Les codes polaires constituent une classe de codes correcteurs d’erreurs inventés récemment qui suscite l’intérêt des chercheurs et des industriels, comme en atteste leur sélection pour le codage des canaux de contrôle dans la prochaine génération de téléphonie mobile (5G). Un des enjeux des futurs réseaux mobiles est la virtualisation des traitements numériques du signal, et en particulier les algorithmes de codage et de décodage. Afin d’améliorer la flexibilité du réseau, ces algorithmes doivent être décrits de manière logicielle et être déployés sur des architectures programmables. Une telle infrastructure de réseau permet de mieux répartir l’effort de calcul sur l’ensemble des noeuds et d’améliorer la coopération entre cellules. Ces techniques ont pour but de réduire la consommation d’énergie, d’augmenter le débit et de diminuer la latence des communications. Les travaux présentés dans ce manuscrit portent sur l’implémentation logicielle des algorithmes de décodage de codes polaires et la conception d’architectures programmables spécialisées pour leur exécution.Une des caractéristiques principales d’une chaîne de communication mobile est l’instabilité du canal de communication. Afin de remédier à cette instabilité, des techniques de modulations et de codages adaptatifs sont utilisées dans les normes de communication.Ces techniques impliquent que les décodeurs supportent une vaste gamme de codes : ils doivent être génériques. La première contribution de ces travaux est l’implémentation logicielle de décodeurs génériques des algorithmes de décodage "à Liste" sur des processeurs à usage général. En plus d’être génériques, les décodeurs proposés sont également flexibles.Ils permettent en effet des compromis entre pouvoir de correction, débit et latence de décodage par la paramétrisation fine des algorithmes. En outre, les débits des décodeurs proposés atteignent les performances de l’état de l’art et, dans certains cas, les dépassent.La deuxième contribution de ces travaux est la proposition d’une nouvelle architecture programmable performante spécialisée dans le décodage de codes polaires. Elle fait partie de la famille des processeurs à jeu d’instructions dédiés à l’application. Un processeur de type RISC à faible consommation en constitue la base. Cette base est ensuite configurée,son jeu d’instructions est étendu et des unités matérielles dédiées lui sont ajoutées. Les simulations montrent que cette architecture atteint des débits et des latences proches des implémentations logicielles de l’état de l’art sur des processeurs à usage général. La consommation énergétique est réduite d’un ordre de grandeur. En effet, lorsque l’on considère le décodage par annulation successive d’un code polaire (1024,512), l’énergie nécessaire par bit décodé est de l’ordre de 10 nJ sur des processeurs à usage général contre 1 nJ sur les processeurs proposés.La troisième contribution de ces travaux est également une architecture de processeur à jeu d’instructions dédié à l’application. Elle se différencie de la précédente par l’utilisation d’une méthodologie de conception alternative. Au lieu d’être basée sur une architecture de type RISC, l’architecture du processeur proposé fait partie de la classe des architectures déclenchées par le transport. Elle est caractérisée par une plus grande modularité qui permet d’améliorer très significativement l’efficacité du processeur. Les débits mesurés sont alors supérieurs à ceux obtenus sur les processeurs à usage général. La consommation énergétique est réduite à environ 0.1 nJ par bit décodé pour un code polaire (1024,512) avec l’algorithme de décodage par annulation successive. Cela correspond à une réduction de deux ordres de grandeur en comparaison de la consommation mesurée sur des processeurs à usage général. / Polar codes are a recently invented class of error-correcting codes that are of interest to both researchers and industry, as evidenced by their selection for the coding of control channels in the next generation of cellular mobile communications (5G). One of the challenges of future mobile networks is the virtualization of digital signal processing, including channel encoding and decoding algorithms. In order to improve network flexibility, these algorithms must be written in software and deployed on programmable architectures.Such a network infrastructure allow dynamic balancing of the computational effort across the network, as well as inter-cell cooperation. These techniques are designed to reduce energy consumption, increase through put and reduce communication latency. The work presented in this manuscript focuses on the software implementation of polar codes decoding algorithms and the design of programmable architectures