RF front-ends are nonlinear systems that have nonlinear frequency response and, hence, can impair receiver performance by harmful adjacent channel interference in non-intuitive ways. Next generation wireless networks will see unprecedented diversity across receiver and radio technologies accessing the same band of spectrum in spatio-temporal proximity. Ensuring adjacent channel co-existence is of prime importance for successful deployment and operations of next generation wireless networks. Vulnerabilities of receiver front-end can have a severe detrimental effect on network performance and spectrum co-existence. This dissertation addresses the technological challenges in understanding and accounting for receiver sensitivities in the design of next generation wireless networks. The dissertation has four major contributions. In the first contribution, we seek to understand how receiver nonlinearity impacts performance. We propose a computationally efficient framework to evaluate the adjacent channel interference in a given radio/spectrum environment. We develop novel tractable representation of receiver front-end nonlinearity to specify the adjacent channel signals that contribute to the interference at the desired channel and the total adjacent channel interference power at a given desired channel. In the second contribution, we seek to understand how the impact of receiver nonlinearity performance can be quantified. We quantify receiver performance in the presence of adjacent channel interference using information theoretic metrics. We evaluate the limits on achievable rate accounting for RF front-end nonlinearity and provide a framework to compare disparate receivers by forming generalized metrics. In the third contribution, we seek to understand how the impact of receiver nonlinearity can be managed at the network level. We develop novel and comprehensive wireless network management frameworks that account for the RF nonlinearity, impairments, and diversity of heterogeneous wireless devices. We further develop computationally efficient algorithms to optimize the proposed framework and examine network level performance. We demonstrate through extensive network simulations that the proposed receiver-centric frameworks provide substantially high spectrum efficiency gains over receiver-agnostic spectrum access in dense and diverse next generation wireless networks. In the fourth contribution, we seek to understand how scalable interference networks are with receiver nonlinearity. We propose practical achievable schemes for interference avoidance and assess the scalability of the next generation wireless networks with interference due to receiver nonlinearity. Further, we develop an algorithmic scheme to evaluate the upper bound on scalability of nonlinear interference networks. This provides valuable insights on scalability and schemes for nonlinear adjacent channel interference avoidance in next generation shared spectrum networks. / Ph. D. / There has been a dramatic increase in the demand for mobile data, since the introduction of smartphones. Over the air transmission of data utilizes a natural resource called radio frequency spectrum. The efficient utilization of the radio frequency spectrum and clever wireless network management is key for satisfying this demand. Besides improving the quality of wireless services, efficient spectrum utilization will also have profound economic benefits and spur growth. It has been shown that spectrum is most efficiently used when shared among various services rather than licensed to specific users and communication systems. This implies that next generation wireless networks will comprise of diverse types of wireless devices. Thus, network design and regulation should ensure their harmonious co-existence. However, the practicality of spectrum sharing technology and regulation is still in its infancy. In particular, the effect of radio receiver performance and vulnerabilities from signals in the spectral neighborhood on spectrum regulation and management is not well understood. A detailed study and analysis of this is of paramount importance spectrum sharing and regulation in next generation wireless networks. In this dissertation we develop the fundamentals, limitations, and management strategies on the impact of receiver performance on efficient spectrum access and co-existence. In addition, this key insights to maximize network efficiency in next generation wireless systems are presented. The outcome of this dissertation will aid in developing frameworks to increase social awareness about low-quality wireless devices and their implications on capacity. In summary, this dissertation provides a the necessary foundations to understand, design, and optimize the next generation wireless networks, which will have far reaching economic and social benefits.

All wireless receivers have some degree of nonlinearity that can negatively impact performance. Two major effects from this nonlinearity are power compression, which leads to amplitude and phase distortions in the received signal, and desensitization caused by a high powered interfering signal at an adjacent channel. As the RF spectrum becomes more crowded, the interference caused by these adjacent signals will become a more significant problem for receiver design. Therefore, having bit and symbol error rate expressions that take the receiver nonlinearity into account will allow for determining the linearity requirements of a receiver. This thesis examines the modeling of the probability density functions of M-PAM and M-QAM signals through an AWGN channel taking into account the impact of receiver nonlinearity. A change of variables technique is used to provide a relationship between the pdf of these signals with a linear receiver and the pdf with a nonlinear receiver. Additionally, theoretical bit and symbol error rates are derived from the pdf expressions. Finally, this approach is extended by deriving pdf and error rate expressions for these signals when nearby blocking signals cause desensitization of the signal of interest. Matlab simulation shows that the derived expressions for a nonlinear receiver have the same accuracy as the accepted expressions for linear receivers. / Master of Science / All wireless receivers have some amount of nonlinearity that can distort a received signal and impact performance. For amplitude modulated signals, the power compression caused by the nonlinear receiver will cause distortions in the amplitude and phase of the received signal. Additionally, a high powered interfering signal at a close frequency can decrease the gain and distort the received signal. This thesis examines how the probability density of an amplitude modulated signal with a nonlinear receiver can be modeled for both of these situations. These theoretical probability density functions are used to derive theoretical error rate expressions for the signals both with and without the adjacent channel interference. Simulations in Matlab show that the accuracy of these derived expressions is similar to the accuracies of the linear receiver expressions. These derived expressions will be able to remove the need for time consuming simulation when designing receivers for wireless systems.