Equalization for OFDM over doubly selective channels

In this paper, we propose a time-domain as well as a frequency-domain per-tone equalization for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) over doubly selective channels. We consider the most general case, where the channel delay spread is larger than the cyclic prefix (CP), which results in interblock interference (IBI). IBI in conjunction with the Doppler effect destroys the orthogonality between subcarriers and, hence, results in severe intercarrier interference (ICI). In this paper, we propose a time-varying finite-impulse-response (TV-FIR) time-domain equalizer (TEQ) to restore the orthogonality between subcarriers, and hence to eliminate ICI/IBI. Due to the fact that the TEQ optimizes the performance over all subcarriers in a joint fashion, it has a poor performance. An optimal frequency-domain per-tone equalizer (PTEQ) is then obtained by transferring the TEQ operation to the frequency domain. Through computer simulations, we demonstrate the performance of the proposed equalization techniques.     

Linear and decision-feedback per tone equalization for DMT-based transmission over IIR channels

The per-tone equalizer (PTEQ) has been presented as an attractive alternative for the classical time-domain equalizer (TEQ) in discrete multitone (DMT) based systems, such as ADSL systems. The PTEQ is based on a linear minimum mean-square-error (L-MMSE) equalizer design for each separate tone. In this paper, we reconsider DMT modulation and equalization in the ADSL context under the realistic assumption of an infinite impulse response (IIR) model for the wireline channel. First, optimum linear zero-forcing (L-ZF) block equalizers for arbitrary IIR model orders and cyclic prefix (CP) lengths are developed. It is shown that these L-ZF block equalizers can be decoupled per tone, hence they lead to an L-ZF PTEQ. Then, based on the L-ZF PTEQ, low-complexity L-MMSE PTEQ extensions are developed: the linear PTEQ extension exploits frequency-domain transmit redundancy from pilot and unused tones; alternatively, a closely related decision-feedback PTEQ extension can be applied. The PTEQ extensions then add flexibility to a DMT-based system design: the CP overhead can be reduced by exploiting frequency-domain transmit redundancy instead, so that a similar bitrate as with the original PTEQ is achieved at a lower memory and computational cost or, alternatively, a higher bitrate is achieved without a considerable cost increase. Both PTEQ extensions are also shown to improve the receiver's robustness to narrow-band interference.     

Per-tone equalization for MIMO OFDM systems

This paper focuses on multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems with channel order larger than the cyclic prefix (CP) length. Writing the demodulating fast Fourier transform (FFT) as a sliding FFT followed by a downsampling operation, we show in this paper that by swapping the filtering operations of the MIMO channel and the sliding FFT, the data model for the temporally smoothened received signal of each individual tone of the MIMO OFDM system is very similar to the data model for the temporally smoothened received signal of a MIMO single-carrier (SC) system. As a result, to recover the data symbol vectors, the conventional equalization approach for MIMO SC systems can be applied to each individual tone of the MIMO OFDM system. This so-called per-tone equalization (PTEQ) approach for MIMO OFDM systems is an attractive alternative to the recently developed time-domain equalization (TEQ) approach for MIMO OFDM systems. In the second part of this paper, we focus on direct per-tone equalizer design and adapt an existing semi-blind equalizer design method for space-time block coding (STBC) SC systems to the corresponding semi-blind per-tone equalizer design method for STBC OFDM systems.     

