Yang-seok Choi

Full-duplex mobile device: pushing the limits

In this article, we address the challenges of transmitter-receiver isolation in mobile full-duplex devices, building on shared-antenna-based transceiver architecture. First, self-adaptive analog RF cancellation circuitry is required, since the ability to track time-varying self-interference coupling characteristics is of utmost importance in mobile devices. In addition, novel adaptive nonlinear DSP methods are also required for final self-interference suppression at digital baseband, since mobile-scale devices typically operate under highly nonlinear low-cost RF components. In addition to describing the above kind of advanced circuit and signal processing solutions, comprehensive RF measurement results from a complete demonstrator implementation are also provided, evidencing beyond 40 dB of active RF cancellation over an 80 MHz waveform bandwidth with a highly nonlinear transmitter power amplifier. Measured examples also demonstrate the good self-healing characteristics of the developed control loop against fast changes in the coupling channel. Furthermore, when complemented by nonlinear digital cancellation processing, the residual self-interference level is pushed down to the noise floor of the demonstration system, despite the harsh nonlinear nature of the self-interference. These findings indicate that deploying the full-duplex principle can indeed also be feasible in mobile devices, and thus be one potential technology in, for example, 5G and beyond radio systems.

A Pragmatic PHY Abstraction Technique for Link Adaptation and MIMO Switching

MIMO (multiple input multiple output) techniques are widely employed to improve the performance of wireless systems. These techniques are used to overcome multipath fading and/or improve the peak throughput of wireless systems. It is well known that there is a fundamental tradeoff between diversity gain and multiplexing gain [1]. Orthogonal space time codes such as the Alamouti code (also known as space time block codes (STBC)) exploit multiple antennas as a diversity source, and thus improve packet error rate (PER) and the average throughput. However, space time block codes are not designed to increase the peak data rate of the system. On the other hand, spatial multiplexing (SM) techniques offer higher peak throughput by transmitting parallel streams of data from different antennas. In order to successfully decode the parallel streams, the channel must exhibit a small eigenvalue spread. Otherwise, the streams will interfere with one another and it is difficult to decode the information data. The performance improvement from SM is therefore highly dependent on the channel characteristics. It is possible to use multiple encoders and rate control per layer to improve the SM performance. However, there are instances of channel where STBC is more beneficial than SM with a single encoder. In order to resolve the shortcomings of STBC and SM, a hybrid technique can be applied where depending on the instantaneous channel conditions either STBC or SM is selected. This technique is commonly referred to as adaptive MIMO switching (AMS) [5]-[11]. One important aspect of the technique is the switching criteria, namely the PHY abstraction method which estimates a packet error event as a function of the instantaneous channel condition, transmission profiles, and receiver characteristics. We show that the proposed algorithm outperforms other techniques such as determinant and Demmel condition number based techniques in flat fading channel. In selective fading channels where a codeword sees a finite number of multiple channel qualities, estimating the resulting PER is very challenging. Existing techniques rely on an estimate of the average of the channel qualities seen by each codeword. In this paper, we propose a PHY abstraction and switching algorithm hereby referred to by weighted sum of instantaneous qualities (WSIQ) whereby the channel qualities are ordered in order to reduce the variance of channel qualities and then a weighted sum of the qualities is applied. The weighting vector is chosen to minimize the variance of the linear sum. We have provided simulations to show the superiority of WSIQ even when channel statistics are unknown. In addition, computationally efficient techniques suited for practical implementation are proposed.

Wideband Self-Adaptive RF Cancellation Circuit for Full-Duplex Radio: Operating Principle and Measurements

This paper presents a novel RF circuit architecture for self-interference cancellation in inband full-duplex radio transceivers . The developed canceller is able to provide wideband cancellation with waveform bandwidths in the order of 100 MHz or beyond and contains also self-adaptive or self-healing features enabling automatic tracking of time-varying self-interference channel characteristics. In addition to architecture and operating principle descriptions, we also provide actual RF measurements at 2.4 GHz ISM band demonstrating the achievable cancellation levels with different bandwidths and when operating in different antenna configurations and under low-cost highly nonlinear power amplifier. In a very challenging example with a 100 MHz waveform bandwidth, around 41 dB total cancellation is obtained while the corresponding cancellation figure is close to 60 dB with the more conventional 20 MHz carrier bandwidth. Also, efficient tracking in time-varying reflection scenarios is demonstrated.

A Maximum Likelihood Doppler Frequency Estimator for OFDM Systems

This paper derives a maximum likelihood Doppler frequency estimator for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems in time-varying multipath channels. The proposed scheme is a frequency-domain approach that utilizes pilot subcarriers, which are commonly implemented in most practical systems. Time-varying fading causes intercarrier interference (ICI) in OFDM systems. Thus, in the proposed estimator, the effect of ICI is taken into consideration with a proper model for accurate results. The estimator can be implemented using a finite impulse response (FIR) filter bank whose coefficients can be pre-calculated and stored in order to lower the computational complexity. We evaluate various methods to improve the estimation accuracy and analyze their complexity-performance tradeoffs. We also derive the Cramér-Rao bound and provide simulation results to quantify the performance of the proposed algorithm.

