Vijay K. Bhargava

A robust timing and frequency synchronization for OFDM systems

A robust symbol-timing and carrier-frequency synchronization scheme applicable to orthogonal frequency-division-multiplexing systems is presented. The proposed method is based on a training symbol specifically designed to have a steep rolloff timing metric. The proposed timing metric also provides a robust sync detection capability. Both time domain training and frequency domain (FD) training are investigated. For FD training, maintaining a low peak-to-average power ratio of the training symbol was taken into consideration. The channel estimation scheme based on the designed training symbol was also incorporated in the system in order to give both fine-timing and frequency-offset estimates. For fine frequency estimation, two approaches are presented. The first one is based on the suppression of the interference introduced in the frequency estimation process by the training symbol pattern in the context of multipath dispersive channels. The second one is based on the maximum likelihood principle and does not suffer from any interference. A new performance measure is introduced for timing estimation, which is based on the plot of signal to timing-error-induced average interference power ratio against the timing estimate shift. A simple approach for finding the optimal setting of the timing estimator is presented. Finally, the sync detection, timing estimation, frequency estimation, and bit-error-rate performance of the proposed method are presented in a multipath Rayleigh fading channel.

On timing offset estimation for OFDM systems

Two timing offset estimation methods for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems as modifications to Schmidl and Coxs method (see IEEE Trans. Commun., vol.45, p.1613-21, 1997) are presented. The performances of the timing offset estimators in additive white Gaussian noise channel and intersymbol interference channel are compared in terms of estimator variance obtained by simulation. Both proposed methods have significantly smaller estimator variance in both channel conditions.

Optimal and Suboptimal Power Allocation Schemes for OFDM-based Cognitive Radio Systems

In this paper, we investigate an optimal power loading algorithm for an OFDM-based cognitive radio (CR) system. The downlink transmission capacity of the CR user is thereby maximized, while the interference introduced to the primary user (PU) remains within a tolerable range. We also propose two suboptimal loading algorithms that are less complex. We also study the effect of a subcarrier nulling mechanism on the performance of the different algorithms under consideration. The performance of the optimal and suboptimal schemes is compared with the performance of the classical power loading algorithms, e.g., water-filling and uniform power but variable rate loading schemes that are used for conventional OFDM-based systems. Presented numerical results show that for a given interference threshold, the proposed optimal scheme allows CR base station (BS) to transmit more power in order to achieve a higher transmission rate than the classical loading algorithms. These results also show that although the proposed suboptimal schemes have certain degradation in performance compared to the optimal scheme, they outperform the classical loading algorithms. We also present numerical results for nulling mechanism. Finally, we investigate the effect of imperfect channel gain information at the transmitter.

Cognitive Wireless Communication Networks

The proposed book includes a set of research and survey articles featuring the recent advances in theory and applications of cognitive radio technology for the next generation (e.g., fourth generation) wireless communication networks. Cognitive radio has emerged as a promising technology for maximizing the utilization of the limited radio bandwidth while accommodating the increasing amount of services and applications in the wireless networks. A cognitive radio transceiver is able to adapt to the dynamic radio environment and the network parameters to maximize the utilization of the limited radio resources while at the same time providing flexibility in wireless access. Development of cognitive radio technology has to deal with technical and practical considerations as well as regulatory requirements, and therefore, there is an increasing interest on this technology among the researchers and the spectrum policy makers. The contributed articles cover both the theoretical concepts (e.g., information-theoretic analysis) and system-level implementation issues. Therefore, the book provides a unified view on the state of the art of cognitive radio technology. The topics include information-theoretic analysis of cognitive radio systems, challenges and issues in designing cognitive radio systems, architectures and protocols for cognitive wireless networks, distributed adaptation and optimization methods, real-time spectrum sensing and channel allocation, cognitive machine learning techniques, interoperability and co-existence issues, spectrum awareness and dynamic channel selection, cross-layer optimization of cognitive radio systems, cognitive radio test-beds and hardware prototypes, regulatory issues on spectrum sharing, and applications of cognitive radio networks. The book starts with the essential background on cognitive radio techniques and systems (through one/two survey articles), and then it presents advanced level materials in a step-by-step fashion so that the readers can follow the book easily. The rich set of references in each of the articles will be invaluable to the researchers. The book is useful to both researchers and practitioners in this area. Also, it can be adopted as a graduate-level textbook for an advanced course on wireless communication networks.

An investigation into time-domain approach for OFDM channel estimation

A time-domain based channel estimation for OFDM system with pilot-data multiplexed scheme is investigated. As an approximation to linear minimum mean square estimator (LMMSE), a time-domain based channel estimation is proposed where intra-symbol time-averaging and most significant channel taps selection are applied. The relation and differences of the proposed method to DFT-based LMMSE methods are discussed. The performances of the proposed method, DFT-based LMMSE method and the methods of Chini, Wu, El-Tanany and Mahmoud (see IEEE Trans. on Broadcasting, vol.44, no.1, p.2-11, 1998) and of Yeh and Lin (see IEEE Trans. on Broadcasting, vol.45, no.4, p.400-409, 1999) are evaluated in multipath fading channels. The simulation results show that proposed method achieves almost the same performance as DFT-based LMMSE method and better BER performance than the other methods while keeping less complexity.

