Project no.

FP6-033533
COOPCOM
Cooperative and Opportunistic Communications in Wireless Networks
Instrument: Specific Targeted Research Project
Thematic Priority: IST-2002-2.3.4.1 FET Open Scheme

D.3.3: Final results on implementations: descriptions,

performance, complexity and identified issues

Due date of deliverable: September 30, 2009

Actual submission date: November 6, 2009

Start date of project: October 1, 2006

Duration: 36 months

Organization name of lead contractor for this deliverable: KTH

Project Funded by the European Commission within the Sixth Framework Program
Dissemination Level
PU

Public

PU

Keyword list: cooperative communications, channel estimation, synchronization, beamforming, reciprocity, USRP
Author: Per Zetterberg

FP6-033533

MODIFICATION CONTROL
Version

Date

Status

Author

1.0

01/10/2009

Draft

Per Zetterberg

1.1

01/11/2009

Draft

Per Zetterberg

1.2

05/11/2009

Final

Per Zetterberg

List of Contributors

Per Zetterberg, KTH

Svante Bergman, KTH
Niklas Jaldn, KTH
Emmanouil Matigakis, TSI
Athanasios Liavas, TSI
Despoina Tsipouridou, TSI
Kardaras Ioannis, TSI
Balatsoukas Aleksios, TSI
Randa Zakhour, EURECOM
Luis Blanco, CTTC
Vaibhav Bhatnagar, UCL
Luc Vandendorpe, UCL
George Jngren, Ericsson Research

List of Evaluators

Athanasios Liavas, TSI

Summary
COOPCOM is a research project that aims to advance the state-of-the-art of cooperative
and opportunistic communications in both theory and practise. The consortium research
effort is partitioned into three Work Packages (WPs). WP1 explores the theoretical limits
of cooperative and opportunistic schemes, setting the targets for the algorithmic studies
and implementations. WP2 develops efficient communication strategies, coding schemes,
resource allocation policies and signal processing techniques in synergy with WP1. Finally,
WP3 complements the theoretical studies of WP1 and algorithmic developments of WP2
by implementing the most promising cooperative and opportunistic schemes on a test-bed.
WP3 is divided into three tasks: T3.1 Software and hardware support functionality,
T3.2 Complexity requirements and expected performance enhancements, and T3.3 Implementation and testing of schemes.. This deliverable is concerned with all three tasks.
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The work in WP3 has been divided into two phases. In each phase we implement a
set of schemes. For the first phase of implementations we selected the schemes already
in M8. Therefore, these schemes essentially consist of techniques developed outside the
COOPCOM project. The techniques implemented in the first phase were amplify-andforward (AF), detect-and-forward (DF), cooperative maximum-radio combining (CMRC),
distributed space-time coding (DSTC), selection relaying (SR), and opportunistic multiuser MIMO with antenna selection (MUMIAS). The implementations and the measurement
results were described in the deliverable [25]. The results for AF, DF, DSTC and SR have
also been disseminated in a journal and conference paper, see [27, 28]. The results for
MUMIAS were only preliminary in the deliverable [25] and have now been finalized and
submitted to a conference [14]. The final results of the MUMIAS scheme are described in
Chapter 2 below.
In the second phase of implementations, the following schemes were first selected for
implementation: cooperative beamforming with TDD feedback, opportunistic DSTC
(ODSTC) and space-frequency coded DF OFDM. According to the plan in [25] the first
two schemes would be implemented on the MUMS testbed (see [26]), and the last one on
the USRP platform [5]. However, as a result of the project review, where emphasis was
put on increasing the bandwidth of the implementations, it was decided that cooperative
beamforming with TDD feedback would be implemented on both MUMS and USRP.
Further, an additional work item was added real-time USRP implementation of selected
cooperative schemes. As a result of this, an implementation of amplify-and-forward (AF)
has been made on the USRP.
During the first year of the project, hardware and software was developed to support
the implementations on MUMS as documented in [26]. During the second year of the
project, we began to study the USRP platform (more information on the USRP is available
in Section 4.2.1). The main reason for doing so was the greater bandwidth provided by the
USRP (up to 4MHz) as compared with MUMS (9.6kHz). In the beginning of 2009, we had
finally managed to create software skeletons for real-time implementations of cooperative
schemes utilizing a 200-600kHz and and a matlab skeleton for non-real-time over-the-air
tests with 3MHz bandwidth on the USRP. The implementations of real-time amplify and
forward was based on the former and while the implementation of space-frequency coded
DF OFDM was implemented on the latter.
The cooperative beamforming with TDD feedback scheme needs synchronized transmissions with small delays. For this reason, we first tried to use the evolved version of
the USRP (called the USRP2), which can be synchronized to an external clock. However,
the support for this is not yet fully implemented in the software provided by gnuradio1.
Neither is the support for MIMO. Therefore, we implemented a synchronization scheme
1

Gnuradio is a a forum developing free open-source software for the USRP, see www.gnuradio.com

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for the older versions of USRP ourselves. Our implementation uses some external hardware and a polling strategy to achieve synchronization. This however limited the usable
RF bandwidth to 1.25MHz.
All the schemes implemented in the second phase, with the exception of amplify-andforward, have essential parts that have been developed within WP1 or WP2. Experimental
results have been obtained for all of them except ODSTC. However, we expect to obtain
results for ODSCT soon.
The cooperative beamforming with TDD feedback scheme make use of the virtual
SINR maximizing (VM) beamformer which is introduced in Chapter 14 of [10]. In this
scheme, the base-stations of a cellular network cooperate in the downlink. This is done by
suppressing the interference generated at co-channel (victim) users in the other cells. In
order to do so, channel information is required for the desired and victim users. One of
the most promising ways of obtaining this information is to utilize the reciprocity principle
which states that uplink and downlink channels are identical when both channels use the
same carrier frequency (which is the case in time division duplex (TDD) systems). If the
desired and interfering user are active in the uplink (e.g. for transmitting payload data) the
channel can be estimated from the uplink data without the need for explicit feedback. In
practice, calibration of the transmitter and receiver chains is needed to make use of this. In
Chapter 1 we present the implementation of the VM beamformer and study the impact of
hardware impairments in detail. Remarkable gains are observed using the VM beamformer.
The impairments caused by non-ideal hardware are also analyzed and found critical for the
performance. This work has been submitted as a journal paper [29].
The opportunistic multi-user MIMO with antenna selection scheme considers a multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) scenario with one base-station and several mobile stations. In such a scenario an opportunistic base-station utilizes the channel
variability to schedule users when the channel conditions are favorable. A problem arises
when the channel is static i.e. no or little channel variation occurs. In this case, controlled
channel variations can be introduced by antenna selection. This is a low cost solution requiring only additional antennas and switches. In Chapter 2, we show that the antenna
selection can be used to improve both system throughput and fairness.
The real-time implementation of amplify-and-forward (AF) on the USRP is described
in Chapter 3. The results show that coverage is improved over direct transmission. This
confirms the results in [25] made on the MUMS platform.
The space-frequency coded DF OFDM is described in Chapter 4 below. This implementation is based on Chapter 4 of [9]. The scheme uses distributed space-time Alamouti
coding in time and frequency. However, the frequency rotation of the space-frequency
coded decode and forward OFDM was not implemented. The results show that some
space-diversity was achieved although not the full diversity order. This can be attributed to

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the small distances at which the measurements were done.

The opportunistic DSTC (ODSTC) scheme is a further development and combination
of the DSTC scheme. This scheme was developed within WP2 of COOPCOM and was
described in Chapter 6 of [9]. In the original DSTC scheme based on distributed Alamouti,
the two cooperating relays transmit at full power. In the proposed improved scheme, the
relays adjust their power in order to optimize the signal to noise ratio at the destination.
The scheme and its implementation are described in Chapter 5 below. Experimental results
have not yet been obtained for this scheme.
In the previous deliverable [25], we measured the number of clock-cycles required for
the cooperative schemes to be roughly 0.6% of the capacity of a TI6713 processor. However, the bandwidth was only 9.6KHz. Scaling this bandwidth to 100MHz gave the astonishing requirement of 60 such TI6713 DSPs. However, what this actually shows is that
some of the processing has to be transferred to dedicated digital hardware. The techniques
we investigated in this deliverable are not in any way more computationally demanding
than communication methods in use today. Thus, if bandwidth of 100MHz is feasible, then
the techniques proposed herein will indeed be feasible.

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Contents
1

Cooperative Beamforming with TDD Feedback

1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.2 Proposed Distortion Model . . . . . . . . .
1.3 Calibration Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.4 The beamformers . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.5 Implementations . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.5.1 MUMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.5.2 USRP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.6 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.6.1 Bit error rate . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.6.2 Aging of calibration factors . . . .
1.6.3 Quality of Channel Estimates . . .
1.6.4 Influence of Distortion on SNIR . .
1.7 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.A Details of the Implementation on MUMS .
1.B Details of the Implementation on USRP . .
1.C The chosen error measure . . . . . . . . .

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Opportunistic Multi-User MIMO with Antenna Selection

2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2 System Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2.1 Modulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2.2 Demodulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3 Transmission protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.1 Super-frame structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.2 The feedback frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4 Scheduling decision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.5 Measured results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.5.1 Measurement environment . . . . . . . . . . .
2.5.2 Measurement description . . . . . . . . . . . .
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2.5.3 Measurement results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

2.6 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.A SINR Estimation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3

USRP implementation of the amplify-and-forward cooperation protocol

3.1 Packet Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2 Relay Node Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.3 Destination Node Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.4 Experimental results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.5 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Space-Frequency Coded DF OFDM

4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2 Brief introduction to the hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2.1 USRP motherboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2.2 Daughterboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2.3 Software for non-realtime over-the-air tests . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.3 Implementation of OFDM associated with Alamouti scheme across relays
4.4 First scheme description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.5 Second scheme description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.6 Third scheme description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.7 Results obtained with the first scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.7.1 LoS with collocated transmitters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.7.2 NLoS with collocated antennas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.7.3 NLoS with distributed antennas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.8 Results obtained for second scheme (Alamouti across time) . . . . . . . .
4.8.1 Results second scheme : all tones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.8.2 Results second scheme : tone1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.9 Results obtained for third scheme (Alamouti across frequencies) . . . . .
4.9.1 Results third scheme: all tones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.9.2 Results third scheme : tone1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.10 Interpretations of results obtained for second and third schemes . . . . . .
4.10.1 Second scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.10.2 Third scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.11 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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5.1 Brief description of the algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
5.2 Implementation of the ODSTC algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

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5.2.1 Synchronization stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5.2.2 Transmitting stage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.A Encoding the feedback to the relays in the synchronization stage
5.B Estimation and codification of the SNR in the ODSTC scheme .
6

Identified Issues

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Chapter 1
Cooperative Beamforming with TDD
Feedback
1.1 Introduction
In this chapter, we investigate base-station co-operation whereby multiple-antenna basestations transmit with beams not only to enhance the reception at their desired user but
also to help reducing the interference generated in other cells. This may be intepreted as
introducing nulls (or at least small gain) in the direction of the co-channel (victim) users.
The VM beamformer was designed by COOPCOM as a beamformer with a good balance
between the signal delivered at the desired user and the created interference, see [10].
To obtain channel information of the desired and interfering users we here use a system
where time division duplexing is used. In such system the up- and down-link use the same
carrier frequency for communication. This enables the use of the reciprocity principle.
The reciprocity principle states that the channel between two antennas are the same in both
directions (i.e. irrespectively of which antenna is used as transmitter and which is used as
receiver) [21].
Thus, by designing a system so that a base-station is able to first receive signals from
a number of mobiles in the uplink, estimate the channel of those mobiles, and later utilize
this channel information to enhance the signal at a targeted mobile while minimizing the
interference generated at the (victim) stations when transmitting in the downlink. The
required uplink signals will in many cases be available simply because the mobiles need to
send uplink payload data, and therefore the channel information is obtained more or less
"for free". However, while the channel is reciprocal, the hardware is not and calibration
procedures have to be employed to account for this.
While the principles for TDD-based beamforming have been known for a while, see
e.g. [24], practical aspects of the technique have received relatively little attention in the
literature, although some papers exist see e.g. [13, 12, 17]. However, addressing the issue is
9

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timely considering the current interest of the TDD component of LTE and LTE-advanced.
The paper [12] investigates the impact of phase, frequency and delay errors on the performance of a single MIMO link. However, the transmitter is not trying to suppress interchannel interference which makes the system quite insensitive to the errors.
The paper [13] proposes a calibration technique whereby the two ends of a link estimate
the impulse response between them (a matrix of impulse responses in the MIMO case).
The receiver encodes and feeds back its impulse response, so that the transmitter is able to
compute compensation matrices. The two measurements of the channel needed to calculate
the compensation matrix have to be performed within the channel coherence time. The
paper also presents estimates of compensation filters estimated from experimental data in
the SISO case.
The paper [17] introduces a calibration technique whereby a base- or mobile-station can
calibrate itself without the assistance of another entity (such as another base- or mobilestation). The technique is based on sending signals between the transmitters and receivers
internally in the base-station and thereby obtaining the required calibration parameters. The
calibration signals are routed using RF switches inside the base-station. The paper presents
measurements in terms of amplitude and phase errors and antenna diagrams.
This chapter uses a modified version of the technique [17]. The difference is that in our
implementation the calibration signals are sent over the antennas eliminating the need for
extra RF switches. We also indicate how to utilize the calibration technique in a MIMO
scenario. Further, we introduce a signal model to account for the hardware distortions
caused by phase-noise and inter-symbol interference. We describe the implementation of
the calibration and beamforming on two test-beds. One of the test-beds is MUMS, [26]
while the other is the USRP (www.ettus.com). The implementation on MUMS is a
real-time while the USRP implementation contains elements of emulation.
We present results for several beamformers including zero-forcing and the virtual SINR
maximizing beamformer developed with COOPCOM.
Results in terms of the performance of downlink channel estimation (from uplink data)
and bit error rate (BER) are presented. An empirical model of the channel estimation
performance is fitted to the measurements. We also investigate the validity of the distortion
model on signal to noise and interference ratio experienced by the mobile, and find good
agreement. Thus, the model can be used in future system simulations of TDD reciprocity
based systems to account for hardware imperfections.
The chapter is organized as follows. In Section 1.2 we introduce a signal model which
accounts for distortions such as phase-noise and inter-symbol interference (ISI) (the latter
is the ISI caused by filters and not by multi-path). The calibration scheme is introduced
in Section 1.3. In Section 1.4 we describe the beamformers. The implementations are
described in Section 1.5 while measurement results are presented in Section 1.6. Finally,

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Notation
s
v
M
Mc
MT
M
M
v1 v2
diag(M)
diag(v)

Description
Lower case italic letters are real or complex scalars.
Boldface lower-case letters are real or complex vectors.
Upper-case boldface letters are matrices.
Complex conjugate of the matrix M
Transpose of the matrix M
Complex conjugate transpose of the matrix M
Frobenius norm of matrix M.
Element-wise multiplication.
A vector with the diagonal elements of the matrix M.
A diagonal matrix with the elements of v along the diagonal.
Table 1.1: Mathematical notations

we conclude the measurements in Section 1.7.

Table 1.1 lists some of the notational conventions used.

1.2 Proposed Distortion Model

We consider a narrow-band scenario where a transmitter with multiple antennas is transmitting a vector u(t). Each entry in u(t) has unit average power and may be modulated
using QPSK, 16QAM or some other modulation constellation. This vector is multiplied
by a weighting matrix (sometimes also called linear pre-coder) W and is subsequently
transmitted over the transmit antennas. Thus the transmitted vector of signals is given by
y(t) = Wu(t). Assuming that transmitter chains amplify the signal by complex factors
tx
ctx
1 , ..., cm where m is the number of antennas, the signal applied to the antennas will be
given by
tx
y(t) = diag(ctx
1 , ..., cm )Wu(t)

= Ctx Wu(t)

(1.1)
(1.2)

However, due to imperfections in the transmitter chains such as inter-symbol interference

(caused by filters) or phase-noise (caused by imperfect oscillators), the signal emitted from
the antennas will not be given exactly by (1.2). We propose to model this as a complex
Gaussian noise etx (t) such that (1.3) is modified to
y(t) = Ctx Wu(t) + etx (t),

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where the covariance matrix of etx (t) is given by

Retx = {etx (t)etx (t)}

(1.4)

tx

= ktx C diag{diag{WW }}C

tx,

(1.5)

and ktx is a scalar. Thus we assume that the error signal is independent between the antenna
elements (since the covariance matrix is diagonal). This is the simplest assumption and
we regard it to be sufficient for most purposes. The value ktx is the error magnitude vector
(EVM) of the transmitter [23]. The signal received at an array of antennas at the receiver is
assumed to be given by
x(t) = Crx Hy(t) + erx (t) + n(t)
(1.6)
where Crx is a diagonal matrix containing the amplitude and phase of the receiver chains,
H is the propagation channel between transmitters and receivers, erx (t) are the distortions
(such as ISI and phase-noise) of the receiver chains and n(t) is the thermal noise. We
propose the following model for the covariance of erx (t)
E{erx (t)erx (t)} = krx diag{Rxx },

(1.7)

where Rxx is the covariance matrix of x(t) (in absence of noise and distortion) and krx is
the error vector magnitude of the receivers.
Combining (1.3) and (1.6) gives
x(t) = Crx H(Ctx Wu(t) + etx (t)) + erx (t) + n(t)

(1.8)

For the special case of a single receiving antenna, (1.8) can be re-written as
x(t) = crx h Ctx wu(t) + n(t) + e(t),

(1.9)

where h is the remaining row of H and the error signal e(t) is then given by
e(t) = crx h etx (t) + erx (t).