specialized in their execution.One of the main characteristics of a mobile communication chain is that the state of communication channel changes over time. In order to address issue, adaptive modulationand coding techniques are used in communication standards. These techniques require the decoders to support a wide range of codes : they must be generic. The first contribution of this work is the software implementation of generic decoders for "List" polar decoding algorithms on general purpose processors. In addition to their genericity, the proposed decoders are also flexible. Trade-offs between correction power, throughput and decodinglatency are enabled by fine-tuning the algorithms. In addition, the throughputs of the proposed decoders achieve state-of-the-art performance and, in some cases, exceed it.The second contribution of this work is the proposal of a new high-performance programmable architecture specialized in polar code decoding. It is part of the family of Application Specific Instruction-set Processors (ASIP). The base architecture is a RISC processor. This base architecture is then configured, its instruction set is extended and dedicated hardware units are added. Simulations show that this architecture achieves through puts and latencies close to state-of-the-art software implementations on generalpurpose processors. Energy consumption is reduced by an order of magnitude. The energy required per decoded bit is about 10 nJ on general purpose processors compared to 1nJ on proposed processors when considering the Successive Cancellation (SC) decoding algorithm of a polar code (1024,512).The third contribution of this work is also the design of an ASIP architecture. It differs from the previous one by the use of an alternative design methodology. Instead of being based on a RISC architecture, the proposed processor architecture is part of the classof Transport Triggered Architectures (TTA). It is characterized by a greater modularity that allows to significantly improve the efficiency of the processor. The measured flowrates are then higher than those obtained on general purpose processors. The energy consumption is reduced to about 0.1 nJ per decoded bit for a polar code (1024,512) with the SC decoding algorithm. This corresponds to a reduction of two orders of magnitude compared to the consumption measured on general purpose processors.

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WCDMA is typically characterised as a system capable of providing mobile users with data rates up to 2 Mb/s and beyond. It has been termed an ultra high-speed, ultra high-capacity radio technology that will be able to carry a new range of fast, colourful media, such as colour graphics, video, animations, digital audio, Internet and e-mail that consumers will be able to access over their mobiles devices. This current study has researched on the various existing Multiuser detection (MUD) processes or proposals conducted by various research institutions around the world. It has identified the advantages that the past work offers, and it is these advantages that form the basis of the current research into the improvement techniques. The proposed Partial Parallel Pipelined Multiuser Detector (PPPMUD or P3MUD) has come about from two main flavours or directions of research. The first one seeks to promote the Soft Parallel Interference Cancellation technique as an effective bias mitigation technique. This bias occurring in the second stage decision statistics, exhibits a very harmful effect on system Bit Error Rate, (BER), particularly for large system loads. This current study goes further by carefully analysing the Soft Cancellation Factor, SCF behaviour to eventually derive and determine the optimum SCF value which exhibits positive characteristics when varied with the increasing system load (number of users). This optimum SCF value is called the universal SCF or SCFUNV, as it is theoretically supposed to perform favourably under various system loads. A favourable or acceptable performance would be characterised by low observed or measured BER during the system processing stages. A further enhancement to the operational performance of the SCFUNV algorithm is the SCFUNV Compensator, which is basically a compensation mechanism created by modelling the behaviour of the SCF values, and adjusts the SCFUNV depending on the system load, (number of simultaneous users). Thus, the SCFUNV is adaptively adjusted in order to perform acceptably under all load conditions. The second direction of research, as regards improvements in MUD techniques, involves the conventional Bit-Streaming, Pipelined Multiuser Detector. This came about due to the computational complexity as well