The continuous advancement in wireless communications technology demands new approaches to improving the capacity of existing radio links. The high data throughput required can be achieved by the complete utilization of space, time and polarization diversities inherent in any propagation environment. Among the different propagation scenarios, the indoor channels represent a particularly challenging problem given the number and complexity of interactions between the transmitted signal and the environment. This dissertation explores the interrelation between propagation physics and space-time-polarization diversity based on a novel high resolution channel sounding and reconstruction technique. First, a method to reconstruct the indoor complex channel response based on a limited set of samples and the elimination of the interference using deconvolution techniques is presented. Then, the results for the joint angle-of-arrival, delay characterization and depolarization of electromagnetic waves are presented. Finally, a novel approach to using depolarized multipath signals to boost the receiver signal-to-noise performance is presented. The current study shows that full utilization of the diversities of channel novel wireless systems can be proposed with significant improvement in capacity.

The continuous advancement in wireless communications technology demands new approaches to improving the capacity of existing radio links. The high data throughput required can be achieved by the complete utilization of space, time and polarization diversities inherent in any propagation environment. Among the different propagation scenarios, the indoor channels represent a particularly challenging problem given the number and complexity of interactions between the transmitted signal and the environment. This dissertation explores the interrelation between propagation physics and space-time-polarization diversity based on a novel high resolution channel sounding and reconstruction technique. First, a method to reconstruct the indoor complex channel response based on a limited set of samples and the elimination of the interference using deconvolution techniques is presented. Then, the results for the joint angle-of-arrival, delay characterization and depolarization of electromagnetic waves are presented. Finally, a novel approach to using depolarized multipath signals to boost the receiver signal-to-noise performance is presented. The current study shows that full utilization of the diversities of channel novel wireless systems can be proposed with significant improvement in capacity.

De nos jours, il existe de nombreuses antennes de radiogoniométrie UHF large bande ou multibandes, néanmoins très peu d’entre elles permettent une couverture angulaire 3D. A notre connaissance, la première antenne de radiogoniométrie 3D fût étudiée dans les années 1960, par une équipe de l’université du Michigan. Composée de 17 capteurs positionnés sur une surface hémisphérique, sa taille et son nombre d’éléments en font un dispositif encombrant et complexe à utiliser. De récentes études ont proposé une autre approche basée sur la mesure multicomposante du champ électromagnétique, permettant de réduire la taille des antennes et le nombre d’éléments tout en conservant une couverture angulaire 3D. Cependant, à ce jours, seul des systèmes HF (3MHz-30MHz) ou bande étroite ont été abordés. Cette thèse porte donc sur l’étude et le développement d’une antenne vectorielle UHF multibande appliquée à la radiogoniométrie 3D pour des ondes transverses magnétiques. Tout d’abord, deux techniques de goniométrie adaptées à cette approche sont confrontées : une nouvelle technique basée sur la décomposition en harmonique sphérique du rayonnement de l’antenne qui permet de recomposer le champ électromagnétique reçu à partir d’échantillons mesurés et un algorithme bien connu, MUSIC. Une méthodologie de conception est proposée, en identifiant les critères physiques des antennes vectorielles qui influent sur leurs performances à savoir la précision d’estimation, la sensibilité, le nombre d’éléments et l’encombrement. Cette méthode est utilisée pour développer et réaliser une première antenne vectorielle monobande. La caractérisation de cette antenne réaliste permet d’écarter la première technique de traitement dont les performances sont trop sensibles aux perturbations de rayonnement. Une antenne vectorielle bibande compacte, d’un rayon de λ/4 et d’une hauteur de λ/5.5 à la fréquence la plus basse, composée de seulement six éléments rayonnants couvrant chacun les bandes de