(1.10)

var{e(t)} = ktx |crx |2 h Ctx diag{ww }Ctx, h + var{erx (t)}

(1.11)

The variance of e(t) is given by

= ktx |crx |2 (h Ctx ) w

+ krx |crx |2 |h Ctx w|2.

(1.12)

1.3 Calibration Procedure

In the calibration procedure analysis we will neglect the influence of the distortion. The
case we consider is depicted in Figure 1.1. The picture shows a base-station with m antennas and a mobile-station with n antennas. The switches between the receiver/transmitter
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pairs can be set independently. The effective downlink channel, HDL (from base-station to
mobile-station), is given by
HDL = CMS,rx HCBS,tx
(1.13)
while the uplink channel is given by
HUL = CBS,rx HT CMS,tx

(1.14)

If the base-station internally sends a signal from its antenna #1 to its antenna #2, it may
estimate cBS,tx
cBS,rx
c, where c is the coupling between the antennas. Likewise, it may esti1
2
mate the channel from antenna #2 to antenna #1 by transmitting in the opposite direction,
thus obtaining attaining an estimate of cBS,tx
cBS,rx
c. If this procedure is repeated between
2
1
antenna 1 and the other antennas, the base-station may form an estimate of the downlink
channel as
BS,tx BS,rx
BS,tx BS,rx
= HUL,T diag 1, c2 c1 , . . . , cm c1
H
cBS,tx
cBS,rx
cBS,tx
cBS,rx
m
1
2
1

(1.15)

= diag cMS,tx
, . . . , cMS,tx
Hdiag c1BS,rx , . . . , cBS,rx
1
n
m
diag 1,
=

1
cBS,tx
1

diag
=

BS,rx
cBS,tx
cBS,rx
cBS,tx
2
1
m c1
,
.
.
.
,
cBS,tx
cBS,rx
cBS,tx
cBS,rx
m
1
2
1

(1.16)

diag(cMS,tx
, . . . , cMS,tx
)Hdiag(cBS,rx
, . . . , cBS,rx
1
n
1
m )

cBS,tx
,
1

BS,rx
cBS,tx
cBS,tx
cBS,rx
m c1
2
1
,...,
cBS,rx
cBS,rx
m
2

(1.17)

cBS,rx
1
diag(cMS,tx
, . . . , cMS,tx
)Hdiag(1, . . . , cBS,rx
1
n
m )
cBS,tx
1

= diag cBS,tx
,
1

cBS,tx
cBS,tx
2
m
,
.
.
.
,
BS,rx
BS,rx
c2
cm

(1.18)

cBS,rx
1
diag(cMS,tx
, . . . , cMS,tx
)Hdiag(cBS,tx
, cBS,tx
, . . . , cBS,tx
1
n
1
2
m )
cBS,tx
1

(1.19)

cBS,rx
1
CMS,tx HCBS,tx
cBS,tx
1

(1.20)

The estimate (1.20) obviously differs from the true downlink channel given by (1.13). However, note that the row-span of the estimate agrees with that of the true downlink channel.
Thus, we can still maximize (desired user) or minimize (victim co-channel user) the signal received at the mobile station based on the row-span. In the case the mobile-station is
employing just a single antenna, the channel is just a vector and the estimate is a scaled
version of the true vector. However, even in the case of multiple antennas the gain among
the receivers and transmitters should be similar and therefore we should have fairly good
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cBS,tx
1

SW

SW

cMS,tx
1

cBS,rx
1

cMS,rx
1

H
SW

SW

cBS,tx
m
cBS,rx
m

cMS,tx
n
cMS,rx
n

Figure 1.1: Illustration of calibration procedure

knowledge of the channel also in the MIMO case. Note that any difference in phases of the
mobile-station transmitters/receivers only cause a phase-rotation to which the performance
of the reception at the mobile should be invariant.
In a typical application, the calibration, i.e. the transmission between the antenna elements of the base-station, should be performed at the rate of change of the gain of the
receiver and transmitter hardware. This should not be more often than once an hour or so,
see Section 1.6.2 below. However, the channel coherence time, i.e. the variability of the
propagation channel H, is much faster. In typical cellular and wireless LAN applications
with Rayleigh fading typical update times are on the order of milliseconds. Even with those
updates rates the channel can change substantially between the time of channel estimation
and use. A second source of inaccuracy that should not be forgotten is thermal noise.
A practical issue to consider regarding the selected calibration scheme is that the transmission of the calibration signal can cause interference somewhere else. However, the
signal can be made very weak. In fact, a significant requirement is that receiver chain is
not saturated from an overly strong signal. Another requirement is that the signal actually
passes all the way through the transmitter chain, the transmitting antenna, the receiving
antenna and the receive chain and does not leak through e.g. on an intermediate frequency.
The proposed method exploits the cross-talk between the antennas of the array, and therefore there will always be a minimum tolerable value of cross-talk.

1.4 The beamformers

The channel information gained through reciprocity can be used to improve performance
in the downlink direction. We illustrate this in the context of an interference channel with

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two base stations. Each base station wants to transmit to its own user and uses the acquired
knowledge to design the beamforming of that users data. More precisely, mobile-station #1
is connected to base-station #1 and mobile-station #2 to base-station #2. Each base-station
has two antennas while each mobile-station employs a single antenna. The beamformers
get an estimate of the channel of the desired user hd and the co-channel victim user hi .
Three beamformers are investigated: zero-forcing (ZF), matched-filter (MF) and the virtual
SINR maximizing beamformer (VM). The zero-forcing beamformer is computed through
the following optimization
|w hd |2
w 2

wZF = arg max

subject to wZF
hi = 0

(1.21)
(1.22)

i.e. the complete elimination of interference. The solution to this problem is

wZF = c I

1
hi

1 hi hi
2

hd .

(1.23)

The scaling constant is chosen here so that the norm of the beamforming vector is one. The
matched filter beamformer is based on the maximization given by (1.21) but without the
constraint given by (1.22) i.e. no regard is given to the generated interference. The solution
is given by
wMF = chd ,
(1.24)
where again the scaling is done to obtain a norm one beamforming vector. Finally, the VM
beamformer, [10], is designed so as to solve the following optimization:
wV M = arg max
=
w

|w hd |2
,
2
h |2
+
|w
i
P

(1.25)

where 2 is the noise power and P is the transmit power. Thus we are trying to balance
between the generated interference and the noise power. This can easily be seen to be a
generalized eigenvalue problem, one solution of which is:
wV M = c

2
I + hi hi
P

hd ,

(1.26)

where as before c is selected so as to ensure the beamforming vector has unit norm. In
addition to these beamformers, we also investigate single antenna transmission as a benchmark. In the single antenna beamformer one of the elements of the weighting vector is set
to one and the other to zero. However, in base-station #1 we alternate between the two
transmit antennas between every payload frame while in base-station #2 we alternate every
other frame. This is done in order to obtain more averaged results. Since no coding and
interleaving is performed the results are still representative of single antenna transmission.
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1.5 Implementations
The following two sections describes our implementation on the two platforms MUMS
and USRP, respectively.

1.5.1

MUMS

A testbed called the multi-user MIMO test system (MUMS), [26], has been used at
the department of Signal Processing at the Royal Institute of Technology in a variety of
projects, see e.g. [27] and [22].
The system consists of four nodes, each of which has two antennas on which a transmitter and receiver chain is connected as indicated in Figure 1.1 above. The system has
a symbol rate of 9.6kHz and the signal is oversampled five times in the transmitter and
receiver. All the processing is done on a floating point DSP.
The receivers and transmitters have sharp crystal filters that confine the transmitted signal bandwidth to 9.6kHz with little leakage outside this bandwidth. On the other hand,
the filters introduce inter-symbol interference (ISI) which is the major source of distortion
in the system. The error vector magnitude induced by this error is about 20dB below the
desired signal in transmitter as well as the receiver i.e. ktx = krx = 0.01. The ISI can be
eliminated with an equalizer, see [22]. However, that is not done here, instead we confine
ourselves to the QPSK modulation scheme.
For our purposes herein, the testbed is used so that two nodes act as base-stations and
two nodes as mobile-stations. Each base-station serves one mobile-station i.e. there are two
cells. The scheduling of training and data signals is illustrated by the multi-frame structure
shown in Figure 1.2. There is a delay primarily due to the DAC and ADC circuits. This
causes the transmitted signal to arrive at the receiver twelve symbol periods after it was
transmitted. To account for this we have defined different multiframes from the viewpoint
of the base- and mobile-stations. The upper frame structure in Figure 1.2 corresponds to the
frame-structure from the viewpoint of the base-station while the lower is from the mobilestation viewpoint. The first frame is sent from the mobile-stations to the base-station and
consists of training sequences. The notation TX24 indicates that the mobiles are in transmit mode during the frame and that the frame-length is 24 symbols. This frame is received
during the second frame at the base-station. During the third frame, the base-stations estimate the channel of the desired and the interfering user. Based on this knowledge the
base-station calculates a beamforming vector. During the frames marked "Transmit" at
the base-station and Receive at the mobile-station, a QPSK modulated payload signal
is transmitted to the desired user. All transmissions occur on the same carrier frequency.
In Figure 1.2, two payload frames are shown. In reality, eight payload frames are used,
however, only two are shown in the picture for visualization purposes.

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Idle

Chan

Idle

Transmit

Transmit

TX48

TX48

Idle

Est

RX
Base 1,2

RX
RX24

12

Mobile 1,2

RX

12

12

Training

Idle

Receive

Receive

TX24

RX36

RX48

RX48

Time

Figure 1.2: The multiframe in the MUMS implementation

Cal ZF

MF

SA

VM

ChE
Time

Figure 1.3: The superframe in the MUMS implementation

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In order to enable comparison of different beamformers, several multi-frames where

concatenated into a superframe as illustrated in Figure 1.3. The superframe illustrates that
the calibration is performed first, then five different beamformers are employed, where each
beamformer is used during one superframe. The five beamformers are zero-forcing (ZF),
matched-filter (MF), single-antenna (SA), Virtual SINR Maximizing (VM), and channel
estimation (ChE). The first four beamformers were introduced already in Section 1.4. The
final beamformer ChE is not really a beamformer as it does not transmit any payload symbols. Instead these frames are used for channel estimation. These channel estimates are
stored for later off-line processing, which enables us to investigate the quality of the channel estimates. More details about the MUMS implementation can found in Appendix 1.A

Measurement Campaigns using MUMS

Four measurement campaigns were conducted on the same office floor. During the first
two campaigns, the nodes were located within the dashed circle shown in Figure 1.5. In the
third and fourth campaign, the base-stations were located at the asterisks shown in Figure
1.5. The mobile-stations were then located in the corridor between the two base-stations or
in the office rooms adjacent to the corridor.
In the first campaign, ten superframes were collected. All four nodes were stationary
during the superframes but moved randomly one or a few meters between every superframe
in order for the channels of different multiframes to be as diverse as possible.
In the second measurement campaign, 100 superframes were collected. The two mobilestations were slowly moved at a speed of 5-10cm/sec. However, the superframes were separated by a few seconds so that fast-fading in adjacent superframes becomes uncorrelated.
Every tenth superframe the nodes were moved several meters to obtain sufficiently diverse
channels.
In the third campaign, 50 superframes were collected. The mobile-stations were held
stationary during each superframe but moved several meters in and out of office rooms
between the superframes.
In the fourth campaign, 110 superframes were collected. During each subset of 10
superframes the mobiles were slowly moved at a speed of about 5-10cm/sec while the
location of the mobile-stations were moved in and out of office rooms between the subsets.

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Figure 1.4: Picture from the measurement campaign at short distance

36 meter

Figure 1.5: Floor-plan layout

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1.5.2

USRP

The universal software radio peripheral (USRP) consists of a motherboard with a USB
interface, an FGPA, a micro-controller and four 64MHz ADC and 128MHz DAC converters [5]. The board interfaces to a range of transceiver daughter-boards for various frequency
bands www.ettus.com. We are using a pair of RFX1800 daughter-boards on our USPRs. The USRP board is generally connected to a Linux PC which is also the case herein.
The gnuradio project www.gnuradio.com provides a software framework and many
signal processing modules. However, in our implementations we are only using the functionality to receive and transmit buffers provided by gnuradio, while all the signal processing is done in matlab. We have utilized two nodes, one base-station and one mobile-station,
and use emulation techniques to investigate a system consisting of two base-stations and
two mobile-stations, as will be described in more detail below.
In our USRP implementation, we are using an OFDM modulation with a sample frequency of 2MHz. The FFT length is eight, resulting in a subcarrier spacing of 250kHz; a
cyclic prefix of length two is employed. Of the eight subcarriers the innermost five are used
while the remaining three are not used. The multi-frame employed is indicated in Figure
1.6. The beamforming schemes described in Section 1.4 should ideally be performed on
a subcarrier basis. However, our emulation approach allows only one set of weights for
all sub-carriers. In the first frame, calibration signals are sent internally between the antennas as described in Section 1.3 in order to estimate the TDD calibration coefficient, i.e.
rx
tx rx
(ctx
2 c1 )/(c1 c2 ). The calibration scheme is applied independently for each subcarrier using
a CW signal with the corresponding frequency.
The uplink and downlink frame in Figure 1.6 are identical, except that the uplink frame
is transmitted from the mobile-station to the base-station and the downlink frame in the
opposite direction. The frames contain fourteen burst pairs. The two bursts in a burst
pair are identical except that the first one is transmitted on antenna #1 and the other on
antenna #2. The bursts contains fourteen OFDM symbols. There is a lot of space in the
6ms buffers. This space could be eliminated but as in our MUMS implementation, we are
aiming to study the principal limitation of TDD reciprocity based beamforming and not
to optimize our system. Transmitted OFDM signals are pre-calculated in matlab and the
received signals are stored on hard-disc for post-processing in matlab.
We are able to emulate the performance of a TDD reciprocity based system with two
base-stations and mobile-stations by combining multiple measurements. The details of this
emulation is described in Appendix 1.B. A key point in the emulation is the fact that we
have transmitted the same burst with both transmit antennas. This allows us to weight
the contributions from the two antennas of the base-station and sum them to construct the
signal that would have been received at the mobile-station (where the weighting is done
according to the beamformer used at the base-station).

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Calibration

6ms

Uplink

Downlink

6ms

6ms
Time

Figure 1.6: The multiframe in the USRP implementation

The distortion in the USRP is dominated by phase-noise. The level of distortion varies
between different transmitter and receiver units. We characterize the distortion in the USRP
by krx = ktx = 0.03 in the uplink and krx = ktx = 0.001 in the downlink.
In the emulation process, the uplink channels are estimated by the base-station based
on the data received in the uplink frame, see Figure 1.6. The estimation is based on the
last burst transmitted from mobile-station antenna #1 (as in the MUMS case, the data sent
from mobile-station antenna #2 is never utilized in this chapter). The channel estimation is
done independently among the subcarriers by cross-correlation with the transmitted signal
(which is assumed known). The base-station then applies the calibration coefficients to
obtain an estimate of the downlink channel. The signal received at the mobile-station from
the two base-stations is then calculated. The mobile-station then demodulates the combined
signal assuming that the first symbol is known. More details are provided in Appendix 1.B.

Measurement Campaigns using USRP

The USRP measurements were done on the same floor as the MUMS measurements,
although the base-stations were placed at the points marked with a star and a square in
Figure 1.5. This campaign is denoted campaign #5 to distinguish between the MUMS and
USRP campaigns. The mobile-station was moving at some 5-10cm/sec moving in and out
of offices. The multi-frames were separated by some ten seconds to achieve sufficiently
different propagation channels between measurements. Some measurements close to the
base-station had to be removed because the receiver was saturated from the strong signal.
A total of 164 good multi-frames were collected. These measurements are divided into four
parts A, B, C and D to represent different paths in a two base-station two mobiles scenario.
This is described in more detail in Appendix 1.B.
More details on the USRP implementation is found in Appendix 1.B.