as matrix inversions which affected earlier asynchronous multiuser detection techniques. This detector has a pipelined architecture which avoids multishot (block-based) detection and instead, processes the bits in a streaming fashion. The architecture consists of a matched filter followed by three stages of parallel interference cancellation, (PIC). This present study extends that research by outlining the advantages of incorporating the soft parallel interference cancellation technique, by way of the universal soft cancellation factor, (SCFUNV), into the conventional pipelined multiuser detector architecture to form the P3MUD architecture, which includes the compensator. The contributions of the proposed P3MUD system is that the observed BER output simulations are promising, with an observed overall decrease in the error rate for the P3MUD process, as compared to the conventional pipelined detection method. This decrease signifies an improvement offered by the proposed (P3MUD) algorithm. Further observed analysis indicates the possibility of decreasing the number of parallel interference cancellation stages from three to at least two, after the matched filter detection stage, without an observable change in system BER. Hence, the proposal of the two-stage P3MUD. / Dissertation (MEng (Electronic))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted

In OFDM systems carrier frequency offset is observed due to Doppler shift and transmitter-receiver frequency mismatches. This offset induces ICI (Intercarrier Interference). In this thesis, repeated data methods and pilot-aided carrier frequency offset(CFO) estimation methods and windowing techniques are used to mitigate the frequency offset problem and a performance comparison is made between these ICI cancellation techniques. Repeated data methods use only half of the bandwidth for information transmission to eliminate the ICI at the receiver. We have implemented repeated data methods including Self cancellation scheme and Symmetric Symbol Repetition (SSR) schemes to overcome ICI problem. We have also implemented Adjacent Conjugate Symbol Repetiton (ACSR) and Symmetric Conjugate Symbol Repetiton (SCSR) methods to mitigate both phase rotations and ICI. CFO estimation and correction methods generally use pilot sequences. We implemented the &ldquo / Conventional Pilots&rdquo / and &ldquo / Clustered Pilots&rdquo / pilot-aided CFO estimation techniques for ICI cancellation. Furthermore, we also implemented a new scheme by using the odd symmetry between pilot symbols. Nyquist windowing techniques apply windowing at the receiver side. We have implemented second order polynomial class of Nyquist windows and Nyquist window with Franks pulse used to mitigate ICI. These ICI cancellation methods are compared in AWGN and multipath Rayleigh fading channel models in terms of BER and carrier to interference ratio. It is shown that repeated data methods shows better performances than pilot-aided CFO estimation methods with a cost of increased bandwidth usage especially in high SNR&rsquo / s.

In the single carrier systems with cyclic-prefix (CP), the use of CP does not only eliminate the inter-block interference (IBI), but also convert linear convolution of the transmitted signal with the channel into circular convolution, which leads to the computation complexity of the frequency domain equalization (FDE) at the receiver is reduced. Unfortunately, the use of CP considerably decreases the bandwidth utilization. In order to increase the bandwidth utilization, the single carrier systems with frequency domain equalization (SC-FDE) is investigated. When FDE is used in a single carrier system without CP, the IBI is induced by the modulated symbols and then the bit-error rate (BER) is increased. To reduce the interference and then improve the system performance, a novel interference cancellation scheme is proposed in this thesis. After FDE, it is shown that interference is induced from the right end of a time domain signal block and most of the interference is located at both ends of an equalized time domain signal block. Based on this observation, the modulated symbols which induce the interference are detected according to the maximum-likelihood (ML) principle and then the interference is regenerated and eliminated. For simplifying the computation complexity, we further propose a successive interference cancellation scheme, which is implemented by using the Viterbi algorithm. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme improves BER performance significantly in SC-FDE systems. In addition, the proposed architecture has comparable BER performance with the SC-CP systems when the multi-path channel is exponentially decayed.

