Severe Multipath Conditions Research Articles

Signal Tracking Algorithm With Adaptive Multipath Mitigation and Experimental Results for LTE Positioning Receivers in Urban Environments

Positioning with cellular signals has been gaining attention in urban and indoor environments, where global navigation satellite system signals have limited availability due to interference, blockage, or multipath. However, accurate and reliable tracking of cellular signals under highly dynamic urban channel conditions remains a challenging task. This article presents a cellular long-term evolution (LTE) signal tracking algorithm implemented by an adaptive multipath estimating delay lock loop (AMEDLL) to achieve carrier phase synchronization and time-of-arrival (TOA) tracking under severe multipath propagation conditions. The analytical expression of the coherently integrated correlation result over multiple slots with the LTE cell-specific reference signal is derived. A multipath estimator along with a simple yet efficient multipath estimation monitoring approach is developed to estimate the parameters of all detected multipath signals. Several heuristic monitoring criteria based on historical multipath parameter estimations are established to enable adaptive adjustment of the estimated path number. Real LTE signals are collected in an urban environment for the signal tracking performance evaluation. This article presents two case studies with varying levels of multipath effects and signal power to illustrate the effectiveness of the developed signal tracking algorithm. Instead of a TOA truth reference, open-loop carrier phase estimations are used to analyze the TOA tracking error. Our analyses demonstrate that the AMEDLL-based tracking algorithm provides improved TOA estimation accuracy over the existing super-resolution-algorithm-based and delay-lock-loop-based tracking schemes.

Target Height Measurement under Complex Multipath Interferences without Exact Knowledge on the Propagation Environment

This paper investigates the direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation-based target localization problem using an array radar under complex multipath propagation scenarios. Prevalent methods may suffer from performance degradation due to the deterministic signal model mismatch, especially when the exact knowledge of a propagation environment is unavailable. To cope with this problem, we first establish an improved signal model of multipath propagation for low-angle target localization scenarios, where the dynamic nature of convoluted interferences induced by complex terrain reflections is taken into account. Subsequently, an iterative implementation-based target localization algorithm with the improved propagation model is proposed to eliminate the detrimental effect of coherent interferences on target localization performance. Compared to existing works, the proposed algorithm can maintain satisfactory estimation performance in terms of target location parameters, even in severe multipath interference conditions, where the decorrelation preprocessing and accurate knowledge about the multipath propagation environment are not required. Both simulation and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed propagation model and localization algorithm.

A new multipath channel estimation and mitigation using annihilation filter combined tracking loop implementation in software GPS receivers

The multipath effect causes severe degradation in the positioning of commercial GPS receivers. Due to multipath error, the positioning accuracy could reach a few of 10 m. If the cumulative Multipath delay is less than 0.1–0.35 chips, then it is difficult to mitigate in GPS receivers. This causes severe degradation in GPS signals and can cause a measurement bias. To alleviate this problem, the estimation of multipath parameters using annihilating filter and its mitigation in the GPS tracking loop is proposed in this work. The estimation of randomly generated multipath signals can be performed in the receiver with a lower sampling rate when compared to the larger bandwidth of the GPS baseband signal. Here, the frequency components of the multipath signal in superimposed complex exponentials have been transformed from the time delay and the amplitude of the path observables. The Rayleigh fading model in the urban scenario has been simulated in which the amplitude and the phase of the number of paths (i.e. the frequency component of superimposed complex exponentials) are set and this fading signal is convolved with GPS signal that forms the multipath faded signal. In the GPS receiver post-processing stage, with the help of the annihilation filter, the multipath components are estimated, then an inverse/adaptive filter and compensation technique are further applied to mitigate the multipath component. The mean square error with the different number of paths with noisy environments is analyzed utilizing the cadzow denoising algorithm. The simulation results of the proposed technique employed in the tracking module of the software GPS receiver under severe multipath conditions indicate a substantial enhancement in the performance of the GPS receiver with minimal code and carrier phase error when compared to the least squares and adaptive blind equalization channel techniques. Moreover, the positioning accuracy is also calculated with the inclusion of multipath components in two satellites out of six satellites used in the simulation, the results showed that the annihilation filter improved the mean position accuracy up to 9.3023 m.

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces for Rich Scattering Wireless Communications: Recent Experiments, Challenges, and Opportunities

Recent advances in the fabrication and experimentation of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) have motivated the concept of the smart radio environment, according to which the propagation of information-bearing waveforms in the wireless medium is amenable to programmability. Although the vast majority of recent experimental research on RIS-empowered wireless communications gravitates around narrowband beamforming in quasi-free space, RISs are foreseen to revolutionize wideband wireless connectivity in dense urban as well as indoor scenarios, which are usually characterized as strongly reverberant environments exhibiting severe multipath conditions. In this article, capitalizing on recent physics-driven experimental explorations of RIS-empowered wave propagation control in complex scattering cavities, we identify the potential of the spatiotemporal control offered by RISs to boost wireless communications in rich scattering channels via two case studies. First, an RIS is deployed to shape the multipath channel impulse response, which is shown to enable higher achievable communication rates. Second, the RIS-tunable propagation environment is leveraged as an analog multiplexer to localize non-cooperative objects using wave fingerprints, even when they are outside the line of sight. Future research challenges and opportunities in the algorithmic design and experimentation of smart rich scattering wireless environments enabled by RISs for sixth Generation (6G) wireless communications are discussed.