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Campaign
Short distance stationary (#1)
Short distance slowly moving (#2)
Long distance stationary (#3)
Long distance slowly moving (#4)
Indoor slowly moving (#5)

Platform
MUMS
MUMS
MUMS
MUMS
USRP

SA
0.223 (0.818)
0.210 (0.990)
0.144 (0.569)
0.117 (0.691)
0.170 (0.683)

MF
0.198 (0.682)
0.167 (0.755)
0.125 (0.441)
0.099 (0.427)
0.113 (0.415)

ZF
0.016 (0.091)
0.006 (0.065)
0.007 (0.078)
0.006 (0.073)
0.022 (0.159)

VM
0.012 (0.045)
0.009 (0.075)
0.008 (0.059)
0.006 (0.095)
0.022 (0.159)

Table 1.2: Mean bit error (outage probability)

1.6 Results
1.6.1

Bit error rate

The average bit error rate and the outage probability in the five campaigns are listed
in Table 1.2 for all the beamformers. An outage is defined to occur if at least one of the
payload frames in a multiframe (Figure 1.2) has at least one error. The results below show
clearly that interference rejection by means of ZF or VM pays off in terms of bit error rate,
while MF provides a more modest improvement over SA.
Little difference is seen between ZF and VM. However, if one calculates the average
Shannon capacity based on the SNR measured by the mobile-stations in downlink VM has
a small advantage over ZF.

1.6.2

Aging of calibration factors

rx
tx rx
Figure 1.7 shows the estimates of the amplitude and phase calibration factor (ctx
2 c1 )/(c1 c2 )
of base-station #2 during MUMS campaign #3. In the USRP case we can not study the aging of the phase since the phases of the local oscillators in the RFX1800 changes phase
randomly when it is re-started. However, a trace of the amplitude calibration is shown in
Figure 1.8. The phase correction varies less than one degree in the MUMS measurements.
The amplitude variation is about 0.3dB and 0.5dB in the MUMS and USRP case, respectively. None of the curves show any trend in the measurements indicating that calibration
measurements need not to be done very often.

1.6.3

Quality of Channel Estimates

The calibration factor investigated in the previous section is used together with an estimate of the uplink channel to obtain a prediction of the downlink channel according to

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Calibration factor estimates

0.5

Phase degrees

0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

1000

2000

3000

4000
Time (seconds)

5000

6000

7000

8000

0.1

Amplitude (dB)

0.05
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25

Figure 1.7: Trace of calibration factor estimates, in the MUMS implementation. The upper
sub-figure shows the phase in degrees while the lower shows the amplitude in dB

0.5

subcarrier 1
subcarrier 2
subcarrier 3

0.4

0.3

Amplitude dB

0.2

0.1

0.1

0.2

0.3

100

200

300
400
Time (seconds)

500

600

700

Figure 1.8: Trace of amplitude of the calibration factor estimates in the USRP implementation

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(1.20). The error of this prediction is defined as

e=

hDL |2
|h
,
2 hDL 2
h

(1.27)

this error measure is motivated in Appendix 1.C. In Figure 1.9 and 1.10 the distribution
of this error is shown in the MUMS and USRP case, respectively. In both cases the first
downlink burst following the uplink is used.
The results shown can be mimicked by using the downlink measurements and adding
noise and distortion according to the model in Section 1.2 arriving at
= hDL + e + n
h

(1.28)

where n is the Gaussian noise and e(t) is a complex Gaussian random vector with covariance matrix
E{ee } = kest diag{hDL hDL }.
(1.29)
However, to obtain a good fit to the measurements we had to increase the coefficient kest
to 0.005. When doing so the mean error is at most 30% off the measurements in any of
the five campaigns. The value kest = 0.005 is higher than what can be derived from the
estimation procedures and the distortion parameters (i.e. ktx = ktx ) we have stated earlier.
The source of this discrepancy is unkown to us.
In Figure 1.11 we have plotted the average prediction error as function of the downlink
timeslot in the multiframe based on the MUMS measurements. As expected, the aging of
the channel estimate is substantial when the mobiles are moving while it is minimal in the
fixed case.

1.6.4

Influence of Distortion on SNIR

In Section 1.2 we derived a signal model to account for distortion. For the case of single
receiver we developed equation (1.12). To investigate this model we have simulated the
system by using the estimated downlink channels. The beamformer weights are calculated
based on the uplink channel estimate and the calibration factors. The signal to noise and
interference (SNIR) ratio is then calculated based on the estimated downlink channels using
equation (1.10) and (1.12). A histogram of the SNIR obtained from these calculations
(based on all the data of all four campaigns) with and without distortion (i.e. using ktx =

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Campaign #1

Campaign #2

Frequency of occurance

Frequency of occurance

10
8
6
4
2
0

0.1

0.2
Error

0.3

60
50
40
30
20
10
0

0.4

0.1

60
50
40
30
20
10
0

0.1

0.2
Error

0.3

0.4

0.3

0.4

Campaign #4

Frequency of occurance

Frequency of occurance

Campaign #3

0.2
Error

0.3

0.4

150

100

50

0.1

0.2
Error

Figure 1.9: Measured MUMS channel prediction error. Upper left: short distance stationary, upper right: short distance slowly moving, lower left: long distance stationary, lower
right: long distance slowly moving
Campaign #5
250

Frequency of occurance

200

150

100

50

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08
0.1
0.12
Simulated prediction error

0.14

0.16

0.18

Figure 1.10: Measured USRP channel prediction error

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Ageing of the channel prediction

0.11
Close distance stationary
Close distance slowly moving
Long distance stationary
Long distance slowly moving

0.1

0.09

Average error

0.08

0.07

0.06

0.05

0.04

0.03

4
5
Downlink frame number

Figure 1.11: Aging of the channel prediction.

krx = 0.01 and ktx = krx = 0, respectively) is shown in Figure 1.12 and 1.13. Also shown
in the figures are the corresponding values obtained directly from the measurements in the
MUMS case and from emulation results in the USRP case.
The results show a fair agreement between the calculations and measurements indicating
that the distortion model introduced in Section 1.2 is valid.

1.7 Conclusions
In this chapter, we presented a method for TDD calibration based on the reciprocity
principle. The method is based on transmitting and receiving signals between the elements
of the antenna array. The method does not require interactions with other nodes or additional calibration circuitry. How to use the method in a MIMO context is also indicated.
We also introduced a signal model to account for distortions caused by e.g. phase-noise and
filter induced inter-symbol interference. A full implementation of the calibration method
and a set of beamformers on a custom test-bed (MUMS) and a partial implementation on a
commodity platform (USRP) are described.
In our system the base-stations predict the downlink channels by using the uplink measurements and the proposed calibration scheme. Each mobile-station is connected to one
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0.9

0.8

Pr {SNIR< xaxis}

0.7

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

Calculated with krx= ktx=0

0.1

Calculated with k =k =0.01

rx

tx

Direct measurements
0
10

10

20
dB

30

40

50

Figure 1.12: Calculated and measured histograms of SNIR for the MUMS test-bed.

Calculated with krx=ktx=0

0.9

Calculated with krx=ktx=0.001

Direct measurement

0.8

Pr {SNIR< xaxis}

0.7

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
10

10

20
dB

30

40

50

Figure 1.13: Calculated and emulated histograms of SNIR for the USRP test-bed.

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base-station. Each base-station uses a beamformer to enhance the signal aimed towards the
desired user while minimizing the interference caused at the victim user. Results are presented for zero-forcing beamforming (ZF) as well as the virtual SINR maximizing beamformer and show remarkable gains. We analyzed the performance of the channel prediction
of the downlink channels and the bit error rates. An experimental model of the performance
of the channel prediction is obtained from the measurements. We further study the signal
to noise and interference ratio (SNIR) at the receivers to validate the proposed distortion
model. Good agreement is found between the proposed model and our measurement results.
Our models for the channel prediction and SNIR performance could be used in future
simulations of TDD reciprocity based systems in order to account for hardware impairments.

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Antenna 1

1.7

Antenna 2

1.7

0
Time

Figure 1.14: Training sequence in the MUMS implementation

Appendix 1.A Details of the Implementation on MUMS

All the signal processing is done in real-time on the DSPs. When a node is started it first
rx
tx rx
estimates its TDD calibration coefficient i.e. the factor (ctx
2 c1 )/(c1 c2 ). This estimation
is based on CWs being transmitted between the two antennas of the node. Then, three
of the nodes start to wait for a synchronization sequence. The fourth node (called the
master) transmits the synchronization sequence and the other three nodes synchronize to
the training sequence. Only after this does a superframe, according to Figure 1.3, start.
The format of the training signal sent from the mobile-station #1 is illustrated in Figure
1.14. The training sequence simply consists of a single-pulse marked 1.7 in the figure.
This means that a symbol with real part equal to 1.7 and imaginary part equal to zero is
being sent1 . The pulse is guarded by zeros on each side. While this design eliminates intersymbol interference it is certainly not optimal. As the reader may note there is another
pulse being sent on the other mobile-station antenna. This allows estimation of the MIMO
channel. However, in the implementation herein we are not utilizing this information. In
any case, the design of the training sequence is far from optimal. However, our interest is
in investigating the principal limitations of TDD reciprocity based beamforming and not to
optimize our test system. The reader may note that the training frames from the mobilestations in Figure 1.2 are of length twenty-four symbols while the frame indicated in Figure
1.14 has only twelve symbols. During the remaining twelve symbols mobile-station #1 is
silent, while mobile-station #2 is transmitting the same training sequence as indicated in
Figure 1.14. This allows both base-stations to estimate the channel of both mobile-stations
without interference.

The format of the payload frames is shown in Figure 1.15. These are sent using the
different beamformers detailed in Section 1.4. Note that the training symbols of the two
base-stations are slightly offset to decrease the impact of interference in the channel estimate.

The system is adjusted so that the maximum amplitude of the symbols are equal to one. However, when
surrounded by zeros we can allow a somewhat higher amplitude of a single symbol. The reason is that the
subsequent pulse-shaping will smear out the power of the transmitted signal.

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22 Payload QPSK symbols (BS #1)

23 Payload QPSK symbols (BS #2)

22 Payload QPSK symbols (BS #1)

0 1.7 0 23 Payload QPSK symbols (BS #2)

Figure 1.15: Format of a normal frame in the MUMS implementation

The downlink channel estimates obtained during the ChE section of the superframe (see
Figure 1.3), are stored for later off-line analysis. The estimation is done in the same manner
as the uplink channel estimation. However, since the payload frames are 48 symbols long,
two estimates of each sub-channel are obtained for every payload frame.

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Appendix 1.B Details of the Implementation on USRP

A system with a single base-station and mobile-station can be emulated as described
below
rx
tx rx
1. Calculate the calibration constant (ctx
2 c1 )/(c1 c2 ) from the calibration data stored at
the base-station.

2. Estimate the uplink channel based on the data stored at the base-station.
3. Predict the downlink channel using the uplink data and the estimated calibration data.
4. Calculate the beamformer based on the obtained channel knowledge.
5. Construct the signal received by the mobile-station by adding and weighting the two
parts of the burst pairs using the previously obtained weights.
6. Demodulate the received signal assuming that the first OFDM symbol of the burst is
known.
There is one problem with the enumeration above. In an OFDM system we would
ideally transmit with different beamformers on different subcarriers. However, the above
emulation scheme does not allow that. On the other hand, in our indoor propagation scenario the channel can be regarded as flat over the five subcarriers spanning 1.25MHz and
thus the loss is negligible. Note, however, that we are able to study the channel estimation
error on all the subcarriers.
In order to develop the emulation scheme above for a case with two base- and mobilestations we need to elaborate the procedure further. In order to do so, we need first to
describe the USRP measurement campaign in detail. The campaign was done on the same
office floor as the MUMS campaign at a speed of 5-10cm/sec with ten seconds between
multi-frames to decorrelation in the fast fading. The USRP measurement campaign consists of four parts, campaign #5A,#5B,#5C and #5D. In campaign #5A and #5B the basestation was positioned at the star sign of Figure 1.5 while it was positioned at the square in
campaign #5C and #5D. The mobile-station was typically in the corridor and office rooms
close to the base-station marked by a star in campaign #5A and #5D, while it was close
to the base-station marked by a square in campaign #5B and #5C. In each sub-campaign
41 measurements were made. We use the data measured in campaign #5A and #5D to
represent the channel between user #1 and base-station #1 and #2, respectively, while the
data measured in campaign #5B and #5C represents the channel between mobile-station
#2 and base-station #1 and #2, respectively. The performance of a two base-station two
mobile-station is then done by repeating the following procedure 41 times

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rx
tx rx
1. Calculate the calibration constant (ctx
2 c1 )/(c1 c2 ) for base-station #1 using data from
campaign #5A and #5D.

2. Do likewise for base-station #2.

3. Estimate the uplink channels between base-station #1 and mobile-station #1 using
calibration and uplink data from campaign #5A.
4. Estimate the uplink channels between base-station #1 and mobile-station #2 using
calibration and uplink data from campaign #5D.
5. Do likewise for base-station #2 using data from campaign #5B and #5C.
6. Calculate the beamformers for base-station #1 and #2,
7. Construct the signal received at mobile-station #1 by adding the contribution from
base-station #1 and #2 using data from campaign #5A and #5D. The contribution
from base-station #1 is sum of the two transmitter antennas weighted by the beamformer of that base-station, and likewise for base-station #2. The signal from basestation #2 is offset one burst pair so that the interfering signal carries a different
information content than the desired signal.
8. Demodulate the signal received at mobile-station #2. The first OFDM symbol of the
desired base-station is assumed known. The interference (i.e. the contribution from
base-station #2) is removed from the received signal.
9. Repeat step 7-8 for mobile-station #2 with obvious changes.
Note that we remove the interference from the channel estimation and no interference is
added to the uplink measurements. This is similar to the MUMS implementation where interference is almost eliminated from the channel estimations through the frame and training
sequence designs.
During the measurements the nodes were synchronized using a cable. The cable is
connected to a general purpose pin on each of the USRPs. The two nodes are polling the
pin continuously. When the pin changes polarity a frame is started. The cable is driven
by a square-wave generator with half-period of 6ms. Due to latencies in the USRP, USB
and PCs the useful signal appears 1-2ms into the received buffer. The latency varies from
frame to frame. Each frame starts with a synchronization sequence of 100 samples. When
the data is processed the timing of the received burst is obtained by cross-correlating the
received signal with the known synchronization sequence. This correlation is done with
several frequency offsets to simultaneously obtain the frequency offset.
The output power is only some -6dBm as a higher output power leads to bit errors due
to non-linearity in the power amplifiers (varies between amplifier units). The gain in the
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receiver is set so that the noise figure is 24dB. A higher gain seems to distort the received
signal. However, the link budget was still enough for our limited set-up. The USB interface
supports 32Mbyte/sec of data. The in-phase and quadrature data is sent as 16bit values
between the USRP and the PC. With two antenna elements we should be able to support a
sample-rate of 4MHz. This is indeed possible. The problem occurs during our calibration
phase, when we need to transmit and receive at the same time. With the 2MHz sample-rate
used in the chapter we are able to transmit and receive at the same time. A possibility
would be to lower the sample-rate during calibration. However, when this was tried, the
phase of the calibration constant was no longer valid, for reasons unknown to the authors.
As mentioned in Section 1.5.2, the calibration is calculated independently for the different subcarriers. In some cases, the calibration estimation goes wrong for all subcarriers
except the center subcarrier. This is easily detectable as the phase of the calibration coefficient in these cases differs substantially between the center subcarrier and the adjacent
subcarriers. When this happens the calibration coefficient for the center subcarrier is used
for all subcarriers. The cause of the problem is unknown.

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Appendix 1.C The chosen error measure

Let us divide the true downlink channel hDL into two parts, one which is aligned with
and one which is orthogonal to this channel estimate, i.e.
the channel estimate, h,
hDL = Ph hDL + P
hDL
h
hDL
h
+e

=
h
2
h

(1.30)
(1.31)

The power of the error vector is given by

= hDL P
hDL
h
= hDL

(1.32)

hDL h
2
h

1
2

(1.33)

is that of a co-channel user, a zero-forcing beamformer would

If the channel estimate h

choose a weighting such that wZF
h = 0. The remaining interference (disregarding the

interference caused by distortions, see Section 1.2), is then given by |wZF

e|2 , where the
is given by (1.33) above. The power of e need to be set in relation to hDL . We
power of e
therefore chose to divide the power of e by the power of hDL thus obtaining
1
hDL h
2
e
2
=
1

hDL 2
h hDL
= e2 ,

(1.34)
(1.35)

i.e. the square of our chosen error measure e.