Digital subscriber lines (DSL) have revolutionised the provision of high speed data over the ‘last mile’. Subscribers demand even more bandwidth and the penetration of the service is now nearly universal. While it is feasible to provide improved broadband services on the new very high speed DSL, such as VDSL2/3, one of the greatest challenges to further improvements in speed is the problem of crosstalk. Operating over the unused higher frequencies of the twisted pair network, this technology is subjected to electromagnetic coupling among the wires, limiting the DSL data rate and service reach. Crosstalk suppression methods such as zero-forcing or decision feedback mainly use block processing. However, to cope with the time-varying VDSL environment huge computational costs can be incurred. In contrast, adaptive processing approaches are much simpler and are more beneficial to track such a channel environment. An adaptive canceller uses a training sequence and the convergence speed depends on the number of crosstalk coefficients it has to estimate. In a populated DSL binder, only a few of the crosstalking neighbours to a particular user are significant. With the aim to reduce the computational complexity in such environments, this thesis introduces the concept of detection-guided adaptive crosstalk cancellation for DSL. We propose a least-squares test feature to detect and concentrate the adaptation only on the dominant crosstalking coefficients. In comparison to conventional adaptive cancellers, the cancellers proposed in this thesis demonstrate early convergence. Thus, by incorporating the test feature, these cancellers have to detect only the most significant canceller coefficients and therefore, the length of the training sequence is reduced. Together with enhanced adaptive cancellation with a low run-time complexity and improved convergence, the greatest advantage obtained here is in the bandwidth efficiency. While enhanced adaptive cancellation is a bandwidth-efficient approach, the frequent re-transmission of training sequences may still be required for a rapidly changing VDSL channel. Again, this can be a disadvantage in terms of bandwidth consumption. To overcome this difficulty, we propose fast-converging unsupervised cancellers with an aim to improve the bandwidth efficiency by not transmitting a training sequence. An added advantage obtained here is that this would enable Internet service providers to include multiple or improved broadband services within a single subscription. Certain properties of the DSL channel ensure the communication channel is properly conditioned. This ensures the basis vectors of the channel matrix are near-orthogonal and hence, the linear cancellers, such as zero-forcing perform near-optimally. However, this is not the case with wireless channels. We investigate user detection in wireless channels using the principle of lattice reduction. User detection can also be seen as a search for the closest vector point in the lattice of received symbols. Though a maximum likelihood (ML) detector facilitates optimal user-detection, it has exponential complexity. We identify that the closest vector problem can be cast as a non-linear optimisation problem. Using the periodicity of the maximum likelihood function, we first present a novel algorithm that approximates the ML function using the Taylor series expansion of a suitable cosine function. With the aim of minimising the approximation error, we represent the ML function as a Fourier Series expansion and later, propose another approximation using Jacobi theta functions. We study the performance of these approximations when subjected to a suitable unconstrained optimisation algorithm. Through simulations, we demonstrate that the newly-developed approximations perform better than the conventional cancellers, close to the ML and, importantly, converging in polynomial time.

Digital subscriber lines (DSL) have revolutionised the provision of high speed data over the ‘last mile’. Subscribers demand even more bandwidth and the penetration of the service is now nearly universal. While it is feasible to provide improved broadband services on the new very high speed DSL, such as VDSL2/3, one of the greatest challenges to further improvements in speed is the problem of crosstalk. Operating over the unused higher frequencies of the twisted pair network, this technology is subjected to electromagnetic coupling among the wires, limiting the DSL data rate and service reach. Crosstalk suppression methods such as zero-forcing or decision feedback mainly use block processing. However, to cope with the time-varying VDSL environment huge computational costs can be incurred. In contrast, adaptive processing approaches are much simpler and are more beneficial to track such a channel environment. An adaptive canceller uses a training sequence and the convergence speed depends on the number of crosstalk coefficients it has to estimate. In a populated DSL binder, only a few of the crosstalking neighbours to a particular user are significant. With the aim to reduce the computational complexity in such environments, this thesis introduces the concept of detection-guided adaptive crosstalk cancellation for DSL. We propose a least-squares test feature to detect and concentrate the adaptation only on the dominant crosstalking coefficients. In comparison to conventional adaptive cancellers, the cancellers proposed in this thesis demonstrate early convergence. Thus, by incorporating the test feature, these cancellers have to detect only the most significant canceller coefficients and therefore, the length of the training sequence is reduced. Together with enhanced adaptive cancellation with a low run-time complexity and improved convergence, the greatest advantage obtained here is in the bandwidth efficiency. While enhanced