This thesis presents packet-level channel modeling, spectrum efficiency optimization and channel estimation for wireless cooperative communication systems with diversity combining. Cooperative transmission in a wireless network allows neighboring nodes to share their communication resources to create a virtual antenna array by distributed transmission and signal processing, which is useful to exploit spatial diversity, increase channel capacity, and attain wider service coverage with single-antenna terminals. How to exploit spatial diversity and leverage the multi-hop channel structure is an important research issue for the cooperative network. In this thesis, two cooperative schemes are considered, amplify and forward (AF) and demodulation and forward (DMF). For AF cooperative systems, finite state Markov chain (FSMC) models are designed in analyzing the system performance considering time-varying channel behaviors and facilitating fast channel simulation. For DMF cooperative systems, first we formulate the optimization problem that jointly chooses the modulation schemes at the source and relay nodes, to maximize the throughput of cooperative systems under the BER constraint. Second, we propose to use the soft values of each bit to devise a simple and effective combining scheme, which can be applied for both AF and DMF cooperative systems. Third, as the soft values from demodulation process can also be used for measuring the channel estimation accuracy, a soft value-assisted channel estimation has been proposed by iteratively utilizing soft values to refine the accurate channel estimation. In addition, we also implement the soft value module in OFDM-based transceiver system based on a GNU Radio/USRP2 platform, and verify the effectiveness and performance improvement for the proposed SVC systems. As considering wireless cooperative systems has attracted increasing attentions from both academic and industry to meet the demanding of the high data rate transmission, the packet-level channel modeling, adaptive modulation, spectrum efficiency improvement frameworks based on soft value combining and accurate channel estimation algorithms proposed in this thesis are essential for future proliferation of high data rate, reliable and efficient wireless communication networks. / Graduate / 0537 / 0544 / 0984

To broaden the application scenario and reduce energy consumption, we propose an energy-efficient fixed-gain (FG) amplify-and-forward (AF) relay assisted orthog- onal frequency-division multiplexing with index modulation (OFDM-IM) scheme in this thesis. The proposed system needs neither instantaneous channel state informa- tion (CSI) nor performing complicated processing at the relay node. It operates based on a new design of power allocation that minimizes the sum of transmit power at both source and relay node, given an outage probability constraint. Considering the actual situation and combining with the characteristics of normalization research, the pro- posed scheme can be discussed in two scenarios regarding to whether the subcarriers are interfered with by fading and noise independently. Based on the consistency of statistical CSI for each subcarrier, through a series of problem transformation and simplification, this thesis converts the original power allocation problem to a relaxed version and solve the relaxed problem using the convex optimization techniques. To reveal the computing efficiency of the proposed power allocation scheme, we analyze its computational complexity. Numerical simulations substantiate that the proposed optimization scheme has a neglectable loss compared with the brute force search, while the computational complexity could be considerably reduced. As for the sce- nario about the independence of statistical CSI for each subcarrier, an approach of artificial neural network (ANN) based on deep learning is incorporated into the sys- tem, enabling the proposed scheme to achieve a high accuracy comparing perfect optimization scheme. In the processing of power minimization, this study utilizes the adaptive moment estimation (Adam) method to implement back-propagation learn- ing and achieve the power allocation needed.