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Chapter 2
Opportunistic Multi-User MIMO with
Antenna Selection
2.1 Introduction
The increasing demand of wireless services calls for spectrally efficient systems. Since
spectrum is limited, it is of key interest to increase the throughput of a system for a given
bandwidth. Spectral efficiency depends on different aspects such as coding, modulation
and scheduling, to name a few. The use of multiple antennas at both the transmitter and
receiver, so-called multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, have received much
attention in recent years due to the tremendous potential for increasing the transmission
rate and spectral efficiency [11]. MIMO systems take advantage of rich scattering in the
channel to improve the performance without requiring additional bandwidth. By adapting
the transmission rate to match the channel quality, the performance may be increased further [2], [7]. Most of the work on multi-antenna systems targets single-user point-to-point
communication. In multi-user (MU) communication systems, the total downlink throughput can be significantly increased if the base station (BS) exploits the multi-user diversity,
by transmitting to the user with the best channel at that instant. Such channel dependent
scheduling benefits from an increasing number of users, since this increases the probability
that at least one of them has a favorable channel [4]. While opportunistic schedulers, in a
single-antenna system, usually pick the single best user for transmission, MIMO systems
can support transmission to multiple users simultaneously on the same frequency and time
slot [4]. Most research on opportunistic scheduling in MU-MIMO is theoretical and assumes channel models of various types [4], [3]. This chapter presents an implementation
of a realtime multi-user MIMO system with cross-layer optimization on existing hardware,
and shows measurement results. More specifically, a narrow band downlink communication system utilizing one transmitting BS with two antennas and two two-antenna user
terminal (UT) nodes are considered. The system is implemented on the MUMS testbed

35

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[26], where all nodes are equipped with the same type of transmitter (TX) and receiver
(RX) modules. The evaluation is made in an indoor non line of sight (NLoS) environment at a carrier frequency of 1766 MHz. The scheduling decision is based on signal to
interference plus noise ratio (SINR) information fed back by the receivers. We present
measurements, where it is shown that channel-aware scheduling increases not only the system throughput, but also the fairness. Further, using the possibility of pseudo-randomly
changing antenna polarization through software controlled switches, the multiuser gains
my be increased even further, both in total throughput and fairness. The analysis herein
differs from previous MU-MIMO studies [4], since it is a real implementation on existing
hardware.
The chapter is structured as follows, in Section 2.2 the basic functionality (modulation,
demodulation and SINR estimation etc.) is described. The transmission protocol and the
scheduling modes are described in Section 2.3 and 2.4 respectively. Section 2.5 describes
the measurement scenarios and results, and conclusions are drawn in Section 2.6.

2.2 System Description

MUMS is a general narrowband multi-node multi-antenna test bed, [26] The system
consists of software-reconfigurable terminals (nodes) that may be configured as user terminals, relays, or as a base station. In the setup herein, one BS and two UT nodes are
used. Each node consists of two radio frequency (RF) TX chains and two RF RX chains,
enabling two by two MIMO communication between the nodes. Since we are employing
a time division duplexing system, the nodes are either in a transmit- or a receive mode and
are thus not capable of transmitting and receiving simultaneously.
The RF chains (at both BS and UT) are connected to two dual polarized Huber-Suhner
SPA 1800/85/8/0/DS planar antennas, which have a 3dB horizontal beamwidth of 85o . By
software controlled switches either polarization may be used for transmission. Since each
node has two antennas with two polarization modes each, 45o , a total of four modes is
available. This ability to control the polarization of the antennas will be referred to as
antenna switching, and is herein used to achieve extra (controlled) fading in the channel.
In the following subsections the modulation and demodulation part, i.e. the TX and RX
chains, of the nodes are described.

2.2.1

Modulation

An overview of the modulation chain is shown in Fig. 2.1. Information bits are multiplexed on two spatial subchannels and mapped to transmit symbols. Table 2.1 shows the
available signal constellations with corresponding transmission rates ranging from 0 to 7
bits per channel use (bpcu). The system supports separate constellations on each substream,
and the combined total bit rate can therefore range from 0 to 14 bpcu.
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0
Constallaon None
Bitrate

1
BPSK

2
QPSK

3
4
5
6
7
8PSK 16QAM 32CR 64QAM 128CR

Table 2.1: The available signal constellations.

After mapping bits to signal constellations the vector of constellation symbols is rotated
using a unitary precoding matrix. The precoding is applied to diagonalize the channel and
reduce interference [19]. In the current system the precoder, U , is chosen from a codebook
of six as
cos n sin n
n
U (n) =
, n =
,
(2.1)
12
sin n
cos n
where n ranges from 0 to 5.
Similarly to [7], the precoded signal vector is up-sampled by a factor five, pulse shaped,
and modulated to analog baseband waveforms. The baseband signal is shifted to carrier
frequency, and finally passed to the antennas though the RF chain. The RF chain of MUMS
is described more thoroughly in [7].
The ability to perform bit loading, precoding and antenna switching in the modulation
chain allows the node to optimize the transmission as the MIMO channel changes. Note
that the set of configurations for the modulator is finite and therefore possible to optimize
globally given some knowledge about the state of the channel.

2.2.2

Demodulation

The demodulation chain, Fig. 2.2, is essentially the modulation chain reversed. After
down conversion and sampling (at an over-sampled rate of factor five), the signal is passed
through a least-squares linear channel equalizer that filters the signal in space and time.

Bitstream

M
U
X

MOD1
MOD2
Bitload

SW
SW

Unitary Antenna
Precoder Selection

Figure 2.1: The TX modulation chain.

The system uses an over sampling factor of five, see e.g. [7]. By performing space-time
equalization in the over-sampled domain the impact of timing synchronization offset errors
as well as inter symbol interference (ISI) can be reduced. Inter-symbol interference (ISI)
arises in the system due to the narrow crystall filters used in the radio modules. Equalization
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u1

SW
SW

DETECT

DETECT

u2

Antenna
Selection

ST-Equalizer

M
U
X

Bitstream

Demodulation

Figure 2.2: The RX demodulation chain.

in the over sampled domain motivates the use of non-uniform filter taps, which allows us
to maintain a reasonably small number of taps in total. At a specific point in discrete time
n (in the down-sampled time domain), the vector y(n) is defined as
y(n) = u1 (5n 10), u1 (5n 5), u1 (5n 1), u1 (5n),
u1 (5n + 1), u1 (5n + 5), u1 (5n + 10),
u2 (5n 10), u2 (5n 5), u2 (5n 1), u2 (5n),
u2 (5n + 1), u2 (5n + 5), u2 (5n + 10)

(2.2)

where, u1 (m), u2 (m), are the (up-sampled) signals from the receive antennas. The transmitted symbols x(n) are estimated using Wiener filtering of the non-uniform collection of
the received symbols y(n). The estimate is obtained as

(n) = R
x
yx yy y(n),

(2.3)

yy and R
yx are estimated auto- and cross covariance matrices respectively. The
where R
(n) =
transmitted signals are detected by elementwise closest-point detection as x
x(n).
The detected constellations are converted to a sequence of received bits. Because the channel is time varying, the auto and cross covariance matrices of the received signal, y, and
the transmitted symbols, x, are estimated from the last decoded frame as
yy = 1
R
N
yx = 1
R
N

y(n)y (n),

(2.4)

y(n)
x (n),

(2.5)

n=1
N

n=1

where N denotes the number of symbols per frame. The estimates of the covariance of the
xx and mean squared errors R
ee are similarly obtained as
transmitted symbols R
xx = 1
R
N

(n)
x
x (n),

(2.6)

n=1

ee = R
xx R
R
1
R
yx yy Ryx.

(2.7)

These estimates are required when computing the SINRs of the subchannels.
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2.3 Transmission protocol

The BS and the UT nodes communicate using a predefined transmission protocol. Before the BS can make a scheduling decision it needs to know the potential data throughput
to the users for all available transmission modes. For all precoding matrices in the codebook the BS needs to compute the potential throughput (at a prescribed quality of service)
to all users. Due to co-channel interference, the throughput when both substreams are used
must be reported separately from the cases when only the first or the second substream
are used (single-stream transmission). The BS can then make the optimal scheduling decision according to some specified decision rule. Unfortunately the information regarding
throughput is not available to the BS unless it is fed back from the UTs. An alternative
would be to make use of TDD reciprocity as in Chapter 1 however that strategy is not used
here. Thus, instead we probe the channel at the UTs, and repeatedly feedback the information to the BS. Such a solution will work in frequency division duplexing systems as
well.
In the protocol used herein, each scheduling decision is associated with one super-frame.
The super-frame contains an SINR probing phase, a feedback phase, and finally a scheduled
data-transmission phase. Antenna switching is made between two separate super-frames to
achieve a faster but controlled fading. Thus the same antenna selection configuration is
used throughout the whole super-frame.

2.3.1

Super-frame structure

The base station initializes the super-frame by broadcasting a pseudo-random training

xx and
sequence that is used by the UTs to obtain estimates of the covariance matrices, R
ee. The covariance matrices are rotated according to the precoders in the codebook (2.1),
R
and the potential throughput for all transmission modes are computed at each UT based on
SINR information, as shown in Appendix 2.A.
The UTs then transmit the throughput information to the BS on dedicated orthogonal
time slots, termed feedback frames. When the BS has received all feedback information, it
makes the scheduling decision, sends a training sequence (for calibration of the equalizer
filter) followed by a robust low-rate frame containing the scheduling decision. If a user has
been scheduled for transmission it will continue to decode the data in the subsequent data
frames.

2.3.2

The feedback frame

Using the training data to estimate the covariance matrices, Rxx and Ree, the nodes
can compute the SNRs (without interference) and SINRs (with interference) on both subchannels as described in Appendix 2.A. This implies that each precoding matrix results in
four measurement values in total. The measurements are then mapped, using the SNR gap
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approximation [6], to a desired signal constellation. The desired signal constellation for
each precoding matrix and substream configuration is fed back to the base station.
The total number of feedback bits, nb , in a feedback frame is nb = 4 np log2 (nc ),
where denotes rounding upwards, np denotes the number of precoding matrices (in this
case 6) and nc denotes the number of signal constellations (in this case 8). The feedback
frame is transmitted using QPSK over one antenna, and the frame includes a pilot symbol
to enable detection without any training sequence. A 16-bit check sum ensures that the
scheduling decision is not based on corrupted feedback frames. If the feedback frame is
not decoded correctly, it is assumed that the throughput is zero on all modes.
When all feedback information from the UTs is available to the BS, the BS is ready to
make the scheduling decision.

2.4 Scheduling decision

From the feedback information (supplied by the UT nodes) the BS acquires the desired
bit rates for all precoding matrices and possible stream to user mapping. The scheduling
decision is then a matter of determining the precoding matrix, and the stream to user mapping that maximizes some type of utility function of the bit rates. In this chapter, three
different scheduling modes are compared. These modes are specified as:
1. Max sum-rate (MR) scheduling. Scheduled users are selected such that the total bit
rate is maximized every superframe, without any respect to fairness. I.e. this user
selection method incorporates no memory in between the super-frames. In the case
where one user has a much better channel than the other, this results in only one user
being scheduled at all time.
2. Proportional-fair (PF) scheduling. The possible bit rate for each user and substream
is normalized with the users average bit rate the last X superframes and the scheduler
maximizes the total normalized bit rate to both users.
3. Round-robin (RR) scheduling. Each of the receiver nodes is scheduled every second superframe independent of the instantaneous channel. The scheduler chooses
the maximum achievable rate from the possibility of transmitting only one or both
streams to this single user.
The scheduler may choose to transmit one or two streams and there are two UT nodes. In
total there are four ways to schedule one single stream and four ways to schedule two active
streams, and thus, in total there are eight possible streams-to-users mappings.
In case of antenna switching being used at one scheduling type this will be highlighted
by adding the subscript AS to the scheduling mode, e.g. PFAS means proportional fair
scheduling with antenna switching in between the separate super-frames.
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2.5 Measured results

This section describes the system setup, the measurement environment and the obtained
experimental results.

2.5.1

Measurement environment

The environment can be described as a typical office environment with two long parallel
corridors, offices and laboratory rooms on each sides. The floorplan of the building is
displayed in Fig. 2.3. The inner walls are double plaster with aluminum beams while the
outer walls are brick and concrete and the floors are made of reinforced concrete. A more
thorough description of this office environment can be found in [8].

Figure 2.3: Floorplan setup. Gray star indicates BS location, whereas black stars indicates
user locations.

2.5.2

Measurement description

The system performance was evaluated through two measurement setups in an NLoS
indoor scenario, utilizing one BS and two UTs. For each measurement location and SINR
level a total of 1000 superframes were measured. In setup 1, the BS was located in the
upper long corridor, indicated by the grey star in Fig. 2.3, with the antennas pointing in
the direction along the short corridor as indicated by the arrow. The two UTs were located
in the lower long corridor, shown by the two black stars in Fig. 2.3, at approximate equal
distances from the BS, with the antennas pointing in the directions indicated by the arrows.
The reason for positioning the two user terminals at equal distance from the BS is to get
approximately equal path loss. In measurement setup 2 all node positions are indicated
by hexagons, and in similarity with setup 1, the base station is grey and the user terminals
are black. The arrows again, indicates the antenna pointing direction. Both the BS and
UTs were stationary during the full system evaluation measurements. The measurements
were carried out during day time, thus occasionally people were entering the hallways and
blocking one or the other UTs, creating a slowly time varying channel.

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2.5.3

Measurement results

By attenuating the signal in steps of 10dB at the transmitter and receiver, the throughput
was studied for various signal to noise ratios, without physically relocating the nodes. The
three SNR levels are as follows:
Low SNR: 10dB attenuation at both the Tx and Rx.
Mid SNR: 10dB attenuation at the Tx only.
High SNR: no attenuation at either side.
In Fig. 2.4 a-c cumulative distribution functions (CDFs) showing the throughput of the
different scheduling decision modes are displayed for setup 1 and for the three different
SNR levels respectively. At first it may be noted that the throughput of MR scheduling
is higher than PF which in turn is higher than RR scheduling as expected. Further the
PFAS scheduling with antenna switching has higher throughput than PF scheduling without
antenna switching. This is explained by the MU diversity gain introduced by the antenna
switching.
Considering the low SNR measurements, shown in Fig. 2.4-a, it is seen that the probability for data rates above 5 bpcu is approximately equal for MR and PFAS scheduling. Furthermore, the gain compared to PF scheduling is close to 1 bpcu. Increasing the SNR with
10dB, Fig 2.4-b, increases the average system data rate for all scheduling methods. As observed the median gain for MR scheduling and PFAS is larger than for PF and RR scheduling. For these specific measurements, the median gain in system throughput when using
a proportional fair scheduling scheme compared to a round-robin scheduling scheme is almost 1.5 bpcu, and 2 bpcu when using proportional fair scheduling with antenna switching.
Thus antenna switching gives us 0.5 bpcu without extra training overhead. Considering the
highest SNR case we see that the system data rate saturates. The median difference between
MR scheduling and PFAS is still around 0.1 bpcu, which is the same as for the two lower
SNR measurements, but the difference between fair scheduling with and without antenna
switching is negligible. The mean throughput for RR scheduling increases compared to the
lower SNR measurements, but the difference to PF and MR scheduling increases as well
Table 2.2 and 2.3. To evaluate the fairness of the scheduling algorithms, the fraction of data
targeted for user one and for user two is studied. In Table. 2.2 and 2.3 the amount of data
scheduled to user one is tabulated for the two measurement setups for the three different
SNR levels. The left value in the table is the fraction of the total data scheduled for user
1, and the right value is average scheduled bit rate. Keep in mind that the received SNR
for measurement setup 1 and 2 are not identical, due to the different pathloss experienced.
From the tables it is seen that the PFAS is more fair than MR scheduling and PF without
antenna switching. Further it is seen that the system becomes more fair with increasing
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PF
Low SNR 0.286 / 4.49
Mid SNR 0.382 / 8.03
High SNR 0.454 / 11.73

PF AS
0.353 / 4.93
0.396 / 8.56
0.461/ 11.83

MR
0.112 / 5.17
0.181 / 8.87
0.216 / 12.06

RR
0.384 / 4.09
0.429 / 7.15
0.457 / 10.73

Table 2.2: Fairness, measurement setup 1. Table inputs are given as percentage of data to
user one / mean datarate.

PF
Low SNR 0.690 / 3.06
Mid SNR 0.533 / 6.15
High SNR 0.506 / 10.47

PFAS
0.637 / 3.40
0.530 / 6.59
0.494 / 10.70

MR
0.822 / 3.46
0.654 / 6.66
0.482 / 10.77

RR
0.607 / 2.86
0.566 / 5.77
0.526 / 9.42

Table 2.3: Fairness, measurement setup 2. Table inputs are given as percentage of data to
user one / mean datarate.
SNR. The most interesting issue, seen in both Table. 2.2 and Table. 2.3 (for higher SNR
values) is that the PFAS scheduler is more fair than round robin, while increasing the total
system throughput by more than 10%.
The improvement of system performance using random antenna switching becomes
even clearer if only the throughput for the worst user is considered. As an example look at
measurement setup 1, at medium SNR, where user 1 is the worst. The CDF of the data rate
targeted for user one is shown in Fig. 2.5. As seen, user 1 is scheduled for transmission in
74% of the superframes when a PF scheduler is used. Similarly the user is scheduled in
63%, 32% and 50% of the frames for PFAS , MR and RR respectively. Thus, the worst user
is scheduled less frequently when using antenna switching. However, the average bitrate to
that user is increased. Further, recall that the average system throughput is around 9 bpcu
(Table. 2.2). From Fig. 2.5, is is seen that the PF scheduler is only able to achieve half that
rate, roughly 5bpcu, in 4% of the frames while the PF scheduler with antenna switching
achieves rates above this in %26 of the frames.

2.6 Conclusions
In this chapter a realtime cross-layer implementation of channel-aware multi-user MIMO
scheduling system is described. Three different scheduling methods based on realistic
quantized SINR information fed back by the users are considered. The system is implemented on narrowband hardware consisting of one base station and two client nodes,
communicating in the 1766 MHz band, and evaluated in an indoor NLoS environment at
various SNR levels. It is shown that channel aware scheduling can simultaneously increase
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Low SNR

Mid SNR

1
0.9
0.8

1
fairPF
PFAS
fairAS
MR
maxrate
RR
singleuser

0.9
0.8

0.8
0.7

0.6

0.6

0.6

0.4

Probability

0.7

0.5

0.5
0.4

0.5
0.4

0.3

0.3

0.3

0.2

0.2

0.2

0.1

0.1

6
8
Scheduled data rate

10

12

14

fairPF
PFAS
fairAS
MR
maxrate
RR
singleuser

0.9

0.7

Probability

Probability

High SNR

1
PF PF
PF
PFAS
PF
PFAS
AS
MRMR
MR
RRRR
RR

0.1
0

a)

6
8
Scheduled data rate

10

12

14

6
8
Scheduled data rate

b)

10

12

14

c)

Figure 2.4: CDF of data rates for the four scheduling modes and three different SNR levels,
for measurement setup 1.
Mean SNR
1

0.9

0.8

Probability

0.7

0.6

0.5

0.4

PF
PFAS

0.3

MR
RR

0.2

6
8
Scheduled data rate

10

12

14

Figure 2.5: CDF of the datarates for the worst user (user 1) in measurement setup 1 and
Mid SNR.
both fairness and total system throughput. Further, it is shown that random antenna switching increases not only throughput but fairness without extra training overhead.

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Appendix 2.A SINR Estimation

Define the error prior closest point detection as
x,
e=x

(2.8)

where the covariance matrix of the detection error is

Ree = Rxx RyxR1
yy Ryx.

(2.9)

The signal to interference plus noise ratio of subchannel i is given by

i =

[Rxx]ii
.
[Ree]ii

(2.10)

Next we derive the SNRs in the case that only one subchannel is utilized. Linearity of the
channel allows us to remove the impact of the inactivated subchannel from the covariance
matrix estimates. Given that only subchannel i is used, the corresponding single-stream
covariance matrix of the received signal vector can be shown to be
(i)
Ryy
= Ryy +

[Ryx]:i[Ryx]:i

RyxR1
xxRyx.
[Rxx]ii

(2.11)

After some matrix manipulations we obtain the single-stream SNR as

i,sngl =

RxxR1
ee Rxx
[Rxx]ii

ii

(2.12)

Based on the estimated covariance matrices, it is now straight forward to compute the
xx and
SINRs and single-stream SNRs for any unitary precoder, U , by simply rotating R
ee as U R
xxU and U R
eeU respectively.
R

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Chapter 3
USRP implementation of the
amplify-and-forward cooperation
protocol
In this chapter, we describe the implementation of the amplify-and-forward (AF) cooperation protocol using the software-defined-radio (SDR) platform USRP.

R1

R2
D

Figure 3.1: Experiment configuration.

In our experiments we tested two topologies (see Fig. 3.1). In the first topology, the
source S and the relay R1 are in the same room at a distance 4 m and the destination D is
in a neighboring room at distance about 5 m from the relay and about 8 m from the source.
In the second topology, we move the relay from position R1 to R2 .
The transmissions are packet-based. The packets are transmitted periodically with interpacket distance about 200 msec. The symbol period is 5 sec, that is, the bandwidth is
200 KHz. The source transmits groups composed of 4000 packets with the same transmit
power. The transmit power varies from about 1 mWatt to about 7 mWatt (the source and the
46

FP6-033533

Nhead

Ntr

Header

Ndat

Train Symbols

Data Symbols
Figure 3.2: Packet format.

relay transmit with the same power). For each group of packets, we compute the average
receive SNR and the probability of error (the receive SNR is computed using the estimates
of the channel and the noise variance). During our experiments, there was limited mobility,
i.e., persons move slowly from time to time.

3.1 Packet Format

Each packet consists of
1. Nhead header symbols that identify the node from which the packet comes from
(source or relay) - in our experiments Nhead = 32,
2. Ntr training symbols used to estimate the carrier frequency offset (CFO) and the
channel in our experiments Ntr = 48 ,
3. Ndat data bits used to estimate the BER, in our experiments Ndat = 128.
The source constructs the packet, passes the symbols from an oversampled square-root
raised cosine shaping filter, passes the output from a digital to analog converter, upconverts
the resulting waveform to a frequency around 2.4 GHz and transmits the modulated signal.
The signal bandwidth, modulation frequency and transmit power can be controlled by the
user. The relay and the destination listen at the specified frequency band for data packets,
downconvert the signal, perform matched filtering and process the received packets.
In Fig. 3.3, we plot the baseband transmitted waveform corresponding to a packet (with
BPSK symbols) as well as the received signal (inphase and quadrature component). We
observe that the received signal suffers from additive noise and frequency offset.

3.2 Relay Node Processing

The relay listens continuously for transmitted packets. When it detects a packet (for
the moment, a simple energy detector is used - more work is required in order to optimize
this stage), it starts reading the packet sample by sample - the incoming packet is an oversampled, with respect to the symbol period, waveform. When the packet is read, the relay
performs the following:

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Transmitted Signal

x 10

2
0
2
4

50

100

150
sec
Received Signal

200

250

300

50

100

150
sec

200

250

300

1000
500
0
500
1000

Figure 3.3: (a) Transmitted packet waveform (b) Received packet waveform.
1. it estimates the best time sampling instant; for the moment, our estimate is based
on energy maximization (more effective but more computationally demanding techniques exploiting the training symbols may be used),
2. it downsamples the signal to symbol rate,
3. it uses the Ntr training symbols to estimate the CFO (using FFT), and cancels the
CFO.
In order to verify that the received packet was indeed a true source packet, the relay
1. uses the Ntr training symbols to estimate the (flat fading) channel,
2. using the channel estimate, it performs coherent (symbol-by-symbol) detection,
3. uses the detected symbols and checks the packet header. If the header differs in at
most Nhead_diff places from the header of the source (0x2A1A2A1A), then it accepts
the packet as a true source packet.
To forward the received packet, the relay
1. inserts a new packet header (0xD5E5D5E5), which is the bitwise inverse of the
header of the source,

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2. inserts N2tr clean training symbols in appropriate positions, leaving the rest unchanged,
3. normalizes the power of the packet to forward,
4. puts the packet at the output buffer,
5. stores data for further processing (source-relay channel and SNR estimation, etc).

3.3 Destination Node Processing

The destination listens continuously for data packets (from the source or the relay).
Packet detection is done using a simple energy detector (see previous section). When a
packet is detected, it starts reading the packet sample by sample. Then
1. it estimates the best time sampling offset,
2. it downsamples the signal to symbol rate,
3. it uses only the

Ntr
2

clean training symbols and estimates and cancels the CFO,

4. it uses only the

Ntr
2

clean training symbols and estimates the channel,

5. it uses the channel estimate and performs coherent (symbol-by-symbol) detection

of the header symbols. If the estimated header differs in at most Nhead_diff places
from the header of the source (0x2A1A2A1A), then it accepts the packet as a true
source packet. Else, if it differs in at most Nhead_diff places from the header of the
relay (0x2A1A2A1A), then it accepts the packet as a true relay packet. Otherwise,
the packet is discarded.
If the packet comes from the source, then the destination
1. uses the Ntr training symbols to make a better channel estimation,
2. estimates the noise power,
3. performs coherent (symbol-by-symbol) detection and computes the number of errors
of the direct source destination channel,
4. stores data for further processing.
If the packet comes from the relay, then the destination
1. uses the second N2tr training symbols to make a better estimation of the combined
source-relay-destination channel,
2. estimates the noise power,
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100

Direct scheme
1/SNR
Cooperative scheme
1/SNR^2

10-1

BER

10-2

10-3

10-4 4

10
12
SNR (db)

14

16

18

Figure 3.4: BER for direct source-destination transmission and AF cooperation protocol
Relay close to destination.
3. using the signals from the source and the relay, it performs maximum ratio combining,
4. performs symbol by symbol decisions and computes the number of errors of the AF
cooperative protocol,
5. stores data for further processing.

3.4 Experimental results

In Fig. 3.4, we present the experimental results we obtained for the case where the
relay is close to the source. The horizontal axis is the average receive SNR of the direct
transmission. Each cross denotes the probability of error computed over a group of packets.
Blue crosses correspond to direct transmission, while green crosses correspond to the AF
protocol. In Fig. 3.5, we plot the corresponding results for the case where the relay is close
to the source.
We observe that in both cases the cooperative protocol achieves better performance than
direct transmission. However, we must keep in mind that, in order to transmit a data packet,
the cooperative protocol needs twice the energy and time compared with direct transmission.

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100

Direct scheme
1/SNR
Cooperative scheme
1/SNR^2

10-1

BER

10-2

10-3

10-4 2

10
SNR (db)

12

14

16

18

Figure 3.5: BER for direct source-destination transmission and AF cooperation protocol
Relay close to source.

3.5 Conclusion
We described an implementation on the USRP platform of the AF protocol. We implemented algorithms for coarse and fine packet-start detection, CFO and channel estimation
and data detection. We performed experiments for two different topologies, i.e., one with
the relay close to the source and another with the relay close to the destination. Our experiments took place in an environment with limited mibility (slowly moving persons from
time to time). We compared the BER for the direct transmission and the AF protocol. We
observed that the AF performs better than the direct transmission. Our results show that
cooperative protocols are efficient alternatives of direct transmission.

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Chapter 4
Space-Frequency Coded DF OFDM
4.1 Introduction
In this chapter we describe the implementation of OFDM incorporating Alamouti schemes
across different dimensions.
We consider a basic relayed wireless network as shown in Figure 4.1, which has two
relays R1 , R2 , and one destination D. We assume that both relays have already received
the copy of each others information or relays have already exchanged the information as
explained in paper [18] and for the simplicity in Figure 4.1, we do not show the first part
of communication from source to relays. We consider Alamouti space-time block code
(STBC) across the relays for the communication between relays and destination. In our
implementations, we emulate the relay-to-destination link in two ways. 1) Using the two
antennas of a single USRP 2) using two separate USRPs for the two links.

Figure 4.1: Wireless relayed network

4.2 Brief introduction to the hardware

The complete testbed as shown in Figure 4.11 may associate maximum three nodes.
Each node accompanies one Pentium III computer (Linux platform) and one USRP kit

52

FP6-033533

(fig4.2(b)). The USRP kit is an advanced digital signal processing (DSP) kit, which provides a flexible GNU radio environment for users to implement different MIMO networks.

4.2.1

USRP motherboard

The USRP kit is developed by Matt Ettus for the GNU radio users. For the implementation of our schemes the USRP board with 1 or 2 RFX 2400 daughterboard (2.3GHz to
2.4GHz) shown in Figure 4.3 can be used. The USRP motherboard (figure 4.2(a)) is a
MIMO capable motherboard, which supports high speed up- and-down conversion using
FPGA. It is a low cost board, which incorporates analog to digital (A/D) and digital to
analog (D/A) converters, RF front-end (frequency translator), and field programmable gate
array (FPGA). Normally it has 12 bit analog to digital converter and 14 bit digital to analog
converter. It can digitize a 32MHz baseband signal and can deal with 2 V peak-peak signal. However a bottleneck is the USB interface to the host computer which only supports
32Mbyte/sec.

(a) USRP motherboard

(b) USRP kit

Figure 4.2: USRP motherboard and USRP kit

4.2.2

Daughterboards

There are different daughterboards available for different frequency bands. The complete list of available daughterboards is as follows:
Basic Tx and Rx daughterboards (1MHz to 250MHz)
LFTX and LFRX (DC to 30MHz)
TVRX (50MHz to 860MHz)
DBSRX (800MHz to 2.4GHz)
WBX0510 (50MHz to 1GHz)
RFX 900 (750MHz to 1050MHz)
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RFX 1200 (1150MHz to 1450MHz)

RFX 1800 (1.5GHz to 2.1GHz)
RFX 2400 (2.3GHZ to 2.9GHz)
XCVR 2450 (2.4GHz to 2.5GHz and 4.9GHz to 5.9GHz).
Among these boards, the RFX 2400 is preferred because it covers 2.3GHz to 2.9GHz frequency band, which is similar to the frequency of IEEE 802.11 b/g.

Figure 4.3: RFX 2400 daughterboard

4.2.3

Software for non-realtime over-the-air tests

A skeleton has been developed which allows relaying schemes to be emulated using
off-line processing. However, the signals are transmitted over the real wireless radio channels provided by USRP. The emulation framework has one master node which commands
other nodes to start or stop the transmission or reception and slave nodes which receive
commands from the master node and acknowledge them back after the task has been done.
The setup must have at least one master node and one client node to perform a wireless
network. However, the number and configuration of the client nodes may be changed. A
node consist of one USRP kit (USRP motherboard and 1 or 2 RFX daughterboard) and one
personnel computer (PC). The PC should have Linux (Ubuntu) platform with Matlab, C++
compiler, GNU radio, and other necessary packages installed. All PCs must be connected
to a local area network (LAN). The emulation environment is based on the msocket matlab
routine.

Setup for first scheme

The setup used for the first scheme is shown in Figure 4.4. There are mainly two nodes
used: one node acts as a master, and the other as a client. In this case the client node has
two daughterboards with one antenna each. The client is able to transmit simultaneously
from its two daughterboards. Thus in this setup the relays are emulated using the two

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daughterboards. Since they are seated on the USRP motherboard, they will have a common
frequency offset and the signals will arrive simultaneously at the master node. In order to
model different channels for the two relays, we separate the two antennas of the client using
cables.

Figure 4.4: Assembly of hardware for first scheme

Setup for second and third scheme

For these schemes three nodes are used as shown in Figure 4.5. The master node gives
command to each client node to start wireless transmission and client nodes send acknowledgment to the master when wireless transmission finishes. The hardware used for each
node remains same as explained in section 4.2.

Figure 4.5: Assembly of hardware for second and third scheme

4.3 Implementation of OFDM associated with Alamouti

scheme across relays
The motivation for the scheme used here is to achieve frequency diversity on top of
space diversity, if proper (pre) coding is introduced. Therefore, OFDM has been combined
with Alamouti coding. It should be clear that, as such, the scheme only exploits space
diversity, if no coding across frequencies is introduced. Let us explain the schemes briefly.

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OFDM is the extension of the conventional frequency division multiplexing (FDM),

where the nearby carrier frequencies are orthogonal, so there is no intercarrier interference
and frequency usage is more flexible. Here, in Figure 4.6, the envelope of the 7 subcarriers
is shown. In general, the spacing between subcarriers is f = N1Ts , where N is number of
subcarriers and Ts is the duration of the OFDM symbol.

Figure 4.6: Subcarriers in OFDM

The block diagram of transmitter and receiver for OFDM is given in figure 4.7.

Figure 4.7: OFDM transmitter and receiver block diagram

From Figure 4.7, the working principle of OFDM transmitter and receiver is quite clear.
The parallel data is first converted into serial and then by inverse fast Fourier transform
(IFFT) different subcarriers are added to the data (type of modulation). Then a cyclic
prefix (usually from last part of the data sequence) is added to the data sequence to convert
the linear convolution of the channel into a cyclic one. At last, digital to analog conversion,
up conversion or frequency translation makes the data sequence ready to be sent over the
air. The same process is repeated in the reverse manner at the receiver side to successfully
recover the data. In general the received signal after cyclic prefix removal and fast Fourier
transform (FFT) can be written as:
y = W Hs + n
= W HW H x + n,

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where y is the received signal at the receiver after FFT, n is the noise accompanied
during the transmission, H is the circulant matrix associated with the impulse response of
the channel and can be written as:

H=

h1
.
.
. h3 h2

h2 h1
h3

h3 h2 h1

h3 h2 h1

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.

h3 h2 h1

h3 h2 h1

.
.
. h3 h2 h1

(4.2)

In equation 4.1, s is the data after IFFT, and x is the vector of QAM symbols modulated
on the different subcarriers:
s = W H x.
W is the FFT matrix:

1
[W ]m,n =
N

2i
N

(4.3)
(m1)(n1)

(4.4)

As H is circulant, W HW H can be written as:

= W HW H ,

(4.5)

where is the diagonal channel gain matrix for subcarriers from the transmitter to the
receiver. Equation 4.1 can we re-written as:
y = x + n.

(4.6)

If Fs is the sampling frequency of the baseband signal, the subcarriers are actually located
as:
(k 1) Fs
fk =
,
(4.7)
N
where k varies from 1 to N. The final vector of subcarrier frequencies can be written as (in
case N = 8):

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F =

Fs
8

Fs
4

3Fs
8

Fs
2

5Fs
8

Fs
8

Fs
4

3Fs
8

Fs
2

3Fs
8

D.3.3

3Fs
4
Fs
4

7Fs T
8
Fs T
8

(4.8)

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4.4 First scheme description

The basic idea for the first scheme is based on the standard Alamouti scheme as shown
in Table 4.1.
Antenna A
Time t
W H xy
Time t+T W H xz

Antenna B
W H xz
W H xy

Table 4.1: Sequence of transmission symbols for scheme 1

Here in Table 4.1 xy and xz are representing the OFDM symbols. xy = [xy,1 ...xy,N ]T and
xz = [xz,1 ...xz,N ]T , where N is the number of subcarriers used during an OFDM symbol.
W is the FFT matrix as explained above in equation 4.4, and W H is IFFT matrix. From
Table 4.1, it is quite clear that at time t and t+T reception at the receiver can be written as
follows:

r(t) = r1 = HA W H xy + HB W H xz + n1 ,

(4.9)

r(t + T ) = r2 = HA W H xz + HB W H xy + n2 .

(4.10)

In equations 4.9 and 4.10, HA and HB are the circulant matrices of the channel corresponding to frequency selective channels between antenna A and receiver and antenna B

and receiver. The noise vectors are denoted by n1 and n2 .

At the receiver side after FFT, the received signal becomes:
y A = W r1 ,

(4.11)

y B = W r2 .

(4.12)

Let us put values of r1 and r2 from equations 4.9 and 4.10 in equations 4.11 and 4.12:

yA = W HA W H xy + W HB W H xz + W n1 ,

(4.13)

(4.14)

yB = W HA W H xz + W HB W H xy + W n2 .

Let us denote A = W HA W H , B = W HB W H , nA = W n1 , and nB = W n2 . Then

the equation 4.13 and the equation 4.14 become as follows:

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yA = A xy + B xz + nA ,

(4.15)

yB = A xz + B xy + nB .

(4.16)

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The transmitted symbols can be recovered by means of the following linear operations:
t1 = A yA + B yB = |A |2 + |B |2 xy + A nA + B nB ,

t2 = B yA A yB = |A |2 + |B |2 xz + B nA A nB .

(4.17)
(4.18)

With the help of zero forcing [20] the symbols xy and xz can be easily extracted in the
following manner:
1
xy = |A |2 + |B |2
t1 ,
(4.19)
xz = |A |2 + |B |2

t2 .

(4.20)

Basically, the scheme corresponds to implement the classical narrowband Alamouti into
each one of the parallel subcarriers. For the experimental setups the following parameters
have been used:
FFT size : 24
Length of cyclic prefix CP : 8
Spacing between two bursts : 384
Number of symbols per burst : 2
Size of constellation : 4
Number of bursts : 24.

Figure 4.8: Structure of OFDM bursts

The burst structure for the diversity case is shown in figure 4.8. The learning sequence or
training sequence, added before the bursts is used for timing synchronization and channel
estimation at the receiver.
During experiments different parameters are estimated with the help of stored parameters, the list of parameters are:
A and
B , the diagonal matrix of channel gains for the corresponding channels for

Antenna A and B;

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is the diagonal matrix of channel gains for the simple point to point transmission
,
without Alamouti;
A and
B in case of
xy and xz , demodulated symbols at receiver with the help of
diversity scheme implementation;
in point to point com x, the demodulated symbol at the receiver with the help of
munication case;
n
y , the noise associated with diversity scheme;
n
, the noise associated with point to point communication case;
SNRd , the signal to noise ratio computed for the diversity case;
SNRs , the signal to noise ratio computed for the single antenna case.
The mathematical calculations for the computation of above written parameters are
yAi xyi yBi xzi
,
xyi xyi + xzi xzi
yAi xzi + yBi xyi
,
=
xyi xyi + xzi xzi

A )i =
diag(

(4.21)

B )i
diag(

(4.22)

where i shows the ith element of the symbol. In the no diversity case:
i=
diag()

yi
.
xi

(4.23)

xy and xz can be calculated in the same way as calculated in equation 4.19 and 4.20. And
for the single antenna case x can be written
1 y,
x =

(4.24)

n
= y x,

(4.25)

yA +
B y |
A |2 + |
B |2 xy ,
n
y =
A
B

(4.26)

SNRs =
SNRd =

,
n
2

A |2 + |
B |2
|
n
y

(4.27)
2

(4.28)

These are main formulas, which have been used during experiments to show the sensible
comparison between results.
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Figure 4.9: System used for the first scheme implementation

4.5 Second scheme description

Our second scheme is similar to the first scheme except the fact that we use two different
transmitters and moreover we do offline combining after receiving two signals one by one.
More specifically, if we rearrange OFDM symbols in classical Alamouti manner across
time, we can achieve specific degree of diversity as explained in literature. In practice, it
is not easy to synchronize two USRPs to send symbols at the same time as two different
boards have different oscillators. The boards will have different frequency offsets with
respect to the receiver. To avoid a prohibitively complex receiver, pre-compensation of the
carrier frequency offset has to be implemented at the transmitter side. To avoid this complex
implementation, the transmission has been made one by one in different time slots. But at
the receiver we combined the data in a manner equivalent to the joint reception of the
OFDM symbols from the 2 antennas. Here we consider one by one transmission of OFDM
symbols at receiver, but the OFDM symbols for the two transmitters are arranged in a way
so that it can be combined to achieve time diversity as shown in Table 4.2.
Antenna A
Time t
W H xy
Time t+T W H xz

Antenna B
W H xz
W H xy

Table 4.2: Sequence of transmission symbols for second scheme

There is one more thing that is mandatory to mention here is, in a burst we send three
OFDM symbols not two. The first symbol, can be called X (structure of vector X is same
as xy or xz as shown in previous section) is the known symbol at transmitters and at the
receiver, which helps out to estimate channel gains for each burst during transmission.
After FFT the received signal can be written as:
R = W HW H X + NX
= X + NX ,

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where R is received signal and NX is noise. If we know X at the receiver we can calculate
as:
diag()i = Ri /Xi ,
(4.30)
where i represents the ith element of the symbol. And can be represented as A or B
for different transmission from antenna A or antenna B respectively.
Here in Table 4.2 representation of symbols xy , xz , and IFFT matrix W H are same
as explained above in section 4.4. Basically, two antennas transmit here in two different
time slots, we operate offline the addition of the two signals that would normally occur
in the real system. The transmission takes place one by one in two different time slots
between the two nodes. Lets say first the OFDM symbols xy and xz are received at the
receiver and the corresponding channel gains and symbol with noise are stored by using a
structure script. Second time symbols xz and xy are received and the same process has
been repeated at the receiver. Afterwards, at the receiver some offline processing is done to
imitate the Alamouti scheme as shown in Table 4.2. The structure of the OFDM symbols
from different antennas are shown in figures 4.5.

Figure 4.10: Structure of OFDM symbol from Antenna A and B

First time receiver receives symbols xy and xz after FFT that can be written as:
r11 = W HA W H xy + n11 ,

(4.31)

r12 = W HA W H xz + n12 .

(4.32)

The same we can write for the second time when symbols -xz and xy are received at receiver:
r21 = W HB W H xz + n21 ,
(4.33)
r22 = W HB W H xy + n22 ,

(4.34)

where r11 , r12 and r21 , r22 are received signals at the receiver in different times from different antennas and HA , HB are corresponding channel gains. n11 , n12 , n21 , and n22 are

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corresponding noises. Now to imitate Alamouti received signals from above equations
4.31, 4.32, 4.33, and 4.34 must be combined and rewritten as:
rt = r11 + r21
= W HA W H xy W HB W H xz + na ,

(4.35)

rt+T = r12 + r22

= W HA W H xz + W HB W H xy + nb ,

(4.36)

where na = n11 + n21 , and nb = n12 + n22 are combined noises. It should be clear that
proceeding in this way we add two noise contributions instead of one. We can rewrite the
equations 4.35 and 4.36 as:

yA = rt = W HA W H xy W HB W H xz + na ,

yB = rt+T = W HA W H xz + W HB W H xy + nb .

(4.37)
(4.38)

We can consider A = W HA W H , and B = W HB W H . Then equations 4.37 and 4.38

become:
yA = A xy B xz + na ,

yB = A xz +

B xy

+ nb .

(4.39)
(4.40)

After some further calculations we can compute the following equations:

t1 = A yA + B yB
=

|A |2 + |B |2 xy + A na + B nb ,

(4.41)

|A |2 + |B |2 xz + A nb B na .

(4.42)

t2 = A yB B yA
=

With the help of zero forcing the symbols xy and xz can be easily extracted in the following
manner.
1
xy = |A |2 + |B |2
t1 ,
(4.43)
xz = |A |2 + |B |2

t2 .

(4.44)

The following OFDM parameters has been used during experiments:

FFT size : 16
Length of cyclic prefix CP : 6
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Spacing between two bursts : 512

Number of symbols per burst : 3
Size of constellation : 4
Number of bursts : 20.
Used subcarriers :7
During experiments different estimated values with the help of stored parameters are:
A and
B , the diagonal matrix of channel gains for the corresponding channels for

Antenna A and B;
the diagonal matrix of channel gains for the simple point to point transmission
,
without Alamouti;
n
a and n
b are noises associated at reception after combining both signals;
n
y , estimated noise associated with diversity scheme;
n
11 and n
21 are estimated noises associated with point to point communication cases;
SNRd , the signal to noise ratio computed for the diversity case;
SNRa and SNRb , signal to noise ratio computed for two different single antenna
transmission.
A and
B can be computed in the same way as shown in equation
The channel gains
4.30. If we assume that known symbols in both air transmission are XA , XB , and received
A and
B as follows:
signals are RA , RB , we can show the calculation for
A )i = RAi /XAi ,
diag(

(4.45)

B )i = RBi /XBi ,
diag(

(4.46)

where i shows ith element of a vector. The computation for the noise associated with
diversity scheme can be shown from equations 4.39 and 4.40:
A xy +
B xz ),
n
a = y A (

(4.47)

A xz +
B xy ).
n
b = y B (

(4.48)

Now both noises n

a and n
b can be combined in a similar fashion as shown in equation 4.41:
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A n
Bn
n
y =
a +
b .

(4.49)

And the SNR can be obtained by:

SNRd =

A |2 + |
B |2
|
n
y

(4.50)

Thereafter, this offline combined scheme has been compared with point to point transmission, which actually corresponds to what has been received from antenna A only. The noise
for the first transmission from Antenna A to receiver from equation 4.31 can be calculated
as follows:
A xy .
n
11 = r11
(4.51)
For extra observation we also calculate the noise for second transmission from antenna B
as follows:
B x .
n
21 = r21 +
(4.52)
z
And finally the SNR for any case can be shown as:
2

SNRa =

n
11

SNRb =

n
21

(4.53)

(4.54)

4.6 Third scheme description

Here, the third scheme is motivated by paper [18]. Compared to classical Alamouti, the
current approach amounts to replacing the time dimension by the frequency dimension. In
other words, what is sent over two time slots happens here over two carriers, inside the
same symbol.
If transmitter A sends OFDM symbol xy1 and transmitter B sends OFDM symbol xz1 ,
then the internal structure of xy1 and xz1 is as follows.
xy1 =
xz1 =

x1,2 , x1,1 , ..., x1,N , x1,N 1

xy1,1 , x1,2 , ..., x1,N 1 , x1,N

(4.55)
,

(4.56)

where x1,2 ....x1,N are QAM constellation points. In the same way structure of xy2 and xz2
can be defined, which carries different information than xy1 , xz1 . In a real system the two
antennas should send at the same time. For reasons explained with the previous technique,
the two antennas actually were activated one after the other and the addition of received
signals was performed offline.
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as

The offline combined signal corresponding to N 1th and N th subcarrier can be shown
yN 1 = A,N 1 x1,N 1 B,N 1 x1,N + nN1 ,

(4.57)

yN = A,N x1,N + B,N x1,N 1 + nN ,

(4.58)

where yN 1 , yN are received signals for tones N 1 and N after combination, A , B

gain matrices for all subcarriers, x1,N , x1,N 1 are constellation point inside OFDM symbol,
and na , nb represent receiver noises. The decoding occurs as follows:

tN 1 = A,N 1 yN 1 + B,N yN

|A,N 1|2 + |B,N |2 xy,N 1 + A,N 1 nN 1 + B,N nN ,

(4.59)

where the last line is obtained provided that A,N 1 A,N and B,N 1 B,N . In a
similar manner,

tN = A,N yN B,N 1 yN

|A,N |2 + |B,N 1 |2 xy,N + A,N nN B,N 1 nN 1 ,

(4.60)

which again assumes that A,N 1 A,N and B,N 1 B,N . With the help of zero
forcing the symbols xy and xz can be easily extracted in the following manner:
x1,N
1 = |A,N |2 + |B,N |2

tN 1 , x1,N
= |A,N |2 + |B,N |2

tN .

(4.61)

The following OFDM parameters has been used during experiments.

FFT size : 16
Length of cyclic prefix CP : 6
Spacing between two bursts : 512
Number of symbols per burst : 3
Size of constellation : 4
Number of bursts : 20.
Number of used subcarriers: 6
During experiments different estimated values with the help of stored parameters are
A and
B , diagonal matrices of channel gains for the corresponding channels for

Antenna A and B;
diagonal matrices of channel gains for the simple point to point transmission with ,
out Alamouti;
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n
a and n
b are noises associated at reception after combining both signals;
n
y , estimated noise associated with diversity scheme;
SNRd , the signal to noise ratio computed for the diversity case;
SNRa , SNRb , the signal to noise ratio computed for both transmission in no diversity case.
Here representations of estimated parameters are similar to second scheme, because overall
estimation of parameters are same apart from the fact that symbols sent have different
structures due to STBC across frequencies. If we say known symbols, used (same for this
scheme as explained in section 4.5) in both air transmission are XA , XB , then at reception,
A and
B will be same as shown in equations 4.45 and 4.46 in section 4.5.
calculations for
The computation for the ith element of noise associated with diversity scheme can be
shown from equations 4.57 and 4.58:
A,N 1xy,N 1
B,N x ),
n
N 1 = yN 1 (
y,N

A,N 1x +
B,N x
n
N = y N (
y,N
y,N 1 ).

(4.62)
(4.63)

Now both noises n

a and n
b can be combined as

B,N n
n
t,N =
N 1 +
N .
A,N 1 n

(4.64)

And the SNR can be obtained by:

SNRd,N =

A,N |2 + |
B,N |2
|
n
t,N

(4.65)

Thereafter, this offline combined scheme has been compared with the point to point transmission, which actually corresponds to what is received from antenna A or antenna B only.
The parameters for single transmission from any antenna can be calculated similarly as
explained for second scheme.

4.7 Results obtained with the first scheme

We obtained some real time results for LoS and NLoS scenarios. Moreover, all LoS
experiments have been performed in an environment, where we had many static and moving obstacles in surroundings. Specifically for NLoS case the conditions are almost same
except the receiver has been covered with a large metal sheet. On the top of it for NLoS
scenario, we distributed the nearly spaced transmitters far by using extension cables, and
moreover, we used one continuously rotating metal obstacle at the receiver.

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Figure 4.11: Complete work bench for second and third scheme

4.7.1

LoS with collocated transmitters

During all experiments for this case both transmitters are closely located on USRP kit,
at sender QAM constellation has been used and there is a clear LoS between transmitter
and receiver. The results obtained are as follows.
5

Transmission gain for one subcarrier at different bursts

133

14

Channel correlation : 0.65682

x 10

Diversity
Single

132

Channel gains
y=x
12

10

130
129

|LB|2

transmission gain [dB]

131

128

127
126

125
2
124
123

10

15

20

25

Burst

(a)

|L |2
A

10

12

14
5

x 10

(b)

Figure 4.12: Channels gains and correlation for LoS case

SNR distribution

SNR distribution

0.04

0.045

Single
Diversity

0.035

0.035

Ratio of occurence []

Ratio of occurence []

0.03

0.025

0.02
0.015

0.01

0.03
0.025
0.02
0.015
0.01

0.005

Single
Diversity

0.04

0.005

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

0
20

15

10

SNR []

(a)

5
10
SNR [dB]

15

20

25

30

(b)

Figure 4.13: PDF of SNR linear and in dB for LoS case

Figures 4.12(a) and 4.12(b) provide the gains (left hand side) in the frequency domain
for the different carriers without or with combination, and the correlation between the channel gains (modules) for two antennas. Figure 4.13(a) reports the SNR histograms on a linear
scale, while figure 4.13(b) does it for the SNR in dBs.
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4.7.2

NLoS with collocated antennas

In this case there is no clear LoS between the transmitter and the receiver. Basically the
path is hindered with many obstacles. Moreover, receiver is covered with a metal sheet.
We obtained the following results for this case.
5

Transmission gain for one subcarrier at different bursts

128

Diversity
Single

Channel gains
y=x

4.5

127

4
3.5

126

3
125

|LB|

transmission gain [dB]

Channel correlation : 0.55196

x 10

2.5
2

124

1.5
1

123

0.5
122

10

15

20

25

5
|LA|2

Burst

(a)

10
5

x 10

(b)

Figure 4.14: Channels gains and correlation for NLoS collocated transmitters

SNR distribution

SNR distribution

0.045

0.045

Single
Diversity

0.04

0.035

0.03

Ratio of occurence []

Ratio of occurence []

0.035

0.025
0.02
0.015

0.03
0.025
0.02
0.015

0.01

0.01

0.005

0.005

Single
Diversity

0.04

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

0
20

15

10

SNR []

(a)

5
10
SNR [dB]

15

20

25

30

(b)

Figure 4.15: PDF of SNR linear and in dB for NLoS collocated transmitters
Figures 4.14(a) and 4.14(b) provide the gains (left hand side) in the frequency domain
for the different carriers without or with combination, and the correlation between the channel gains (modules) for two antennas. This correlation appears to be lower than in the previous setup. Figures 4.15(a) and 4.15(b) report the SNR on linear and logarithmic scales.