Adaptive bit rate maximizing time-domain equalizer design for DMT-based systems

The classical discrete multitone receiver as used in, e.g., digital subscriber line (DSL) modems, combines a channel shortening time-domain equalizer (TEQ) with one-tap frequency-domain equalizers (FEQs). In a previous paper, the authors proposed a nonlinear bit rate maximizing (BM) TEQ design criterion and they have shown that the resulting BM-TEQ and the closely related BM per-group equalizers (PGEQs) approach the performance of the so-called per-tone equalizer (PTEQ). The PTEQ is an attractive alternative that provides a separate complex-valued equalizer for each active tone. In this paper, the authors show that the BM-TEQ and BM-PGEQ, despite their nonlinear cost criterion, can be designed adaptively, based on a recursive Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. This adaptive BM-TEQ/BM-PGEQ makes use of the same second-order statistics as the earlier presented recursive least-squares (RLS)-based adaptive PTEQ. A complete range of adaptive BM equalizers then opens up: the RLS-based adaptive PTEQ design is computationally efficient but involves a large number of equalizer taps; the adaptive BM-TEQ has a minimal number of equalizer taps at the expense of a larger design complexity; the adaptive BM-PGEQ has a similar design complexity as the BM-TEQ and an intermediate number of equalizer taps between the BM-TEQ and the PTEQ. These adaptive equalizers allow us to track variations of transmission channel and noise, which are typical of a DSL environment.     

MIMO OFDM系统中的Turbo子载波均衡

在MIMO OFDM系统中,为了对抗同天线干扰及由于保护间隔不足而引起的码间干扰和载波间干扰,该文给出了一种基于MMSE的Turbo子载波均衡器。在该算法中,软输入软输出(SISO)的子载波均衡器与软输入软输出(SISO)解码器通过迭代进行软信息交换。仿真结果表明,与非迭代的子载波均衡器相比,该文给出的Turbo子载波均衡器能够有效利用时间和空间分集,使系统性能得到了改善。     

Iterative MAP Equalization and Decoding in Wireless Mobile Coded OFDM

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system suffers extra performance degradation in fast fading channels due to intercarrier interference (ICI). Combining frequency domain equalization and bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM), the iterative receiver is able to harvest both temporal and frequency diversity. Realizing that ICI channels are intrinsically ISI channels, this paper proposes a soft-in soft-out (SISO) maximum a posteriori (MAP) equalizer by extending Ungerboeck's maximum likelihood sequence estimator (MLSE) formulation to ICI channels. The SISO MAP equalizer employs BCJR algorithm and computes the bit log-likelihood ratios (LLR) for the entire received sequence by efficiently constructing a trellis that takes into account of the ICI channel structure. A reduced state (RS) formulation of the SISO MAP equalizer which provides good performance/complexity tradeoff is also described. Utilizing the fact that ICI energy is clustered in adjacent subcarriers, frequency domain equalization is made localized. This paper further proposes two computational efficient linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE) based equalization methods: recursive q-tap SIC-LMMSE equalizer and recursive Sliding-Window (SW) SIC-LMMSE equalizer respectively. Simulations results demonstrate that the iterative SISO RS-MAP equalizer achieves the performance of no ICI with normalized Doppler frequency f_dT_s up to 20.46% in realistic mobile WiMAX environment.     

Modified Frequency-Domain Equalization for Channel Shortening in Reduced-CP OFDMA Systems

In orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, the cyclic prefix (CP) length needs to be no less than the longest delay spread of the channels of many users, reducing bandwidth efficiency more significantly than in single-user orthogonal frequency division multiplexing systems. In this paper, we address OFDMA downlink data transmission when a short CP is used to mitigate the inefficient bandwidth usage. Previous time-domain equalizers (TEQs) can be used to shorten the channel; however, they tend to increase noise by introducing spectral nulls. A previous work on per-tone equalization (PTEQ) structure involves a multitap frequency-domain equalizer (FEQ) for each tone, and shows better performance than TEQ-based receiver structure. We propose a novel receiver structure with only one-tap FEQ for OFDMA systems with a reduced CP, exploiting the unused subchannels for a user. We formulate an optimization problem to set the FEQ coefficients at the unused subchannels such that the channel is shortened (approximation is involved) and noise is not enhanced at the used subchannels. With the aid of computer simulations, it is demonstrated that the proposed equalization method is superior to the conventional TEQ-based receivers, and is comparable to the previous PTEQ-based receiver in terms of the achievable SNR, error performance, and bandwidth efficiency. Although the throughput curve versus synchronization delay of the PTEQ is smoother than that of the proposed receiver, the proposed method shows proper throughput over a wider range of the delay values than PTEQ receiver when the system parameters are set so that the complexities are comparable.     