Cooperative wireless communication has received significant attention during recent years due to several reasons. First, since the received power decreases rapidly with distance, the idea of multi-hopping is becoming of particular importance. In multi-hopped communication, the source exploits some intermediate nodes as relays. Then the source sends its message via those relays to the destination. Second, relays can emulate some kind of distributed transmit antennas to form spatial diversity and combat multi-path fading effect of the wireless channel. Parallel Relay Channel is an information theoretical model for a communication system whereby a sender aims to communicate to a receiver with the help of relay nodes. It represents the simplest model for a multi–hop wireless network and a full understanding of the limits of communication over such a channel can potentially shed light on the design of more efficient wireless networks. However, the capacity of the relay channel has been established only for few special cases and little progress has been made toward solving the general case since the early 1980s. In this dissertation, motivated by practical constraints, we study the information theoretical limits of the half-duplex Gaussian Parallel Relay channel , as well as, the transmission strategies for the parallel relay channel with bandwidth mismatch between the first and the second hops. Chapter 2 investigates the problem of communication for a network composed of two half-duplex parallel relays with additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). There is no direct link between the source and the destination. However, the relays can communicate with each other through the channel between them. Two protocols, i.e., \emph{Simultaneous} and \emph{Successive} relaying, associated with two possible relay scheduling are proposed. The simultaneous relaying protocol is based on \emph{Broadcast-multiaccess with Common Message (BCM)} scheme. For the successive relaying protocol: (i) a \emph{Non-Cooperative} scheme based on the \emph{Dirty Paper Coding (DPC)}, and (ii) a \emph{Cooperative} scheme based on the \emph{Block Markov Encoding (BME)} are considered. The composite scheme of employing BME in \emph{at most} one relay and DPC in \emph{at least} another one is shown to achieve at least the same rate when compared to the \emph{Cooperative} and \emph{Non-Cooperative} schemes. A \emph{``Simultaneous-Successive Relaying based on Dirty paper coding scheme" (SSRD)} is also proposed. The optimum scheduling of the relays and hence the capacity of the half-duplex Gaussian parallel relay channel in the low and high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) scenarios is derived. In the low SNR scenario, it is revealed that under certain conditions for the channel coefficients, the ratio of the achievable rate of the simultaneous relaying based on BCM to the cut-set bound tends to be 1. On the other hand, as SNR goes to infinity, it is proved that successive relaying, based on the DPC, asymptotically achieves the capacity of the network. Schein and Gallager introduced the Gaussian parallel relay channel in 2000. They proposed the Amplify-and-Forward (AF) and the Decode-and-Forward (DF) strategies for this channel. For a long time, the best known achievable rate for this channel was based on the AF and DF with time sharing (AF-DF). Recently, a Rematch-and-Forward (RF) scheme for the scenario in which different amounts of bandwidth can be assigned to the first and second hops were proposed. In chapter 3, we propose a \emph{Combined Amplify-and-Decode Forward (CADF)} scheme for the Gaussian parallel relay channel. We prove that the CADF scheme always gives a better achievable rate compared to the RF scheme, when there is a bandwidth mismatch between the first hop and the second hop. Furthermore, for the equal bandwidth case (Schein's setup), we show that the time sharing between the CADF and the DF schemes (CADF-DF) leads to a better achievable rate compared to the time sharing between the RF and the DF schemes (RF-DF) as well as the AF-DF.

Cooperative wireless communication has received significant attention during recent years due to several reasons. First, since the received power decreases rapidly with distance, the idea of multi-hopping is becoming of particular importance. In multi-hopped communication, the source exploits some intermediate nodes as relays. Then the source sends its message via those relays to the destination. Second, relays can emulate some kind of distributed transmit antennas to form spatial diversity and combat multi-path fading effect of the wireless channel. Parallel Relay Channel is an information theoretical model for a communication system whereby a sender aims to communicate to a receiver with the help of relay nodes. It represents the simplest model for a multi–hop wireless network and a full understanding of the limits of communication over such a channel can potentially shed light on the design of more efficient wireless networks. However, the capacity of the relay channel has been established only for few special cases and little progress has been made toward solving the general case since the early 1980s. In this dissertation, motivated by practical constraints, we study the information theoretical limits of the half-duplex Gaussian Parallel Relay channel , as well as, the transmission strategies for the parallel relay channel with bandwidth mismatch between the first and the second hops. Chapter 2 investigates the problem of communication for a network composed of two half-duplex parallel relays with additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). There is no direct link between the source and the destination. However, the relays can communicate with each other through the channel between them. Two protocols, i.e., \emph{Simultaneous} and \emph{Successive} relaying, associated with two possible relay scheduling are proposed. The simultaneous relaying protocol is based on \emph{Broadcast-multiaccess with Common Message (BCM)} scheme. For the successive relaying protocol: (i) a \emph{Non-Cooperative} scheme based on the \emph{Dirty Paper Coding (DPC)}, and (ii) a \emph{Cooperative} scheme based on the \emph{Block Markov Encoding (BME)} are considered. The composite scheme of employing BME in \emph{at most} one relay and DPC in \emph{at least} another one is shown to achieve at least the same rate when compared to the \emph{Cooperative} and \emph{Non-Cooperative} schemes. A \emph{``Simultaneous-Successive Relaying based on Dirty paper coding scheme" (SSRD)} is also proposed. The optimum scheduling of the relays and hence the capacity of the half-duplex Gaussian parallel relay channel in the low and high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) scenarios is derived. In the low SNR scenario, it is revealed that under certain conditions for the channel coefficients, the ratio of the achievable rate of the simultaneous relaying based on BCM to the cut-set bound tends to be 1. On the other hand, as SNR goes to infinity, it is proved that successive relaying, based on the DPC, asymptotically achieves the capacity of the network. Schein and Gallager introduced the Gaussian parallel relay channel in 2000. They proposed the Amplify-and-Forward (AF) and the Decode-and-Forward (DF) strategies for this channel. For a long time, the best known achievable rate for this channel was based on the AF and DF with time sharing (AF-DF). Recently, a Rematch-and-Forward (RF) scheme for the scenario in which different amounts of bandwidth can be assigned to the first and second hops were proposed. In chapter 3, we propose a \emph{Combined Amplify-and-Decode Forward (CADF)} scheme for the Gaussian parallel relay channel. We prove that the CADF scheme always gives a better achievable rate compared to the RF scheme, when there is a bandwidth mismatch between the first hop and the second hop. Furthermore, for the equal bandwidth case (Schein's setup), we show that the time sharing between the CADF and the DF schemes (CADF-DF) leads to a better achievable rate compared to the time sharing between the RF and the DF schemes (RF-DF) as well as the AF-DF.

