Bandwidth efficient transceiver design for differentially encoded OFDM system

In this paper, we present a bandwidth efficient non-coherent transceiver design for single input single output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (SISO-OFDM) modulation with differential encoding. Under fast channel fading or in low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime, pilot assisted channel estimation is not feasible. In such channel conditions, conventional non-coherent detection methods are not reliable resulting in poor throughput. We propose a frequency-spread time-encoded (FSTE) method for OFDM modulation, which exploits multipath diversity and achieves target energy-per-bit to noise spectral density \({E_b}/{N_0}\) in low SNR regime by spreading differentially encoded information symbols along OFDM sub-carriers. We investigate the impact of spreading on bit-error rate (BER) and throughput under relative mobility and multipath fading scenarios. In order to maximize the throughput of the proposed method, we also optimize spreading factor and modulation order. The simulation results demonstrate significant BER and throughput performance gain as compared to prevailing differential encoding methods.     

SINR analysis of FFH/OFDM over frequency selective Rayleigh fading channel

Fast frequency hopping/orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (FFH/OFDM) has been previously proposed to achieve frequency diversity over frequency selective channels. However, the performances of the FFH/OFDM scheme have been usually calculated using simulations over empirical channel models in earlier works. The main aim of this paper is to theoretically expose the diversity of the FFH/OFDM signal over statistical models, specifically Rayleigh distributed, for frequency selective fading channels. In order to achieve this aim, we first derive the decision variables and the signal‐to‐interference noise ratios of the FFH/OFDM signal at the output of minimum mean square error and zero forcing receivers. For various levels of quadrature amplitude modulation used in FFH/OFDM, the performances are calculated and validated via simulations. The results show that FFH/OFDM in case of zero forcing equalization does not provide any diversity gain even over a frequency selective channel. However, in case of minimum mean square error equalization, it brings significant diversity gain at high signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) values with the rise of number of sub‐carriers. Moreover, the FFH/OFDM with four quadrature amplitude modulation scheme provides better performance than that of the conventional OFDM even at low SNR values, as well as a significant diversity gain at high SNR values. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Frequency shift filter‐based multi‐carrier transceiver

It is well known that orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is sensitive to carrier frequency offset (CFO) and suffers from a high peak‐to‐average ratio. In addition, the performance of OFDM is severely affected by strong co‐channel interference and strong narrowband interference. To mitigate the limitations of OFDM, we propose a new multi‐carrier transceiver based on frequency‐shift filter. A frequency‐shift filter can separate spectrally overlapping sub‐carrier signals by exploiting the spectral correlation inherent in the cyclostationary modulated signals. To increase spectral efficiency, we increase the percentage of spectral overlap between two adjacent sub‐channels. We derive an upper bound and a lower bound on the bit error rate performance of the proposed multi‐carrier transceiver in additive white Gaussian noise channel and frequency‐nonselective Rayleigh fading channel, respectively. Compared with OFDM, our simulation results show that the proposed multi‐carrier transceiver is much less sensitive to CFO and has a lower peak‐to‐average ratio; moreover, without any additional interference suppression technique, the proposed transceiver has the advantage of being able to mitigate strong co‐channel interference with CFO from the intended multi‐carrier signal and mitigate strong narrowband interference in additive white Gaussian noise channel and in Rayleigh fading channel in which a large CFO between the transmitted signal and the received signal often occurs. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sampling Jitter Effect on a Reconfigurable Digital IF Transceiver to WiMAX and HSDPA

This paper outlines the time jitter effect of a sampling clock on a software‐defined radio technology‐based digital intermediate frequency (IF) transceiver for a mobile communication base station. The implemented digital IF transceiver is reconfigurable to high‐speed data packet access (HSDPA) and three bandwidth profiles: 1.75 MHz, 3.5 MHz, and 7 MHz, each incorporating the IEEE 802.16d worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) standard. This paper examines the relationship between the signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) characteristics of a digital IF transceiver with an under‐sampling scheme and the sampling jitter effect on a multichannel orthogonal frequency‐division multiplexing (OFDM) signal. The simulation and experimental results show that the SNR of the OFDM system with narrower band profiles is more susceptible to sampling clock jitter than systems with relatively wider band profiles. Further, for systems with a comparable bandwidth, HSDPA outperforms WiMAX, for example, a 5 dB error vector magnitude improvement at 15 picoseconds time jitter for a bandwidth of WiMAX 3.5 MHz profile.     

