Ertugrul Basar

Index modulation techniques for 5G wireless networks

The ambitious goals set for 5G wireless networks, which are expected to be introduced around 2020, require dramatic changes in the design of different layers for next generation communications systems. Massive MIMO systems, filter bank multi-carrier modulation, relaying technologies, and millimeter-wave communications have been considered as some of the strong candidates for the physical layer design of 5G networks. In this article, we shed light on the potential and implementation of IM techniques for MIMO and multi-carrier communications systems, which are expected to be two of the key technologies for 5G systems. Specifically, we focus on two promising applications of IM: spatial modulation and orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing with IM, and discuss the recent advances and future research directions in IM technologies toward spectrum- and energy-efficient 5G wireless networks.

Performance of Spatial Modulation in the Presence of Channel Estimation Errors

This work investigates the negative effects of channel estimation errors on the performance of spatial modulation (SM) when operating over flat Rayleigh fading channels. The pairwise error probability of the SM scheme is derived in the presence of channel estimation errors and an upper bound on the average bit error probability is evaluated for M-PSK and M-QAM signalling. It is shown via computer simulations that the derived upper bound becomes very tight with increasing signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the SM scheme is quite robust to channel estimation errors.

New Trellis Code Design for Spatial Modulation

Spatial modulation (SM), in which multiple antennas are used to convey information besides the conventional M-ary signal constellations, is a new multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmission technique, which has recently been proposed as an alternative to V-BLAST (vertical Bell Labs layered space-time). In this paper, a novel MIMO transmission scheme, called spatial modulation with trellis coding (SM-TC), is proposed. Similar to the conventional trellis coded modulation (TCM), in this scheme, a trellis encoder and an SM mapper are jointly designed to take advantage of the benefits of both. A soft decision Viterbi decoder, which is fed with the soft information supplied by the optimal SM decoder, is used at the receiver. A pairwise error probability (PEP) upper bound is derived for the SM-TC scheme in uncorrelated quasi-static Rayleigh fading channels. From the PEP upper bound, code design criteria are given and then used to obtain new 4-, 8- and 16-state SM-TC schemes using quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) and 8-ary phase-shift keying (8-PSK) modulations for 2,3 and 4 bits/s/Hz spectral efficiencies. It is shown via computer simulations and also supported by a theoretical error performance analysis that the proposed SM-TC schemes achieve significantly better error performance than the classical space-time trellis codes and coded V-BLAST systems at the same spectral efficiency, yet with reduced decoding complexity.

OFDM With Index Modulation Using Coordinate Interleaving

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing with index modulation (OFDM-IM), which uses the indices of the active subcarriers to transmit data, is a recently proposed multicarrier transmission technique. In this letter, we propose coordinate interleaved OFDM-IM (CI-OFDM-IM) by combining OFDM-IM and space-time block codes with coordinate interleaving. In this scheme, the real and imaginary parts of the data symbols are transmitted over different active subcarriers to achieve an additional diversity gain. The average bit error probability (ABEP) of the proposed scheme is derived and its superiority over the reference systems is shown via computer simulations.

Multiple-Input Multiple-Output OFDM with Index Modulation

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing with index modulation (OFDM-IM) is a novel multicarrier transmission technique which has been proposed as an alternative to classical OFDM. The main idea of OFDM-IM is the use of the indices of the active subcarriers in an OFDM system as an additional source of information. In this work, we propose multiple-input multiple-output OFDM-IM (MIMO-OFDM-IM) scheme by combining OFDM-IM and MIMO transmission techniques. The low complexity transceiver structure of the MIMO-OFDM-IM scheme is developed and it is shown via computer simulations that the proposed MIMO-OFDM-IM scheme achieves significantly better error performance than classical MIMO-OFDM for several different system configurations.