Bitrate-maximizing time-domain equalizer design for DMT-based systems

A time-domain equalizer (TEQ) is inserted in discrete multitone (DMT) receivers to impose channel shortening. Many algorithms have been developed to initialize this TEQ, but none of them really optimizes the bitrate. We present a truly bitrate-maximizing TEQ (BM-TEQ) cost function that is based on an exact formulation of the subchannel signal-to-noise ratio as a function of the TEQ taps. The performance of this BM-TEQ comes close to the performance of the per-tone equalizer.     

Semi-Blind Time-Domain Equalization for MIMO-OFDM Systems

In this paper, a semi-blind time-domain equalization technique is proposed for general multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The received OFDM symbols are shifted by more than or equal to the cyclic prefix (CP) length, and a blind equalizer is designed to completely suppress both intercarrier interference (ICI) and intersymbol interference (ISI) using second-order statistics of the shifted received OFDM symbols. Only a one-tap equalizer is needed to detect the time-domain signals from the blind equalizer output, and one pilot OFDM symbol is utilized to estimate the required channel state information for the design of the one-tap equalizer. The technique is applicable irrespective of whether the CP length is longer than, equal to, or shorter than the channel length. Computer simulations show that the proposed technique outperforms the existing techniques, and it is robust against the number of shifts in excess of the CP length.     

OFDM系统在循环前缀不足时的两种高效迭代均衡方法

本文提出两种新的用于循环前缀(CP)不足时正交频分复用(OFDM)系统的迭代均衡方法。首先,我们提出并行迭代均衡(PIE)方法,该方法分别使用时域判决反馈方法和频域并行迭代方法来消除符号间干扰(ISI)和子载频间干扰(ICI)。为了改进PIE的性能,提出基于高斯-塞德尔迭代的串行迭代均衡(SIE)方法。在不增加计算复杂度的情况下,SIE具有比PIE更快的收敛速度。仿真结果表明,新方法可以在几次迭代后得到接近CP足够情况下的系统性能,PIE的性能与传统的迭代干扰消除方法相同,而SIE则提供好得多的收敛性能。     

ICI cancellation for OFDM communication systems in time-varying multipath fading channels

In orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, time-varying multipath fading leads to the loss of subcarrier orthogonality and the occurrence of intercarrier interference (ICI). In this study, an efficient ICI suppression with less noise enhancement for multicarrier equalization is presented by using a parallel canceling scheme via frequency-domain equalization techniques, with the assumption that the channel impulse response (CIR) varies linearly during a block period. In order to avoid performance deterioration due to unreliable initial estimations in the parallel cancellation scheme, a cost function with proper weighting factor is introduced to improve the performance of the proposed equalizer. The proposed equalizer consists of a set of prefilters and a set of ICI cancellation filters, with two stages to perform different functions to achieve minimum mean square error (MMSE) equalization. The prefilters compensate for the multiplicative distortion at the first stage, and the ICI cancellation filters remove the effects of ICI by a parallel cancellation scheme at the second stage. Finally, the performance of the proposed equalizer is analyzed and compared with that of other equalizers, indicating significant performance improvement.     

Time-Domain Block and Per-Tone Equalization for MIMO–OFDM in Shallow Underwater Acoustic Communication

Shallow underwater acoustic (UWA) channel exhibits rapid temporal variations, extensive multipath spreads, and severe frequency-dependent attenuations. So, high data rate communication with high spectral efficiency in this challenging medium requires efficient system design. Multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (MIMO–OFDM) is a promising solution for reliable transmission over highly dispersive channels. In this paper, we study the equalization of shallow UWA channels when a MIMO–OFDM transmission scheme is used. We address simultaneously the long multipath spread and rapid temporal variations of the channel. These features lead to interblock interference (IBI) along with intercarrier interference (ICI), thereby degrading the system performance. We describe the underwater channel using a general basis expansion model (BEM), and propose time-domain block equalization techniques to jointly eliminate the IBI and ICI. The block equalizers are derived based on minimum mean-square error and zero-forcing criteria. We also develop a novel approach to design two time-domain per-tone equalizers, which minimize bit error rate or mean-square error in each subcarrier. We simulate a typical shallow UWA channel to demonstrate the desirable performance of the proposed equalization techniques in Rayleigh and Rician fading channels.     

