) decoder. We give a new full-diversity criterion for PIC decoding of STBCs which is equivalent to the criterion of Guo and Xia, and is easier to check. We then show that Distributed STBCs (DSTBCs) used in wireless relay networks can be full-diversity PIC decoded, and we give a full-diversity criterion for the same. We then construct full-diversity PIC decodable STBCs and DSTBCs which give higher rate and better error performance than known multigroup ML decodable codes for similar decoding complexity, and which include other known full-diversity PIC decodable codes as special cases. Finally, inspired by a low complexity essentially-ML decoder given by Sirianunpiboon et al. for the two and three antenna Perfect codes, we introduce a new non-ML decoder called Adaptive Conditional Zero-Forcing (ACZF) decoder which includes the technique of Sirianunpiboon et al. as a special case. We give a full-diversity criterion for ACZF decoding, and show that the Perfect codes for two, three and four antennas, the Threaded Algebraic Space-Time code, and the 4 antenna rate 2 code of Srinath and Rajan satisfy this criterion. Simulation results show that the proposed decoder performs identical to ML decoding for these five codes. These STBCs along with ACZF decoding have the best error performance with least complexity among all known STBCs for four or less transmit antennas.

One of the most popular ways to exploit the advantages of a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system is using space time block coding. A space time block code (STBC) is a finite set of complex matrices whose entries consist of the information symbols to be transmitted. A linear STBC is one in which the information symbols are linearly combined to form a two-dimensional code matrix. A well known method of maximum-likelihood (ML) decoding of such STBCs is using the sphere decoder (SD). In this thesis, new constructions of STBCs with low sphere decoding complexity are presented and various ways of characterizing and reducing the sphere decoding complexity of an STBC are addressed. The construction of low sphere decoding complexity STBCs is tackled using irreducible matrix representations of Clifford algebras, cyclic division algebras and crossed-product algebras. The complexity reduction algorithms for the STBCs constructed are explored using tree based search algorithms. Considering an STBC as a vector space over the set of weight matrices, the problem of characterizing the sphere decoding complexity is addressed using quadratic form representations. The main results are as follows. A sub-class of fast decodable STBCs known as Block Orthogonal STBCs (BOSTBCs) are explored. A set of sufficient conditions to obtain BOSTBCs are explained. How the block orthogonal structure of these codes can be exploited to reduce the SD complexity of the STBC is then explained using a depth first tree search algorithm. Bounds on the SD complexity reduction and its relationship with the block orthogonal structure are then addressed. A set of constructions to obtain BOSTBCs are presented next using Clifford unitary weight designs (CUWDs), Coordinate-interleaved orthogonal designs (CIODs), cyclic division algebras and crossed product algebras which show that a lot of codes existing in literature exhibit the block orthogonal property. Next, the dependency of the ordering of information symbols on the SD complexity is discussed following which a quadratic form representation known as the Hurwitz-Radon quadratic form (HRQF) of an STBC is presented which is solely dependent on the weight matrices of the STBC and their ordering. It is then shown that the SD complexity is only a function of the weight matrices defining the code and their ordering, and not of the channel realization (even though the equivalent channel when SD is used depends on the channel realization). It is also shown that the SD complexity is completely captured into a single matrix obtained from the HRQF. Also, for a given set of weight matrices, an algorithm to obtain a best ordering of them leading to the least SD complexity is presented using the HRQF matrix.

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This thesis examines the mobility patterns of 613 participants from the At Home/Chez Soi Research Demonstration Project on Mental Health and Homelessness who were surveyed in five Canadian cities (Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montréal, and Moncton). Participants’ mobility histories are treated as life courses: visualized using a GIS spatiotemporal analysis and complemented by examining their self-described reasons for movement (n=1,750). I contend that homeless mobilities are complex, entangled, and multiple. To better understand these mobilities, I apply relational theoretical perspectives to literature from the mobilities turn. I conceptualize mobility as composed of the relations between various actors. These relations coordinate amidst social differences, histories, and orderings of power. Together, actors and the relations between them, become more than the sum of their parts. To see mobility relationally, is to say that mobilities have emergent properties that reproduce, deepen, or ameliorate marginalization for those experiencing homelessness. I identify a series of actors and their relations composing homeless mobilities via time-space mapping, descriptive statistics, and the exploratory coding of survey data. I conclude by detailing a relational view of homeless mobilities while suggesting that expulsion is one emergent property of this system. / October 2016

This work concentrates on the application of diversity techniques and space time block coding for future mobile wireless communications. The initial system analysis employs a space-time coded OFDM transmitter over a multipath Rayleigh channel, and a receiver which uses a selection combining diversity technique. The performance of this combined scenario is characterised in terms of the bit error rate and throughput. A novel four element QOSTBC scheme is introduced, it is created by reforming the detection matrix of the original QOSTBC scheme, for which an orthogonal channel matrix is derived. This results in a computationally less complex linear decoding scheme as compared with the original QOSTBC. Space time coding schemes for three, four and eight transmitters were also derived using a Hadamard matrix. The practical optimization of multi-antenna networks is studied for realistic indoor and mixed propagation scenarios. The starting point is a detailed analysis of the throughput and field strength distributions for a commercial dual band 802.11n MIMO radio operating indoors in a variety of line of sight and non-line of sight scenarios. The physical model of the space is based on architectural schematics, and realistic propagation data for the construction materials. The modelling is then extended and generalized to a multi-storey indoor environment, and a large mixed site for indoor and outdoor channels based on the Bradford University campus. The implications for the physical layer are also explored through the specification of antenna envelope correlation coefficients. Initially this is for an antenna module configuration with two independent antennas in close proximity. An operational method is proposed using the scattering parameters of the system and which incorporates the intrinsic power losses of the radiating elements. The method is extended to estimate the envelope correlation coefficient for any two elements in a general (N,N) MIMO antenna array. Three examples are presented to validate this technique, and very close agreement is shown to exist between this method and the full electromagnetic analysis using the far field antenna radiation patterns.