fréquences GSM [890MHz-960MHz] et [1710MHZ-1880MHz] est ensuite développée en se basant sur cette méthode de conception. Les capteurs électriques et magnétiques constituant l’antenne sont étudiés séparément puis assemblés selon une répartition spatiale planaire pour restreindre l’encombrement. Les structures rayonnantes sont communes pour les deux bandes de fréquences ce qui permet réduire le nombre d’éléments ainsi que les éventuelles perturbations de rayonnement. Après la caractérisation de l’antenne bibande au travers de simulations numériques, un prototype est réalisé et ses performances d’estimation sont mesurées en chambre anéchoïque afin de valider l’approche par simulation. La sensibilité obtenue est de -110dBW/m² (85μV/m) pour une précision de 5° RMS. Enfin l’étude est élargie au cas général d’antennes multibandes en illustrant le processus d’extension de la couverture fréquentielle par l’ajout d’une troisième bande, [400MHz-430MHz]. Six nouveaux éléments sont donc développés et intégrés aux capteurs GSM existants afin d’obtenir une antenne tribande d’un rayon de λ/3.2 et d’une hauteur de λ/12.5 à 400MHz. Malgré une légère augmentation de l’erreur d’estimation, causée par la présence de ces nouveaux éléments, la caractérisation de cette nouvelle antenne tribande montre de bonnes performances d’estimation avec une sensibilité de -105dBW/m² (155μV/m) pour une précision de 5° RMS. / Nowadays, a lot of wideband or multiband direction finding antennas operating in the UHF band exist. Nevertheless, only few of them allow to estimate the direction of arrival in the full 3D space. At the author’s knowledge, the first 3D direction finding antenna was studied in the 1960s, at the University of Michigan. Composed of 17 sensors, located on a large hemispherical surface, this antenna is bulky and complex to use. Recently, some studies have proposed another approach based on the multicomponent measurement of the electromagnetic field that allows to decrease the antennas size and the number of radiating elements without reducing the 3D angular coverage. However, only HF (3-30MHz) or narrowband systems have been reported. The objective of this PhD is to study and to develop an UHF multiband vector sensor applied to the estimation of the direction of arrival of transverse magnetic waves in the full 3D space. Firstly, two signal processing techniques adapted to this approach are compared : a new technique based on the spherical harmonic decomposition of the antenna radiation which allows to recompose the received electromagnetic field from the measured samples and a well-known high resolution algorithm called MUSIC. A design methodology allowing to identify the physical criteria of vector sensors related to the antenna performances such as the estimation accuracy, the sensitivity, the number of elements and the antenna size is proposed. This method is used for developing and designing a first single-band vector sensor. The results obtained from numerical simulations allow to rule out the first signal processing technique which is too sensitive to the radiation perturbations. Then, a compact dual-band vector sensor operating in the GSM frequency band, [890MHz-960MHz] and [1710MHZ-1880MHz], is developed by using the same design methodology. The antenna size is λ/4 in radius and λ/5.5 in height at the lowest frequency. The electric and magnetic elements which compose the vector sensors are designed separately and then combined according to a planar spatial distribution to retain a compact antenna size. The same radiating structures are used for operating in the two frequency bands in order to reduce the number of elements and the eventual radiation perturbations. After the performances assessment through numerical simulations in each band, a prototype is manufactured and its estimation performances are measured for a validation purpose. The sensitivity is -110dBW.m−2 (85μV.m−1) for a 5◦ RMS angular accuracy. Finally, the study is extended to the general case of multiband antennas by adding a third band, [400MHz-430MHz]. New elements are developed and incorporated into the dual-band GSM sensors to obtain a tri-band vector sensor. The size of this new antenna is λ/3.2 in radius and λ/12.5 in height at 400MHz. Despite a slight increase of the angular errors in the estimation of the direction of arrival caused by the presence of the new antenna elements, the characterization of the tri-band sensor performances by simulation show a good accuracy with a sensitivity valued at -105dBW.m−2 (155μV.m−1) for a 5◦ RMS angular accuracy.

