Raymond Knopp

Information capacity and power control in single-cell multiuser communications

We consider a power control scheme for maximizing the information capacity of the uplink in single-cell multiuser communications with frequency-flat fading, under the assumption that the users attenuations are measured perfectly. Its main characteristics are that only one user transmits over the entire bandwidth at any particular time instant and that the users are allocated more power when their channels are good, and less when they are bad. Moreover, these features are independent of the statistics of the fading. Numerical results are presented for the case of single-path Rayleigh fading. We show that an increase in capacity over a perfectly-power controlled (Gaussian) channel can be achieved, especially if the number of users is large. By examining the bit error-rate with antipodal signalling, we show the inherent diversity in multiuser communications over fading channels.

A practical method for wireless channel reciprocity exploitation through relative calibration

We present a relative calibration method for a wireless TDD link, which, after a calibration phase involving feedback, lets the transmitter acquire knowledge of the downlink channel state from the uplink channel estimates, through proper modeling and estimation of the RF circuitry impulse responses. Contrarily to previous methods, relative calibration does not require specific calibration hardware. Experimental results confirm the validity of the proposed linear reciprocity model, and of the calibration approach.

Multi-Pair Two-Way Relay Channel with Multiple Antenna Relay Station

We consider a multi-pair two-way relay channel (TWRC) where the single-antenna mobile terminals (MT) on each pair seek to communicate, and can do so, via a common multiple antenna relay station (RS). In the multi-pair TWRC, the main bottleneck on system performance is the interference seen by each MT due to the other communicating MT pairs. In this paper, we try to tackle this problem in the spatial domain by using multiple antennas at the RS. Considering Amplify-and-Forward (AF) and Quantize-and-Forward (QF) relaying strategies, different transmit/receive beamforming schemes at the RS are proposed. We compare our proposed schemes to each other and to the Decode-and-Forward (DF) relaying strategy with achievable sum rate taken as a performance metric and show that in a wide range of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) our schemes outperform the DF relaying strategy.

MU-MIMO in LTE Systems

A relatively recent idea of extending the benefits of MIMO systems to multiuser scenarios seems promising in the context of achieving high data rates envisioned for future cellular standards after 3G (3rd Generation). Although substantial research has been done on the theoretical front, recent focus is on making Multiuser Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MUMIMO) practically realizable. This paper presents an overview of the different MU-MIMO schemes included/being studied in 3GPP standardization from LTE (long-term evolution) to LTE Advanced. MU-MIMO system concepts and implementation aspects have been studied here. Various low-complexity receiver architectures are investigated, and their performance assessed through link-level simulations. Appealing performance offered by low-complexity interference aware (IA) receivers is notably emphasized. Furthermore, system level simulations for LTE Release 8 are provided. Interestingly, it is shown that MU-MIMO only offers marginal performance gains with respect to single-user MIMO. This arises from the limited MU-MIMO features included in Release 8 and calls for improved schemes for the upcoming releases.

Multiple-accessing over frequency-selective fading channels

This work considers the transmission of information from many independent sources to a common receiver over a channel impaired by multipath propagation. In cellular radio communications this is the case of the uplink. We start by examining the achievable rate region of the multiuser frequency-selective fading channel without knowledge of the channel on the transmission end. It has been shown that SSMA (Spread Spectrum Multiple Access) is theoretically capable of higher data rates than FDMA (Frequency Division MuZfiple Access) or slow frequency-hopping[l]. When the average received power for all the users is equal, which corresponds to a perfect slow power control, we show that the maximum spectral efficiency of SSMA exceeds that of FDMA or slow frequency-hopping by 5772 nats/s/Hz for many users and Rayleigh fading. Also, we formulate the optimal multiple-access scheme when all the channels are known to the transmitters. In turns out that only one user should transmit at any given frequency. Morecver, the input power spectra for the transmitters are water-filling formulae both in frequency and time. It is shown that the spectral efficiency for the optimal scheme is significantly higher than both those of SSMA and FDMA.

OpenAirInterface: A Flexible Platform for 5G Research

Driven by the need to cope with exponentially growing mobile data traffic and to support new traffic types from massive numbers of machine-type devices, academia and industry are thinking beyond the current generation of mobile cellular networks to chalk a path towards fifth generation (5G) mobile networks. Several new approaches and technologies are being considered as potential elements making up such a future mobile network, including cloud RANs, application of SDN principles, exploiting new and unused portions of spectrum, use of massive MIMO and full-duplex communications. Research on these technologies requires realistic and flexible experimentation platforms that offer a wide range of experimentation modes from real-world experimentation to controlled and scalable evaluations while at the same time retaining backward compatibility with current generation systems. Towards this end, we present OpenAirInterface (OAI) as a suitably flexible platform. In addition, we discuss the use of OAI in the context of several widely mentioned 5G research directions.

Two-Way Radio Networks with a Star Topology

Achievable rates for two-way half-duplex relay channels are considered. This channel model is applicable to wireless networks with a star topology characterized by a traffic model where all traffic in the network traverses the relay due to the lack of a reliable direct link between the nodes. The coding and multiple-access strategies make use of network coding at the relay in addition to analog forwarding with interference cancellation at the receivers. An achievable rate region for discrete-memoryless networks is given as well as extensions for the additive white Gaussian network

Correlation and capacity of measured multi-user MIMO channels

In multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) systems, spatial multiplexing can be employed to increase the throughput without the need for multiple antennas and expensive signal processing at the user equipments. In theory, MU-MIMO is also more immune to most of propagation limitations plaguing single-user MIMO (SU-MIMO) systems, such as channel rank loss or antenna correlation. However, in this paper we show that this is not always true. We compare the capacity and the correlation of measured MU-MIMO channels for both outdoor and indoor scenarios. The measurement data has been acquired using Eurecompsilas MIMO openair sounder (EMOS). The EMOS can perform real-time MIMO channel measurements synchronously over multiple users. The results show that in most scenarios MU-MIMO provides a higher throughput than SU-MIMO also in the measured channels. However, in outdoor scenarios with a line of sight, the capacity drops significantly when the users are close together, due to high correlation at the transmitter side of the channel. In such a case, the performance of SU-MIMO and MU-MIMO is comparable.

On the achievable rates of ultra-wideband PPM with non-coherent detection in multipath environments

In this work we investigate the achievable rates of ultra-wideband (UWB) systems using a m-ary pulse position modulation (PPM) with non-coherent receivers in multipath fading environments. We derive a random coding bound on the achievable information rates and highlight the influence of system parameters (bandwidth, delay spread). We also investigate the effect of the use of hard decisions prior to channel decoding and characterize its impact on system performance.

Channel allocation algorithms for multi-carrier systems

This study focuses on orthogonal channel allocation strategies, yielding multiuser diversity with a deterministic channel, for use in an N-user system with N parallel sub-channels. The techniques are applicable, for instance, in orthogonal frequency division multiple-access (OFDMA) systems with dynamic sub-carrier allocation. We show that multiuser diversity, and thus an increase of aggregate data rates with the size of the user population, can still be successfully achieved even under a hard fairness constraint. Furthermore, we provide algorithms which perform channel allocation yielding a variable-rate with constant power and fixed-rate with variable power. We show the effect of system bandwidth (and thus sub-channel correlation) on multiuser diversity. The techniques considered here do not require phase information in the channel allocation process, which, from a practical point-of-view, is particularly important for time-division duplex systems exploiting channel reciprocity.