Effects of imperfect channel sensing and estimation on the performance of cognitive radio systems

In realistic scenarios of cognitive radio (CR) systems, imperfect channel sensing may occur due to false alarms and miss detections. Channel estimation between the secondary user transmitter and another secondary user receiver is another challenge in CR systems, especially for frequency‐selective fading channels. In this context, this paper presents a study of the effects of imperfect channel sensing and channel estimation on the performance of CR systems. In particular, different methods of channel estimation are analyzed under channel sensing imperfections. Initially, a CR system model with channel sensing errors is described. Then, the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm is implemented in order to learn the channel fading coefficients. By exploiting the pilot symbols and the detected symbols at the secondary user receiver, we can estimate the channel coefficients. We further compare the proposed EM estimation algorithm with different estimation algorithms such as the least squares (LS) and linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE). The expressions of channel estimates and mean squared errors (MSE) are determined, and their dependencies on channel sensing uncertainty are investigated. Finally, to reduce the complexity of EM algorithm, a sub‐optimal algorithm is also proposed. The obtained results show that the proposed sub‐optimal algorithm provides a comparable bit error rate (BER) performance with that of the optimal one yet with less computational complexity.     

Iterative receivers for space-time block-coded OFDM systems indispersive fading channels

We consider the design of iterative receivers for space-time block-coded orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (STBC-OFDM) systems in unknown wireless dispersive fading channels, with or without outer channel coding. First, we propose a maximum-likelihood (ML) receiver for STBC-OFDM systems based on the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm. By assuming that the fading processes remain constant over the duration of one STBC code word and by exploiting the orthogonality property of the STBC as well as the OFDM modulation, we show that the EM-based receiver has a very low computational complexity and that the initialization of the EM receiver is based on the linear minimum mean square error (MMSE) channel estimate for both the pilot and the data transmission. Since the actual fading processes may vary within one STBC code word, we also analyze the effect of a modeling mismatch on the receiver performance and show both analytically and through simulations that the performance degradation due to such a mismatch is negligible for practical Doppler frequencies. We further propose a turbo receiver based on the maximum a posteriori-EM algorithm for STBC-OFDM systems with outer channel coding. Compared with the previous noniterative receiver employing a decision-directed linear channel estimator, the iterative receivers proposed here significantly improve the receiver performance and can approach the ML performance in typical wireless channels with very fast fading, at a reasonable computational complexity well suited for real-time implementations     

A new approach to greedy multiuser detection

We propose a new suboptimum multiuser detector for synchronous and asynchronous multiuser communications. In this approach, a greedy strategy is used to maximize the cost function, the maximum-likelihood (ML) metric. The coefficients of the ML metric are utilized as weights indicating in which order bits can be estimated. The complexity of the algorithm is approximately K/sup 2/ log K per bit, where K is the number of users. We analyze the performance of the greedy multiuser detection in the additive white Gaussian noise channel as well as in the frequency-nonselective Rayleigh fading channel, and compare it with the optimum detector and several suboptimum schemes such as conventional, successive interference cancellation, decorrelator, sequential, and multistage detectors. The proposed greedy approach considerably outperforms these suboptimum schemes, especially for moderate and high loads in low and moderate signal-to-noise ratio regions. The results show that when there is a significant imbalance in the values of the coefficients of the ML metric due to moderate to high noise, fading, and asynchronous transmission, near-optimum performance is achieved by the greedy detection.     