This dissertation explores the role of polarization, combining, and equalization operating over frequency-selective channels to improve the reliability of wireless communications systems in terms of BER for two applications: 5G mobile networks (operating in the mmWave band and NR FR1), and aeronautical mobile telemetry systems (operating in L band). The equivalent discrete-time models for a variety of spatial combining techniques at 5G mmWave bands were derived to investigate the performance of co-located cross-polarized antenna elements when polarization diversity is used and also when a combination of spatial and cross-polarized antennas is exploited. In both cases, ML combining has the lowest BER and EPC produced the worst results. The use of co-located cross-polarized antenna elements also is examined in 5G FR1 assuming post-FFT processing of the two antenna element outputs in a mobile-to-mobile setting. The optimum strategy, in the ML sense, for incorporating the two antenna outputs is developed. The optimum combining strategy together with a FDE is compared to the traditional combining techniques: MRC, EGC, and SC, where the last two also require a FDE. Computer simulations performed over a stochastic channel model with polarization state information show that the difference between ML detection and MRC (the best performing methods) and SC with FDE (the worst performing method) is 2 dB. The similar results were observed with pilot based channel estimators, however the difference in this case was the presence of a BER floor at low values of $N_0$ and caused by channel estimation errors. In aeronautical mobile telemetry applications, the ML combiner is derived and shown to be equivalent to the summing the outputs of two filters matched to the channels in the horizontal and vertical polarization states. For historical reasons, current systems combine right-hand and left-hand circularly polarized antenna feed outputs using a MRC. To compare the two combining approaches, the aeronautical telemetry multipath channel was extended to include polarization state information. The simulation results for SOQPSK-TG with a CMA equalizer show that the post-equalizer BER for the two approaches is the same.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / In urbanized terrain, radiowave propagation is subjected to fading on large-scales and smallscales that would impede on the quality and reliability of data link transmission. This would have implications in many military applications. One example is the performance of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) data and communications links in complex urban environments. The purpose of this research is to study the effectiveness of diversity techniques on the performance of urban UAV data and communications links. The techniques investigated were spatial, polarization, and angle diversities. The ray tracing software, Urbana Wireless Toolset, was used in the modeling and simulation process. The various combinations of diversity techniques were simulated using a realistic urban city model. For the few transmit-receive geometries examined, it was found that angle diversity with a directive antenna provided the greatest increase in signal strength relative to the no diversity case. / Civilian, Singapore DOD

Today, owners of small communicating device are interested in transmitting or receiving various multimedia data. By increasing the number of antennas at the transmitter and/or the receiver side of the wireless link, the diversity/Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) techniques can increase wireless channel capacity without the need for additional power or spectrum in rich scattering environments. However, due to the limited space of small mobile devices, the correlation coefficients between MIMO antenna elements are very high and the total efficiencies of MIMO elements degrade severely. Furthermore, the human body causes high losses on electromagnetic wave. During the applications, the presence of users may result in the significant reduction of the antenna total efficiencies and highly affects the correlations of MIMO antenna systems. The aims of this thesis are to investigate and enhance the MIMO/diversity performance of multiple antenna systems in the free space and the presence of users. The background and theory of multiple antenna systems are introduced briefly first. Several figures of merits are provided and discussed to evaluate the multiple antenna systems. The decoupling techniques are investigated in the multiple antenna systems operating at the higher frequencies (above 1.7 GHz) and with high radiation efficiency. The single, dual and wide band isolation enhancements are realized through the half-wavelength decoupling slot, quarter-wavelength decoupling slot with T-shaped impedance