adaptive cancellation is a bandwidth-efficient approach, the frequent re-transmission of training sequences may still be required for a rapidly changing VDSL channel. Again, this can be a disadvantage in terms of bandwidth consumption. To overcome this difficulty, we propose fast-converging unsupervised cancellers with an aim to improve the bandwidth efficiency by not transmitting a training sequence. An added advantage obtained here is that this would enable Internet service providers to include multiple or improved broadband services within a single subscription. Certain properties of the DSL channel ensure the communication channel is properly conditioned. This ensures the basis vectors of the channel matrix are near-orthogonal and hence, the linear cancellers, such as zero-forcing perform near-optimally. However, this is not the case with wireless channels. We investigate user detection in wireless channels using the principle of lattice reduction. User detection can also be seen as a search for the closest vector point in the lattice of received symbols. Though a maximum likelihood (ML) detector facilitates optimal user-detection, it has exponential complexity. We identify that the closest vector problem can be cast as a non-linear optimisation problem. Using the periodicity of the maximum likelihood function, we first present a novel algorithm that approximates the ML function using the Taylor series expansion of a suitable cosine function. With the aim of minimising the approximation error, we represent the ML function as a Fourier Series expansion and later, propose another approximation using Jacobi theta functions. We study the performance of these approximations when subjected to a suitable unconstrained optimisation algorithm. Through simulations, we demonstrate that the newly-developed approximations perform better than the conventional cancellers, close to the ML and, importantly, converging in polynomial time.

Digital subscriber lines (DSL) have revolutionised the provision of high speed data over the ‘last mile’. Subscribers demand even more bandwidth and the penetration of the service is now nearly universal. While it is feasible to provide improved broadband services on the new very high speed DSL, such as VDSL2/3, one of the greatest challenges to further improvements in speed is the problem of crosstalk. Operating over the unused higher frequencies of the twisted pair network, this technology is subjected to electromagnetic coupling among the wires, limiting the DSL data rate and service reach. Crosstalk suppression methods such as zero-forcing or decision feedback mainly use block processing. However, to cope with the time-varying VDSL environment huge computational costs can be incurred. In contrast, adaptive processing approaches are much simpler and are more beneficial to track such a channel environment. An adaptive canceller uses a training sequence and the convergence speed depends on the number of crosstalk coefficients it has to estimate. In a populated DSL binder, only a few of the crosstalking neighbours to a particular user are significant. With the aim to reduce the computational complexity in such environments, this thesis introduces the concept of detection-guided adaptive crosstalk cancellation for DSL. We propose a least-squares test feature to detect and concentrate the adaptation only on the dominant crosstalking coefficients. In comparison to conventional adaptive cancellers, the cancellers proposed in this thesis demonstrate early convergence. Thus, by incorporating the test feature, these cancellers have to detect only the most significant canceller coefficients and therefore, the length of the training sequence is reduced. Together with enhanced adaptive cancellation with a low run-time complexity and improved convergence, the greatest advantage obtained here is in the bandwidth efficiency. While enhanced adaptive cancellation is a bandwidth-efficient approach, the frequent re-transmission of training sequences may still be required for a rapidly changing VDSL channel. Again, this can be a disadvantage in terms of bandwidth consumption. To overcome this difficulty, we propose fast-converging unsupervised cancellers with an aim to improve the bandwidth efficiency by not transmitting a training sequence. An added advantage obtained here is that this would enable Internet service providers to include multiple or improved broadband services within a single subscription. Certain properties of the DSL channel ensure the communication channel is properly conditioned. This ensures the basis vectors of the channel matrix are near-orthogonal and hence, the linear cancellers, such as zero-forcing perform near-optimally. However, this is not the case with wireless channels. We investigate user detection in wireless channels using the principle of lattice reduction. User detection can also be seen as a search for the closest vector point in the lattice of received symbols. Though a maximum likelihood (ML) detector facilitates optimal user-detection, it has exponential complexity. We identify that the closest vector problem can be cast as a non-linear optimisation problem. Using the periodicity of the maximum likelihood function, we first present a novel algorithm that approximates the ML function using the Taylor series expansion of a suitable cosine function. With the aim of minimising the approximation error, we represent the ML function as a Fourier Series expansion and later, propose another approximation using Jacobi theta functions. We study the performance of these approximations when subjected to a suitable unconstrained optimisation algorithm. Through simulations, we demonstrate that the newly-developed approximations perform better than the conventional cancellers, close to the ML and, importantly, converging in polynomial time.