4.7.3

NLoS with distributed antennas

After obtaining the results from collocated antennas, we tried to distribute transmitting
antennas from USRP kit. Hence, this case is different from the above considered scenarios
because it has distributed antennas, meaning that the transmitting antennas are put way
from each other thanks to extension cables. At receiver we have one continuously rotating
metal obstacle which helps to imitate equivalent real time fading environment.

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Transmission gain for one subcarrier at different bursts

130

18

16

125

14

12

120
2

10
|LB|

transmission gain [dB]

Channel correlation : 0.095733

x 10

Data of channels
y=x

Diversity
Single

115
6

110

105

10

15

20

25

|L |2

10

12

14

16

(a)

18
5

x 10

Burst

(b)

Figure 4.16: Channels gains and correlation for NLoS with distributed transmitters
SNR distribution

SNR distribution

0.025

0.035

Single
Diversity

Single
Diversity
0.03

0.02

Ratio of occurence []

Ratio of occurence []

0.025
0.015

0.01

0.02

0.015

0.01
0.005
0.005

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

10

SNR []

(a)

20

30
40
SNR [dB]

50

60

70

(b)

Figure 4.17: PDF of SNR linear and in dB for NLoS case distributed transmitters

4.8 Results obtained for second scheme (Alamouti across

time)
For the second scheme, we consider the indoor NLoS scenario, where receiver has been
covered with a continuously rotating metal obstacle, so that the receiver can experience a
real time fading. Here we run specific number of iterations each time then compute and
record all the SNRs corresponding to all transmission before and after combining signals.
Before explaining about results it is necessary to tell more about the colors representing our
figures for results obtained during offline schemes. In all figures red color represents characteristic observed during first transmission between first node and receiver, green color
represents characteristic observed during second transmission between second node and
receiver, and black color represents characteristic computed by using two previous characteristics (red and green), observed during two transmissions. These colors are same for all
the results captured for second and third schemes.
We can divide our results in two parts first for all tones (complete accumulation of data)
and second for single tone (when only one frequency has been considered).

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4.8.1

Results second scheme : all tones

Before looking at the results, it is necessary to understand the criteria which we consider
to show diversity achieved during experiments. As we explained that we consider PDF of
SNRs as a criteria to justify diversity of a system. As it is explained in [1], SNR computed
for point to point transmission has 2 distribution with degree of freedom (DoF) 2 and SNR
after ideal STBC has 2 distribution of DoF 4, provided channels are not correlated.
Channel gain for the first element of each ofdm symbol

145

18

Channel correlation : 0.070833

x 10

data of Channels
y=x

no div1
no div2
div

16

140

14

10
B

|L |2

Channel gain in dB

12

135

130
6

125

120

10
12
Number of burst

14

16

18

20

(a)

|LA|2

10

12

14

16

18
5

x 10

(b)

Figure 4.18: Channels gains and channel correlation for NLoS with Alamouti across time

PDF of SNRs div and no div [range=1:30]

PDF of SNRs div and no div [range=1:30]

0.5

0.25

no div
no div
div

0.45

no div
no div
div

0.4

0.2

Ratio of occurence []

ratio of occurence

0.35
0.3
0.25
0.2

0.15

0.1

0.15
0.1

0.05

0.05
0

10

15
SNR

20

25

30

(a)

10

15
SNR [dB]

20

25

30

(b)

Figure 4.19: PDF of SNR linear and dB scale for NLoS with Alamouti across time: all
tones

4.8.2

Results second scheme : tone1

To justify our results based on cumulative data captured during many iterations, we can
consider per carrier SNR to show the same pattern as we observed for cumulative data. The
PDF of SNRs for the first carrier can be shown at figure (4.20(a)).
The results obtained per carrier show a shape similar to that observed for all cumulative
data for all subcarriers.

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PDF of SNRs div and no div [range=1:30]:tone1 1st symbol

PDF of SNRs div and no div [range=1:30]:tone1 1st symbol

0.4

0.25

no div
no div
div

0.35

no div
no div
div
0.2

Ratio of occurence []

ratio of occurence

0.3
0.25

0.2
0.15

0.15

0.1

0.1
0.05
0.05

10

15
SNR

20

25

30

10

(a)

15
SNR [dB]

20

25

30

(b)

Figure 4.20: PDF of SNR linear and dB scale for NLoS with Alamouti across time: tone1

4.9 Results obtained for third scheme (Alamouti across

frequencies)
At receiver we store all necessary parameters during each transmission and with the help
of these parameters, we compute the SNRs for all tones. Here our results are based on the
cumulative SNRs captured during specific number of iterations for one particular setup.

4.9.1

Results third scheme: all tones

Channel gain for the first element of each ofdm symbol

142

18

Channel correlation : 0.1212

x 10

data of Channels
y=x

no div1
no div2
div

140

16

138

14

12

134
10
|L |2

132

Channel gain in dB

136

130
6

128
4

126

124
122

8
10
12
Number of burst

14

16

18

20

|LA|

(a)

10

12

14

16

18
5

x 10

(b)

Figure 4.21: Channels gains and correlation for NLoS with Alamouti across frequencies
Figures 4.21(b) reports channel gains and correlations. Figures 4.22(b) report SNRs on
linear and dB logarithmic scales.

4.9.2

Results third scheme : tone1

Besides cumulative recorded SNRs for all subcarriers, we can also show PDF of SNRs
per carrier to justify our results, obtained for all subcarriers. For the first tone our results
are:

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PDF of SNRs div and no div [range=1:30]

PDF of SNRs div and no div [range=1:30]

0.4

0.25

no div
no div
div

0.35

no div
no div
div
0.2

Ratio of occurence []

Ratio of occurence []

0.3

0.25
0.2

0.15

0.15

0.1

0.1
0.05
0.05

10

15
SNR

20

25

30

10

(a)

15
SNR [dB]

20

25

30

(b)

Figure 4.22: PDF of SNR linear and dB scale for NLoS with Alamouti across frequencies

PDF of SNRs div and no div [range=1:30]: tone1

PDF of SNRs div and no div [range=1:30]: tone1

0.25

0.35

no div
no div
div

no div
no div
div

0.3

0.2

Ratio of occurence []

Ratio of occurence []

0.25
0.15

0.1

0.2

0.15

0.1
0.05
0.05

10

15

20

25
30
SNR [dB]

35

40

45

50

(a)

10

15
SNR

20

25

30

(b)

Figure 4.23: PDF of SNR linear and dB scale for NLoS with Alamouti across frequencies
:tone1

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4.10 Interpretations of results obtained for second and third

schemes
To depict the diversity achieved during the implementation of Alamouti in different dimensions, we consider SNR as one of the prominent criteria. After accumulation of all
SNRs for all OFDM subcarriers, we obtain the PDF of all SNRs for different schemes as
explained in above sections. Without diversity, if the channel taps are complex Gaussian,
and uncorrelated, the SNR should exhibit a 2 pdf with 2 degrees of freedom (corresponding to diversity 1). If diversity is captured, provided that the gains of the diversity sources
are independent, the SNR should have a 2 pdf with diversity 2 (we only possibly capture
space diversity here) meaning degree of freedom 4.
Let Xi be Gaussian distributed with zero mean and variance 2 . Let Y = ni=1 Xi2 .
Then the pdf of Y is given by [20].
1

py (y) =

n 2n/2 ( 21 )

y n/21 ey/2 , y 0,

(4.66)

where (p) is the gamma function, defined as

x

tp1 et dt, p > 0.

(p) =

(4.67)

Now for n degrees of freedom the two moments of Y are

E(Y ) = y = n 2 ,
E(Y 2 ) = 2n 4 + n2 4 ,
y 2 = 2n 4 .

(4.68)

The methodology which has been used to analyze the results is as follows. From the
experimental SNRs measured, it is possible to estimate by means of empirical estimators,
either the mean or the variance. From the mean or variance estimate, a value for 2 can be
estimated, for a certain assumption on the value of n. Once the value of 2 is estimated for
a certain n, the experimental pdf can be compared to the theoretical one where the values
of n and 2 are plugged in.

4.10.1

Second scheme

The results are categorized in following parts.

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Experimental PDF (client1) Vs. theor. PDF (mean)

Experimental PDF (client2) Vs. theor. PDF (mean)

0.5

0.5
experimental
DoF2
DoF3
DofF4

0.45
0.4

0.4
0.35

Ratio of occurence []

Ratio of occurence []

0.35
0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15

0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15

0.1

0.1

0.05

0.05

experimental
DoF2
DoF3
DoF4

0.45

10

15
SNR []

20

25

30

10

(a)

15
SNR []

20

25

30

(b)
Experimental PDF (master) Vs. theor. PDF (mean)
0.7
experimental
DoF2
DoF3
DoF4
DoF5

0.6

Ratio of occurence []

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

10

15
SNR []

20

25

30

(c)

Figure 4.24: Experimental vs theoretical (computation by mean): second scheme all tones

Second scheme all tones : Computation by mean

In this case the estimate is built from the empirical estimation of the mean. Figure 4.24(a)
and 4.24(b) show, for antenna 1 and antenna 2, the SNR measured for all tones in dashed.
The solid lines show the theoretical pdfs obtained from the estimated 2 and for various
degrees of freedom. It can be concluded that the curve with DoF 2 shows the strongest similarity with experimental results, even if the matching is not perfect. Figure 4.24(c) reports
similar curves for the SNR obtained after combination. It is not very easy to conclude in
this case.

Second scheme all tones : computation by variance

In this case the estimate is built from the empirical estimation of the variance. Figure 4.25(a) and 4.25(b) show, for antenna 1 and antenna 2, the SNR measured for all tones
in dashed. The solid lines show the theoretical pdfs obtained from the estimated 2 and
for various degrees of freedom. It can be concluded that the curve with DoF 2 shows the
strongest similarity with experimental results. Figure 4.25(c) reports similar curves for the
SNR obtained after combination. DoF 3 seems to be a fair conclusion. This results can be
interpreted as the fact that the experimental setup does not perfectly match the assumption
leading to the theoretical analysis. In particular, the assumption of independence between
sources combined is not fully met here.

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Experimental PDF (client1) Vs. theor. PDF (variance)

Experimental PDF (client2) Vs. theor. PDF (variance)

0.5

0.5
experimental
DoF2
DoF3
DoF4

0.45
0.4

0.4
0.35

Ratio of occurence []

Ratio of occurence []

0.35
0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15

0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15

0.1

0.1

0.05

0.05

experimental
DF2
DF3
DF4

0.45

10

15
SNR []

20

25

30

10

(a)

15
SNR []

20

25

30

(b)
Experimental PDF (master) Vs. theor. PDF (by variance)
0.7
experimental
DoF2
DoF3
DoF4
DoF5

0.6

Ratio of occurence []

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

10

15
SNR []

20

25

30

(c)

Figure 4.25: Experimental vs theoretical (computation by variance): second scheme all

tones

Second scheme tone1: computation by mean

Similar results are reported for tone 1 only, and mean-driven estimation. DoF 3 is a fair
conclusion for the diversity case.

Second scheme tone1: computation by variance

Similar results are reported here for tone 1 only, and variance-driven estimation. DoF 3
is again a fair conclusion for the diversity case.

4.10.2

Third scheme

Third scheme all tones: computation by mean

Corresponding results are here reported for scheme 3 and all tones. The estimation is
mean-driven estimation. DoF 3 is again a fair conclusion for the diversity case.

Third scheme all tones : computation by variance

Results are here reported for scheme 3 and all tones, and the estimation which is variancedriven. Here it is more difficult to conclude about 3 or 4 about the DoF.

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Experimental PDF (client1) Vs. theor. PDF (mean):tone1 1st symbol

Experimental PDF (client2) Vs. theor. PDF (mean):tone1 1st symbol

0.45

0.4
experimental
DoF2
DoF3
DofF4

0.4

0.3

0.3

Ratio of occurence []

Ratio of occurence []

0.35

0.25
0.2
0.15

0.25

0.2
0.15

0.1

0.1

0.05

0.05
0

experimental
DF2
DF3
DF4

0.35

10

15
SNR []

20

25

30

10

(a)

15
SNR []

20

25

30

(b)
Experimental PDF (master) Vs. theor. PDF (mean):tone1 1st symbol
0.7
experimental
DoF2
DoF3
DoF4
DoF5

0.6

Ratio of occurence []

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

10

15
SNR []

20

25

30

(c)

Figure 4.26: Experimental vs theoretical (computation by mean): second scheme tone1

Experimental PDF (client1) Vs. theor. PDF (variance):tone1 1st symbol

Experimental PDF (client2) Vs. theor. PDF (variance):tone1 1st symbol

0.7

0.5
experimental
DoF2
DoF3
DoF4

0.6

0.4

0.5

0.35

Ratio of occurence []

Ratio of occurence []

experimental
DoF2
DoF3
DoF4

0.45

0.4

0.3

0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15

0.2

0.1
0.1
0.05
0

10

15
SNR []

20

25

30

10

(a)

15
SNR []

20

25

30

(b)
Experimental PDF (master) Vs. theor. PDF (variance):tone1 1st symbol
0.7
experimental
DoF2
DoF3
DoF4
DoF5

0.6

Ratio of occurence []

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

10

15
SNR []

20

25

30

(c)

Figure 4.27: Experimental vs theoretical (computation by variance): second scheme tone1

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Experimental PDF (client1) Vs. theor. PDF (computation by experimental mean)

Experimental PDF (client2) Vs. theor. PDF (computation by experimental mean)

0.45

0.4
experimental
DoF2
DoF3
DofF4

0.4

0.3

0.3

Ratio of occurence []

Ratio of occurence []

0.35

0.25
0.2
0.15

0.25

0.2
0.15

0.1

0.1

0.05

0.05
0

experimental
DF2
DF3
DF4

0.35

10

15
SNR []

20

25

30

10

(a)

15
SNR []

20

25

30

(b)
Experimental PDF (master) Vs. theor. PDF (computation by experimental mean)
0.7
experimental
DoF2
DoF3
DoF4
DoF5

0.6

Ratio of occurence []

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

10

15
SNR []

20

25

30

(c)

Experimental PDF (client1) Vs. theor. PDF (computation by experimental variance)

0.7
experimental
DoF2
DoF3
0.6
DoF4

Experimental PDF (client2) Vs. theor. PDF (computation by experimental variance)

0.7
experimental
DoF2
DoF3
0.6
DoF4

0.5

0.5

Ratio of occurence []

Ratio of occurence []

Figure 4.28: Experimental vs theoretical (computation by mean): third scheme all tones

0.4

0.3

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.2

0.1

0.1

10

15
SNR []

20

25

30

10

(a)

15
SNR []

20

25

30

(b)
Experimental PDF (master) Vs. theor. PDF (computation by experimental variance)
0.7
experimental
DoF2
DoF3
0.6
DoF4
DoF5

Ratio of occurence []

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

10

15
SNR []

20

25

30

(c)

Figure 4.29: Experimental vs theoretical (computation by variance): third scheme all tones

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Experimental PDF (client1) Vs. theor. PDF (by mean) :tone 1

Experimental PDF (client2) Vs. theor. PDF (by mean) :tone 1

0.45

0.7
experimental
DoF2
DoF3
DofF4

0.6

experimental
DF2
DF3
DF4

0.4
0.35

Ratio of occurence []

Ratio of occurence []

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15

0.2
0.1
0.1

0.05

10

15
SNR []

20

25

30

10

(a)

15
SNR []

20

25

30

(b)
Experimental PDF (master) Vs. theor. PDF (by mean) :tone 1
0.7
experimental
DoF2
DoF3
DoF4
DoF5

0.6

Ratio of occurence []

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

10

15
SNR []

20

25

30

(c)

Figure 4.30: Experimental vs theoretical (computation by mean): third scheme tone1

Third scheme tone1: computation by mean

Results are here reported for scheme 3 and tone 1. The estimation is first mean-driven.
Here again it is more difficult to conclude about 3 or 4 about the DoF.

Third scheme tone1: computation by variance

Finally results are here reported for scheme 3 and tone 1 and an estimation variancedriven. Again DoF is between 3 or 4.