transformer, tree-like parasitic element with multiple resonances, as well as the different polarizations and radiation patterns of multiple antennas. In the lower bands (lower than 960 MHz), due to the low radiation efficiency and strong chassis mode, the work mainly focused on how to directly reduce the correlations and enlarge the total efficiency. A new mode of mutual scattering mode is introduced. By increasing the Q factors, the radiation patterns of multiple antennas are separated automatically to reduce the correlations. With the inter-element distance larger than a certain distance, a higher Q factor also improved the total efficiency apart from the low correlation. A wideband LTE MIMO antenna with multiple resonances is proposed in mobile terminals. The high Q factors required for the low correlation and high efficiencies in mutual scattering mode is reduced with another mode of diagonal antenna-chassis mode. Hence, the bandwidth of wideband LTE MIMO antenna with multiple resonances mentioned above can be further enlarged while maintaining the good MIMO/diversity performance. The user effects are studied in different MIMO antenna types, chassis lengths, frequencies, port phases and operating modes. Utilizing these usefully information, an adaptive quad-element MAS has been proposed to reduce the user effects and the some geranial rules not limited to the designed MAS have also been given. / <p>QC 20130121</p> / EU Erasmus Mundus External Cooperation Window TANDEM

Nowadays, silicon photonics is a widely studied research topic. Its high-index-contrast and compatibility with the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology make it a promising platform for low cost high density integration. Several general problems have been brought up, including the lack of silicon active devices, the difficulty of light coupling, the polarization dependence, etc. This thesis aims to give new attempts to novel solutions for some of these problems. Both theoretical modeling and experimental work have been done. Several numerical methods are reviewed first. The semi-vectorial finite-difference mode solver in cylindrical coordinate system is developed and it is mainly used for calculating the eigenmodes of the waveguide structures employed in this thesis. The finite-difference time-domain method and beam propagation method are also used to analyze the light propagation in complex structures. The fabrication and characterization technologies are studied. The fabrication is mainly based on clean room facilities, including plasma assisted film deposition, electron beam lithography and dry etching. The vertical coupling system is mainly used for characterization in this thesis. Compared with conventional butt-coupling system, it can provide much higher coupling efficiency and larger alignment tolerance. Two novel couplers related to silicon photonic wires are studied. In order to improve the coupling efficiency of a grating coupler, a nonuniform grating is theoretically designed to maximize the overlap between the radiated light profile and the optical fiber mode. Over 60% coupling efficiency is obtained experimentally. Another coupler facilitating the light coupling between silicon photonic wires and slot waveguides is demonstrated, both theoretically and experimentally. Almost lossless coupling is achieved in experiments. Two approaches are studied to realize polarization insensitive devices based on silicon photonic wires. The first one is the use of a sandwich waveguide structure to eliminate the polarization dependent wavelength of a microring resonator. By optimizing the multilayer structure, we successfully eliminate the large birefringence in an ultrasmall ring resonator. Another approach is to use polarization diversity scheme. Two key components of the scheme are studied. An efficient polarization beam splitter based on a one-dimensional grating coupler is theoretically designed and experimentally demonstrated. This polarization beam splitter can also serve as an efficient light coupler between silicon-on-insulator waveguides and optical fibers. Over 50% coupling efficiency for both polarizations and -20dB extinction ratio between them are experimentally obtained. A compact polarization rotator based on silicon photonic wire is theoretically analyzed. 100% polarization conversion is achievable and the fabrication tolerance is relatively large by using a compensation method. A novel integration platform based on nano-epitaxial lateral overgrowth technology is investigated to realize monolithic integration of III-V materials on silicon. A silica mask is used to block the threading dislocations from the InP seed layer on silicon. Technologies such as hydride vapor phase epitaxy and chemical-mechanical polishing are developed. A thin dislocation free InP layer on silicon is obtained experimentally. / QC20100705