On Multiple-Input Multiple-Output OFDM with Index Modulation for Next Generation Wireless Networks

Multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing with index modulation (MIMO-OFDM-IM) is a novel multicarrier transmission technique which has been proposed recently as an alternative to classical MIMO-OFDM. In this scheme, OFDM with index modulation (OFDM-IM) concept is combined with MIMO transmission to take advantage of the benefits of these two techniques. In this paper, we shed light on the implementation and error performance analysis of the MIMO-OFDM-IM scheme for next generation 5G wireless networks. Maximum likelihood (ML), near-ML, simple minimum mean square error (MMSE) and ordered successive interference cancellation (OSIC) based MMSE detectors of MIMO-OFDM-IM are proposed, and their theoretical performance is investigated. It has been shown via extensive computer simulations that MIMO-OFDM-IM scheme provides an interesting tradeoff between error performance and spectral efficiency as well as it achieves considerably better error performance than classical MIMO-OFDM using different type detectors and under realistic conditions.

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing with index modulation

In this paper, a novel orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) scheme, called OFDM with index modulation (OFDM-IM), is proposed for operation over frequency-selective and rapidly time-varying fading channels. In this scheme, the information is conveyed not only by M-ary signal constellations as in classical OFDM, but also by the indices of the subcarriers, which are activated according to the incoming bit stream. Different low complexity transceiver structures based on maximum likelihood detection or log-likelihood ratio calculation are proposed and a theoretical error performance analysis is provided for the new scheme operating under ideal channel conditions. Then, the proposed scheme is adapted to realistic channel conditions such as imperfect channel state information and very high mobility cases by modifying the receiver structure. The approximate pairwise error probability of OFDM-IM is derived under channel estimation errors. For the mobility case, several interference unaware/aware detection methods are proposed for the new scheme. It is shown via computer simulations that the proposed scheme achieves significantly better error performance than classical OFDM due to the information bits carried by the indices of OFDM subcarriers under both ideal and realistic channel conditions.

Index Modulation Techniques for Next-Generation Wireless Networks

What is index modulation (IM)? This is an interesting question that we have started to hear more and more frequently over the past few years. The aim of this paper is to answer this question in a comprehensive manner by covering not only the basic principles and emerging variants of IM, but also reviewing the most recent as well as promising advances in this field toward the application scenarios foreseen in next-generation wireless networks. More specifically, we investigate three forms of IM: spatial modulation, channel modulation and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) with IM, which consider the transmit antennas of a multiple-input multiple-output system, the radio frequency mirrors (parasitic elements) mounted at a transmit antenna and the subcarriers of an OFDM system for IM techniques, respectively. We present the up-to-date advances in these three promising frontiers and discuss possible future research directions for IM-based schemes toward low-complexity, spectrum- and energy-efficient next-generation wireless networks.

Multiple-Input Multiple-Output OFDM With Index Modulation: Low-Complexity Detector Design

Multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing with index modulation (MIMO-OFDM-IM), which provides a flexible trade-off between spectral efficiency and error performance, is recently proposed as a promising transmission technique for energy-efficient 5G wireless communications systems. However, due to the dependence of subcarrier symbols within each subblock and the strong interchannel interference, it is challenging to detect the transmitted data effectively while imposing low computational burden to the receiver. In this paper, we propose two types of low-complexity detectors based on the sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) theory for the detection of MIMO-OFDM-IM signals. The first detector draws samples independently at the subblock level, while the second detector draws samples at the subcarrier level with further reduced complexity. To meet the constraint of the subcarrier combinations within each subblock, the second detector is further coupled with a carefully designed legality examination method. Attributed to the effectiveness of legality examination and deterministic SMC sampling, both proposed detectors achieve near-optimal error performance for the MIMO-OFDM-IM system.

Space-time block coding for spatial modulation

Space-time block coded spatial modulation (STBC-SM), which employs space-time block coding (STBC) for spatial modulation (SM), is proposed as a new multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmission scheme. In the STBC-SM scheme, the transmitted information symbols are expanded not only to the space and time domains but also to the spatial (antenna) domain, therefore both core STBC and antenna indices carry information. A general framework is presented for the design of the STBC-SM scheme for any number of transmit antennas. The proposed scheme is optimized by deriving its diversity and coding gains to exploit the diversity advantage of STBC. A low-complexity maximum likelihood (ML) decoder is given for the new scheme. It is shown by computer simulations that STBC-SM provides approximately 3–5 dB (depending on the spectral efficiency) better error performance than SM and V-BLAST systems.