Design and analysis of transmitter diversity using intentionalfrequency offset for wireless communications

Coded modulation (usually with interleaving) is used in fading channel communications to achieve a good error performance. The major benefit from using coded modulation in fading channels is achieved if each code symbol of a codeword (or coded sequence) suffers statistically different fading (preferably independent fading). However, in many applications of mobile communications (e.g., in a metropolitan environment), a low vehicle speed (and hence, a small Doppler spread, f _D) is very common. With a small Doppler spread, ideal or close-to-ideal interleaving is no longer feasible and all code symbols of a codeword would suffer highly correlated fading especially in stationary fading (f_D≈0). Coded modulations will thus suffer seriously degraded performance. Previous performance analyses based on ideal interleaving are not accurate when a small Doppler spread is encountered and the much used union bound error probability analysis is loose for small Doppler spreads. To rectify this situation, this paper presents an improved performance analysis of coded modulations with correlated fading and pilot-symbol-assisted modulation (PSAM). Transmitter diversity can generate the necessary time-varying fading to maintain the effectiveness of a coded signaling scheme which this paper examines in detail using an intentional frequency offset between antennas. This work found that proper selections of the intentional frequency offset and interleaving depth can lead to good performance with traditional coded modulations (if enough antennas are used) using essentially the same simple demodulation structure as used in the traditional single-antenna PSAM     

A frame synchronization method for adaptive array antennas in digital mobile communications

This paper proposes a frame synchronization method for an adaptive array antenna (AAA) used in digital mobile communications. The proposed scheme, which is based on the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE), calculates error signals by subtracting a training sequence convolved with an estimated channel impulse response from the AAA outputs and searches for the timing that minimizes the mean squared errors. Because the proposed scheme can effectively exploit delayed paths of the desired signal, it can improve the synchronization performance on frequency-selective fading channels. Computer simulations show that the proposed scheme can operate properly even in interference-rich fading environments and that it can significantly improve the synchronization performance.     

Designs for pilot-symbol-assisted burst-mode communications with fading and frequency uncertainty

High performance and reasonable complexity have made pilot-symbol-assisted modulation (PSAM) of great practical interest in mobile communications. However, no previous work has investigated PSAM in burst-mode operation which is commonly encountered in multiple-access schemes (time-division or slow-frequency-hopped system). This paper examines the burst structure design problem in a frequency-flat fading environment. The explicit relationship between error performance and the design parameters, including pilot allocation, frequency offset, Doppler spread, and modulation scheme, is explored. Periodic pilot insertion commonly used for continuous transmission produces degraded performance in burst-mode operation. A new, unequal-pilot-spacing burst architecture is proposed in this paper to achieve better error performance. This work also focuses on the potential performance improvement of a frequency offset estimator and a Doppler spread estimator. The results show that an improvement up to 2.5 dB in SNR/bit can be attained by a Doppler spread estimator. A significant frequency offset can produce an irreducible error floor or a severe reduction in the throughput rate if no compensation is implemented. The performance degradation investigated in this paper can be used to determine the specification of the frequency offset estimator and the Doppler spread estimator used in conjunction with PSAM.     

A technique for orthogonal frequency division multiplexingfrequency offset correction

This paper discusses the effects of frequency offset on the performance of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) digital communications. The main problem with frequency offset is that it introduces interference among the multiplicity of carriers in the OFDM signal. It is shown, and confirmed by simulation, that to maintain signal-to-interference ratios of 20 dB or greater for the OFDM carriers, offset is limited to 4% or less of the intercarrier spacing. Next, the paper describes a technique to estimate frequency offset using a repeated data symbol. A maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) algorithm is derived and its performance computed and compared with simulation results. Since the intercarrier interference energy and signal energy both contribute coherently to the estimate, the algorithm generates extremely accurate estimates even when the offset is far too great to demodulate the data values. Also, the estimation error depends only on total symbol energy so it is insensitive to channel spreading and frequency selective fading. A strategy is described for initial acquisition in the event of uncertainty in the initial offset that exceeds 1/2 the carrier spacing, the limit of the MLE algorithm     

Exact BER for M-QAM with MRC and Imperfect Channel Estimation in Rician Fading Channels