Single-block differential transmit scheme for broadband wireless MIMO-OFDM systems

In frequency-selective multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel, differential space-time-frequency (DSTF) modulations are known as practical alternatives that are capable of exploiting the available spatial and frequency diversities without the requirement of multichannel estimation at the receiver. However, the encoding nature of the DSTF schemes that expand several OFDM symbol periods makes the DSTF schemes susceptible to fast-changing channel conditions. In this paper, we propose a differential scheme for MIMO-OFDM systems that is able to differentially encode signal within two OFDM symbol periods, and the proposed scheme transmits the differentially encoded signal within one OFDM block. The scheme not only reduces encoding and decoding delay but also relaxes the restriction on channel assumption. The successful differential decoding of the proposed scheme depends on the assumption that the fading channels keep constant over two OFDM symbol periods rather than multiple of them as required in the existing DSTF schemes. We also provide pairwise error probability analysis and quantify the performance criteria in terms of diversity and coding advantages. The design criteria reveal that the existing diagonal cyclic codes can be applied to achieve full diversity. Performance simulations under various channel conditions show that our proposed scheme yields superior performance to previously proposed differential schemes.     

Fundamental Limitations on Pilot-based Spectrum Sensing at Very Low SNR

Spectrum sensing is one of the most challenging issues of Cognitive Radio communications. The possibility of extremely low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the received signal poses a fundamental challenge to spectrum sensing. In this paper, pilot-based spectrum sensing for OFDM signals is investigated. It is shown that the existing pilot-based OFDM spectrum sensing algorithms suffer from the frequency offset between the transmitter and sensing devices, as well as the noise uncertainty in the sensing threshold design. We consequently propose a robust pilot-based spectrum sensing algorithm for low SNR OFDM signals using a sliding frequency correlator. The proposed algorithm processes additional bandwidth to eliminate the impact of frequency offset. In addition, considering the unknown noise statistics and its time-varying nature, a ratio threshold which is not sensitive to the noise power level is derived for spectrum sensing. Our theoretical analysis and simulation results show that this algorithm can achieve exceptionally good sensing performance at very low SNR, while being insensitive to time and frequency offsets and requiring no information of the noise statistics.     

认知无线电中OFDM信号信噪比盲估计

针对认知正交频分复用(OFDM,orthogonal frequency division multiplexing)系统中低信噪比多径信道下传统的OFDM信号信噪比盲估计算法的估计性能差,计算复杂度高的问题,提出一种新的OFDM信号信噪比盲估计方法,该方法首先利用自相关函数的特性粗略估计出信道阶数,确定循环前缀部分中不受符号间干扰的数据区间,然后根据选定区间的数据的自相关函数值估计接收信号的信号功率,最后利用循环前缀数据为部分有用数据的复制这一特性估计出噪声功率,从而估计出接收信号的信噪比。仿真实验结果表明,提出的方法无需任何先验信息,在低信噪比多径信道下具有良好的估计性能,且计算复杂度低,更适合于认知OFDM系统。     

Intercarrier interference self-cancellation space-frequency codes for MIMO-OFDM

Space-frequency (SF) codes that exploit both spatial and frequency diversity can be designed using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). However, OFDM is sensitive to frequency offset (FO), which generates intercarrier interference (ICI) among subcarriers. We investigate the pair-wise error probability (PEP) performance of SF codes over quasistatic, frequency selective Rayleigh fading channels with FO. We prove that the conventional SF code design criteria remain valid. The negligible performance loss for small FOs (less than 1%), however, increases with FO and with signal to noise ratio (SNR). While diversity can be used to mitigate ICI, as FO increases, the PEP does not rapidly decay with SNR. Therefore, we propose a new class of SF codes called ICI self-cancellation SF (ISC-SF) codes to combat ICI effectively even with high FO (10%). ISC-SF codes are constructed from existing full diversity space-time codes. Importantly, our code design provide a satisfactory tradeoff among error correction ability, ICI reduction and spectral efficiency. Furthermore, we demonstrate that ISC-SF codes can also mitigate the ICI caused by phase noise and time varying channels. Simulation results affirm the theoretical analysis.     

Progressive image transmission over differentially space‐time coded OFDM systems

In this paper, we consider progressive image transmission over differentially space‐time coded orthogonal frequency‐division multiplexing (OFDM) systems and treat the problem as one of optimal joint source‐channel coding (JSCC) in the form of unequal error protection (UEP), as necessitated by embedded source coding (e.g., SPIHT and JPEG 2000). We adopt a product channel code structure that is proven to provide powerful error protection and employ low‐complexity decision‐feedback decoding for differentially space‐time coded OFDM without assuming channel state information. For a given SNR, the BER performance of the differentially space‐time coded OFDM system is treated as the channel condition in the JSCC/UEP design via a fast product code optimization algorithm so that the end‐to‐end quality of reconstructed images is optimized in the average minimum MSE sense. Extensive image transmission experiments show that SNR/BER improvements can be translated into quality gains in reconstructed images. Moreover, compared to another non‐coherent detection algorithm, i.e., the iterative receiver based on expectation‐maximization algorithm for the space‐time coded OFDM systems, differentially space‐time coded OFDM systems suffer some quality loss in reconstructed images. With the efficiency and simplicity of decision‐feedback differential decoding, differentially space‐time coded OFDM is thus a feasible modulation scheme for applications such as wireless image over mobile devices (e.g., cell phones). Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Energy Savings in OFDM Systems through Cooperative Relaying