Genetic algorithm assisted joint multiuser symbol detection andfading channel estimation for synchronous CDMA systems

A novel multiuser code division multiple access (CDMA) receiver based on genetic algorithms is considered, which jointly estimates the transmitted symbols and fading channel coefficients of all the users. Using exhaustive search, the maximum likelihood (ML) receiver in synchronous CDMA systems has a computational complexity that is exponentially increasing with the number of users and, hence, is not a viable detection solution. Genetic algorithms (GAs) are well known for their robustness in solving complex optimization problems. Based on the ML rule, GAs are developed in order to jointly estimate the users' channel impulse response coefficients as well as the differentially encoded transmitted bit sequences on the basis of the statistics provided by a bank of matched filters at the receiver. Using computer simulations, we showed that the proposed receiver can achieve a near-optimum bit-error-rate (BER) performance upon assuming perfect channel estimation at a significantly lower computational complexity than that required by the ML optimum multiuser detector. Furthermore, channel estimation can be performed jointly with symbol detection without incurring any additional computational complexity and without requiring training symbols. Hence, our proposed joint channel estimator and symbol detector is capable of offering a higher throughput and a shorter detection delay than that of explicitly trained CDMA multiuser detectors     

Iterative maximum-likelihood sequence estimation for space-timecoded systems

In previous work on decoding space-time codes, it is either assumed that perfect channel state information (CSI) is present, or a channel estimate is obtained using pilot symbols and then used as if it were perfect to extract symbol estimates. In the latter case, a loss in performance is incurred, since the resulting overall receiver is not optimal. We look at maximum-likelihood (ML) sequence estimation for space-time coded systems without assuming CSI. The log-likelihood function is presented for both-quasi-static and nonstatic fading channels, and an expectation-maximization (EM)-based algorithm is introduced for producing ML data estimates, whose complexity is much smaller than a direct evaluation of the log-likelihood function. Simulation results indicate the EM-based algorithm achieves a performance close to that of a receiver which knows the channel perfectly     

Low complexity joint estimation of synchronization impairments in sparse channel for MIMO–OFDM system

Low complexity joint estimation of synchronization impairments and channel in a single-user MIMO–OFDM system is presented in this paper. Based on a system model that takes into account the effects of synchronization impairments such as carrier frequency offset, sampling frequency offset, and symbol timing error, and channel, a Maximum Likelihood (ML) algorithm for the joint estimation is proposed. To reduce the complexity of ML grid search, the number of received signal samples used for estimation need to be reduced. The conventional channel estimation techniques using Least-Squares (LS) or Maximum a posteriori (MAP) methods fail for the reduced sample under-determined system, which results in poor performance of the joint estimator. The proposed ML algorithm uses Compressed Sensing (CS) based channel estimation method in a sparse fading scenario, where the received samples used for estimation are less than that required for an LS or MAP based estimation. The performance of the estimation method is studied through numerical simulations, and it is observed that CS based joint estimator performs better than LS and MAP based joint estimator.     

EM‐based iterative receiver for coded MIMO systems in unknown spatially correlated noise

We present iterative channel estimation and decoding schemes for multi‐input multi‐output (MIMO) Rayleigh block fading channels in spatially correlated noise. An expectation‐maximization (EM) algorithm is utilized to find the maximum likelihood (ML) estimates of the channel and spatial noise covariance matrices, and to compute soft information of coded symbols which is sent to an error‐control decoder. The extrinsic information produced by the decoder is then used to refine channel estimation. Several iterations are performed between the above channel estimation and decoding steps. We derive modified Cramer–Rao Bound (MCRB) for the unknown channel and noise parameters, and show that the proposed EM‐based channel estimation scheme achieves the MCRB at medium and high SNRs. For a bit error rate of 10⁻⁶ and long frame length, there is negligible performance difference between the proposed scheme and the ideal coherent detector that utilizes the true channel and noise covariance matrices. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sequence estimation in the presence of random parameters via the EMalgorithm

The expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm was first introduced in the statistics literature as an iterative procedure that under some conditions produces maximum-likelihood (hit) parameter estimates. In this paper we investigate the application of the EM algorithm to sequence estimation in the presence of random disturbances and additive white Gaussian noise. As examples of the use of the EM algorithm, we look at the random-phase and fading channels, and show that a formulation of the sequence estimation problem based on the EM algorithm can provide a means of obtaining ML sequence estimates, a task that has been previously too complex to perform     

采用数据辅助的大规模MIMO信道半盲迭代估计

由于大规模多输入多输出(Multiple-Input Multiple-Output,MIMO)信道衰落参数的维度较高,导致最优估计算法计算量大且需要的导频数较多而影响到频谱效率.为降低计算复杂度并减少导频开销,提出了两种基于期望最大化(Expectation Maximization,EM)估计的半盲迭代改进算法.利...     