In this paper, we study the effect of imperfect channel estimation (ICE) on the performance of M-level quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM) with maximum ratio combining (MRC) and pilot-symbol assisted modulation (PSAM) in generalized Rician fading channels. By expressing the bit error rate (BER) of MRC diversity M-QAM in terms of the distribution of new decision variables, we derive novel, exact, and easy-to-evaluate BER expressions for diversity M-QAM with channel estimation errors. Our results include versatile system and fading channel parameters (e.g., arbitrary spatial and temporal correlation patterns among the diversity branches), and are valid for arbitrary linear channel estimators and square and rectangular M -QAM with different constellation sizes. In addition, we evaluate the performance of minimum mean-squared error (MMSE)- and sinc-interpolator-based channel estimators with PSAM, and provide some new insights into the performance of M-QAM with PSAM in generalized fading channels     

Analysis and characterization of intercarrier and interblock interferences for wireless mobile OFDM systems

OFDM has been applied in a wide variety of wireless communications in recent years since it has the advantage over the conventional single-carrier modulation schemes when enduring the frequency-selective fading. However, intercarrier-interference (ICI) and interblock interference (IBI) due to the Doppler effect, carrier frequency drift of local oscillators and multipath fading limit the capability of OFDM systems. In this paper, a new generalized mathematical model for intercarrier and interblock interferences is derived for wireless mobile OFDM systems, in which Doppler frequency drift, local carrier frequency offset, multipath fading, and cyclic prefix coding are all present in reality. Such a new ICI/IBI model can be applied for OFDM performance evaluation in different environments. This new formulation of IBI and ICI provides a generalized framework which includes special ICI models appearing in the previous literature. Besides, the derived OFDM performance evaluation analysis in this paper can greatly benefit OFDM designers for wireless multimedia networks and digital video broadcasting technologies.     

Pilot symbol assisted modulation and differential detection infading and delay spread

Pilot symbol assisted modulation (PSAM) has previously been shown to give good performance in flat fading, noise and cochannel interference. The present paper analyzes its performance in ISI due to frequency selective fading, and provides a similar analysis of differential detection for comparison. The paper also introduces a method for performing the formidable average over transmitted data patterns simply, and with an analytical result, PSAM is shown to be sensitive to RMS delay spread, though it always gives better performance than differential detection     

Optimum Pilot Symbol Assisted Modulation

Optimum detectors for pilot symbol assisted modulation (PSAM) signals in Rayleigh and Rician fading channels are derived. Conventional PSAM as used on Rayleigh fading channels is also employed on Rician fading channels. It is shown that the conventional PSAM receiver is optimal for binary phase shift keying in Rayleigh fading but suboptimal for Rician fading and suboptimal for 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation in Rayleigh fading. The optimum PSAM signal detector uses knowledge of the specular component and also jointly processes the pilot symbols and the data symbol. The performance of the optimum detector is analyzed and compared with that of the conventional detector. It is concluded that substantial gains can be achieved by exploiting knowledge of the specular component while joint processing of the data symbol with the pilot symbols may offer small benefits.     

Optimum and suboptimum frame synchronization forpilot-symbol-assisted modulation

Pilot-symbol-assisted modulation (PSAM) is a method to reduce the effects of fading in mobile communications by periodically inserting known symbols in the data stream. The receiver uses these pilot symbols to derive its amplitude and phase reference. One aspect of this procedure which has not received much attention in the literature is the method used by the receiver to locate the pilot symbols. This paper uses optimum frame synchronization techniques to develop two synchronizers for PSAM systems; one is based on a standard maximum likelihood (ML) estimation formulation, and the other is a sequential testing algorithm. Both methods use a simple quadratic correlation filter with an energy correction factor. Simulation results and a theoretical analysis are presented     

Multicarrier signal detection and parameter estimation infrequency-selective Rayleigh fading channels

A new joint signal detection and channel parameter estimation scheme is proposed for multiple subcarrier signaling with pilot symbol-assisted modulation (PSAM) schemes. The proposed scheme estimates a pair of parameters associated with the generation process of the fading frequency selectivity, which is common to all the subcarriers. This parameter estimation can effectively extract information regarding the fading frequency selectivity through the pilot symbols received not only by the subcarrier of interest, but by other ones as well. The fading complex envelope with each subcarrier is derived from the estimates of the parameter pair. With the proposed scheme, performances are evaluated through simulations and are compared with the performance of a subcarrier-by-subcarrier detection scheme     