Energy savings in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems is an active research area. In order to achieve a solution, we propose a new cooperative relaying scheme operated on a per subcarrier basis. This scheme improves the bit error rate (BER) performance of the conventional signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR)‐based selection relaying scheme by substituting SNR with symbol error probability (SEP) to evaluate the received signal quality at the relay more reliably. Since the cooperative relaying provides spatial diversity gain for each subcarrier, thus statistically enhancing the reliability of subcarriers at the destination, the total number of lost subcarriers due to deep fading is reduced. In other words, cooperative relaying can alleviate error symbols in a codeword so that the error correction capability of forward error correction codes can be fully exploited to improve the BER performance (or save transmission energy at a target BER). Monte‐Carlo simulations validate the proposed approach.     

Linear precoded wavelet OFDM‐based PLC system with overlap FDE for impulse noise mitigation

In recent years, power lines have gained significant interest for their use in high‐speed communications because of the already deployed power distribution infrastructure. However, to achieve high data rates with reliability in power line communication (PLC), robust signal processing techniques are required to mitigate channel distortion and noise. Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) as a multicarrier modulation technique has been standardized for PLC; however, to further enhance the quality of communication, wavelet OFDM (WOFDM) has been proposed as a suitable choice. In this article, OFDM‐based and WOFDM‐based PLC systems are studied, and overlap frequency domain equalization (OFDE) as a robust and efficient equalization technique is presented. Moreover, to enhance the efficiency of the OFDE, linear precoding (LP) is also suggested for fast Fourier transform and wavelet transform–based filter bank transceivers over the PLC channel. Performance of the proposed LP‐based OFDM‐OFDE and LP‐based WOFDM‐OFDE systems is compared with previously proposed equalization structures in terms of bit error rate, peak‐to‐average power ratio, and computational complexity via computer simulations. Furthermore, the performance of proposed architectures is also compared with classical equalization techniques under impulse noise with different intensities. Results show that not only the proposed LP‐based WOFDM‐OFDE transceiver performs better than the previous equalization models but also the LP‐based OFDM‐OFDE at the expense of slight increment in computational complexity.     

Frequency acquisition synchronization for multiple antenna systems

In this paper, we consider the problem of frequency acquisition synchronization by using multiple antennas over wireless fading channels. We introduce frequency synchronization with different combining schemes including space diversity and time diversity. Their performance is estimated for a Rayleigh fading channel with an analysis both theoretically and by simulation. We investigate the relationship between the mean squared error (MSE) and the average signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) for combining of different blocks and antennas. Both the carrier frequency offset and the sampling frequency offset are estimated when multiple antennas are utilized for signal transmission. The estimation with maximum ratio combining (MRC) scheme is presented in detail, and the estimation with selection combining scheme and equal gain combining scheme are introduced briefly. The simulation results explicitly show that the performance of the frequency acquisition synchronization with MRC scheme is better than that of others and that the MSE at low SNR is not very close to the Cramér–Rao low bound in multiblock combining frequency synchronization. Furthermore, the results address that in order to improve the performance, the total number of receive antennas will be increased exponentially. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

BER minimized OFDM systems with channel independent precoders

We consider the minimization of uncoded bit error rate (BER) for the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system with an orthogonal precoder. We analyze the BER performance of precoded OFDM systems with zero forcing and minimum mean squared error (MMSE) receivers. In the case of MMSE receivers, we show that for quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), there exists a class of optimal precoders that are channel independent. Examples of this class include the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) matrix and the Hadamard matrix. When the precoder is the DFT matrix, the resulting optimal transceiver becomes the single carrier system with cyclic prefix (SC-CP) system. We also show that the worst solution corresponds to the conventional OFDM system; the conventional OFDM system has the largest BER. In the case of zero forcing receivers, the design of optimal transceiver depends on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). For higher SNR, solutions of optimal precoders are the same as those of MMSE receivers.     

Data-efficient blind OFDM channel estimation using receiver diversity

We investigate non data-aided channel estimation for cyclically prefixed orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. By exploiting channel diversity using only two receive antennas, a blind deterministic algorithm is proposed. Identifiability conditions are derived that guarantee the perfect channel retrieval in the absence of noise. In the presence of noise, the proposed method has the desired property of being data efficient-only a single OFDM block is needed to achieve good estimation performance for a wide range of SNR values. The algorithm is also robust to input symbols as it does not have any restriction on the input symbols with regard to their constellation or their statistical properties. In addition, this diversity-based algorithm is computationally efficient, and its performance compares favorably to most existing blind algorithms.     

Analysis and design of joint CFO/channel estimate techniques for a cooperative STBC‐OFDM system

This paper studies the joint estimation technique of carrier frequency offset (CFO) and channel information for a distributed decode‐and‐forward (DF) cooperative space‐time block‐coded (STBC) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system. For the considered relay system, we provide theoretical analysis of the effects upon the output signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR), which is caused by the CFO/channel estimation error. Based on the provided analytical results, a joint CFO/channel estimation scheme is then developed, where the CFO estimate is achieved by a multiple‐dimensional linear search algorithm. Furthermore, we propose an alternative estimation solution with iteration approach being designed for the CFO estimation prior to the channel estimation. In contrast to the former estimator, the iterative method enjoys the advantage of the substantially reduced implementation complexity without sacrificing the estimate performance. The conducted computer simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed schemes.     

Channel Estimation Method for OFDM in Low SNR Based on Two-dimensional Spreading

In this paper, we present a channel estimation method based on two-dimensional signal spreading applicable to orthogonal frequency multiple access multicarrier systems. Our method exploits a spreading of a transmitted data signal as well as a pilot signal over the assigned frequency range and time period. As a spreading sequence we exploited orthogonal Walsh–Hadamard sequences. When compared with traditional pilot symbol based channel estimation, our method is beneficial in low signal to noise ratio (SNR). For a comparison of our method with state-of-the-art channel estimation method, we utilized an open source LTE downlink simulator developed at TU Vienna. This enables a reproducibility of our results. Considering the LTE system, our method outperforms the traditional approach in typical range of SNR from \(-\) 5 to 10 dB. For a comparison of a throughput performance, a number of channel models has been employed.     

Channel Independent Precoder for OFDM-Based Systems Over Fading Channels

In this paper we propose an independent channel precoder for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems over fading channels. The design of the precoder is based on the information redistribution of the input modulated symbols among the output precoded symbols. The proposed precoder decreases the variance of the instantaneous noise power at the receiver produced by the channel variability. The employment of an interleaver together with a precoding matrix whose size does not depend on the number of data carriers in an OFDM symbol allows different configurations of time-frequency diversity which can be easily adapted to the channel conditions. The precoder is evaluated with a modified Zero Forcing (ZF) equalizer whose maximum gain is constrained by means of a clipping factor. Thus, the clipping factor limits the noise power transfer in the receiver deprecoding block in low SNR conditions.      

Doppler Spread Estimation for Broadband Wireless OFDM Systems Over Rician Fading Channels

In this paper, we present a new Doppler spread estimation algorithm for broadband wireless orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems with fast time-varying and frequency-selective Rayleigh or Rician fading channels. The new algorithm is developed by analyzing the statistical properties of the power of the received OFDM signal in the time domain, thus it is not affected by the influence of frequency-domain inter-carrier interference (ICI) introduced by channel variation within one OFDM symbol. The operation of the algorithm doesn’t require the knowledge of fading channel coefficients, transmitted data, or signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the receiver. It is robust against additive noise, and can provide accurate Doppler spread estimation with SNR as low as 0 dB. Moreover, unlike existing algorithms, the proposed algorithm takes into account the inter-tap correlation of the discrete-time channel representation, as is the case in practical systems. Simulation results demonstrate that this new algorithm can accurately estimate a wide range of Doppler spread with low estimation latency and high computational efficiency.     

Performance of diversity schemes for OFDM systems with frequency offset, phase noise, and channel estimation errors

We provide expressions for the bit error rate of various transmit and receive diversity schemes for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems in the presence of frequency offset, phase noise, and channel estimation errors. The derivations are also applicable for a general multiplicative distortion of the received signal. Our results show that with perfect channel estimates, practical values of the phase noise do not significantly degrade the performance of the various diversity methods for binary phase-shift keying modulation. In contrast, the transmit diversity schemes for OFDM are much more sensitive to channel estimation errors than maximal ratio combining receive diversity.     

Block-Based Performance Measures for MIMO OFDM Beamforming Systems

In this paper, we consider an adaptive modulation system with multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) antennas in conjunction with orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) operating over frequency-selective Rayleigh fading environments. In particular, we consider a type of beamforming with a maximum ratio transmission/maximum ratio combining (MRT-MRC) transceiver structure. For this system, we derive a central limit theorem for various block-based performance metrics. This motivates an accurate Gaussian approximation to the system data rate and the number of outages per OFDM block. In addition to the data rate and outage distributions, we also consider the subcarrier signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as a process in the frequency domain and compute level crossing rates (LCRs) and average fade bandwidths (AFBs). Hence, we provide fundamental but novel results for the MIMO OFDM channel. The accuracy of these results is verified by Monte Carlo simulations, and applications to performance analysis and system design are discussed.