Adaptive MLSDE using the EM algorithm

The theory of adaptive sequence detection incorporating estimation of channel and related parameters is studied in the context of maximum-likelihood (ML) principles in a general framework based on the expectation and maximization (EM) algorithm. A generalized ML sequence detection and estimation (GMLSDE) criterion is derived based on the EM approach, and it is shown how the per-survivor processing and per-branch processing methods emerge naturally from GMLSDE. GMLSDE is developed into a real time detection/estimation algorithm using the online EM algorithm with coupling between estimation and detection. By utilizing Titterington's (1984) stochastic approximation approach, different adaptive ML sequence detection and estimation (MLSDE) algorithms are formulated in a unified manner for different channel models and for different amounts of channel knowledge available at the receiver. Computer simulation results are presented for differentially encoded quadrature phase-shift keying in frequency flat and selective fading channels, and comparisons are made among the performances of the various adaptive MLSDE algorithms derived earlier     

On channel estimation and sequence detection of interleaved codedsignals over frequency nonselective Rayleigh fading channels

Due to the receiver complexity introduced by interleaving, the implementation of maximum likelihood (IML) decoding of interleaved coded signals transmitted over frequency nonselective Rayleigh fading channels has been shown to be practically impossible. As an alternative, a two-stage receiver structure has been proposed, where the channel estimation and sequence decoding are done separately. The channel estimation issue in a two-stage receiver is examined in detail in this paper. It is shown that although an optimum (maximum a posteriori (MAP)) channel estimation is not possible in practice, it can be approached asymptotically by joint MAP estimation of the channel and the coded data sequence. The implementation of the joint MAP estimation is shown to be an ML sequence estimator followed by an minimum mean-square error (MMSE) channel estimator. Approximate fill sequence estimation using pilot symbol interpolation is also studied, and through computer simulations, its performance is compared to receivers using hit sequence estimation. The effect of decision delay (DD), prediction order, and pilot insertion rate (PIR) on the reduced complexity ML sequence estimation is investigated as well. Finally, a practical receiver is proposed that makes the best compromise among the error performance, receiver complexity, DD, and power (or bandwidth) expansion due to pilot insertion     

MUI-free receiver for a synchronous DS-CDMA system based on blockspreading in the presence of frequency-selective fading

We discuss a synchronous direct-sequence code division multiple-access (DS-CDMA) system based on block spreading in the presence of frequency-selective fading. Note that block spreading, which is also known as chip interleaving, refers to a spreading of a data block sequence, which is obtained by dividing a data symbol sequence into consecutive blocks. For such a system, we develop a simple new receiver that completely removes the multiuser interference (MUI) without using any channel information. The MUI-free operation is obtained by the use of a shift-orthogonal set of code sequences on which this receiver is based. Within the framework of the MUI-free receiver, we further present a subspace deterministic blind single-user channel estimation algorithm. As a benchmark for the MUI-free receiver and the corresponding subspace deterministic blind single-user channel estimation algorithm, we consider the linear multiuser equalizer and the corresponding subspace deterministic blind multiuser channel estimation algorithm developed by Liu and Xu (1996) for a standard synchronous DS-CDMA system in the presence of frequency-selective fading. We show that the complexity of the MUI-free receiver using the corresponding subspace deterministic blind single-user channel estimation algorithm is much smaller than the complexity of the linear multiuser equalizer using the corresponding subspace deterministic blind multiuser channel estimation algorithm. We further show that the performance of the MUI-free receiver is comparable with the performance of the linear multiuser equalizer. This is for the case in which the channels are known as well as for the case in which the channels are estimated with the corresponding subspace deterministic blind channel estimation algorithm     