Rayleigh fading channels in mobile digital communication systems.I. Characterization

When the mechanisms of fading channels were first modeled in the 1950s and 1960s, the ideas were primarily applied to over-the-horizon communications covering a wide range of frequency bands. The 3-30 MHz high-frequency (HF) band is used for ionospheric communications, and the 300 MHz-3 GHz ultra-high-frequency (UHF) and 3-30 GHz super-high-frequency (SHF) bands are used for tropospheric scatter. Although the fading effects in a mobile radio system are somewhat different than those in ionospheric and tropospheric channels, the early models are still quite useful to help characterize fading effects in mobile digital communication systems. This tutorial addresses Rayleigh fading primarily in the UHF band. That affects mobile systems such as cellular and personal communication systems (PCS). Part I of the tutorial itemizes the fundamental fading manifestations and types of degradation     

Tracking performance of the RLS algorithm applied to an antennaarray in a realistic fading environment

In this paper, frequency domain techniques are used to derive the tracking properties of the recursive least squares (RLS) algorithm applied to an adaptive antenna array in a mobile fading environment, expanding the use of such frequency domain approaches for nonstationary RLS tracking to the interference canceling problem that characterizes the use of antenna arrays in mobile wireless communications. The analysis focuses on the effect of the exponential weighting of the correlation estimation filter and its effect on the estimations of the time variant autocorrelation matrix and cross-correlation vector. Specifically, the case of a flat Rayleigh fading desired signal applied to an array in the presence of static interferers is considered with an AR2 fading process approximating the Jakes' fading model. The result is a mean square error (MSE) performance metric parameterized by the fading bandwidth and the RLS exponential weighting factor, allowing optimal parameter selection. The analytic results are verified and demonstrated with a simulation example     

频率选择性慢衰落信道下的快速频率估计

给出了在频率选择性慢衰落信道下适用于突发传输的两种快速频偏估计算法。针对慢衰落选择性信道下的频率估计问题,两种算法均给出了一个简单的闭式解,且算法实现无需任何信道幅度信息。第一种算法要求用于频率估计的训练序列的自相关矩阵具有对角特性,第二种算法使用周期的训练序列,两种算法所需的运算量大大低于最大似然估计算法。仿真结果显示,在较高信噪比下两种算法均具有较好的估计性能。     

Mobile speed estimation for broadband wireless communications over Rician fading channels

In this paper, a new algorithm is proposed to estimate mobile speed for broadband wireless communications, which often encounter large number of fading channel taps causing severe intersymbol interference. Different from existing algorithms, which commonly assume that the fading channel coefficients are available for the speed estimators, the proposed algorithm is based on the received signals which contain unknown transmitted data, unknown frequency selective fading channel coefficients possibly including line-of-sight (LOS) components, and random receiver noise. Theoretical analysis is first carried out from the received signals, and a practical algorithm is proposed based on the analytical results. The algorithm employs a modified normalized auto-covariance of received signal power to estimate the speed of mobiles. The algorithm works well for frequency selective Rayleigh and Rician channels. The algorithm is very resistant to noise, it provides accurate speed estimation even if the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is as low as 0 dB. Simulation results indicate that the new algorithm is very reliable and effective to estimate mobile speed corresponding to a maximum Doppler up to 500 Hz. The algorithm has high computational efficiency and low estimation latency, with results being available within one second after communication is established.     

Iterative Channel Estimators in V-BLAST OFDM Systems

An iterative pilot-symbol aided modulation (PSAM) channel estimation approach is proposed for vertical Bell Laboratories layered space-time (V-BLAST) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing systems operating on frequency-selective fading channels. Since the signals at the receive antennas are the superposition of signals from multiple transmit antennas, accurate channel estimates are crucial for good error performance. Furthermore, the time selectivity of the fading channels leads to inter-carrier interference (ICI). While ICI can be ignored for slow fading channels, it should be mitigated for fast fading channels. This paper proposes an ICI mitigation scheme for time-varying channels. We also propose an iterative channel estimator with low-complexity. Simulation results demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed algorithm on frequency-selective fading channels.     

