In mobile communications, using multiple transmit and receive antennas has shown considerable improvement over single antenna systems. The performance increase can be characterized by more reliable throughput obtained through diversity and the higher achievable data rate through spatial multiplexing. The combination of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless technology with the IEEE 802.16e-2005 (WiMAX) standard has been recognized as one of the most promising technologies with the advent of next generation broadband wireless communications. The dissertation introduces a performance evaluation of modern multi-antenna coding techniques on a MIMO-WiMAX platform developed to be capable of simulating space-selective, time-selective and frequency-selective fading conditions, which are known as triply-selective fading conditions. A new concatenated space-time-frequency low-density parity check (LDPC) code is proposed for high performance MIMO systems, where it is shown that the newly defined coding technique outperforms a more conventional approach by concatenating space-time blocks with LDPC codes. The analysis of the coding techniques in realistic mobile environments, as well as the proposed STFC-LDPC code, can form a set of newly defined codes, complementing the current coding schemes defined in the WiMAX standard. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted

Multiple antenna techniques are used to increase the robustness and performance of wireless networks. Multiple antenna techniques can achieve diversity and increase bandwidth efficiency when specially designed channel codes are used at the scheme’s transmitter. These channel codes can be designed in the space, time and frequency domain. These specially designed channel codes in the space and time domain are actually designed for flat fading channels and in frequency selective fading channel, their performance may be degraded. To counteract this possible performance degradation in frequency selective fading channel, two main approaches can be applied to mitigate the effect of the symbol interference due to the frequency selective fading channel. These approaches are multichannel equalisation and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). In this thesis, a multichannel equalisation technique and OFDM were applied to channel codes specially designed for multiple antenna systems. An optimum receiver was proposed for super-orthogonal space-time trellis codes in a multichannel equalised frequency selective environment. Although the proposed receiver had increased complexity, the diversity order is still the same as compared to the code in a flat fading channel. To take advantage of the multipath diversity possible in a frequency selective fading channel, super-orthogonal block codes were employed in an OFDM environment. A new kind of super-orthogonal block code was proposed in this thesis. Super-orthogonal space-frequency trellis-coded OFDM was proposed to take advantage of not only the possible multipath diversity but also the spatial diversity for coded OFDM schemes. Based on simulation results in this thesis, the proposed coded OFDM scheme performs better than all other coded OFDM schemes (i.e. space time trellis-coded OFDM, space-time block coded OFDM, space-frequency block coded OFDM and super-orthogonal space-time trellis-coded OFDM). A simplified channel estimation algorithm was proposed for two of the coded OFDM schemes, which form a broad-based classification of coded OFDM schemes, i.e. trelliscoded schemes and block-coded schemes. Finally in this thesis performance analysis using the Gauss Chebychev quadrature technique as a way of validating simulation results was done for super-orthogonal block coded OFDM schemes when channel state information is known and when it is estimated. The results obtained show that results obtained via simulation and analysis are asymptotic and therefore the proposed analysis technique can be use to obtain error rate values for different SNR region instead of time consuming simulation. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted

The aim of the dissertation was to design a realistic, low-complexity non-binary (NB) low density parity check (LDPC) coded space-time-frequency (STF) coded multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system with an iterative joint decoder and detector structure at the receiver. The goal of the first part of the dissertation was to compare the performance of different design procedures for NB-LDPC codes on an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel, taking into account the constraint on the code length. The effect of quantisation on the performance of the code was also analysed. Different methods for choosing the NB elements in the parity check matrix were compared. For the STF coding, a class of universal STF codes was used. These codes use linear pre-coding and a layering approach based on Diophantine numbers to achieve full diversity and a transmission rate (in symbols per channel use per frequency) equal to the number of transmitter antennas. The study of the system considers a comparative performance analysis of di erent ST, SF and STF codes. The simulations of the system were performed on a triply selective block fading channel. Thus, there was selectivity in the fading over time, space and frequency. The effect of quantisation at the receiver on the achievable diversity of linearly pre-coded systems (such as the STF codes used) was mathematically derived and verified with simulations. A sphere decoder (SD) was used as a MIMO detector. The standard method used to create a soft-input soft output (SISO) SD uses a hard-to-soft process and the max-log-map approximation. A new approach was developed which combines a Hopfield network with the SD. This SD-Hopfield detector was connected with the fast Fourier transform belief propagation (FFT-BP) algorithm in an iterative structure. This iterative system was able to achieve the same bit error rate (BER) performance as the original SISO-SD at a reduced complexity. The use of the iterative Hopfield-SD and FFT-BP decoder system also allows performance to be traded off for complexity by varying the number of decoding iterations. The complete system employs a NB-LDPC code concatenated with an STF code at the transmitter with a SISO-SD and FFT-BP decoder connected in an iterative structure at the receiver. The system was analysed in varying channel conditions taking into account the effect of correlation and quantisation. The performance of different SF and STF codes were compared and analysed in the system. An analysis comparing different numbers of FFT-BP and outer iterations was also done. AFRIKAANS : Die doel van die verhandeling was om ’n realistiese, lae-kompleksiteit nie-binˆere (NB) LDPC gekodeerde ruimte-tyd-frekwensie-gekodeerde MIMO-OFDM-sisteem met iteratiewe gesamentlike dekodeerder- en detektorstrukture by die ontvanger te ontwerp. Die eerstem deel van die verhandeling was om die werkverrigting van verskillende ontwerpprosedures vir NB-LDPC kodes op ’n gesommeerde wit Gausruiskanaal te vergelyk met inagneming van die beperking op die lengte van die kode. Verskillende metodes om die nie-bineêre elemente in die pariteitstoetsmatriks te kies, is gebruik. Vir die ruimte-tyd-frekwensiekodering is ’n klas universele ruimte-tyd-frekwensiekodes gebruik. Hierdie kodes gebruik lineêre pre-kodering en ’n laagbenadering gebaseer op Diofantiese syfers om volle diversiteit te bereik en ’n oordragtempo (in simbole per kanaalgebruik per frekwensie) gelyk aan die aantal senderantennes. Die studie van die sisteem oorweeg ’n vergelykende werkverrigtinganalisie van verskillende ruimte-tyd-, ruimte-freksensie- en ruimte-tyd-frekwensiekodes. Die simulasies van die sisteem is gedoen op ’n drievoudig selektiewe blokwegsterwingskanaal. Daar was dus selektiwiteit in die wegsterwing oor tyd, ruimte en frekwensie. Die effek van kwantisering by die ontvanger op die bereikbare diversiteit van lineêr pre-gekodeerde sisteme (soos die ruimte-tyd-frekwensiekodes wat gebruik is) is matematies afgelei en bevestig deur simulasies. ’n Sfeerdekodeerder (SD) is gebruik as ’n MIMO-detektor. Die standaardmetode wat gebuik is om ’n sagte-inset-sagte-uitset (SISO) SD te skep, gebruik ’n harde-na-sagte proses en die maksimum logaritmiese afbeelding-benadering. ’n Nuwe benadering wat ’n Hopfield-netwerk met die SD kombineer, is ontwikkel. Hierdie SD-Hopfield-detektor is verbind met die FFT-BP-algoritme in iteratiewe strukture. Hierdie iteratiewe sisteem was in staat om dieselfde bisfouttempo te bereik as die oorspronklike SISO-SD, met laer kompleksiteit. Die gebruik van die iteratiewe Hopfield-SD en FFT-BP-dekodeerdersisteem maak ook daarvoor voorsiening dat werkverrigting opgeweeg kan word teen kompleksiteit deur die aantal dekodering-iterasies te varieer. Die volledige sisteem maak gebruik van ’n QC-NB-LDPC-kode wat met ’n ruimte-tyd-frekwensiekode by die sender aaneengeskakel is met ’n SISO-SD en FFT-BP-dekodeerder wat in ’n iteratiewe struktuur by die ontvanger gekoppel is. Die sisteem is onder ’n verskeidenheid kanaalkondisies ge-analiseer met inagneming van die effek van korrelasie en kwantisering. Die werkverrigting van verskillende ruimte-frekwensie- en ruimte-tyd-frekwensiekodes is vergelyk en in die sisteem ge-analiseer. ’n Analise om ’n wisselende aantal FFT-BP en buite-iterasies te vergelyk, is ook gedoen. Copyright / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted