Showing papers on "Beamforming published in 2010"

Multi-Cell MIMO Cooperative Networks: A New Look at Interference

Abstract: This paper presents an overview of the theory and currently known techniques for multi-cell MIMO (multiple input multiple output) cooperation in wireless networks. In dense networks where interference emerges as the key capacity-limiting factor, multi-cell cooperation can dramatically improve the system performance. Remarkably, such techniques literally exploit inter-cell interference by allowing the user data to be jointly processed by several interfering base stations, thus mimicking the benefits of a large virtual MIMO array. Multi-cell MIMO cooperation concepts are examined from different perspectives, including an examination of the fundamental information-theoretic limits, a review of the coding and signal processing algorithmic developments, and, going beyond that, consideration of very practical issues related to scalability and system-level integration. A few promising and quite fundamental research avenues are also suggested.

Nested Arrays: A Novel Approach to Array Processing With Enhanced Degrees of Freedom

Abstract: A new array geometry, which is capable of significantly increasing the degrees of freedom of linear arrays, is proposed. This structure is obtained by systematically nesting two or more uniform linear arrays and can provide O(N2) degrees of freedom using only N physical sensors when the second-order statistics of the received data is used. The concept of nesting is shown to be easily extensible to multiple stages and the structure of the optimally nested array is found analytically. It is possible to provide closed form expressions for the sensor locations and the exact degrees of freedom obtainable from the proposed array as a function of the total number of sensors. This cannot be done for existing classes of arrays like minimum redundancy arrays which have been used earlier for detecting more sources than the number of physical sensors. In minimum-input-minimum-output (MIMO) radar, the degrees of freedom are increased by constructing a longer virtual array through active sensing. The method proposed here, however, does not require active sensing and is capable of providing increased degrees of freedom in a completely passive setting. To utilize the degrees of freedom of the nested co-array, a novel spatial smoothing based approach to DOA estimation is also proposed, which does not require the inherent assumptions of the traditional techniques based on fourth-order cumulants or quasi stationary signals. As another potential application of the nested array, a new approach to beamforming based on a nonlinear preprocessing is also introduced, which can effectively utilize the degrees of freedom offered by the nested arrays. The usefulness of all the proposed methods is verified through extensive computer simulations.

On Feasibility of Interference Alignment in MIMO Interference Networks

Abstract: We explore the feasibility of interference alignment in signal vector space-based only on beamforming-for K-user MIMO interference channels. Our main contribution is to relate the feasibility issue to the problem of determining the solvability of a multivariate polynomial system which is considered extensively in algebraic geometry. It is well known, e.g., from Bezout's theorem, that generic polynomial systems are solvable if and only if the number of equations does not exceed the number of variables. Following this intuition, we classify signal space interference alignment problems as either proper or improper based on the number of equations and variables. Rigorous connections between feasible and proper systems are made through Bernshtein's theorem for the case where each transmitter uses only one beamforming vector. The multibeam case introduces dependencies among the coefficients of a polynomial system so that the system is no longer generic in the sense required by both theorems. In this case, we show that the connection between feasible and proper systems can be further strengthened (since the equivalency between feasible and proper systems does not always hold) by including standard information theoretic outer bounds in the feasibility analysis.

Coordinated beamforming for the multicell multi-antenna wireless system

Abstract: In a conventional wireless cellular system, signal processing is performed on a per-cell basis; out-of-cell interference is treated as background noise. This paper considers the benefit of coordinating base-stations across multiple cells in a multi-antenna beamforming system, where multiple base-stations may jointly optimize their respective beamformers to improve the overall system performance. Consider a multicell downlink scenario where base-stations are equipped with multiple transmit antennas employing either linear beamforming or nonlinear dirty-paper coding, and where remote users are equipped with a single antenna each, but where multiple remote users may be active simultaneously in each cell. This paper focuses on the design criteria of minimizing either the total weighted transmitted power or the maximum per-antenna power across the base-stations subject to signal-to-interference-and-noise-ratio (SINR) constraints at the remote users. The main contribution of the paper is an efficient algorithm for finding the joint globally optimal beamformers across all base-stations. The proposed algorithm is based on a generalization of uplink-downlink duality to the multicell setting using the Lagrangian duality theory. An important feature is that it naturally leads to a distributed implementation in time-division duplex (TDD) systems. Simulation results suggest that coordinating the beamforming vectors alone already provide appreciable performance improvements as compared to the conventional per-cell optimized network.

Rank-Constrained Separable Semidefinite Programming With Applications to Optimal Beamforming

Abstract: Consider a downlink communication system where multiantenna base stations transmit independent data streams to decentralized single-antenna users over a common frequency band. The goal of the base stations is to jointly adjust the beamforming vectors to minimize the transmission powers while ensuring the signal-to-interference-noise ratio requirement of each user within the system. At the same time, it may be necessary to keep the interference generated on other coexisting systems under a certain tolerable level. In addition, one may want to include general individual shaping constraints on the beamforming vectors. This beamforming problem is a separable homogeneous quadratically constrained quadratic program, and it is difficult to solve in general. In this paper, we give conditions under which strong duality holds and propose efficient algorithms for the optimal beamforming problem. First, we study rank-constrained solutions of general separable semidefinite programs (SDPs) and propose rank reduction procedures to achieve a lower rank solution. Then we show that the SDP relaxation of three classes of optimal beamforming problem always has a rank-one solution, which can be obtained by invoking the rank reduction procedures.

Convex Optimization-Based Beamforming

Abstract: In this article, an overview of advanced convex optimization approaches to multisensor beamforming is presented, and connections are drawn between different types of optimization-based beamformers that apply to a broad class of receive, transmit, and network beamformer design problems. It is demonstrated that convex optimization provides an indispensable set of tools for beamforming, enabling rigorous formulation and effective solution of both long-standing and emerging design problems.

Vehicle integrated communications system

Abstract: A novel and useful vehicle integrated communications system that provides a solution to the poor performance experienced at the cell edge in a cellular communications system due to weak signal strength and high interference levels. A core cellular communications platform embedded (integrated) into the vehicle platform utilizes multiple antennas integrated into the body of the vehicle which are coupled to a multi-antenna transceiver; receives electrical power from the vehicle power source eliminating the limitations of hand held device batteries; processes multiple MIMO RF signals taking advantage of antenna diversity, beamforming and spatial multiplexing; executes advanced interference mitigation algorithms; implements adaptive modulation and coding algorithms; and utilizes dynamic channel modeling and estimation to significantly improve performance. The core cellular link functions as a platform for any number of vehicle based applications including a smart vehicle repeater, mobile femtocell, inverted femtocell and vehicle infotainment system.

Analog Beamforming in MIMO Communications With Phase Shift Networks and Online Channel Estimation

Abstract: In multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, the use of many radio frequency (RF) and analog-to-digital converter (ADC) chains at the receiver is costly. Analog beamformers operating in the RF domain can reduce the number of antenna signals to a feasible number of baseband channels. Subsequently, digital beamforming is used to capture the desired user signal. In this paper, we consider the design of the analog and digital beamforming coefficients, for the case of narrowband signals. We aim to cancel interfering signals in the analog domain, thus minimizing the required ADC resolution. For a given resolution, we will propose the optimal analog beamformer to minimize the mean squared error between the desired user and its receiver estimate. Practical analog beamformers employ only a quantized number of phase shifts. For this case, we propose a design technique to successively approximate the desired overall beamformer by a linear combination of implementable analog beamformers. Finally, an online channel estimation technique is introduced to estimate the required statistics of the wireless channel on which the optimal beamformers are based.

Optimal Distributed Beamforming for Two-Way Relay Networks

Abstract: In this paper, we consider a relay network which consists of two single-antenna transceivers and nr single-antenna relay nodes. Considering a two time slot two-way relaying scheme, each relay adjusts the phase and the amplitude of the mixture signal it receives from the two transceivers during the first time slot, by multiplying it with a complex beamforming coefficient. Then each relay transmits the so-obtained signal in the second time slot. Aiming at optimally calculating the beamforming coefficients as well as the transceiver transmit powers, we study two different approaches. In the first approach, we minimize the total transmit power (dissipated in the whole network) subject to two constraints on the transceivers' received signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). We prove that such a power minimization technique has a unique solution. We also show that the optimal weight vector can be obtained through a simple iterative algorithm which enjoys a linear computational complexity per iteration. We also prove that for symmetric relaying schemes (where the two constraints on the transceiver SNRs are the same), half of the minimum total transmit power will be allocated to the two transceivers and the remaining half will be shared among the relaying nodes. In the second approach, we will study an SNR balancing technique. In this technique, the smaller of the two transceiver SNRs is maximized while the total transmit power is kept below a certain power budget. We show that this problem has also a unique solution which can be obtained through an iterative procedure with a linear computational complexity per iteration. We also prove that this approach leads to a power allocation scheme, where half of the maximum power budget is allocated to the two transceivers and the remaining half will be shared among all the relay nodes. For both approaches, we devise distributed schemes which require a minimal cooperation among the two transceivers and the relays. In fact, we show that both techniques can be implemented such that the bandwidth, required to obtain the beamforming weights in a distributed manner, remains constant as the size of the network grows.