Equal-gain diversity receiver performance in wireless channels

Performance analysis of equal-gain combining (EGC) diversity systems is notoriously difficult only more so given that the closed-form probability density function (PDF) of the EGC output is only available for dual-diversity combining in Rayleigh fading. A powerful frequency-domain approach is therefore developed in which the average error-rate integral is transformed into the frequency domain, using Parsevals theorem. Such a transformation eliminates the need for computing (or approximating) the EGC output PDF (which is unknown), but instead requires the knowledge of the corresponding characteristic function (which is readily available). The frequency-domain method also circumvents the need to perform multiple-fold convolution integral operations, usually encountered in the calculation of the PDF of the sum of the received signal amplitudes. We then derive integral expressions for the average symbol-error rate of an arbitrary two-dimensional signaling scheme, with EGC reception in Rayleigh, Rician, Nakagami-m (1960), and Nakagami-q fading channels. For practically important cases of second- and third-order diversity systems in Nakagami fading, both coherent and noncoherent detection methods for binary signaling are analyzed using the Appell hypergeometric function. A number of closed-form solutions are derived in which the results put forward by Zhang (see ibid., vol.45, p.270-73, 1997) are shown to be special cases.

Wireless sensor networks with energy harvesting technologies: a game-theoretic approach to optimal energy management

Energy harvesting technologies are required for autonomous sensor networks for which using a power source from a fixed utility or manual battery recharging is infeasible. An energy harvesting device (e.g., a solar cell) converts different forms of environmental energy into electricity to be supplied to a sensor node. However, since it can produce energy only at a limited rate, energy saving mechanisms play an important role to reduce energy consumption in a sensor node. In this article we present an overview of the different energy harvesting technologies and the energy saving mechanisms for wireless sensor networks. The related research issues on energy efficiency for sensor networks using energy harvesting technology are then discussed. To this end, we present an optimal energy management policy for a solar-powered sensor node that uses a sleep and wakeup strategy for energy conservation. The problem of determining the sleep and wakeup probabilities is formulated as a bargaining game. The Nash equilibrium is used as the solution of this game.

Secure Cooperative Sensing Techniques for Cognitive Radio Systems

The most important task for a cognitive radio (CR) system is to identify the primary licensed users over a wide range of spectrum. Cooperation among spectrum sensing devices has been shown to offer various benefits including decrease in sensitivity requirements of the individual sensing devices. However, it has been shown in the literature that the performance of cooperative sensing schemes can be severely degraded due to presence of malicious users sending false sensing data. In this paper, we present techniques to identify such malicious users and mitigate their harmful effect on the performance of the cooperative sensing system.

Secure Transmission in Multicell Massive MIMO Systems

In this paper, we consider physical layer security provisioning in multicell massive multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems. Specifically, we consider secure downlink transmission in a multicell massive MIMO system with matched-filter precoding and artificial noise (AN) generation at the base station (BS) in the presence of a passive multiantenna eavesdropper. We investigate the resulting achievable ergodic secrecy rate and the secrecy outage probability for the cases of perfect training and pilot contamination. Thereby, we consider two different AN shaping matrices, namely, the conventional AN shaping matrix, where the AN is transmitted in the null space of the matrix formed by all user channels, and a random AN shaping matrix, which avoids the complexity associated with finding the null space of a large matrix. Our analytical and numerical results reveal the following, in multicell massive MIMO systems employing matched-filter precoding: 1) AN generation is required to achieve a positive ergodic secrecy rate if the user and the eavesdropper experience the same path loss; 2) even with AN generation, secure transmission may not be possible if the number of eavesdropper antennas is too large and not enough power is allocated to channel estimation; 3) for a given fraction of power allocated to AN and a given number of users, in case of pilot contamination, the ergodic secrecy rate is not a monotonically increasing function of the number of BS antennas; and 4) random AN shaping matrices provide a favorable performance/complexity tradeoff and are an attractive alternative to conventional AN shaping matrices.

A modified Massey-Omura parallel multiplier for a class of finite fields

A Massey-Omura parallel multiplier of finite fields GF(2/sup m/) contains m identical blocks whose inputs are cyclically shifted versions of one another. It is shown that for fields GF(2/sup m/) generated by irreducible all one polynomials, a portion of the block is independent of the input cyclic shift; hence, the multiplier contains redundancy. By removing the redundancy, a modified parallel multiplier is presented which is modular and has a lower circuit complexity. >