Broadband wireless access systems deployed in residential and business environments are likely to face hostile radio propagation environments, with multipath delay spread extending over tens or hundreds of bit intervals. Orthogonal frequency-division multiplex (OFDM) is a recognized multicarrier solution to combat the effects of such multipath conditions. This article surveys frequency domain equalization (FDE) applied to single-carrier (SC) modulation solutions. SC radio modems with frequency domain equalization have similar performance, efficiency, and low signal processing complexity advantages as OFDM, and in addition are less sensitive than OFDM to RF impairments such as power amplifier nonlinearities. We discuss similarities and differences of SC and OFDM systems and coexistence possibilities, and present examples of SC-FDE performance capabilities.

/pdf/frequency-domain-equalization-for-single-carrier-broadband-17aswqzbww.pdf

Frequency domain equalization for single-carrier broadband wireless systems

Recent advancements in iterative processing of channel codes and the development of turbo codes have allowed the communications industry to achieve near-capacity on a single-antenna Gaussian or fading channel with low complexity. We show how these iterative techniques can also be used to achieve near-capacity on a multiple-antenna system where the receiver knows the channel. Combining iterative processing with multiple-antenna channels is particularly challenging because the channel capacities can be a factor of ten or more higher than their single-antenna counterparts. Using a "list" version of the sphere decoder, we provide a simple method to iteratively detect and decode any linear space-time mapping combined with any channel code that can be decoded using so-called "soft" inputs and outputs. We exemplify our technique by directly transmitting symbols that are coded with a channel code; we show that iterative processing with even this simple scheme can achieve near-capacity. We consider both simple convolutional and powerful turbo channel codes and show that excellent performance at very high data rates can be attained with either. We compare our simulation results with Shannon capacity limits for ergodic multiple-antenna channel.

http://www.ece.ualberta.ca/~hcdc/Library/StCommClass/HocTen01.pdf

Achieving near-capacity on a multiple-antenna channel

Zehavi (1992) showed that the performance of coded modulation over a Rayleigh fading channel can be improved by bit-wise interleaving the encoder output and by using an appropriate soft-decision metric as an input to a Viterbi decoder. The goal of this paper is to present in a comprehensive fashion the theory underlying bit-interleaved coded modulation, to provide tools for evaluating its performance, and to give guidelines for its design.

/pdf/bit-interleaved-coded-modulation-2ld6uk564f.pdf

Bit-Interleaved Coded Modulation

In this paper we review the most peculiar and interesting information-theoretic and communications features of fading channels. We first describe the statistical models of fading channels which are frequently used in the analysis and design of communication systems. Next, we focus on the information theory of fading channels, by emphasizing capacity as the most important performance measure. Both single-user and multiuser transmission are examined. Further, we describe how the structure of fading channels impacts code design, and finally overview equalization of fading multipath channels.

/pdf/fading-channels-information-theoretic-and-communications-2ipqbail97.pdf

Fading channels: information-theoretic and communications aspects

Optical wireless communication (OWC) refers to transmission in unguided propagation media through the use of optical carriers, i.e., visible, infrared (IR), and ultraviolet (UV) bands. In this survey, we focus on outdoor terrestrial OWC links which operate in near IR band. These are widely referred to as free space optical (FSO) communication in the literature. FSO systems are used for high rate communication between two fixed points over distances up to several kilometers. In comparison to radio-frequency (RF) counterparts, FSO links have a very high optical bandwidth available, allowing much higher data rates. They are appealing for a wide range of applications such as metropolitan area network (MAN) extension, local area network (LAN)-to-LAN connectivity, fiber back-up, backhaul for wireless cellular networks, disaster recovery, high definition TV and medical image/video transmission, wireless video surveillance/monitoring, and quantum key distribution among others. Despite the major advantages of FSO technology and variety of its application areas, its widespread use has been hampered by its rather disappointing link reliability particularly in long ranges due to atmospheric turbulence-induced fading and sensitivity to weather conditions. In the last five years or so, there has been a surge of interest in FSO research to address these major technical challenges. Several innovative physical layer concepts, originally introduced in the context of RF systems, such as multiple-input multiple-output communication, cooperative diversity, and adaptive transmission have been recently explored for the design of next generation FSO systems. In this paper, we present an up-to-date survey on FSO communication systems. The first part describes FSO channel models and transmitter/receiver structures. In the second part, we provide details on information theoretical limits of FSO channels and algorithmic-level system design research activities to approach these limits. Specific topics include advances in modulation, channel coding, spatial/cooperative diversity techniques, adaptive transmission, and hybrid RF/FSO systems.