Combined RLS-LMS initialization for per tone equalizers in DMT-receivers

In discrete multitone receivers, the classical equalizer structure consists of a (real) time domain equalizer (TEQ) combined with complex one-tap frequency domain equalizers. An alternative receiver is based on a per tone equalization (PTEQ), which optimizes the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) on each tone separately and, hence, the total bitrate. In this paper, a new initialization scheme for the PTEQ is introduced, based on a combination of least mean squares (LMS) and recursive least squares (RLS) adaptive filtering. It is shown that the proposed method has only slightly slower convergence than full square-root RLS (SR-RLS) while complexity as well as memory cost are reduced considerably. Hence, in terms of complexity and convergence speed, the proposed algorithm is in between LMS and RLS.     

RLS-based initialization for per-tone equalizers in DMT receivers

Per-tone equalization has recently been proposed as an alternative receiver structure for discrete multitone-based systems improving upon the well-known structure based on time-domain equalization. Fast initialization of all the equalizer coefficients has been identified as an open problem. In this letter, a recursive initialization scheme based on recursive least squares with inverse updating is presented for the per-tone equalizers. Simulation results show convergence with an acceptably small number of training symbols. Complexity calculations are made for per-tone equalization and for the case where tones are grouped. It is demonstrated with an example that in the latter case, initialization complexity becomes sufficiently low and comparable to complexity during data transmission.     

Iterative frequency-domain channel estimation and equalization for single-carrier transmissions without cyclic-prefix

Compared to conventional time-domain equalization, frequency-domain equalization (FDE) presents a computationally efficient alternative for the reception of single carrier (SC) transmissions. In this paper, we consider iterative FDE (IFDE) with explicit frequency-domain channel estimation (FDCE) for non-cyclic-prefixed SC systems. First, an improved IFDE algorithm is presented based on soft iterative interferencecancellation. Second, a new adaptive FDCE (AFDCE) algorithm based on per-tone Kalman filtering is proposed to track and predict the frequency-domain channel coefficients. The AFDCE algorithm employs across-tone noise reduction, exploits temporal correlation between successive blocks, and adaptively updates the auto-regressive model coefficients, bypassing the need for prior knowledge of channel statistics. Finally, block-overlapping is used to facilitate the joint operation of IFDE and AFDCE. Simulation results show that, compared to related IFDE and adaptive channel estimation schemes, the proposed schemes offer lower mean-square error (MSE) in channel prediction, lower bit error rate (BER) after decoding, and robustness to non-stationary channels.     

双选择性信道条件下MIMO-OFDM系统中的ICI抑制及频域Turbo均衡

分析了双选择性信道条件下MIMO-OFDM系统的ICI产生原理,提出了一种以最大化缩短信干噪比(MSSINR,maximum shortening the signal to inter-carrier interference plus noise ratio)为目标的频域ICI抑制算法及其简化算法;在此基础上将Turbo均衡技术应用到MIMO-OFDM系统中,提出了一种基于MSSINR频域ICI抑制的频域Turbo均衡(FTE,frequency-domain Turbo equalization)算法,并进行了数值仿真和比较分析。     