Cooperative Interference Management With MISO Beamforming

Abstract: In this correspondence, we study the downlink transmission in a multi-cell system, where multiple base stations (BSs) each with multiple antennas cooperatively design their respective transmit beamforming vectors to optimize the overall system performance. For simplicity, it is assumed that all mobile stations (MSs) are equipped with a single antenna each, and there is one active MS in each cell at one time. Accordingly, the system of interests can be modeled by a multiple-input single-output (MISO) Gaussian interference channel (IC), termed as MISO-IC, with interference treated as noise. We propose a new method to characterize different rate-tuples for active MSs on the Pareto boundary of the achievable rate region for the MISO-IC, by exploring the relationship between the MISO-IC and the cognitive radio (CR) MISO channel. We show that each Pareto-boundary rate-tuple of the MISO-IC can be achieved in a decentralized manner when each of the BSs attains its own channel capacity subject to a certain set of interference-power constraints (also known as interference-temperature constraints in the CR system) at the other MS receivers. Furthermore, we show that this result leads to a new decentralized algorithm for implementing the multi-cell cooperative downlink beamforming.

Wideband Beamforming: Concepts and Techniques

Abstract: This book provides an excellent reference for all professionals working in the area of array signal processing and its applications in wireless communications. Wideband beamforming has advanced with the increasing bandwidth in wireless communications and the development of ultra wideband (UWB) technology. In this book, the authors address the fundamentals and most recent developments in the field of wideband beamforming. The book provides a thorough coverage of the subject including major sub-areas such as sub-band adaptive beamforming, frequency invariant beamforming, blind wideband beamforming, beamforming without temporal processing, and beamforming for multi-path signals. Key Features: Unique book focusing on wideband beamforming Discusses a hot topic coinciding with the increasing bandwidth in wireless communications and the development of UWB technology Addresses the general concept of beamforming including fixed beamformers and adaptive beamformers Covers advanced topics including sub-band adaptive beamforming, frequency invariant beamforming, blind wideband beamforming, beamforming without temporal processing, and beamforming for multi-path signals Includes various design examples and corresponding complexity analyses This book provides a reference for engineers and researchers in wireless communications and signal processing fields. Postgraduate students studying signal processing will also find this book of interest.

Multiuser Two-Way Amplify-and-Forward Relay Processing and Power Control Methods for Beamforming Systems

Abstract: In this paper, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relay transceiver processing is proposed for multiuser two-way relay communications. The relay processing is optimized based on both zero-forcing (ZF) and minimum mean-square-error (MMSE) criteria under relay power constraints. Various transmit and receive beamforming methods are compared including eigen beamforming, antenna selection, random beamforming, and modified equal gain beamforming. Local and global power control methods are designed to achieve fairness among all users and to maximize the system signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Numerical results show that the proposed multiuser two-way relay processing can efficiently eliminate both co-channel interference (CCI) and self-interference (SI).

Distributed Transmit Beamforming Using Feedback Control

Abstract: The concept of distributed transmit beamforming is implicit in many key results of network information theory. However, its implementation in a wireless network involves the fundamental challenge of ensuring phase coherence of the radio frequency signals from the different transmitters in the presence of unknown phase offsets between the transmitters and unknown channel gains from the transmitters to the receiver. In this paper, it is shown that such phase alignment can be achieved using distributed adaptation by the transmitters with minimal feedback from the receiver. Specifically, each transmitter independently makes a small random adjustment to its phase at each iteration, while the receiver broadcasts a single bit of feedback, indicating whether the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) improved or worsened after the current iteration. The transmitters keep the ?good? phase adjustments and discard the ?bad? ones, thus implementing a distributed ascent algorithm. It is shown that, for a broad class of distributions for the random phase adjustments, this procedure leads to asymptotic phase coherence with probability one. A simple analytical model, borrowing ideas from statistical mechanics, is used to characterize the progress of the algorithm, and to provide guidance on parameter choices. This analytical model is based on a conjecture on the distribution of the received phases when the number of transmitters becomes large. Finally, the proposed system is shown to be scalable: the random phase perturbations can be chosen such that the convergence time is linear in the number of collaborating nodes.

UWB Through-Wall Imaging Based on Compressive Sensing

Abstract: To achieve high-resolution 2-D images, through-wall imaging (TWI) radar with ultra-wideband and long antenna arrays faces considerable technical challenges such as a prolonged data collection time, a huge amount of data, and a high hardware complexity. This paper presents a novel data acquisition scheme and an imaging algorithm for TWI radar based on compressive sensing (CS), which states that a signal having a sparse representation can be reconstructed from a small number of nonadaptive randomized projections by solving a tractable convex program. Instead of measuring all spatial-frequency data, a few samples, by employing an overcomplete dictionary, are sufficient to obtain reliable target space images even at high noise levels. Preliminary simulated and experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the conventional delay-and-sum beamforming method even though many fewer CS measurements are used.

A hybrid adaptive antenna array

Abstract: Owing to the excessive demand on signal processing and space constraint, a full digital implementation of a large adaptive antenna array at millimeter wave frequencies is very challenging. Targeted at long range high data rate point-to-point link in the 70/80 GHz bands, a novel hybrid adaptive antenna array which consists of analogue subarrays followed by a digital beamformer is presented in this paper to overcome the digital implementation difficulty. Two subarray configurations, the interleaved subarray and the side-by-side subarray, are proposed, and two Doppler resilient adaptive angle-of-arrival estimation and beamforming algorithms, the differential beam tracking (DBT) and the differential beam search (DBS), are developed. Simulation results on the DBT and DBS performance are provided using a 64 element hybrid planar array of four 4 by 4 element subarrays with the two subarray configurations, respectively. Recursive mean square error (MSE) bounds of the developed algorithms are also analyzed and compared with simulated MSEs.

Degrees of Freedom of the MIMO Y Channel: Signal Space Alignment for Network Coding

Abstract: In this paper, we study a network information flow problem for a multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) Gaussian wireless network with three users each equipped with M antennas and a single intermediate relay equipped with N antennas. In this network, each user intends to convey independent messages for two different users via the intermediate relay while receiving two independent messages from the other two users. This is a generalized version of the two-way relay channel for the three-user case. We will call it a "MIMO Y channel." For this MIMO Y channel, we show that the capacity is 3M log(SNR) + o(log(SNR)) if N ≥ ⌈3M/2⌉ by using two novel signaling techniques, which are signal space alignment for network coding, and network-coding-aware interference nulling beamforming.

Adaptive Spatial Intercell Interference Cancellation in Multicell Wireless Networks

Abstract: Downlink spatial intercell interference cancellation (ICIC) is considered for mitigating other-cell interference using multiple transmit antennas. A principle question we explore is whether it is better to do ICIC or simply standard single-cell beamforming. We explore this question analytically and show that beamforming is preferred for all users when the edge SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) is low ( 10 dB), for example in an urban setting. At medium SNR, a proposed adaptive strategy, where multiple base stations jointly select transmission strategies based on the user location, outperforms both while requiring a lower feedback rate than the pure ICIC approach. The employed metric is sum rate, which is normally a dubious metric for cellular systems, but surprisingly we show that even with this reward function the adaptive strategy also improves fairness. When the channel information is provided by limited feedback, the impact of the induced quantization error is also investigated. The analysis provides insights on the feedback design, and it is shown that ICIC with well-designed feedback strategies still provides significant throughput gain.

Coordinated linear beamforming in downlink multi-cell wireless networks

Abstract: We consider a multi-cell wireless network with universal frequency reuse and treat the problem of co-channel interference mitigation in the downlink channel. Assuming that each base station serves multiple single-antenna mobiles via space-division multiple-access, we jointly optimize the linear beam-vectors across a set of coordinated cells and resource slots: the objective function to be maximized is the instantaneous weighted sum-rate subject to per-base-station power constraints. After deriving the general structure of the optimal beam-vectors, a novel iterative algorithm is presented which attempts to solve the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions of the non-convex problem at hand. The proposed algorithm admits a distributed implementation which we illustrate. Also, various approaches to choose the initial beam-vectors are considered, one of which maximizes the signal-to-leakage-plus-noise ratio. Finally, simulation results are provided to assess the performance of the proposed algorithm.