4.11 Conclusion
This chapter was intended to report experimentation conducted by means of the USRP
boards. While fulling flexible, it turns out this equipment is not fully stable. On the algorithmic side, as already noticed by other teams, the fading really observed is sometimes far
from the theoretical modeling or the assumptions usually made in the literature. However,
it should be noted that our measurements were done at distances of 2-3 meter. The methodology used has been to compare histograms of SNRs recorded with theoretical curves corresponding to different degrees of freedom, associated with diversity orders captured. We
can conclude by saying that if the full diversity expected is not observed, there are clear
indications that there is diversity and the schemes implemented capture it. Even if the transmission associated OFDM with relaying, only space diversity is shown. As a matter of fact,

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Experimental PDF (client1) Vs. theor. PDF (by variance) :tone 1

Experimental PDF (client2) Vs. theor. PDF (by variance) :tone 1

0.7

0.7
experimental
DoF2
DoF3
DoF4

0.6

0.5

Ratio of occurence []

Ratio of occurence []

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.2

0.1

0.1

experimental
DoF2
DoF3
DoF4

0.6

10

15
SNR []

20

25

30

10

(a)

15
SNR []

20

25

30

(b)
Experimental PDF (master) Vs. theor. PDF (by variance) :tone 1
0.8
experimental
DoF2
DoF3
DoF4
DoF5

0.7

Ratio of occurence []

0.6
0.5

0.4

0.3
0.2

0.1

10

15
SNR []

20

25

30

(c)

Figure 4.31: Experimental vs theoretical (computation by variance): third scheme tone1

for the schemes experimented no particular frequency coding was introduced. It is also not
so clear that with the bandwidth used and the indoor setup, true frequency selectivity would
exist. However the current implementations are very useful tools for further exploration of
this frequency dimension.

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Chapter 5
Opportunistic Distributed Space-Time
Coding
5.1 Brief description of the algorithm
The algorithm exposed herein was developed during the first year of COOPCOM see
Chapter 6 of [9]. A two-hop wireless network with two relays where all the terminals have
only a single antenna is considered in the scheme exposed in the Figure 5.1. The implemented algorithm optimizes the amplifier power allocation, under individual constraints in
the relays, in such a manner that the Pairwaise Error Probability (PEP) conditioned to the
available CSIT (Channel State Information at the Transmitter) is minimized. In the specific
case of perfect CSIT, the optimal solution consists of an on-off gradient algorithm which
finds the subset of relays to switch on. In the implementation, the direct link between the
source and the destination was not considered for simplicity.

Figure 5.1: The wireless relay network

In the wireless relay network illustrated in the Figure 5.1 let h =

81

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denote the channel between the transmitter and the relays and the channel
g = g1 g2
coeficients between the relays and the destination, respectively. This two-hop communication is carried out as follows: in the first T channel uses the transmitter broadcasts the
information, then in the second T channel uses the relays amplify the received data applying
a Distributed Space-Time Coding (DSTC). In the case of perfect CSIT and when only two
relays are considered, the optimal power allocation is given by the following closed-form
solution:

2
2

(P1 , 0)
|h2 |2 < p |h p|r2|g+p1 | |g|h1||2 +N

s
r
o
1
1

2
pr |g2 |2 |h2 |2
(p1, p2 ) =
(0, P2 )
|h1 | < p |h |2 +p |g |2 +N
(5.1)
s 2
r 2
o

2
2
2
2

pr |g1 | |h1 |
pr |g2 | |h2 |
(P , P ) |h |2 >
, |h |2 >
1

ps |h1 |2 +pr |g1 |2 +No

ps |h2 |2 +pr |g2 |2 +No

with ps and pr being the transmitted power by the source and the available power at the
relays, repectively. The noise power and the amplifier power of the i-th relay are denoted
by No and pi and the maximum amplifier power at the relay i is given by Pi = |hi |ppsr+No .
A careful reader may have noticed that the opportunistic DSTC algorithm determines
the power allocation in the relays in such a manner that the optimal cooperative strategy is
selected. The destination decides the best relay to transmit when selection relaying is the
best strategy or, otherwise, activates the two relays which retransmit the information using
an Alamouti code.
In order to visualize the conditions for activating relay 1 and/or relay 2, a graphical
representation of the on-off region is provided in the Figure 5.2. Interestingly, it can be
observed that if |hi | exceeds a minimum value, the relay i is activated. Namely, relay 1 is
activated independently of relay 2 if the condition |h1 | 2 > ppsr |g2 |2 holds and viceversa.

5.2 Implementation of the ODSTC algorithm

The implementation of the algorithms has been carried out in two steps: the synchronization stage and the transmitting stage.

5.2.1

Synchronization stage

As in the DSTC case, the two relays can transmit simultaneously. Therefore, a synchronization phase is needed to adjust in each relay the timing of the transmitted frames. The
frame definition of this synchronization stage is presented in the Figure 5.3. In this scheme

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Figure 5.2: Two relays ON/OFF region

tx 48 means that the node is transmitting a buffer of 48 symbols. Analogously, rx 48

denotes a receiving buffer of 48 symbols in length. The idle buffers are denoted by i. During these idle periods the node does not receive or transmit. They are used to process the
received information or to prepare the data to be sent in the following buffers. Note that the
offset between the transmitting frames and the corresponding receiving frames is twelve
symbols, due to the delay of 58 samples between the transmitter and the receiver as was
explained in [26]. The arrows in the Figure 5.3 denote the delay between the transmission
and the reception of the corresponding frames.
Regarding the implementation, it is important to remark that only one antenna has been
considered in each node. Moreover, as it was explained in the previous section, the direct
link between the source and the destination is not considered for simplicity.
The synchronization is achieved in three phases:
P 1 First, all the nodes estimate the noise power using the input data received during the
frame 1. This estimation of the noise power will be used in the transmitting stage for
the evaluation of the SNR of the different links. Then, the source transmits a training
signal during the frame 2 which is used by the relays to estimate the best sampling
offset of the signal from the source. This time offset estimation is obtained by means
of the correlation between the received signal and the known training sequence. After
that, the source remains idle.
P 2 During the frames 4 and 5, the two relays R1 and R2 take turns to send the received
training signal to the destination node. In the seventh frame, once this signal is
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received, the node D estimates the best sampling time for the signal of each relay and
determines how the relays should adjust their timing (one sample back or forward or
no adjustment).
P 3 During the frames 8 and 9, the destination node sends the corresponding information
to the relays R1 and R2 which adjust the timing of their transmitted symbols. The
structure of the frame used for the transmission of this information and the way how
this feedback is implemented is exposed in the Appendix 5.A.

Figure 5.3: Frame definition of the synchronization stage. Note that the transmitted frames
are depicted in blue.

5.2.2

Transmitting stage

Once the synchronization is achieved, the transmitting stage starts. The frame structure
of this stage is shown the Figure 5.4 . Note that this structure is similar to that presented in
[25] for the selection relaying scheme.
Again the communication takes place in three phases:
P 1 The source sends the information to the relays and in the last frame of the phase 1
the relays estimate the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) over all the received frames. The
way how this SNR is calculated is explained in the Appendix 5.B.
P 2 The relays take turns to send the estimated SNR values to the destination using the
signalling frame depicted in Figure 5.5. Relay 1 transmits during the first frame of
the second phase and relay 2 during the second one. From these two transmissions

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the receiver obtains the signal to noise ratios of the links between the relays and the
destination. Then, taking into account the estimated SNR values of all the links in the
Figure 5.1, the destination decides the optimal power allocation and determines the
relays that should be switched on. After some straightforward manipulations of the
expression 5.1 the following closed for solution is obtained for a two-hop network
with two relays:

(P1 , 0)
(p1, p2 ) =
(0, P2 )

(P1 , P2 )

3 1
2 < 1+
Select R1 for transmission
3 +1
4 2
1 < 1+4 +2 Select R2 for transmission
4 2
3 1
1 < 1+
, 2 > 1+
both (Alamouti)
4 +2
3 +1

(5.2)

where 1 and 2 denote the estimated SNR of the links between the source and the
relay 1 and the relay 2 repectively. Analogously, the signal to noise ratio of the links
between R1 and R2 and the destination node is denoted by 3 and 4 .
At this point, the destination informs the relays about which relay(s) should be active
in the third phase using the frame structure shown in Figure 5.6. The last three
symbols of this frames are used to send this information because the index for the
activation of the relays is repeated three times. These indices are set to one or two
when only R1 and R2 should be switched on and are set to three if both relays should
be activated. Finally, during the last frame of the phase 2 the relays determine the
transmitted index using a majority voting procedure. A more detailed explanation of
this process is provided in the Appendix 5.B.
P 3 The selected relays retransmit the information detected from the source during the
first phase. The transmission is implemented by means of an Alamouti code. Each
pair of symbols s1 and s2 is mapped into the outgoing symbols s1 , s2 at the relay 1
and into s2 , s1 at the relay 2. Therefore, two consecutive symbols of the received
signal in the destination denoted by y1 , y2 can be expressed as follows:
y1
y2

s1 s2
s2 s1

h1
h2

n1
n2

Note that the symbols transmitted by the second relay are always transmitted in reverse order even if the relay 2 is only one considered for the transmission, due to
the fact that in the derivation of the ODSTC algorithm in [15] and [16] a DSTC is
considered.
As the channel coefficients between the source and the relays h1 and h2 are known,
the detection of the transmitted symbols can be easily implemented taking into account the next expressions:
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r1 = h2 y2 + h1 y1 = |h1 |2 + |h2 |2 s1 + h2 n2 + h1 n1

r2 = h2 y1 h1 y2 = |h1 |2 + |h2 |2 s2 + h2 n1 h1 n2

The frame structure of the figure 5.4 can be repeated several times. Thus, after the phase
3 of the transmitting stage the phase 1 could start again.
Even though the "antenna diversity" option is available in other cooperative methods
such as detect-and-forward and DSTC, this option is not considered in the code at this
moment. Nevertheless, it can be considered in future implementations of the algorithm.

Figure 5.4: The frame structure of the transmitting stage. The frames in blue denote transmission, the frames in magenta can be transmitting or idle frames.

A simulation was carried out to compare the performance of the ODSTC and the DSTC
methods. First of all, let us briefly describe the scenario. A two-hop wireless network

Figure 5.5: Signalling frame structure for the transmission of the quantized ASNR

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Figure 5.6: Scheme of the frame used to transmit the feedback to the relays. The three last
symbols are used to determine the active relays.

Bit error rate. ODSTC vs DSTC

DSTC
ODSTC
1

BER

10

10

10

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

Average SNR

Figure 5.7: BER as a function of the average signal to noise ratio

where the source communicates with the destination via two relays and each terminal has
single antenna has been simulated. In this simulation, the average SNR in all the links
is assumed to be equal and the direct link between the souce and the destination is not
considered for simplicity. The results of both schemes in terms of Bit Error Rate (BER) as
a function of the average SNR are shown in the Figure 5.7.
Figure 5.7 shows that the distributed ODSTC algorithm outperforms the Alamouti technique with uniform power allocation. The main reason was introduced in the theoretical
description of the ODSTC algorithm given in D.2.1. This method determines the optimal
power allocation in such a manner that an upper bound on the pairwise codeword error
probability is minimized. The destination, taking into account the estimated SNR of the radio links, determines which relays should be active to retransmit the information received
from the source node. Evidently, if the best strategy, in terms of error probability, is to
transmit by the two relays at the maximum power (P1, P2), there is no difference between

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both schemes (ODSTC and DSTC). Otherwise, the destination node activates the best relay.

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Appendix 5.A Encoding the feedback to the relays in the

synchronization stage
During the synchronization stage the destination node determine how the relays should
adjust their timings using the frame format shown in the Figure 5.8. The length of this
frame is 48 samples and it can be divided into three diferent parts:
A The twelve first symbols are used for the estimation of the best sampling offset of the
link between the destination and the relays.
B The twelve following symbols are training symbols and are used for channel estimation. The way how this channel estimation is implemented is explained in [25].
C The last 24 symbols encode the feedback to the relays. The relationship between the
symbols transmitted by the first antenna (only one antenna is considered per node)
and the encoded feedback is given by :

feedback to relay = 1 (one sample back)

0.707 0.707j
0+j
feedback to relay = 0 (no adjustment)

+0.707 0.707j
feedback to relay = 1 (one sample forward)

Figure 5.8: Scheme of the frame used to transmit the feedback to the relays in order to
adjust their output timing

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Appendix 5.B Estimation and codification of the SNR in the

ODSTC scheme
To determine the optimal power allocation the destination node may know the SNR of
all the links of the wireless relay network exposed in the Figure 5.1. Therefore, the signal
to noise ratio between the source and each relay may be encoded and transmitted to the
destination. The way how this encoding is implemented is similar to that explained in the
Appendix 1.C of [26] for the selection relaying scheme.
First, the source sends the information to the relays using the c-function format_tx_frame.
The considered format for the transmission is the format 1, the same used in the DSTC
code between the source and the relays.This frame has training symbols embedded as it is
illustrated in the Figure 5.9. In this scheme the training symbol is denoted by t and it is
transmitted 6 times per frame. Note that a zero is transmitted before each training symbol.

Figure 5.9: Information transmitted by the first antenna of the source. The training symbol
denoted by t.

The relays use these training symbols to estimate the channel coefficients between the
source and the relays 6 times per frame. After that, the SNR is estimated. Denoting M as
the number of transmitted payload frames by the source during the phase 1, the SNR of the
i-th link between the source and the relays is computed as:
6M
P

i =

1
2
n

|hij |2

j=1

6M

i = 1, 2

being n2 the noise variance estimated during the synchronization stage.

In order to transmit the SNR between the source and the relays to the destination , the
relays use the c-function asnr2symbols( ) described in the Appendix 1.C of [26]. This
function transforms the signal to noise values into four QPSK symbols which are the last
four symbols of the frame presented in the Figure 5.5. Then, at the beginning of the second

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phase the relays take turns to send the quantized SNR to the destination node (R1 transmits
in the first frame of the second phase and R2 in the second one).
The destination uses the transmitted frames to estimate the SNR corresponding to the
links R1 -D and R2 -D and at the second idle frame of the second phase of the transmitting
stage determines the relays that may be switched on. After that, the destination sends this
information to the relays using the preamble format presented in the Figure 5.6. The last
three symbols of that frame are set to one or two when only R1 and R2 may be switched on
or, otherwise, are set to three when both relays may be activated.
In the last frame of the second phase the second phase the two relays decode that information and determine what relay(s) may be active using a majority voting procedure. That
is, after the detection of the frame, the relays determine that the index k is transmitted if it
appears at least twice in corresponding part of the received frame (the last three symbols of
the Figure 5.6).
Finally, the selected relays retransmit the information detected from the source using an
Alamouti code.

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Chapter 6
Identified Issues
In this chapter we list identified issues. An identified issue is a problem encountered
during the implementation sessions, that needs attention if schemes are implemented in
commercial systems in the future. We also list some general conclusions from the whole
duration for

Cooperative Beamforming with TDD Feedback

The system must be designed so that the base-station is able to estimate the uplink
channel of the desired and co-channel users in near-by cells.
In the proposed method for calibration, the base-station needs to be able to transmit
signals between its antenna elements.
The accuracy of the downlink channel prediction (from uplink data) was influenced
by an error term given by (1.28) and (1.29). This may be used as a ballpark of the
accuracy that can be achieved.
The performance of interference suppression is highly dependent on the distortions
(error vector magnitude) of the hardware.

Opportunistic Multi-User MIMO with Antenna Selection

Opportunistic switching of antennas introduces controlled fading. Fading is needed
in order to obtain multi-user diversity gain by fair scheduling. Controlled fading is
better than the fading induced by movement as the variations during one burst are
smaller which improves the channel estimate accuracy.
Antenna selection increases throughput and fairness in an opportunistic system. The
additional hardware required are switches and additional antenna elements, which
are components with low cost.
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In some cases the additional antennas may occupy more space. In our case, polarization switching was introduced which introduced little additional space since the the
cross-polarized antennas are co-located.

Cooperative Relaying
The cooperative relaying schemes amplify-and-forward (AF), detect-and-forward (DF),
cooperative maximum ratio combining (CMRC), distributed space-time coding (DSTC),
and selection relaying (SR), were implemented on the MUMS testbed in the first phase
of implementations In the second phase amplify-and-forward (AF) and space-frequency
coded DF OFDM were implemented on the USRP. From these implementations, the following issues have been identified:
Forwarding erroneous decisions is a major problem. This can be solved by selective
relaying, where the relay forwards only the frames with a certain minimum SNR.
This feature is inherent in AF, CMRC and SR.
The implementation loss observed was 2.5dB, 4dB, 2.5dB, and 2.5dB respectively.
This means that this margin has to be added to the link budget (the numbers above
assume selective relaying in the DF and DSTC case).
In our implementation, the AF method has similar complexity as the other methods
(a common belief is that it is of much less complex). Since we utilize time-divisionduplex (TDD), the AF-relay needs to be synchronized with the source, sub-sample,
estimate frequency offset and scale the input symbols to the dynamic range of the
transmitter, and then up-sample. Further, it needs to store all the symbols received in
a frame before forwarding them to the destination.
Techniques that are based on distributed space time coding requires relays that are
highly synchronized in time as well as frequency. If this is not the case, receivers that
take these uncertainties into account are needed.

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Bibliography
[1] Space-Time Block Coding for Wireless Communications. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 2003.
[2] W. Ajib, D. Haccoun, and J. F. Frigon. MIMO link layer transmission techniques
based on cross layer design. Journal of Communications, 2(7):2835, December
2007.
[3] G. Aniba and S. Aissa. Adaptive scheduling for MIMO wireless networks: Crosslayer approach and application to HSDPA. IEEE Trans. Wireless Communication,
6(1):259268, January 2007.
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