Mikko Valkama

Advanced methods for I/Q imbalance compensation in communication receivers

I/Q signal processing is widely utilized in todays communication receivers. However, all I/Q processing receiver structures, such as the low-IF receiver, face a common problem of matching the amplitudes and phases of the I and Q branches. In practice, imbalances are unavoidable in the analog front-end, which results in finite and usually insufficient rejection of the image frequency band. This causes the image signal to appear as interference on top of the desired signal. We carry out general signal analysis of an imbalanced I/Q processing receiver and propose novel methods for I/Q imbalance compensation using baseband digital signal processing. A simple structure for compensation is derived, based on a traditional adaptive interference canceller. Improved image rejection can also be obtained by using more advanced blind source separation techniques. Theoretical analysis of the performance of the proposed imbalance compensation structures is presented. In addition, some simulation results are provided in order to further evaluate the performance of the proposed methods. The results indicate that the I/Q imbalance can be effectively compensated during the normal operation of the receiver even in the rapidly changing case, as long as a linear system model for the imbalance is valid.

Circularity-Based I/Q Imbalance Compensation in Wideband Direct-Conversion Receivers

Communication receivers that utilize I/Q downconversion are troubled by amplitude and phase mismatches between the analog I and Q branches. These mismatches are unavoidable in practice and reduce the obtainable image frequency attenuation to the 20-40-dB range in practical receivers. In wideband multichannel receivers, where the overall bandwidths are in the range of several megahertz and the incoming carriers located at each others mirror frequencies have a high dynamic range, the image attenuation of the analog front-end (FE) alone is clearly insufficient. In this paper, two novel blind low-complexity I/Q imbalance compensation techniques are proposed and analyzed to digitally enhance the analog FE image attenuation in wideband direct-conversion receivers. The proposed algorithms are grounded on the concept of circular or proper complex random signals, and they are, by design, able to handle the often overlooked yet increasingly important case of frequency-dependent I/Q mismatches. The first technique is an iterative one, stemming from adaptive filtering principles, whereas the second one is a moment-estimation-based block method. The performance of the algorithms is evaluated through computer simulations, as well as real-world laboratory signal measurement examples in practical multicarrier receiver cases. Based on the obtained results, the proposed compensation techniques can provide very good compensation performance with low computational resources and are robust in the face of different imbalance levels and dynamics of the received signals, as well as many other crucial practical aspects such as the effects of the communications channel and carrier synchronization.

Widely Linear Digital Self-Interference Cancellation in Direct-Conversion Full-Duplex Transceiver

This paper addresses the modeling and cancellation of self-interference in full-duplex direct-conversion radio transceivers, operating under practical imperfect radio frequency (RF) components. First, detailed self-interference signal modeling is carried out, taking into account the most important RF imperfections, namely, transmitter power amplifier nonlinear distortion as well as transmitter and receiver IQ mixer amplitude and phase imbalances. The analysis shows that after realistic antenna isolation and RF cancellation, the dominant self-interference waveform at the receiver digital baseband can be modeled through a widely linear transformation of the original transmit data, opposed to classical purely linear models. Such widely linear self-interference waveform is physically stemming from the transmitter and receiver IQ imaging and cannot be efficiently suppressed by classical linear digital cancellation. Motivated by this, novel widely linear digital self-interference cancellation processing is then proposed and formulated, combined with efficient parameter estimation methods. Extensive simulation results demonstrate that the proposed widely linear cancellation processing clearly outperforms the existing linear solutions, hence enabling the use of practical low-cost RF front ends utilizing IQ mixing in full-duplex transceivers.

Full-Duplex Transceiver System Calculations: Analysis of ADC and Linearity Challenges

Despite the intensive recent research on wireless single-channel full-duplex communications, relatively little is known about the transceiver chain nonidealities of full-duplex devices. In this paper, the effect of nonlinear distortion occurring in the transmitter power amplifier (PA) and the receiver chain is analyzed, beside the dynamic range requirements of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). This is done with detailed system calculations, which combine the properties of the individual electronics components to jointly model the complete transceiver chain, including self-interference cancellation. They also quantify the decrease in the dynamic range for the signal of interest caused by self-interference at the analog-to-digital interface. Using these system calculations, we provide comprehensive numerical results for typical transceiver parameters. The analytical results are also confirmed with full waveform simulations. We observe that the nonlinear distortion produced by the transmitter PA is a significant issue in a full-duplex transceiver and, when using cheaper and less linear components, also the receiver chain nonlinearities become considerable. It is also shown that, with digitally intensive self-interference cancellation, the quantization noise of the ADCs is another significant problem.

Joint Mitigation of Power Amplifier and I/Q Modulator Impairments in Broadband Direct-Conversion Transmitters

In this paper, we present a novel digital predistorter structure for joint mitigation of frequency-dependent power amplifier (PA) and in-phase and quadrature (I/Q) modulator impairments in direct-conversion radio transmitters. The predistorter is based on an extended parallel Hammerstein structure, yielding a predistorter that is fully linear in the parameters. In the parameter estimation stage, the indirect learning architecture is utilized. The proposed technique is the first technique in the literature to consider the joint estimation and mitigation of frequency-dependent PA and I/Q modulator impairments. Extensive simulation and measurement analysis is carried out to verify the operation and efficacy of the proposed predistortion structure. It is shown that the adjacent channel power ratio is increased by more than 20 dB in all experiments when using the proposed method, and that the performance of the reference techniques is clearly exceeded.