Novel semi-blind ICI equalization algorithm for wireless OFDM systems

Intercarrier interference is deemed as one of the crucial problems in the wireless orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The conventional ICI mitigation schemes involve the frequency-domain channel estimation or the additional coding, both of which require the spectral overhead and hence lead to the significant throughput reduction. Besides, the OFDM receivers using the ICI estimation rely on a large-dimensional matrix inverter with high computational complexity especially for many subcarriers such as digital video broadcasting (DVB) systems and wireless metropolitan-area networks (WMAN). To the best of our knowledge, no semi-blind ICI equalization has been addressed in the existing literature. Thus, in this paper, we propose a novel semi-blind ICI equalization scheme using the joint multiple matrix diagonalization (JMMD) algorithm to greatly reduce the intercarrier interference in OFDM. However, the well-known phase and permutation indeterminacies emerge in all blind equalization schemes. Hence we also design a few OFDM pilot blocks and propose an iterative identification method to determine the corresponding phase and permutation variants in our semi-blind scheme. Our semi-blind ICI equalization algorithm integrating the JMMD with the additional pilot-based iterative identification is very promising for the future high-throughput OFDM systems. Through Monte Carlo simulations, the QPSK-OFDM system with our proposed semi-blind ICI equalizer can achieve significantly better performance with symbol error rate reduction in several orders-of-magnitude. For the 16QAM-OFDM system, our scheme can also improve the performance over the plain OFDM system to some extent.     

A subband approach to channel estimation and equalization for DMT and OFDM systems

Cyclic prefix (CP) is commonly used for channel equalization of discrete multitone (DMT) and orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. This is often done in conjunction with a time-domain equalizer (TEQ) for reducing the capacity overhead caused by the CP. However, the use of TEQ greatly increases the computational cost, and is unable to eliminate the need for the CP. In this paper, we propose a subband approach to channel estimation and channel equalization for DMT and OFDM systems. This approach involves splitting the received signals into a number of frequency bands (called subbands), and estimating a constant parameter in each subband. The subband approach is conceptually simple, requires no CP, is much more numerically efficient than the TEQ method, and gives compatible or better estimation errors than the CP-based methods.     

Theoretical studies and efficient algorithm of semi-blind ICI equalization for OFDM

The intercarrier interference (ICI) due to the Doppler frequency shift, sampling clock offset, time-varying multipath fading and local oscillator frequency offset becomes the major difficulty for the data transmission via the wireless orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The existing ICI mitigation schemes involve the frequency-domain channel estimation/equalization or the additional coding and therefore require the pilot symbols which reduce the throughput. The frequency-domain channel estimation/equalization relies on the huge matrix inversion with high computational complexity especially for the OFDM technologies possessing many subcarriers such as digital video broadcasting (DVB) systems and wireless metropolitan-area networks (WMAN). In our previous work, we proposed a semi-blind ICI equalization scheme using the joint multiple matrix diagonalization (JMMD) algorithm and empirically showed that the proposed method significantly improved the symbol error rates for QPSK- and 16QAM-OFDM systems. In this paper, we discuss the sufficient condition for the theoretical ICI equalizability and also propose an alternative semi-blind ICI equalization method based on the joint approximate diagonalization of eigen-matrices (JADE) algorithm, which is much more computationally efficient than our previous method.     

Joint Frequency-Domain Multiuser Turbo Equalization with Successive Interference Cancellation for Doubly-Selective Fading Channels

A novel multiuser separation and equalization scheme is proposed for single carrier wireless communication systems integrating frequency-domain (FD) multiuser turbo equalization (MUTE) and successive interference cancellation (SIC). The proposed iterative structure consists of multiple layers of detection, and at each layer the user with strongest power is processed by a frequency-domain multiuser equalizer to yield the soft extrinsic information on the coded bits of that user, which is delivered to a channel decoder after deinterleaving. The extrinsic information gleaned by the decoder is fed back to both the current and previous multiuser equalizers for the next iteration as a-priori information. The soft symbols of the current user are evaluated by the a-posteriori information of coded bits provided by the multiuser equalizer, and the interference reconstructed by the current user’s soft symbols is canceled out from the received signals in frequency domain. The interference-canceled signals are fed forward to subsequent layers for detection of other users. The proposed scheme effectively mitigates multiple access interference and intersymbol interference by an iterative (turbo) detection method. Numerical simulation examples demonstrate that the proposed FD MUTE with SIC outperforms the traditional MMSE multiuser equalizer over the severely doubly-selective channels, and the bit-error-rate performance tends to be better with the increase of iterations.