Spatial diversity is an effective technique to combat the effects of severe fading in wireless environments. Recently, cooperative communications has emerged as an attractive communications paradigm that can introduce a new form of spatial diversity which is known as cooperative diversity, that can enhance system reliability without sacrificing the scarce bandwidth resource or consuming more transmit power. It enables single-antenna terminals in a wireless relay network to share their antennas to form a virtual antenna array on the basis of their distributed locations. As such, the same diversity gains as in multi-input multi-output systems can be achieved without requiring multiple-antenna terminals. In this thesis, a new approach to cooperative communications via distributed extended orthogonal space-time block coding (D-EO-STBC) based on limited partial feedback is proposed for cooperative relay networks with three and four relay nodes and then generalized for an arbitrary number of relay nodes. This scheme can achieve full cooperative diversity and full transmission rate in addition to array gain, and it has certain properties that make it alluring for practical systems such as orthogonality, flexibility, low computational complexity and decoding delay, and high robustness to node failure. Versions of the closed-loop D-EO-STBC scheme based on cooperative orthogonal frequency division multiplexing type transmission are also proposed for both flat and frequency-selective fading channels which can overcome imperfect synchronization in the network. As such, this proposed technique can effectively cope with the effects of fading and timing errors. Moreover, to increase the end-to-end data rate, this scheme is extended for two-way relay networks through a three-time slot framework. On the other hand, to substantially reduce the feedback channel overhead, limited feedback approaches based on parameter quantization are proposed. In particular, an optimal one-bit partial feedback approach is proposed for the generalized D-O-STBC scheme to maximize the array gain. To further enhance the end-to-end bit error rate performance of the cooperative relay system, a relay selection scheme based on D-EO-STBC is then proposed. Finally, to highlight the utility of the proposed D-EO-STBC scheme, an application to cognitive radio is studied.

[pt] Os sistemas de comunicações móveis atuais vêm enfrentando novos desafios, marcados pelo aumento do uso de novos dispositivos e pela mudança nos padrões de consumo de banda causada pelas aplicações emergentes. É por isso que a indústria de comunicações e a comunidade acadêmica vêm trabalhando tanto nas dificuldades apresentadas nas redes móveis atuais quanto nos desafios técnicos para o desenvolvimento dos esperados sistemas de quinta geração (5G). O grande aumento dos elementos da rede de acesso rádio e a implementação de cenários heterogêneos (macro e pico eNBs, Relay Nodes, etc.) são duas das principais abordagens utilizadas para melhorar a capacidade da rede. No entanto, esse acréscimo de elementos ou, densificação, traz consigo um aumento nos custos e na complexidade nas tarefas de operação e gerenciamento do sistema, já que os novos elementos de rede precisam ser adaptados, configurados e gerenciados continuamente para garantir e aumentar a eficiência da rede, melhorando a qualidade nos serviços oferecidos aos usuários. Este trabalho de pesquisa propõe a inclusão de mecanismos cognitivos, incluindo técnicas de adaptação, nas arquiteturas das redes de acesso móvel. O trabalho propõe igualmente novos mecanismos de auto-organização (Self Organizing Networks, SON) para o balanceamento de carga, empregando modelos dinâmicos capazes de tomar decisões inteligentes e aprender a partir de experiências para atingir os objetivos de desempenho desejados. / [en] Today s mobile communications systems are facing new challenges, triggered by the increased use of new devices and the growth of bandwidth hungry applications. This is why over the last years, the telecommunication industry and academic communities have been focused on research and development of technologies for the upcoming 5th generation mobile systems (5G). Among the potential candidates, network densification has attracted growing attention as a key mechanism to fulfill the objective proposed in 5G, by increasing the number of radio-base stations (on the coverage area) and introducing an additional layer of low-power access nodes (e.g., Femto, picocells, relay nodes). However, this approach has also posed new challenges in network configuration, management, and optimization tasks to ensure and increase the mobile network efficiency. This research proposes the inclusion of cognitive mechanisms and adaptive techniques in the architectures of mobile radio access networks. This work also proposes new self-organizing (SON) functions for load balancing, enhanced with capabilities of learning from previous experiences to achieve future desired performance goals.