Fully Automatic Computation of Diagonal Loading Levels for Robust Adaptive Beamforming

Abstract: The main drawback of the conventional diagonal loading (DL) approaches is that there is no clear guideline on how to choose the DL level reliably or how to select user parameters appropriately. An algorithm that can be used to compute the DL level completely automatically from the given data without the need of specifying any user parameter is considered. In this algorithm an enhanced covariance matrix estimate obtained via a shrinkage method, instead of the sample covariance matrix, is used in the standard Capon beamforming formulation. The performance of the resulting beamformer is illustrated via numerical examples, and it is compared with several other adaptive beamformers.

Beampattern Synthesis for Linear and Planar Arrays With Antenna Selection by Convex Optimization

Abstract: A convex optimization based beampattern synthesis method with antenna selection is proposed for linear and planar arrays. Conjugate symmetric beamforming weights are used so that the upper and non-convex lower bound constraints on the beampattern can be convex. Thus, a mainlobe of an arbitrary beamwidth and response ripple can be obtained. This method can achieve completely arbitrary sidelobe levels. By minimizing a re-weighted objective function based on the magnitudes of the elements in the beamforming weight vector iteratively, the proposed method selects certain antennas in an array to satisfy the prescribed beampattern specifications precisely. Interestingly, a sparse array with fewer antennas (compared to other methods) is produced. This method can design non-uniformly spaced arrays with inter-element spacings larger than one half-wavelength, without the appearance of grating lobes in the resulting beampattern. Simulations are shown using arrays of up to a few hundred antennas to illustrate the practicality of the proposed method.

Secure communication over MISO cognitive radio channels

Abstract: In this paper, we address the physical-layer security issue of a secondary user (SU) in a spectrum-sharing cognitive radio network (CRN) from an information-theoretic perspective. Specially, we consider a secure multiple-input single-output (MISO) cognitive radio channel, where a multi-antenna SU transmitter (SU-Tx) sends confidential information to a legitimate SU receiver (SU-Rx) in the presence of an eavesdropper and on the licensed band of a primary user (PU). The secrecy capacity of the channel is characterized, which is a quasiconvex optimization problem of finding the capacity-achieving transmit covariance matrix under the joint transmit power and interference power constraints. Two numerical approaches are proposed to derive the optimal transmit covariance matrix. The first approach recasts the original quasiconvex problem into a single convex semidefinite program (SDP) by exploring its inherent convexity; while the second one explores the relationship between the secure CRN and the conventional CRN and transforms the original problem into a sequence of optimization problems associated with the conventional CRN, which helps to prove that beamforming is the optimal strategy for the secure MISO CR channel. In addition, to reduce the computational complexity, three suboptimal schemes are presented, namely, scaled secret beamforming (SSB), projected secret beamforming (PSB) and projected cognitive beamforming (PCB). Lastly, computer simulation results show that the three suboptimal schemes can approach the secrecy capacity well under certain conditions.

A practical wireless charging system based on ultra-wideband retro-reflective beamforming

Abstract: Numerous portable electronic devices (such as laptops, cell phones, digital cameras, and electric shavers) rely on rechargeable batteries and must be routinely charged by the line power. A wireless charging technique capable of delivering electromagnetic energy to these portable devices would make them tether free and “truly portable.” Wireless charging is especially valuable for devices with which wired connections are intractable, e.g., unattended radio frequency identification tags and implanted sensors. In recent years, enormous research efforts have been devoted to wireless charging. In 1990s, a case study is reported in [1] to construct a point-to-point wireless electricity transmission to a small isolated village called Grand-Bassin in France. In 2007, an inductive resonance coupling scheme, which makes use of near-field coupling between two magnetic resonators, was demonstrated able to power a 60-Watt light bulb over two meters by a team of Massachusetts Institute of Technology [2]. In addition, several companies (PowerCast, WildCharge, WiPower, etc.) have developed products targeting specific applications. Nevertheless, several technical challenges remain to be resolved in order to accomplish practical wireless charging. Specifically, (i) to achieve efficient charging over long distance, severe power loss due to electromagnetic wave propagation must be remedied; (ii) humans' exposure to electromagnetic radiation should always be kept below safety level while sufficient power is delivered to devices; and (iii) some existing systems are unsuitable for ubiquitous deployment due to high cost, large size, and/or heavy weight. In this paper, an innovative wireless charging system based on ultrawideband retro-reflective beamforming is proposed to address the above challenges. The proposed charger consists of multiple antenna elements distributed in space. According to pilot signals (which are short impulses) they receive from the target device, the antenna elements jointly construct a focused electromagnetic beam onto the device (i.e., beamforming). Beamforming enables spatially focused/dedicated power delivery to devices while keeping power level in all the other locations minimal. As a result, the proposed system attains high charging efficiency and leads to little hazard/interference to other objects. Performance of the proposed wireless charging system is demonstrated by some simulation results obtained by a full-wave Maxwell's equations solver.