The concept of multihop communications (where the source communicates with the destination via many intermediate nodes) has been revisited and adapted to mitigate wireless channel impairments and ensure broader coverage. It has been shown in the literature that, in addition to extending coverage, overcoming shadowing and reducing the transmit power, multihop communications can increase the capacity of the network at a low additional cost. On the other hand, the problem of energy efficiency is one of the current biggest challenges towards green radio communications. Morevover, electromagnetic radiation is at its limit in many contexts, while for battery-powered devices, transmit and circuit energy consumption has to be minimized for better battery lifetime and performance. In this work, the performance of multihop communication over Nakagami-m fading is investigated for both cases without and with diversity combining. Closed form expressions of the average ergodic capacity are derived for each of these cases. Then, an expression of the outage probability is obtained using the inverse of Laplace transform and the average bit error rate is bounded using the Moment-Generating-Function approach. The energy efficiency is analyzed using the "consumption factor" as a metric, and it is derived in closed-form. And based on the obtained expressions, we propose a power allocation strategy maximizing this consumption factor.

L’estimation de canal est une tâche cruciale du récepteur radio dans les systèmes de communication sans fil, en particulier en cas de mobilité où les paramètres du canal varient avec le temps en raison de l’effet Doppler. Dans cette thèse, nous considérons des variations de canal lentes à modérées, typiques des applications véhiculaires, et en particulier les deux types de canaux suivant : canaux Fixe-Mobiles (F-M) et canaux Mobiles-Mobiles (M-M), avec dans ce dernier cas la présence éventuelle de relais mobiles permettant d’amplifier et re-émettre le signal (Amplify and Forward). Nous avons démarré notre étude avec le canal F-M, qui servira de base pour traiter le canal M-M.Pour le cas d’un canal F-M, modélisé par le modèle de Rayleigh à spectre de Jakes, une approche courante pour estimer le canal consiste à utiliser un filtre de Kalman (KF) basé sur un modèle autorégressif d'ordre p (AR(p)). La méthode conventionnelle pour régler les paramètres du modèle AR(p) est basée sur le critère de corrélation (CM). Cependant, l’inconvénient majeur de cette méthode est que des ordres très élevés (p > 15) sont nécessaires pour approcher la borne de Cramer-Rao Bayésienne. Le choix de p ainsi que le réglage des paramètres du modèle sont donc critiques et un compromis doit être trouvé entre la complexité numérique et la performance. Le compromis raisonnable qui a suscité beaucoup d’attention est de prendre p = 2. Le CM n’étant pas performant pour p = 2, d’autres méthodes de réglage ont été proposées dans la littérature, mais celle-ci reposent principalement sur des résultats expérimentaux ou des recherches exhaustives, ce qui limite leur application. Pour régler le modèle, nous proposons d'utiliser un critère de minimisation de la variance asymptotique (MAV) de l’erreur d’estimation en sortie du filtre de Kalman. Une formule générale de réglage a été dérivée en fonction de l’état du canal (fréquence Doppler et rapport signal sur bruit), qui peut s’avérer très utile en pratique. De plus, nous avons également dérivé une formule analytique pour l'erreur quadratique moyenne, ce qui permet de mieux comprendre le comportement du KF. Ensuite, nous avons traité le canal M-M avec présence éventuelle de relais, en suivant la même approche. Les expressions analytiques pour le réglage optimal des paramètres du modèle AR(2) et les performances en erreur quadratique moyenne ont d'abord été établies en fonction des deuxièmes et quatrièmes moments du spectre Doppler du canal global. Les formules analytiques de ces moments ont été dérivées en exploitant la propriété de convolution des fonctions de densité, après décomposition du canal global en cascade de canaux élémentaires à spectre de Jakes. Avec ces approches, les résultats de simulations pour les différents canaux montrent un gain considérable en terme d’erreur quadratique moyenne d’estimation, comparé à la littérature. / Channel estimation is a crucial task of the radio receiver in wireless communication systems, especially in the case of mobility where the channel parameters vary over time due to the Doppler effect. In this thesis, we consider slow to moderate channel variations, typical of vehicular applications, and in particular the following two types of channels: fixed-mobile (F-M) channels and mobile-mobile (M-M) channels, with in the latter case the possible presence of mobile relays (Amplify and Forward). We started our study with the F-M channel, which will serve as a basis for investigating the M-M channel.For the case of an F-M channel, modeled by Rayleigh model described by the Jakes spectrum, a common approach to estimating the channel is to use a Kalman filter (KF) based on an autoregressive model of order p (AR(p)). The conventional method for setting AR(p) model parameters is based on the correlation matching criterion (CM). However, the major disadvantage of this method is that very high orders p>15) are needed to approach the Bayesian Cramer-Rao Bound. The choice of p as well as the adjustment of the parameters of the model are therefore critical and a compromise must be found between the numerical complexity and the performance. The reasonable compromise that has attracted a lot of attention is to take p = 2. Since the CM is not efficient for p = 2, other methods of tuning have been proposed in the literature, but these are mainly based on experimental results or exhaustive searches, which limits their application.To adjust the model, we propose to use a criterion of minimization of the asymptotic variance (MAV) of the estimation error at the output of the Kalman filter. A general tuning formula has been derived based on the state of the channel (Doppler frequency and signal-to-noise ratio), which can be very useful in practice. In addition, we also derived an analytic formula for the mean squared error, which allows a better understanding of KF behavior.Then we treated the M-M channel with the possible presence of mobile relays, following the same approach. The analytical expressions for the optimal adjustment of the AR(2) model parameters and the mean squared error performance were first set according to the second and fourth moments of the Doppler spectrum of the global channel. The analytical formulas of these moments were derived by exploiting the convolution property of the density functions, after decomposing the cascading global channel channel of Jakes spectrum elementary channels. With these approaches, the results of simulations for the different channels show a considerable gain in terms of mean squared error performance estimation, compared to the literature.