A Novel Wavelet Packet Division Multiplexing Based on Maximum Likelihood Algorithm and Optimum Pilot Symbol Assisted Modulation for Rayleigh Fading Channels

Wavelet packet division multiplexing (WPDM) is a high-capacity, flexible, and robust multiple-signal transmission technique. In this paper, a novel WPDM system based on optimum pilot symbol assisted modulation (OPSAM) and a maximum likelihood (ML) algorithm is studied for Rayleigh fading channels. The ML detecting algorithm and the new discrete wavelet packet transform structure, which is based on pilot symbol assisted modulation (PSAM) using a least mean squares algorithm, are two novel aspects of the presented system. An expression for the bit error rate of the WPDM scheme on quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) is derived in the presence of flat fading and Gaussian noise. It is demonstrated by simulation results that the OPSAM WPDM scheme can provide greater immunity to flat fading channels and Gaussian noise than the OPSAM orthogonal frequency division multiplexing scheme, the differential QPSK WPDM scheme, and the normal PSAM WPDM scheme.     

Error rate performance of noncoherent detection of duobinary coded MSK and TFM in mobile radio communication systems

Two continuous phase constant envelope modulation schemes are considered for use in digital mobile radio communication systems. These two schemes, duobinary coded minimum shift keying (MSK) and tamed frequency modulation (TFM), use partial response signaling to achieve efficient power spectrum. Therefore, they are suitable candidates for the application of digital data transmission via mobile radio where spectrum efficiency is an important consideration. The mobile communication channel is characterized by fast Rayleigh fading and cochannel interference resulting from the reuse of the channels. The error rate performance of duobinary coded MSK and TFM has been studied under these environments with noncoherent detection. A closed form expression for the probability of error of duobinary coded MSK with discriminator detection has been derived and evaluated for different cases of fast and slow fading and cochannel interference. The probability of error of duobinary coded MSK and TFM with differential detection has been calculated by numerical integrations for different cases of slow and fast fading and cochannel interference.     

A novel modulation for mobile satellite communications

It is a challenging problem to design a high performance modulation for mobile satellite communications due to the limited power and bandwidth resource. The paper improves Feher patented Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (FQPSK) by redefining the waveform. The novel FQPSK, with constant envelope, can be used to improve the power efficiency and frequency efficiency of mobile satellite communication. The study shows that the improved FQPSK outperforms conventional FQPSK over AWGN and is immune to the non-linearity of high power amplifier. At last, the impact of flat fading and multi-path fading of channel on the BER performance of improved modulation is analyzed.     

Parallel Interference Cancellation in Multiuser CDMA Channel Estimation

Parallel interference cancellation (PIC) based channel parameter estimators for frequency selective fading channels are proposed for the uplink in code-division multiple-access (CDMA) mobile communication systems. The performance of PIC based algorithms depends heavily on the quality of the multiple-access interference estimates, which can be improved by using adaptive channel estimation filters. The performance of two adaptive complex channel coefficient estimation filters has been verified in a fading channel by computer simulations. According to the results, the PIC based adaptive channel estimators outperform clearly conventional, successive interference cancellation, and decorrelation based adaptive channel estimators. The PIC method is also used in delay tracking. By using the principles of sample-correlate-choose-largest (SCCL) delay trackers, a robust algorithm for multiuser delay tracking in fading channels is obtained.     

High level trellis-coded modulation with slow frequency hopping forland mobile communications

The use of high level modulation systems such as trellis-coded 8-PSK and trellis-coded 16-QAM, with slow frequency hopping, pilot symbol aided and small-sized interleaving techniques is proposed for land mobile communications. The bit error rate (BER) performance of those systems in the presence of additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN), cochannel interference (CCI), and slow Rayleigh fading are evaluated by computer simulation. Space diversity is applied to enhance the system performance. The authors show that by choosing optimum interleaving size and number of frequency hopped (FH) channels, the proposed systems give considerable performance improvement and much less delay, especially in a slow fading environment