Novel Ring Resonator-Based Integrated Photonic Beamformer for Broadband Phased Array Receive Antennas—Part I: Design and Performance Analysis

Abstract: A novel optical beamformer concept is introduced that can be used for seamless control of the reception angle in broadband wireless receivers employing a large phased array antenna (PAA). The core of this beamformer is an optical beamforming network (OBFN), using ring resonator-based broadband delays, and coherent optical combining. The electro-optical conversion is performed by means of single-sideband suppressed carrier modulation, employing a common laser, Mach-Zehnder modulators, and a common optical sideband filter after the OBFN. The unmodulated laser signal is then re-injected in order to perform balanced coherent optical detection, for the opto-electrical conversion. This scheme minimizes the requirements on the complexity of the OBFN, and has potential for compact realization by means of full integration on chip. The impact of the optical beamformer concept on the performance of the full receiver system is analyzed, by modeling the combination of the PAA and the beamformer as an equivalent two-port RF system. The results are illustrated by a numerical example of a PAA receiver for satellite TV reception, showing that - when properly designed - the beamformer hardly affects the sensitivity of the receiver.

Design and experimental evaluation of multi-user beamforming in wireless LANs

Abstract: Multi-User MIMO promises to increase the spectral efficiency of next generation wireless systems and is currently being incorporated in future industry standards. Although a significant amount of research has focused on theoretical capacity analysis, little is known about the performance of such systems in practice. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of the first multi-user beamforming system and experimental framework for wireless LANs. Using extensive measurements in an indoor environment, we evaluate the impact of receiver separation distance, outdated channel information due to mobility and environmental variation, and the potential for increasing spatial reuse. For the measured indoor environment, our results reveal that two receivers achieve close to maximum performance with a minimum separation distance of a quarter of a wavelength. We also show that the required channel information update rate is dependent on environmental variation and user mobility as well as a per-link SNR requirement. Assuming that a link can tolerate an SNR decrease of 3 dB, the required channel update rate is equal to 100 and 10 ms for non-mobile receivers and mobile receivers with a pedestrian speed of 3 mph respectively. Our results also show that spatial reuse can be increased by efficiently eliminating interference at any desired location; however, this may come at the expense of a significant drop in the quality of the served users.

Novel Ring Resonator-Based Integrated Photonic Beamformer for Broadband Phased Array Receive Antennas—Part II: Experimental Prototype

Abstract: An experimental prototype is presented that illustrates the implementation aspects and feasibility of the novel ring resonator-based optical beamformer concept that has been developed and analyzed in Part I of this paper . This concept can be used for seamless control of the reception angle in broadband wireless receivers employing a large phased array antenna (PAA). The design, fabrication, and characterization of a dedicated chip are described, in which an 8 × 1 optical beamforming network, an optical sideband filter for single-sideband suppressed carrier modulation, and a carrier re-insertion coupler for balanced optical detection are integrated. The chip was designed for satellite television reception using a broadband PAA, and was realized in a low-loss, CMOS-compatible optical waveguide technology. Tuning is performed thermo-optically, with a switching time of 1 ms. Group delay response and power response measurements show the correct operation of the OBFN and OSBF, respectively. Measurements on a complete beamformer prototype (including the electro-optical and opto-electrical conversions) demonstrate an optical sideband suppression of 25 dB, RF-to-RF delay generation up to 0.63 ns with a phase accuracy better than ?/10 radians, and coherent combining of four RF input signals, all in a frequency range of 1-2 GHz.