/pdf/survey-on-free-space-optical-communication-a-communication-239v68hfyw.pdf

Survey on Free Space Optical Communication: A Communication Theory Perspective

A simple iterative decoding technique using hard-decision feedback is presented for bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM). With an 8-state, rate-2/3 convolutional code, and 8-PSK modulation, the improvement over the conventional BICM scheme exceeds 1 dB for a fully-interleaved Rayleigh flat-fading channel and exceeds 1.5 dB for a channel with additive white Gaussian noise. This robust performance makes BICM with iterative decoding suitable for both types of channels.

Bit-interleaved coded modulation with iterative decoding

We have suggested bit-interleaved coded modulation with soft decision iterative decoding (BICM-ID) for bandwidth-efficient transmission over Gaussian and fading channels. Unlike trellis coded modulation, BICM-ID has a small free Euclidean distance but large diversity order due to bit interleaving. With iterative decoding, soft bit decisions can be employed to significantly improve the conditional intersignal Euclidean distance. This leads to a large coding gain, comparable to that of turbo TCM, over both Gaussian and Rayleigh fading channels with much less system complexity. We address critical design issues to enhance the decoding performance and provide the analytical bounds on the performance with an ideal feedback assumption. We investigate the performance characteristics of BICM-ID through extensive simulations and show that at high signal to noise ratios, the performance of BICM-ID converges to the performance assuming error-free feedback.

Bit-interleaved coded modulation with iterative decoding and 8 PSK signaling

We consider bit-interleaved coded modulation with iterative decoding (BICM-ID) for bandwidth-efficient transmission over Rayleigh fading channels. We propose the design criteria that utilize a large Hamming distance inherited in a low-rate code and a new labeling technique designed specifically for fading channels. This results in a large coding gain over noniterative coded modulation and performance close to that of "turbo" coded modulation with less complexity. We also show that BICM-ID designed for fading channels usually has a very good performance over the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel while the converse is difficult to achieve. When combined with signal space diversity, diversity order can be improved to twice the diversity order of conventional BICM-ID; therefore, the code complexity can further be reduced while maintaining the same level of performance. Specifically, with the bandwidth efficiency of 2 bits/s/Hz over Rayleigh fading channels, a bit error rate (BER) of 10/sup -6/ can be achieved with 16-QAM, a four-state rate 1/2 code at E/sub b//N/sub 0/ of about seven dB. We also derive performance bounds for BICM-ID with and without signal space diversity over Rayleigh fading channels, which can be easily extended for other types of fading channels.

Design, analysis, and performance evaluation for BICM-ID with square QAM constellations in Rayleigh fading channels

A new method for coherent underwater acoustic communication called passive phase conjugation is evaluated. The method is so named because of conceptual similarities to active phase conjugation methods that have been demonstrated in the ocean. In contrast to active techniques, however, the array in passive phase conjugation needs only receive. The procedure begins with a source transmitting a single probe pulse. After waiting for the multipathed arrivals to clear, the source then transmits the data stream. At each element in the distant receiving array, the received probe is cross-correlated with the received data stream. This cross-correlation is done in parallel at each array element and the results are summed across the array to achieve the final communication signal suitable for demodulation. As the ocean changes, it becomes necessary to break up the data stream and insert new probe pulses. Results from an experiment conducted in Puget Sound near Seattle are reported. Measurements were made at multiple ranges and water depths in range-dependent environments.

Underwater acoustic communication by passive-phase conjugation: theory and experimental results

This paper considers bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) for bandwidth-efficient transmission using software radios. A simple iterative decoding (ID) method with hard-decision feedback is suggested to achieve better performance. The paper shows that convolutional codes with good Hamming-distance property can provide both high diversity order and large free Euclidean distance for BICM-ID. The method offers a common framework for coded modulation over channels with a variety of fading statistics. In addition, BICM-ID allows an efficient combination of punctured convolutional codes and multiphase/level modulation, and therefore provides a simple mechanism for variable-rate transmission.

James A. Ritcey

Papers

Bit-interleaved coded modulation with iterative decoding

Bit-interleaved coded modulation with iterative decoding and 8 PSK signaling

Design, analysis, and performance evaluation for BICM-ID with square QAM constellations in Rayleigh fading channels

Underwater acoustic communication by passive-phase conjugation: theory and experimental results

Trellis-coded modulation with bit interleaving and iterative decoding