Compensation of frequency-selective I/Q imbalances in wideband receivers: models and algorithms

To achieve satisfactory performance in analog I/Q (inphase/quadrature) processing-based wireless receivers, the matching of amplitudes and phases of the I and Q branches becomes vital. In practice, there is always some imbalance and the image attenuation produced by the analog processing remains finite. Especially in wideband receivers, where the existence of strong image band signals makes the attenuation requirements extremely stringent, analog processing is incapable of providing adequate image rejection. We derive a general frequency-dependent signal model for an imbalanced analog front-end and present two alternative methods utilizing digital processing to enhance the analog front-end image rejection. Based on the obtained results, the proposed methods provide adequate image signal rejection with very few assumptions, even in the difficult cases of frequency-selective and/or time-varying imbalances.

Frequency-Selective I/Q Mismatch Calibration of Wideband Direct-Conversion Transmitters

The current trend in building low-cost yet flexible radio transceivers is to use the so-called direct-conversion principle, which is based on complex (I/Q) up- and down conversions. Such transceivers are, however, sensitive to mismatches between the I and Q branches. These mismatches are unavoidable in any practical implementation, and result in finite attenuation of the mirror frequencies. In addition to the mirror-frequency interference problem, I/Q mismatches can severely compromise the performance of power amplifier linearization techniques based on pre-distortion. The effects of these impairments are becoming more pronounced as higher order modulated waveforms and/or more wideband multichannel signals are used. This brief focuses on digital-signal-processor-based I/Q mismatch calibration in wideband direct-conversion transmitters, assuming the challenging case of frequency-dependent I/Q mismatch. First, a novel widely linear (WL) calibration structure is introduced, suitable for frequency-dependent calibration. Then, two alternative principles for calibration parameter estimation are proposed. The first estimation approach stems from second-order statistics of complex communication signals, while the second technique is based on WL least-squares model fitting. Both estimators are shown by simulations to yield very good calibration performance. The obtainable performance is further assessed using laboratory RF signal measurements.

Recent advances in antenna design and interference cancellation algorithms for in-band full duplex relays

In-band full-duplex relays transmit and receive simultaneously at the same center frequency, hence offering enhanced spectral efficiency for relay deployment. In order to deploy such full-duplex relays, it is necessary to efficiently mitigate the inherent self-interference stemming from the strong transmit signal coupling to the sensitive receive chain. In this article, we present novel state-of-the-art antenna solutions as well as digital self-interference cancellation algorithms for compact MIMO full-duplex relays, specifically targeted for reduced-cost deployments in local area networks. The presented antenna design builds on resonant wavetraps and is shown to provide passive isolations on the order of 60-70 dB. We also discuss and present advanced digital cancellation solutions, beyond classical linear processing, specifically tailored against nonlinear distortion of the power amplifier when operating close to saturation. Measured results from a complete demonstrator system, integrating antennas, RF cancellation, and nonlinear digital cancellation, are also presented, evidencing close to 100 dB of overall self-interference suppression. The reported results indicate that building and deploying compact full-duplex MIMO relays is already technologically feasible.

Advanced digital signal processing techniques for compensation of nonlinear distortion in wideband multicarrier radio receivers

One of the main trends in the evolution of radio receivers and other wireless device is to implement more and more of the receiver functionalities using digital signal processing (DSP). However, due to practical limitations in the analog-to-digital conversion process, some analog signal processing stages are likely to remain also in the continuation. With the ever-increasing demands for the system performance and supported data rates on one side, and the terminal flexibility and implementation costs on the other, the requirements for these remaining analog front-end stages become extremely challenging to meet. Then, one interesting idea in this context is to apply sophisticated DSP-based techniques to compensate for some of the most fundamental nonidealities of the receiver analog front-ends. In this paper, we focus on developing and demonstrating novel digital techniques to mitigate the effects of harmonic and intermodulation distortion in wideband multicarrier or multichannel receivers using adaptive interference cancellation. The approach in general is practically oriented and largely based on analyzing and processing measured real-world receiver front-end signals. The obtained results indicate that the proposed compensation technique can be used to suppress nonlinear distortion due to receiver front-end sections under realistic signaling assumptions

Spectral and energy efficiency of ultra-dense networks under different deployment strategies

To tackle the 1000× mobile data challenge, the research towards the 5th generation of mobile cellular networks is currently ongoing. One clear enabler toward substantially improved network area capacities is the increasing level of network densification at different layers of the overall heterogeneous radio access system. Ultra-dense deployments, or DenseNets, seek to take network densification to a whole new level, where extreme spatial reuse is deployed. This article looks into DenseNets from the perspectives of different deployment strategies, covering the densification of the classical macro layer, extremely dense indoor femto layer, as well as outdoor distributed antenna system (DAS), which can be dynamically configured as a single microcell or multiple independent microcells. Also, the potential of a new indoor-to-outdoor service provisioning paradigm is examined. The different deployment solutions are analyzed from the network area spectral and network energy efficiency perspectives, with extreme densification levels, including both indoor and outdoor use scenarios. The obtained results indicate that dedicated indoor solutions with densely deployed femtocells are much more spectrum- and energy-efficient approaches to address the enormous indoor capacity demands compared to densifying the outdoor macro layer, when the systems are pushed to their capacity limits. Furthermore, the dynamic outdoor DAS concept offers an efficient and capacity-adaptive solution to provide outdoor capacity, on demand, in urban areas.