Soft multiuser demodulation and iterative decoding for FH/SSMA with a block turbo code

The number of users that can be supported by frequency-hopped, spread-spectrum multiple-access systems can be increased greatly by using multiuser demodulation and iterative decoding. In the receiver employed hard-decision multiuser demodulation followed by iterative decoding, users exchange decoded information with each other. Additional information from multiuser demodulation in the first decoding iteration is limited by the hard-decision output of the multiuser demodulator. The error-correction used was an errors-and-erasures Reed-Solomon (RS) decoder. We revisit hard-decision demodulation and conventional RS decoding. Hard-decision multiuser demodulation is modified to provide a soft output, which is then given to a nonbinary block turbo code with shortened RS codes as the constituent codes. An iterative multiuser decoding algorithm is developed to do soft multiuser interference cancellation. This soft receiver with soft demodulation and decoding is shown to be more resistant to multiuser interference and channel noise, especially at lower values of signal-to-noise ratio. The results show a great improvement in the ability of the system to support more users (more than three times in some cases), as compared with systems that erase all hits or employ hard-decision multiuser demodulation followed by RS code. We examine the proposed method for synchronous as well as asynchronous frequency-hopped systems in both AWGN and fading channels.     

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.     

CRC-assisted error correction in a convolutionally coded system

In communication systems employing a serially concatenated cyclic redundancy check (CRC) code along with a convolutional code (CC), erroneous packets after CC decoding are usually discarded. The list Viterbi algorithm (LVA) and the iterative Viterbi algorithm (IVA) are two existing approaches capable of recovering erroneously decoded packets. We here employ a soft decoding algorithm for CC decoding, and introduce several schemes to identify error patterns using the posterior information from the CC soft decoding module. The resultant iterative decoding-detecting (IDD) algorithm improves error performance by iteratively updating the extrinsic information based on the CRC parity check matrix. Assuming errors only happen in unreliable bits characterized by small absolute values of the log-likelihood ratio (LLR), we also develop a partial IDD (P-IDD) alternative which exhibits comparable performance to IDD by updating only a subset of unreliable bits. We further derive a soft-decision syndrome decoding (SDSD) algorithm, which identifies error patterns from a set of binary linear equations derived from CRC syndrome equations. Being noniterative, SDSD is able to estimate error patterns directly from the decoder output. The packet error rate (PER) performance of SDSD is analyzed following the union bound approach on pairwise errors. Simulations indicate that both IDD and IVA are better tailored for single parity check (PC) codes than for CRC codes. SDSD outperforms both IDD and LVA with weak CC and strong CRC. Applicable to AWGN and flat fading channels, our algorithms can also be extended to turbo coded systems.     

Advanced decoding algorithms for Reed-Solomon/Convolutional concatenated codes

The evaluation of the union bound for theber of Reed-Solomon/Convolutional concatenated codes indicates that their performance might largely improve through the application of soft iterative decoders. This paper presents an iterative decoding algorithm for concatenated codes consisting of an outer Reed-Solomon code, a symbol interleaver and an inner convolutional code. The performance improvement for iterative and non-iterative decoders is evaluated. Existing solutions for the different decoding stages and their interfaces are discussed and their performance is compared. A new procedure is proposed to define the feedback signal from the output of the Reed-Solomon decoder to the input of the convolutional decoder, which captures the reliability information that can be inferred from errors-and-era-suresrs decoders and includes the “state pinning” approach as a particular case. The decoding schemes are applied to the specificdvb-s concatenated code.     

High rate concatenated coding systems using bandwidth efficienttrellis inner codes

High-rate concatenated coding systems with bandwidth-efficient trellis inner codes and Reed-Solomon (RS) outer codes are investigated for application in high-speed satellite communication systems. Two concatenated coding schemes are proposed. In one the inner code is decoded with soft-decision Viterbi decoding, and the outer RS code performs error-correction-only decoding (decoding without side information). In the other the inner code is decoded with a modified Viterbi algorithm, which produces reliability information along with the decoded output. In this algorithm, path metrics are used to estimate the entire information sequence, whereas branch metrics are used to provide reliability information on the decoded sequence. This information is used to erase unreliable bits in the decoded output. An errors-and-erasures RS decoder is then used for the outer code. The two schemes have been proposed for high-speed data communication on NASA satellite channels. The rates considered are at least double those used in current NASA systems, and the results indicate that high system reliability can still be achieved     

Concatenated coding for frequency-hop spread-spectrum withpartial-band interference

Concatenated coding techniques are applied to slow frequency-hop packet radio communications for channels with partial-band interference. Binary orthogonal signaling (e.g., binary FSK) is employed with noncoherent demodulation, Reed-Solomon codes are employed for the outer code while both block and convolutional codes are considered for the inner code. Hard-decision and soft decision decoding methods are considered for the inner codes. A method is devised for estimating the reliability of the outer Reed-Solomon code symbols, and this estimate is used to determine which code symbols should be erased. Comparisons are made between the performance of concatenated codes and the performance of Reed-Solomon codes alone     

Turbo greedy multiuser detection

Previously, a novel scheme for iterative multiuser detection and turbo decoding was proposed by Damnjanovic and Vojcic (2000, 2001). In this scheme, multiuser detection and single-user turbo decoding are tightly coupled to maximize the overall gain. The extrinsic probabilities for the coded bits of the interfering users, obtained after each turbo decoding iteration, are used as a priori probabilities in the following multiuser iteration and the extrinsic information for the systematic bits of the desired user is used as a priori information in the next single-user turbo decoding iteration. Turbo decoding of parallel concatenated convolutional codes is carried out in parallel fashion. It has been shown that the proposed detector approaches the multiuser capacity limit within 1 dB in the low signal-to-noise ratio region. However, the main drawback of the scheme is its exponential complexity in the number of users, which is due to the complexity of the maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) multiuser detector. In this paper, we show that the complexity of the scheme can be significantly reduced by replacing the (MAP) multiuser detector with an iterative detector derived from the greedy multiuser detector proposed by AlRustamani and Vojcic (2000). In this paper, we demonstrate that, for both the additive white Gaussian noise and the frequency-nonselective Rayleigh fading, the substantial reduction in complexity of the iterative scheme proposed by Damnjanovic and Vojcic when the greedy detector is utilized introduces a slight degradation in performance     

On turbo decoding of nonbinary codes

Symbol-by-symbol maximum a posteriori (MAP) decoding algorithms for nonbinary block and convolutional codes over an extension field GF(p ^a) are presented. Equivalent MAP decoding rules employing the dual code are given which are computationally more efficient for high-rate codes. It is shown that these algorithms meet all requirements needed for iterative decoding as the output of the decoder can be split into three independent estimates: soft channel value, a priori term and extrinsic value. The discussed algorithms are then applied to a parallel concatenated coding scheme with nonbinary component codes in conjunction with orthogonal signaling     

Iterative semiblind multiuser receivers for a space-time block-coded MC-CDMA uplink system

Iterative multiuser detection and space-time coding are two promising techniques to improve the capacity and performance of coded multiuser systems in wireless channels. In this paper, we present iterative multiuser detection schemes for a space-time block-coded multicarrier code-division multiple-access system with multiple transmit and receive antennas. We consider a more general case of an uplink system in the presence of both intra- and intercell interferences. We propose two types of iterative semiblind space-time receivers for such an uplink environment. The first is based on the minimum mean-square error criterion and the second is a hybrid scheme based on a combination of parallel interference cancellation and linear multiuser detection. These iterative receivers are derived, using a subspace approach, which utilizes known users' information for the computation of log-likelihood ratios (LLRs) while blindly suppressing the unknown interference. The LLRs are refined successively during the iterative process by using the extrinsic information available through decoding of all known users. A turbo code is used for channel coding. Simulation results in a frequency-selective Rayleigh-fading environment are presented to verify the performance of the proposed schemes.     

A low-complexity SISO multiuser detector for iterative decoding of asynchronous CDMA systems with convolutional codes

The optimal decoding scheme for asynchronous code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems that employ convolutional codes results in a prohibitive computational complexity. To reduce the computational complexity, an iterative receiver structure was proposed for decoding multiuser data in a convolutional coded CDMA system. At each iteration, extrinsic information is exchanged between a soft-input soft-output (SISO) multiuser detector and a bank of single-user SISO channel decoders. A direct implementation of the optimal SISO multiuser detector, however, has exponential computational complexity in terms of the number of users which is still prohibitive for channels with a medium to large number of users. This paper presents a low-complexity SISO multiuser detector using the decision-feedback scheme, of which tentative hard decisions are made and fed back to the SISO multiuser from the previous decoding output. In the proposed scheme, the log-likelihood ratios (LLR) as well as the tentative hard decisions of code bits are fed back from the SISO decoders. The hard decisions are used to constrain the trellis of the SISO multiuser detector and the LLRs are used to provide a priori information on the code bits. The detector provides good performance/complexity tradeoffs. The computational complexity of the detector can be set to be as low as linear in the number of users. Simulations show that the performance of the low-complexity SISO multiuser detector approaches that of the single-user system for moderate to high signal-to-noise ratios even for a large number of users.     

Iterative turbo decoder analysis based on density evolution

We track the density of extrinsic information in iterative turbo decoders by actual density evolution, and also approximate it by symmetric Gaussian density functions. The approximate model is verified by experimental measurements. We view the evolution of these density functions through an iterative decoder as a nonlinear dynamical system with feedback. Iterative decoding of turbo codes and of serially concatenated codes is analyzed by examining whether a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the extrinsic information keeps growing with iterations. We define a “noise figure” for the iterative decoder, such that the turbo decoder will converge to the correct codeword if the noise figure is bounded by a number below zero dB. By decomposing the code's noise figure into individual curves of output SNR versus input SNR corresponding to the individual constituent codes, we gain many new insights into the performance of the iterative decoder for different constituents. Many mysteries of turbo codes are explained based on this analysis. For example, we show why certain codes converge better with iterative decoding than more powerful codes which are only suitable for maximum likelihood decoding. The roles of systematic bits and of recursive convolutional codes as constituents of turbo codes are crystallized. The analysis is generalized to serial concatenations of mixtures of complementary outer and inner constituent codes. Design examples are given to optimize mixture codes to achieve low iterative decoding thresholds on the signal-to-noise ratio of the channel     

Soft Decoding Assisted SNR Estimation Under Block Fading Channels for Orthogonal Modulations

The performance of the coded orthogonal modulation (OM) system under slow fading channels heavily depends on the estimation of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), including the fading amplitude and the noise spectral density. However, a relatively long packet of pilot symbols is often required to guarantee the accuracy of the SNR estimation, which makes it impractical in some situations. To address this problem, this paper proposes an iterative SNR estimation algorithm using the soft decoding information based on the expectation-maximization algorithm. In the proposed method, a joint iterative loop between the SNR estimator and decoder is performed, where the extrinsic information generated by the soft decoder is employed to enhance the estimation accuracy and the SNR estimated by the estimator is used to generate the soft information to the decoder. Also, no pilot symbols are needed to estimate the SNR in the proposed estimator. The Cramer–Rao lower bound (CRLB) of fully data-aided (FDA) estimation is derived to works as the final benchmark. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated in terms of the normalized mean square errors (NMSEs) and the bit error rates (BERs) under block fading channels. Simulation results indicate that the NMSE of the proposed estimator reaches the CRLB of the FDA estimator and outperforms that of the approximate ML (ML-A) estimator proposed by Hassan et al. by 4.1 dB. The BER performance of coded OM system with the proposed estimation algorithm is close to the ideal case where the channel fading and the noise spectral density are known at the receiver.     