An efficient rate-distortion optimal shape coding approach utilizing a skeleton-based decomposition

In this paper, we present a new shape-coding approach, which decouples the shape information into two independent signal data sets; the skeleton and the boundary distance from the skeleton. The major benefit of this approach is that it allows for a more flexible tradeoff between approximation error and bit budget. Curves of arbitrary order can be utilized for approximating both the skeleton and distance signals. For a given bit budget for a video frame, we solve the problem of choosing the number and location of the control points for all skeleton and distance signals of all boundaries within a frame, so that the overall distortion is minimized. An operational rate-distortion (ORD) optimal approach using Lagrangian relaxation and a four-dimensional direct acyclic graph (DAG) shortest path algorithm is developed for solving the problem. To reduce the computational complexity from O(N/sup 5/) to O(N/sup 3/), where N is the number of admissible control points for a skeleton, a suboptimal greedy-trellis search algorithm is proposed and compared with the optimal algorithm. In addition, an even more efficient algorithm with computational complexity O(N/sup 2/) that finds an ORD optimal solution using a relaxed distortion criterion is also proposed and compared with the optimal solution. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed approaches outperform existing ORD optimal approaches, which do not follow the same decomposition of the source data.     

Sequence estimation over the slow nonselective Rayleigh fadingchannel with diversity reception and its application to Viterbi decoding

The authors consider minimum error probability detection of a data sequence transmitted using linear-suppressed carrier modulations, specifically phase-shift keying (PSK), over the Gaussian channel with slow nonselective Rayleigh fading. Complete channel interleaving/deinterleaving and diversity reception are assumed. The problem is considered with application to Viterbi decoding in particular. It is first shown that the two presently available receivers, namely, the conventional maximum likelihood (ML) receiver and the simultaneous estimation receiver, do not perform adequately for this problem. A two-stage receiver is proposed in which the unknown channel fading gains are estimated in the first stage prior to data sequence estimation in the second stage. This receiver is shown to perform adequately, and leads to an efficient receiver/decoder for Viterbi decoding of convolutionally trellis-coded sequences. The issue of optimum estimation of channel fading gains is clarified. The bit error probability of the receiver/decoder is analyzed, and numerical performance results are presented     

Nondata-aided channel estimation for OFDM systems with space-frequency transmit diversity

This paper proposes a computationally efficient nondata-aided maximum a posteriori (MAP) channel-estimation algorithm focusing on the space-frequency (SF) transmit diversity orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission through frequency-selective channels. The proposed algorithm properly averages out the data sequence and requires a convenient representation of the discrete multipath fading channel based on the Karhunen-Loeve (KL) orthogonal expansion and estimates the complex channel parameters of each subcarrier iteratively, using the expectation maximization (EM) method. To further reduce the computational complexity of the proposed MAP algorithm, the optimal truncation property of the KL expansion is exploited. The performance of the MAP channel estimator is studied based on the evaluation of the modified Cramer-Rao bound (CRB). Simulation results confirm the proposed theoretical analysis and illustrate that the proposed algorithm is capable of tracking fast fading and improving overall performance.     

Application of Sequential Estimation Algorithm Based on Branch Metric to Frequency-Selective Channel Equalization

In this work, a sequential estimation algorithm based on branch metric is used as channel equalizer to combat intersymbol interference in frequency-selective wireless communication channels. The bit error rate (BER) and computational complexity of the algorithm are compared with those of the maximum likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE), the recursive least squares (RLS) algorithm, the Fano sequential algorithm, the stack sequential algorithm, list-type MAP equalizer, soft-output sequential algorithm (SOSA) and maximum-likelihood soft-decision sequential decoding algorithm (MLSDA). The BER results have shown that whilst the sequential estimation algorithm has a close performance to the MLSE using the Viterbi algorithm, its performance is better than the other algorithms. Beside, the sequential estimation algorithm is the best in terms of computational complexity among the algorithms mentioned above, so it performs the channel equalization faster. Especially in M-ary modulated systems, the equalization speed of the algorithm increases exponentially when compared to those of the other algorithms.     

Iterative multiuser receivers for CDMA channels: an EM-basedapproach

Maximum-likelihood detection for the multiuser code-division multiple-access (CDMA) channel is prohibitively complex. This paper considers new iterative multiuser receivers based on the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm and related, more powerful “space-alternating” algorithms. The latter algorithms include the SAGE algorithm and a new “missing parameter” space-alternating algorithm that alternately updates individual parameter components or treats them as probabilistic missing data. Application of these EM-based algorithms to the problem of discrete parameter estimation (i.e., data detection) in the Gaussian multiple-access channel leads to a variety of convergent receiver structures that incorporate soft-decision feedback for interference cancellation and/or sequential updating of iterative bit estimates. Convergence and performance analyses are based on well-known properties of the EM algorithm and on numerical simulation     

Receiver structures for time-varying frequency-selective fadingchannels

Several receiver structures for linearly modulated signals are proposed for time-varying frequency-selective channels. Their channel estimators explicitly model the time variation of the channel taps via polynomials. These structures are constructed from the following building blocks: (i) sliding or fixed block channel estimators; (ii) maximum likelihood sequence detectors (MLSDs) or decision feedback equalizers (DFEs); and (iii) single or multiple passes. A sliding window channel estimator uses a window of received samples to estimate the channel taps within or at the end of the window. Every symbol period, the window of samples is slid along another symbol period, and a new estimate is calculated. A fixed block channel estimator uses all received samples to estimate the channel taps throughout the packet, all at once. A single pass receiver estimates the channel and detects data once only. A multipass receiver performs channel estimation and data detection repetitively. The effect of the training symbol positions on the performance of the block multipass approach is studied. The bit error rate (BER) performance of the MLSD structures is characterized through simulation and analysis. The proposed receivers offer a range of performance/complexity tradeoffs, but all are well suited to time-varying channels. In fast fading channels, as the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) increases, they begin to significantly outperform the per-survivor processing-based MLSD receivers which employ the least mean-squares (LMS) algorithm for channel estimation     

A PDA-Kalman approach to multiuser detection in asynchronous CDMA

The probabilistic data association (PDA) method for multiuser detection in synchronous code-division multiple-access (CDMA) communication channels is extended to asynchronous CDMA, where a Kalman filter or smoother is employed to track the correlated noise arising from the outputs of a decorrelator. The estimates from the tracker, coupled with an iterative PDA, result in impressively low bit error rates. Computer simulations show that the new scheme significantly outperforms the best decision feedback detector. The algorithm has O(K/sup 3/) complexity per time frame, where K is the number of users.     

Multiuser channel estimation and tracking for long-code CDMA systems

Channel estimation techniques for code-division multiple access (CDMA) systems need to combat multiple access interference (MAI) effectively. Most existing estimation techniques are designed for CDMA systems with short repetitive spreading codes. However, current and next-generation wireless systems use long spreading codes whose periods are much larger than the symbol duration. We derive the maximum-likelihood channel estimate for long-code CDMA systems over multipath channels using training sequences and approximate it using an iterative algorithm to reduce the computational complexity in each symbol duration. The iterative channel estimate is also shown to be asymptotically unbiased. The effectiveness of the iterative channel estimator is demonstrated in terms of squared error in estimation as well as the bit error rate performance of a multistage detector based on the channel estimates. The effect of error in decision feedback from the multistage detector (used in the absence of training sequences) is also shown to be negligible for reasonable feedback error rates using simulations. The proposed iterative channel estimation technique is also extended to track slowly varying multipath fading channels using decision feedback. Thus, an MAI-resistant multiuser channel estimation and tracking scheme with reasonable computational complexity is derived for long-code CDMA systems over multipath fading channels.