Michael P. Fitz

Signal design for transmitter diversity wireless communication systems over Rayleigh fading channels

Transmitter diversity wireless communication systems over Rayleigh fading channels using pilot symbol assisted modulation (PSAM) are studied. Unlike conventional transmitter diversity systems with PSAM that estimate the superimposed fading process, we are able to estimate each individual fading process corresponding to the multiple transmitters by using appropriately designed pilot symbol sequences. With such sequences, special coded modulation schemes can then be designed to access the diversity provided by the multiple transmitters without having to use an interleaver or expand the signal bandwidth. The code matrix notion is introduced for the coded modulation scheme, and its design criteria are also established. In addition to the reduction in receiver complexity, simulation results are compared to, and shown to be superior to, that of an intentional frequency offset system over a wide range of system parameters.

Further results in the fast estimation of a single frequency

The author proposes a new frequency estimator for a single complex sinusoid in complex white Gaussian noise. The estimator is applicable to problems in communications requiring high speed, recursive frequency estimation. The estimator is computationally efficient yet obtains near optimum performance at moderate signal-to-noise ratios. >

Full rate space-time turbo codes

This paper proposes a class of full space diversity full rate space-time turbo codes. Both parallel concatenated and serially concatenated codes are designed. A rank theory proposed by the authors earlier is employed to check the full space diversity of the codes. The simulations show that the space-time turbo codes can take full advantage of space diversity and time diversity if they are available in the channels. We also study the robustness of performance of both turbo codes and trellis codes in space-time correlated fading channels.

Space-time code design with continuous phase modulation

This paper addresses the space-time code design for Rayleigh-fading channels using continuous phase modulation (CPM). General code construction is desirable due to the nonlinearity and inherent memory in CPM signals which make hand design or computer search computationally impractical. Several sufficient conditions for full rank are identified for CPM signaling schemes and for linear representations of CPM. Simulation results verify the resulting performance.

Reduced complexity decision feedback equalization for multipath channels with large delay spreads

Two modified decision feedback equalization (DFE) structures are presented for the efficient equalization of long sparse channels with strong precursor, such as those encountered in high-speed communications over multipath channels with large delay spread. Unlike the conventional DFE, these structures allow the channels sparseness to be exploited by simple tap allocation, before the sparseness is degraded by feedforward filtering. Both structures yield large reductions in complexity while maintaining performance comparable to the conventional DPE, hence overcoming a key computational bottleneck when equalizers are implemented in hardware for speed. Fast channel estimate-based algorithms for computing the modified DFE coefficients are derived. Simulation results are presented for data rates and channel profiles of the type considered for the proposed North American high definition television (HDTV) terrestrial broadcast mode.

Robust space-time codes for correlated Rayleigh fading channels

Space-time (ST) coding has emerged as an effective strategy to enhance performance of wireless communications in fading environments. Many different ST coding schemes have been proposed to achieve reliable communications in independent fading channels. However, a design of robust ST codes for correlated fading channels has not been addressed. We propose a simple robust ST coding scheme that achieves robust performance over a wide range of fading conditions. The key to achieve robust performance is to formulate code design criteria that are not dependent on the channel correlation statistics. A provably robust scheme can be formulated by concatenating a full-rank ST block code with an outer encoder. We derive several robust code examples via the concatenated orthogonal ST block code and TCM construction. The simulation results show that some traditional ST codes perform poorly, whereas the proposed codes achieve robust performance over a broad range of fading conditions.

Planar filtered techniques for burst mode carrier synchronization

The author develops the ML estimator and the associated CRLB (Cramer-Rao lower bound) for a carrier with unknown frequency and phase. The CRLB can be used to derive a lower bound on the total phase error resulting from joint phase and frequency estimation. The ML estimator provides design guidelines for practical estimators. Several phase estimators are postulated and investigated. A practical, digitally implemented, planar filtered carrier synchronizer based on the structure of the ML estimator developed is presented.<<ETX>>

A space-time model for frequency nonselective Rayleigh fading channels with applications to space-time modems

This paper extends the traditional Clarke/Jakes (1968, 1974) model for a frequency flat fading process in a land mobile radio system to facilitate the examination of coherent space-time demodulation systems. The work develops a space-time correlation function using a ring of scatterers model around the mobile unit. The resulting correlation function permits the investigation of a variety of issues concerning base station configurations in space-time systems. The interrelationship of the fading process between the space and the time domain is explored. A detailed example regarding the effects of antenna separation in a receiver diversity system is considered. A set of design rules for interleaving depth and antenna separation in a space-time modem is presented and quantified.

On the design of space-time and space-frequency codes for MIMO frequency-selective fading channels

The authors introduced an algebraic design framework for space-time coding in flat-fading channels . We extend this framework to design algebraic codes for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) frequency-selective fading channels. The proposed codes strive to optimally exploit both the spatial and frequency diversity available in the channel. We consider two design approaches: The first uses space-time coding and maximum likelihood decoding to exploit the multi-path nature of the channel at the expense of increased receiver complexity. Within this time domain framework, we also propose a serially concatenated coding construction which is shown to offer a performance gain with a reasonable complexity iterative receiver in some scenarios. The second approach utilizes the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing technique to transform the MIMO multipath channel into a MIMO flat block fading channel. The algebraic framework is then used to construct space-frequency codes (SFC) that optimally exploit the diversity available in the resulting flat block fading channel. Finally, the two approaches are compared in terms of decoder complexity, maximum achievable diversity advantage, and simulated frame error rate performance in certain representative scenarios.

Frequency offset compensation of pilot symbol assisted modulation in frequency flat fading

Pilot symbol assisted modulation (PSAM) is a practical technique in mobile digital communications since it can provide high performance in fading with large constellations and it has a simple implementation. Maintaining high performance with PSAM requires an accurate estimate of the transmitted carrier frequency. This paper examines model-based frequency estimation for mobile digital communications with PSAM. Maximum-likelihood estimators (MLE), which include the model for the fading, are derived and compared with those in an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel, and performance hounds are computed. Reduced complexity frequency estimators based on the MLE are derived and the performance is quantified by Monte-Carlo simulation.