Iterative receivers for multiuser space-time coding systems

Space-time coding (STC) techniques, which combine antenna array signal processing and channel coding techniques, are very promising approaches to substantial capacity increase in wireless channels. Multiuser detection techniques are powerful signal processing methodologies for interference suppression in CDMA systems. In this paper, by drawing analogies between a synchronous CDMA system and an STC multiuser system, we study the applications of some multiuser detection methods to STC multiuser systems. Specifically, we show that the so-called “turbo multiuser detection” technique, which performs soft interference cancellation and decoding iteratively, can be applied to STC multiuser systems in flat-fading channels. An iterative multiuser receiver and its projection-based variants are developed for both the space-time block coding (STBC) system and the space-time trellis coding (STTC) system. During iterations, extrinsic information is computed and exchanged between a soft multiuser demodulator and a bank of MAP decoders, to achieve successively refined estimates of the users' signals. Computer simulations demonstrate that the proposed iterative receiver techniques provide significant performance improvement over conventional noniterative methods in both single-user and multiuser STC systems. Furthermore, the performance of the proposed iterative multiuser receiver approaches that of the iterative single-user receiver in both STBC and STTC systems     

频率选择性衰落信道下一种空时分组码的直接解码

该文针对 3个发射天线,1个接收天线的空时分组码系统,提出了频率选择性衰落信道下,无需信道估计,直接对空时分组码进行解码的方法,把子空间方法应用于空时编码当中,从信号处理和空时编码两个方面考虑空时分组码的直接解码问题,利用空时分组码所特有的正交设计,较为方便地从子空间中解出信号信息,从单载波的角度,解决了频率选择性衰落下空时分组码的解码问题。Monte-Carlo仿真给出了直接解码算法的性能,并与使用准确信道信息的解码算法做了性能比较。     

Analysis, design, and iterative decoding of double seriallyconcatenated codes with interleavers

A double serially concatenated code with two interleavers consists of the cascade of an outer encoder, an interleaver permuting the outer codeword bits, a middle encoder, another interleaver permuting the middle codeword bits, and an inner encoder whose input words are the permuted middle codewords. The construction can be generalized to h cascaded encoders separated by h-1 interleavers, where h>3. We obtain upper bounds to the average maximum likelihood bit-error probability of double serially concatenated block and convolutional coding schemes. Then, we derive design guidelines for the outer, middle, and inner codes that maximize the interleaver gain and the asymptotic slope of the error probability curves. Finally, we propose a low-complexity iterative decoding algorithm. Comparisons with parallel concatenated convolutional codes, known as “turbo codes”, and with the proposed serially concatenated convolutional codes are also presented, showing that in some cases, the new schemes offer better performance     

Multistage decoding for internally bandwidth efficient coded Poisson fiber-optic CDMA communication systems

We consider the structure and performance of a multistage decoding scheme for an internally bandwidth efficient convolutionally coded Poisson fiber-optic code division multiple access (CDMA) communication system. The decoder is implemented electronically in several stages in which in each stage, the interfering users' coded bit decisions obtained in the previous stage is applied for computing the likelihood of the coded symbols of the desired user. The first stage is a soft-input Viterbi decoder for the internally coded scheme, in which the soft-input coded symbol likelihood values are computed by considering the multiuser interference as a noise signal. The likelihood of coded symbol computed in each stage is then entered into the convolutional decoder for the next bit decisions. The convolutional codes that are used for demonstrating the performance of the multistage decoder are super orthogonal codes (SOCs). We derive the bit error rates (BERs) of the proposed decoder for internally coded Poisson fiber-optic CDMA systems using optical orthogonal codes (OOCs) along with both ON-OFF keying (OOK) and binary pulse position modulation (BPPM) schemes. Our numerical results indicate that the proposed decoding scheme substantially outperforms the single-stage soft-input Viterbi decoder. We also derive the upper bound on the probability of error of a decoder for the known interference case, which is the ultimate performance of a multiuser decoder, and compare the result with that of the soft-input Viterbi decoder.     