Fueled by the rapid advancement in digital and wireless technologies, the ever-increasing capabilities of wireless devices have placed upon us a tremendous challenge - how to put all of this capability to effective use. Individually, wireless devices have outpaced the ability of users to optimally configure them. Collectively, the complexity is far more daunting. Research in cognitive networks seeks to provide a solution to the diffculty of effectively using the expanding capabilities of wireless networks by embedding greater degrees of intelligence within the network itself. In this dissertation, we address some fundamental questions related to cognitive networks, such as "What is a cognitive network?" and "What methods may be used to design a cognitive network?" We relate cognitive networks to a common artificial intelligence (AI) framework, the multi-agent system (MAS). We also discuss the key elements of learning and reasoning, with the ability to learn being the primary differentiator for a cognitive network. Having discussed some of the fundamentals, we proceed to further illustrate the cognitive networking principle by applying it to two problems: multichannel topology control for dynamic spectrum access (DSA) and routing in a mobile ad hoc network (MANET). The multichannel topology control problem involves confguring secondary network parameters to minimize the probability that the secondary network will cause an outage to a primary user in the future. This requires the secondary network to estimate an outage potential map, essentially a spatial map of predicted primary user density, which must be learned using prior observations of spectral occupancy made by secondary nodes. Due to the complexity of the objective function, we provide a suboptimal heuristic and compare its performance against heuristics targeting power-based and interference-based topology control objectives. We also develop a genetic algorithm to provide reference solutions since obtaining optimal solutions is impractical. We show how our approach to this problem qualifies as a cognitive network. In presenting our second application, we address the role of network state observations in cognitive networking. Essentially, we need a way to quantify how much information is needed regarding the state of the network to achieve a desired level of performance. This question is applicable to networking in general, but becomes increasingly important in the cognitive network context because of the potential volume of information that may be desired for decision-making. In this case, the application is routing in MANETs. Current MANET routing protocols are largely adapted from routing algorithms developed for wired networks. Although optimal routing in wired networks is grounded in dynamic programming, the critical assumption, static link costs and states, that enables the use of dynamic programming for wired networks need not apply to MANETs. We present a link-level model of a MANET, which models the network as a stochastically varying graph that possesses the Markov property. We present the Markov decision process as the appropriate framework for computing optimal routing policies for such networks. We then proceed to analyze the relationship between optimal policy and link state information as a function of minimum distance from the forwarding node. The applications that we focus on are quite different, both in their models as well as their objectives. This difference is intentional and signficant because it disassociates the technology, i.e. cognitive networks, from the application of the technology. As a consequence, the versatility of the cognitive networks concept is demonstrated. Simultaneously, we are able to address two open problems and provide useful results, as well as new perspective, on both multichannel topology control and MANET routing. This material is posted here with permission from the IEEE. Such permission of the IEEE does not in any way imply IEEE endorsement of any of Virginia Tech library's products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to pubs-permissions@ieee.org. By choosing to view this material, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it. / Ph. D.

Third Generation (3G) wireless networks have been well studied and optimized with traditional radio resource management techniques, but still there is room for improvement. Cognitive radio technology can bring significantcant network improvements by providing awareness to the surrounding radio environment, exploiting previous network knowledge and optimizing the use of resources using machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques. Cognitive radio can also co-exist with legacy equipment thus acting as a bridge among heterogeneous communication systems. In this work, an approach for applying cognition in wireless networks is presented. Also, two machine learning techniques are used to create a hybrid cognitive engine. Furthermore, the concept of cognitive radio resource management along with some of the network applications are discussed. To evaluate the proposed approach cognition is applied to three typical wireless network problems: improving coverage, handover management and determining recurring policy events. A cognitive engine, that uses case-based reasoning and a decision tree algorithm is developed. The engine learns the coverage of a cell solely from observations, predicts when a handover is necessary and determines policy patterns, solely from environment observations. / Ph. D.

Dans cette thèse, on étudie l'application de la méthode des moments pour les télécommunications. On analyse cette méthode et on montre son importance pour l'étude des matrices aléatoires. On utilise le cadre de probabilités libres pour analyser cette méthode. La notion de produit de convolution/déconvolution libre peut être utilisée pour prédire le spectre asymptotique de matrices aléatoires qui sont asymptotiquement libres. On montre que la méthode de moments est un outil puissant même pour calculer les moments/moments asymptotiques de matrices qui n'ont pas la propriété de liberté asymptotique. En particulier, on considère des matrices aléatoires gaussiennes de taille finie et des matrices de Vandermonde al ?eatoires. On développe en série entiére la distribution des valeurs propres de differents modèles, par exemple les distributions de Wishart non-centrale et aussi les distributions de Wishart avec des entrées corrélées de moyenne nulle. Le cadre d'inference pour les matrices des dimensions finies est suffisamment souple pour permettre des combinaisons de matrices aléatoires. Les résultats que nous présentons sont implémentés en code Matlab en générant des sous-ensembles, des permutations et des relations d'équivalence. On applique ce cadre à l'étude des réseaux cognitifs et des réseaux à forte mobilité. On analyse les moments de matrices de Vandermonde aléatoires avec des entrées sur le cercle unitaire. On utilise ces moments et les détecteurs à expansion polynomiale pour décrire des détecteurs à faible complexité du signal transmis par des utilisateurs mobiles à une station de base (ou avec deux stations de base) représentée par des réseaux linéaires uniformes. / In this thesis, we focus on the analysis of the moments method, showing its importance in the application of random matrices to wireless communication. This study is conducted in the free probability framework. The concept of free convolution/deconvolution can be used to predict the spectrum of sums or products of random matrices which are asymptotically free. In this framework, we show that the moments method is very appealing and powerful in order to derive the moments/asymptotic moments for cases when the property of asymptotic freeness does not hold. In particular, we focus on Gaussian random matrices with finite dimensions and structured matrices as Vandermonde matrices. We derive the explicit series expansion of the eigenvalue distribution of various models, as noncentral Wishart distributions, as well as correlated zero mean Wishart distributions. We describe an inference framework so flexible that it is possible to apply it for repeated combinations of random ma- trices. The results that we present are implemented generating subsets, permutations, and equivalence relations. We developped a Matlab routine code in order to perform convolution or deconvolution numerically in terms of a set of input moments. We apply this inference framework to the study of cognitive networks, as well as to the study of wireless networks with high mobility. We analyze the asymptotic moments of random Vandermonde matrices with entries on the unit circle. We use them and polynomial expansion detectors in order to design a low complexity linear MMSE decoder to recover the signal transmitted by mobile users to a base station or two base stations, represented by uniform linear arrays.