The scope of this dissertation is to investigate the merits and implications of using multilevel modulation formats in optical communications systems. Following the trend in academia and industry, special focus is placed on quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK), and specifically on polarization division multiplexed (PDM) QPSK. A special kind of receiver is investigated thoroughly, the digital coherent receiver, the equivalent of the coherent quadrature demodulator in classical communications nomenclature. A large number of digital signal processing (DSP) algorithms are implemented, some of them novel, and their performance is examined, analyzed, and compared in a number of practical system scenarios. The impact of transmitter / receiver imperfections and a number of optical fiber impairments on system performance is studied. Experimental results taken from proof-of-concept experiments are also analyzed. / Η διατριβή αυτή έχει ως σκοπό τη μελέτη οπτικών τηλεπικοινωνιακών συστημάτων που χρησιμοποιούν τετραδικές διαμορφώσεις φάσης, πολυπλεξία κατά πόλωση και σύμφωνους ψηφιακούς δέκτες διαφοροποίησης φάσης και πόλωσης. Μελετήθηκαν αλγόριθμοι επεξεργασίας σήματος κατάλληλοι για εξάλειψη της επίδρασης των φαινομένων διάδοσης και των μη ιδανικοτήτων οπτικών τηλεπικοινωνιακών συστημάτων. Η μελέτη έγινε με προσομοίωση Monte-Carlo, με χρήση ημιαναλυτικής μεθόδου προσδιορισμού της πιθανότητας σφάλματος τηλεπικοινωνιακού συστήματος και με ανάλυση πειραματικών δεδομένων. Τα πειραματικά δεδομένα ελήφθησαν από οπτικό τηλεπικοινωνιακό σύστημα με τετραδική διαμόρφωση φάσης και πολυπλεξία κατά πόλωση με ρυθμούς συμβόλων 0.1-10 GBd (0.4-40 Gb/s). Μελετήθηκαν αλγόριθμοι επανένωσης των πολώσεων, αλγόριθμοι αποπολύπλεξης των πολώσεων, αλγόριθμοι διόρθωσης της ανισοσταθμίας ορθογωνιότητας, αλγόριθμοι εκτίμησης και αφαίρεσης της ενδιάμεσης συχνότητας και αλγόριθμοι εκτίμησης και αφαίρεσης του θορύβου φάσης των laser.

Dans ce travail de thèse, on s'intéresse é l'emploi de techniques de traitement de signal de systèmes de communication MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) pour des applications aux réseaux de capteurs sans fil. Les contraintes énergétiques de cette classe de réseau font appel à des topologies particulières et le réseau peut être perçu comme étant un ensemble de grappes de nœuds capteurs. Ceci ouvre la porte à des techniques avancées de communication de type MIMO. Dans un premier temps, les différents aspects caractérisant les réseaux de capteurs sans fil sont introduits. Puis, les efforts engagés pour optimiser la conservation de l'énergie dans ces réseaux sont résumés. Les concepts de base de systèmes MIMOs sont abordés dans le deuxième chapitre et l'exploration par voie numérique de différentes pistes de la technologie MIMO sont exposées. Nous nous intéressons à des techniques de diversité de polarisation dans le cadre de milieux de communication riches en diffuseurs. Par la suite, des méthodes de type beamforming sont proposées pour la localisation dans les réseaux de capteurs sans fil. Le nouvel algorithme de localisation est présenté et les performances sont évaluées. Nous identifions la configuration pour la communication inter-grappes qui permet pour les meilleurs compromis entre énergie et efficacité spectrale dans les réseaux de capteurs sans fil. Finalement, nous envisageons la technique de sélection de nœuds capteurs afin de réduire la consommation de l'énergie dans le réseau de capteur sans fil. / The aim of this work is to study from a signal processing point of view the use of MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) communication systems for algorithms dedicated to wireless sensor networks. We investigate energy-constrained wireless sensor networks and we focus on cluster topology of the network. This topology permits for the use of MIMO communication system model. First, we review different aspects that characterize the wireless sensor network. Then, we introduce the existing strategies for energy conservation in the network. The basic concepts of MIMO systems are presented in the second chapter and numerical results are provided for evaluating the performances of MIMO techniques. Of particular interest, polarization diversity over rich scattering environment is studied. Thereafter, beamforming approach is proposed for the development of an original localization algorithm in wireless sensor network. The novel algorithm is described and performances are evaluated by simulation. We determine the optimal system configuration between a pair of clusters that permits for the highest capacity to energy ratio in the fourth chapter. The final chapter is devoted to sensor nodes selection in wireless sensor network. The aim of using such technique is to make energy conservation in the network.