High patient no-show rates increase health care costs, decrease healthcare access, and reduce the clinical efficiency and productivity of health care facilities. The purpose of this exploratory qualitative single case study was to explore and analyze the managerial intervention strategies healthcare administrators use to reduce patient no-show rates. The targeted research population was active American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), Hawaii-Pacific Chapter healthcare administrative members with operational and supervisory experience addressing administrative patient no-show interventions. The conceptual framework was the theory of planned behavior. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 4 healthcare administrators, and appointment cancellation policy documents were reviewed. Interpretations of the data were subjected to member checking to ensure the trustworthiness of the findings. Based on the methodological triangulation of the data collected, 5 common themes emerged after the data analysis: reform appointment cancellation policies, use text message appointment reminders, improve patient accessibility, fill patient no-show slots immediately, and create organizational and administrative efficiencies. Sharing the findings of this study may help healthcare administrators to improve patient health care accessibility, organizational performance and the social well-being of their communities.

The onset of quantum computing threatens commonly used schemes for information secrecy across wireless communication channels, particularly key-based data-level encryption. This calls for secrecy schemes that can provide everlasting secrecy resistant to increased computational power of an adversary. One novel physical layer scheme proposes that an intended receiver capable of performing analog cancellation of a known key-based interference would hold a significant advantage in recovering small underlying messages versus an eavesdropper performing cancellation after analog-to-digital conversion. This advantage holds even in the event that an eavesdropper can recover and use the original key in their digital cancellation. Inspired by this scheme, a flexible software-defined radio receiver design capable of maintaining analog cancellation ratios consistently over 40 dB, reaching up to and over 50 dB, is implemented in this thesis. Maintaining this analog cancellation requires very precise time-frequency synchronization along with accurate modeling and simulation of the channel effects on the interference. The key sources of synchronization error preventing this test bed from achieving and maintaining perfect interference cancellation, sub-sample period timing errors and limited radio frequency stability, are explored for possible improvements. To further prove robustness of the implemented secrecy scheme, the testbed is shown to operate with both phase-shift keying and frequency-modulated waveforms. Differences in the synchronization algorithm used for the two waveforms are highlighted. Interference cancellation performance is measured for increasing interference bandwidth and shown to decrease with such. The implications this testbed has on security approaches based on intentional interference employed to confuse eavesdroppers is approached from the framework proposed in the motivating everlasting secrecy scheme. Using analog cancellation levels from the hardware testbed, it is calculated that secrecy rates up to 2.3 bits/symbol are gained by receivers (intended or not) performing interference cancellation in analog rather than on a digital signal processor. Inspired by the positive gains in secrecy over systems not performing analog cancellation prior to signal reception, a novel secrecy scheme that focuses on the advantage an analog canceller holds in receiver amplifier compression is proposed here. The adversary amplifier is assumed to perform linear cancellation after the interference has passed through their nonlinear amplifier. This is accomplished by deriving the distribution of the interference residual after undergoing an inverse tangent transfer function and perfect linear cancellation. Parameters of this scheme are fit for the radios and cancellation ratios observed in the testbed, resulting in a secrecy gain of 0.95 bits/symbol. The model shows that larger message powers can still be kept secure for the achieved levels of cancellation, thus providing an even greater secrecy gain with increased message transmission power.