Cooperative wireless communication uses relays to enhance the capacity and reliability of data transmission. Adaptive transmission is typically used in conventional non-cooperative communications to exploit the time-varying nature of the wireless channel. In this thesis, we combine these two techniques. We consider decode-and-forward (DF) and amplify-and-forward (AF) relays. The wireless environment is modeled by using the Nakagami-m distribution. The achievable channel capacity with rate adaptive transmission is analytically derived for DF and AF cooperative networks. The performance of a DF cooperative network is analyzed with a constant power rate adaptive scheme consisting of a discrete set of transmission modes. The effect of decoding errors on DF cooperative networks is also analyzed. To this end, a new heuristic approximation of the total received signal-to-noise ratio at the destination is developed. This approximation enables simple yet accurate performance analysis. / Communications

We study a two-way amplify and forward relay network with two transceivers which communicate through a network of nr relays while there is no direct link between the two transceivers. Each relay is equipped with a single antenna for transmitting and receiving. We study the minimization of the total transmit power that is used in all of the network nodes given the condition that the transceiver which calculates the optimal transmitting power has a full knowledge about the channels between itself and the relays and the variance with zero mean of the channels between the relays and the other transceiver. The total average power is minimized subject to a soft constraint which guarantees that the outage probability is below a certain level. The optimal solution is derived in closed form and leads to a single relay selection criterion. / UOIT

In wireless communications, channel estimation is necessary for coherent symbol detection. This thesis considers a network which consists of two transceivers communicating with the help of a relay applying the amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying scheme. The training based channel estimation technique is applied to the proposed network where the numbers of the training sequence transmitted by the two transceivers, are different. All three terminals are equipped with a single antenna for signal transmission and reception. Communication between the transceivers is carried out in two phases. In the first phase, each transceiver sends a transmission block of data embedded with known training symbols to the relay. In the second phase, the relay retransmits an amplified version of the received signal to both transceivers. Estimates of the channel coefficients are obtained using the Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimator. The performance analysis of the derived estimates are carried out in terms of the mean squared error (MSE) and we determine conditions required to increase the estimation accuracy. / UOIT

The disposal of electronic waste is becoming one of the growing problems that the planet is facing. Tons of electronic waste is dumped illegally to 3rd world countries. Consequently the local people in those countries are exposed to levels of toxicity that could cause them serious diseases as well as the degradation on the natural ecosystems. The electronic waste is perceived as useless by our society, and this project aims to challenge that idea by looking at sustainable ways of manipulating electronics.