Joint Channel Estimation, Partial Successive Interference Cancellation, and Data Decoding for DS-CDMA Based on the SAGE Algorithm

This paper deals with the derivation and optimization of an iterative receiver architecture performing joint multiuser decoding and channel estimation. We consider an asynchronous multirate convolutional coded DS-CDMA system that communicates over quasi-static flat Rayleigh fading channels. The proposed receiver is derived within the space-alternating generalized expectation-maximization (SAGE) framework in connection with the noise-splitting approach. The used theoretical framework guarantees convergence of the receiver, as opposed to many other iterative receiver structures. Furthermore, the noise-splitting approach provides a set of noise-weighting coefficients that can be optimized under weak constraints. The inputs to the single-user decoders are linear combinations of two kinds of soft values with weights determined by the noise-weighting coefficients. These two kinds of soft values can be interpreted as a priori information and extrinsic information, respectively, if the channels are known. In the case of unknown channels, they are asymptotically a priori and asymptotically extrinsic, i.e., they become a priori and extrinsic when the length of the observed frame tends to infinity. In most cases, the optimum coefficients lead to extrinsic or asymptotically extrinsic values fed to the input of the single-user decoders. Monte Carlo simulations show that the proposed receiver is resistant to channel estimation errors and supports high system loads.     

Design of low-density parity-check codes for modulation and detection

A coding and modulation technique is studied where the coded bits of an irregular low-density parity-check (LDPC) code are passed directly to a modulator. At the receiver, the variable nodes of the LDPC decoder graph are connected to detector nodes, and iterative decoding is accomplished by viewing the variable and detector nodes as one decoder. The code is optimized by performing a curve fitting on extrinsic information transfer charts. Design examples are given for additive white Gaussian noise channels, as well as multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) fading channels where the receiver, but not the transmitter, knows the channel. For the MIMO channels, the technique operates within 1.25 dB of capacity for various antenna configurations, and thereby outperforms a scheme employing a parallel concatenated (turbo) code by wide margins when there are more transmit than receive antennas.     

Turbo Receiver for Multicarrier Spread Spectrum Systems Employing Parity Bit Selected Spreading Sequences

In this paper a turbo receiver for multicarrier spread spectrum systems employing parity bit selected spreading code (MC-SS-PB) is proposed where detection and decoding are performed iteratively for each detected bit in the receiver. In MC-SS-PB systems, the parity bits generated by a linear block encoder are used to select a spreading code from a set of orthogonal spreading sequences. The selected spreading code is then used to spread the signals in all subcarriers. In the proposed receiver, soft information passes between the detector and the decoder on multiple iterations. Detection is performed by using the received signal in combination with the extrinsic likelihood provided by a soft input soft output decoder. The turbo receiver is further extended to a multiple user system where the multiple access interference is estimated in each iteration and subtracted out from the received signal. Simulations show a significant reduction in bit error rates when a turbo receiver is used in these systems.     

Iterative multiuser joint decoding: unified framework andasymptotic analysis

We present a framework for iterative multiuser joint decoding of code-division multiple-access (CDMA) signals, based on the factor-graph representation and on the sum-product algorithm. In this framework, known parallel and serial, hard and soft interference cancellation algorithms are derived in a unified way. The asymptotic performance of these algorithms in the limit of large code block length can be rigorously analyzed by using density evolution. We show that, for random spreading in the large-system limit, density evolution is considerably simplified. Moreover, by making a Gaussian approximation of the decoder soft output, we show that the behavior of iterative multiuser joint decoding is approximately characterized by the stable fixed points of a simple one-dimensional nonlinear dynamical system