Adaptive Nonlinear Digital Self-Interference Cancellation for Mobile Inband Full-Duplex Radio: Algorithms and RF Measurements

This article investigates novel adaptive self-interference cancellation solutions and the total integrated cancellation performance of a mobile single-antenna inband full-duplex transceiver. First, novel self-adaptive digital self-interference cancellation algorithms are described, with an emphasis on tracking of time-varying self-interference coupling channel in a mobile device as well as on structural ability to suppress also nonlinear self-interference with highly nonlinear mobile power amplifiers. This leads to an advanced self-adaptive nonlinear digital canceller which utilizes a novel orthogonalization procedure for nonlinear basis functions, together with low-cost LMS-based parameter learning. The achievable self-interference cancellation performance is then evaluated with actual RF measurements using mobile device scale RF components, in particular a highly nonlinear PA. The measurements also incorporate a novel self-adaptive RF cancellation circuit in order to realistically assess the total integrated cancellation performance. The reported results show that highly efficient self-interference cancellation can be achieved also in a mobile device, despite a heavily nonlinear PA and limited computing and hardware resources. The proposed cancellation solutions, when integrated together, show that 100 dB of self-interference can be cancelled using a 20 MHz LTE waveform, while the SI can be attenuated by over 110 dB with a narrower bandwidth of 1.4 MHz, all measured at 2.4 GHz ISM band. Furthermore, these results are achieved using a highly nonlinear transmitter power amplifier and fully adaptive canceller structures which can track a rapidly changing coupling channel in a mobile full-duplex device.

Digital self-interference cancellation under nonideal RF components: Advanced algorithms and measured performance

This paper addresses digital self-interference cancellation in a full-duplex radio under the distortion of practical RF components. Essential self-interference signal models under different RF imperfections are first presented, and then used to formulate widely linear, nonlinear and augmented nonlinear digital canceler structures. Furthermore, a general parameter estimation procedure based on least squares is laid out. Digital cancellation with actual measured self-interference signals is then performed using all the presented methods. To ensure a realistic scenario, the used transmitter has realistic levels of I/Q imbalance, and is also utilizing a highly nonlinear low-cost power amplifier. Furthermore, a realistic RF canceler is incorporated in the measurements, and both shared-antenna and dual-antenna based devices are measured and experimented. The obtained results indicate that only a digital canceler structure capable of modeling all the essential impairments is able to suppress the self-interference close to the receiver noise floor.

Performance analysis and comparisons of antenna and beam selection diversity

Smart antennas can greatly improve the performance of wireless communication systems by providing better link quality and immunity to interference. A simple smart antenna structure is fixed beamforming and beam selection. More complex structures require combining of the signals from multiple receivers. In this paper we compare the performance of beam and antenna selection and combining techniques. Our results are based on recently reported statistical and measurement based spatial channel models and in most cases include impact of co-channel interference. We derive the probability density function (pdf) of SINR in space- and frequency-selective multiple clustered Rayleigh fading channel with finite angle spread (AS). We also analyze the outage capacity and probability of beam selection in flat fading assuming both correlated and independent fading between the antennas. Our analysis also includes the impact of erroneous beam or antenna selection. Furthermore, theoretical bounds for a hybrid of beam/antenna selection and maximal ratio combining (MRC) are presented. We show that beam selection techniques can be very effective against both multipath fading and co-channel interference. We also show that simple fixed beamforming networks such as Butler matrices are nearly as effective as more complex fixed beamforming networks.

Beam diversity for indoor WLAN systems

Fading caused by multipath propagation and by shadowing is a significant problem for wireless local area networks (WLANs). The use of diversity can mitigate the effects of this fading. In this paper we report on the effect of using beam selection diversity for a 2.4 GHz WLAN system. Propagation measurements were made in a typical office environment using a planar antenna array capable of forming seven simultaneous 10-degree beams. The beam selection diversity receiver selected the best beam, either on a packet-by-packet basis or using a long-term average measurement. Measurement results show that the mean received signal strength can be significantly increased by use of beam selection diversity. We investigated both average and packet-by-packet beam selection diversity. Simulation results demonstrate that beam selection diversity performs well for a wide range of angle of arrival spreads.

Multi-user MIMO and adaptive frequency reuse for next-generation mobile broadband networks

In order to meet the constantly increasing demand for ubiquitous, mobile access to the internet, next-generation mobile broadband communications systems based on OFDMA, such as IEEE 802.16m, require a significant performance increase over previous generation systems, such as IEEE 802.16e-2005, particularly in cell-edge and average spectral efficiency [2]. In this paper, we address the downlink adaptive frequency reuse (AFR) and multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) techniques which are considered to be the most promising candidates for meeting the requirements on cell-edge and average spectral efficiency of next-generation mobile broadband systems.

Approximate comparative analysis of interference suppression performance between antenna and beam selection techniques

Multiple antenna systems can greatly improve the performance of wireless systems by providing better link quality, capacity and immunity to interference. A very simple structure for smart antennas is a fixed beamforming network (FBN) with beam selection. In Y.S. Choi and S.M. Alamouti (2004) the performance of antenna and beam selection/combining techniques are compared. The channel model in that paper is a statistical, clustered propagation model in a correlated Rayleigh fading channel. In this paper we derive the approximate density function of the signal-to-interference-and-noise power-ratio (SINR) of beam selection with eigen-beamforming. We also analyze the outage probability and capacity of beam selection with a fixed beamforming network (FBN) with correlated fading between the antennas. We compare the performance of this system with antenna selection avid independent fading between the antennas. We also investigate the impact of erroneous beam or antenna selection. We show that beam selection outperforms antenna selection in the presence of interference