Wiener beamforming and the coherence factor in ultrasound imaging

Abstract: The coherence factor (CF) is used for aberration correction and sidelobe suppression in ultrasound imaging. Unfortunately, it suffers from artifacts when the SNR is low. We show how the CF can be interpreted as an implementation of the Wiener postfilter for a delay-and-sum beamformer. In addition, we show that a minimum-variance, distortionless-response beamformer followed by CF weighting can be interpreted as an implementation of the Wiener beamformer. These interpretations provide us with a theoretical framework for analyzing and improving CF-based methods. We use this theory to develop more robust implementations for both the Wiener postfilter and beamformer. The performance of these implementations is shown on simulated and real data.

Robust Downlink Beamforming in Multiuser MISO Cognitive Radio Networks With Imperfect Channel-State Information

Abstract: This paper studies the problem of robust downlink beamforming design in a multiuser multiple-input-single-output (MISO) cognitive radio network (CR-Net) in which multiple secondary users (SUs) coexist with multiple primary users (PUs) of a single-cell primary radio network (PR-Net). It is assumed that the channel-state information (CSI) for all relevant channels is imperfectly known, and the imperfectness of the CSI is modeled using a Euclidean ball-shaped uncertainty set. Our design objective is to minimize the transmit power of the SU-Transmitter (SU-Tx) while simultaneously achieving a lower bound on the received signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) for the SUs and imposing an upper limit on the interference power (IP) at the PUs. The design parameters at the SU-Tx are the beamforming weights, and the proposed methodology to solve the problem is based on the worst-case design scenario through which the performance metrics of the design are immune to variations in the channels. The original problem is a separable homogeneous quadratically constrained quadratic problem (QCQP), which is an NP-hard problem, even for uncertain CSI. We reformulate our original design problem to a relaxed semidefinite program (SDP) and then investigate three different approaches based on convex programming. Finally, simulation results are provided to validate the robustness of the proposed methods.

Filter-and-Forward Distributed Beamforming in Relay Networks With Frequency Selective Fading

Abstract: A new approach to distributed cooperative beamforming in relay networks with frequency selective fading is proposed. It is assumed that all the relay nodes are equipped with finite impulse response (FIR) filters and use a filter-and-forward (FF) strategy to compensate for the transmitter-to-relay and relay-to-destination channels. Three relevant half-duplex distributed beamforming problems are considered. The first problem amounts to minimizing the total relay transmitted power subject to the destination quality-of-service (QoS) constraint. In the second and third problems, the destination QoS is maximized subject to the total and individual relay transmitted power constraints, respectively. For the first and second problems, closed-form solutions are obtained, whereas the third problem is solved using convex optimization. The latter convex optimization technique can be also directly extended to the case when the individual and total power constraints should be jointly taken into account. Simulation results demonstrate that in the frequency selective fading case, the proposed FF approach provides substantial performance improvements as compared to the commonly used amplify-and-forward (AF) relay beamforming strategy.

Optimal Spectrum Sharing in MIMO Cognitive Radio Networks via Semidefinite Programming

Abstract: In this paper, we study the optimal secondary-link beamforming pattern that balances between the SU's throughput and the interference it causes to PUs in MIMO cognitive radio networks. In particular, we aim to maximize the throughput of the SU, while keeping the interference temperature at the primary receivers below a certain threshold. Unlike traditional MIMO systems, SUs may not have the luxury of knowing the channel state information (CSI) on the links to PUs. This presents a key challenge for a secondary transmitter to steer interference away from primary receivers. In this paper, we consider three scenarios, namely when the secondary transmitter has complete, partial, or no knowledge about the channels to the primary receivers. In particular, when complete CSI is not available, the interference-temperature constraints are to be satisfied with high probability, thus resulting in chance constraints that are typically hard to deal with. Our contribution is fourfold. First, by analyzing the distributional characteristics of MIMO channels, we propose a unified homogeneous QCQP formulation that can be applied to all three scenarios. The homogeneous QCQP formulation, though non-convex, is amenable to semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxation methods. Secondly, we show that the SDP relaxation admits no gap when the number of primary links is no larger than two. Thirdly, we propose a randomized polynomial-time algorithm for constructing a near-optimal solution to the QCQP problem when there are more than two primary links. Finally, we show that when the secondary transmitter has no CSI on the links to primary receivers, the optimal solution to the QCQP problem can be found by a simple matrix eigenvalue-eigenvector computation, which can be done much more efficiently than solving the QCQP directly.