Quasi-Coherent Phase-Based Localization and Tracking of Incoherently Transmitting Radio Beacons

The direct measurement of distance-dependent information between wireless units represents a challenge for wireless locating systems, because it requires the exact time synchronization of separate wireless units. To avoid these synchronization efforts, many wireless locating systems only evaluate phase difference of arrival (PDOA) measurements. While simple PDOA localization techniques rely on multiangulation, advanced PDOA concepts like the holographic extended Kalman filter (HEKF) directly evaluate the measured phases without non-linear preprocessing. However, these differential phase measurement approaches are less sensitive than systems that can measure absolute phase variations, which allow the tracking of much smaller position changes than the signal’s carrier wavelength. This paper proposes to extend the HEKF by the evaluation of absolute phases in an incoherent measurement setup, which consists of a continuous wave (CW) beacon and several receivers. The developed quasi-coherent holographic extended Kalman filter (QCHEKF) uses the overdetermined PDOA measurements to estimate the phase–frequency relation between each beacon–receiver pair. Then, the established phase–frequency relations allow the evaluation of absolute phase measurements and, thus, the accurate localization and tracking of a simple, unsynchronized, narrowband CW beacon, even under severe multipath conditions. This novel concept is experimentally validated via 3D localization results in a challenging indoor scenario using a 24 GHz CW measurement setup. Here, the QCHEKF improves the achieved localization accuracy in comparison to the HEKF by 35 % from 0.78 cm to 0.51 cm, while the maximum deviation from the trajectory reduces by 68 % from 5 cm to 1.6 cm. Furthermore, the QCHEKF enables the exact tracking of fast changes in direction, which is usually a significant challenge for standard wireless target tracking systems.

Multipath Compensation Algorithm for TDMA-Based Ultrasonic Local Positioning Systems

This paper proposes a multipath compensation algorithm (MCA) to enhance the performance of an ultrasonic local positioning system under adverse multipath conditions. The proposed algorithm is based on the accurate estimation of the environment impulse response from which the corresponding line of sight for each channel is obtained. Experimental results in two different environments and with different conditions have been conducted in order to evaluate the performance of this proposal. In both environments, results confirm the expected improvements, even under severe multipath conditions where positioning errors have been reduced from 44 to 9 cm for the 95% of the measurements.

Collaborative High-Accuracy Localization in Mobile Multipath Environments

We study the problem of high-accuracy localization of mobile nodes in a multipath-rich environment where submeter accuracy values are required. We employ a peer-to-peer framework where nodes can get pairwise multipath-degraded ranging estimates in local neighborhoods, with the multipath noise correlated across time. The challenge is to enable high-accuracy positioning under severe multipath conditions when the fraction of received signals corrupted by multiple paths is significant. Our contributions are twofold. We provide a practical distributed localization algorithm by invoking an analytical graphical model framework based on particle filtering, and we validate its potential for high-accuracy localization through simulations. In a practical dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) mobile simulation setup, we show that the algorithm can achieve errors of <; 1 m 90% of the time, even when the fraction of line-of-sight (LOS) signals is less than 35%. We also address design questions such as “how many anchors and what fraction of LOS measurements are needed to achieve a specified target accuracy?” by showing that the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB) for localization can be expressed as a product of two factors: a scalar function that depends only on the parameters of the noise distribution and a matrix that depends only on the geometry of node locations and the underlying connectivity graph. A simplified expression is obtained that provides an insightful understanding of the bound and that helps deduce the scaling behavior of the estimation error as a function of the number of agents and anchors in the network.

Cognitive Spectrum Sensing with Multiple Primary Users in Rayleigh Fading Channels

Accurate detection of white spaces is crucial in cognitive radio networks. Initial investigations show that the accurate detection in a multiple primary users environment is challenging, especially under severe multipath conditions. Among many techniques, recently proposed eigenvalue-based detectors that use random matrix theories to eliminate the need of prior knowledge of the signals proved to be a solid approach. In this work, we study the effect of Rayleigh multipath fading channels on spectrum sensing in a multiple primary user environment for a pre-proposed detector called the spherical detector using the eigenvalue approach. Simulation results show interesting outcomes.

Least-Squares-Based Iterative Multipath Super-Resolution Technique

In this paper, we investigate the multipath resolution problem for direct sequence spread spectrum signals. To resolve multipath components arriving within a very short interval, we propose a new multipath super-resolution algorithm based on the iterative least-squares method. The proposed least-squares-based iterative multipath super-resolution (LIMS) algorithm exploits a triangular shaped auto-correlation function (ACF) of the pseudo-noise (PN) sequence and simplifies the least-squares parameter estimation procedure using iterative and algebraic operations. This results in an algorithm demanding low computational load with a high multipath resolution capability. It is also discussed that the LIMS algorithm can be applied for recursive multipath tracking of source localization systems, such as the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). Simulation results show that the LIMS algorithm maintains its good performance even in a low [(C)/(N0)] or severe multipath interference conditions.

Dielectric-Covered Ground Reflectors in GPS Multipath Reception—Theory and Measurement

Global Positioning System receivers sometimes operate under severe multipath conditions, including those which include a ground specularly reflected signal along with a direct signal. Here, such a case is discussed which involves a dielectric-covered flat ground reflector, with incident energy at 1.57542-GHz right-hand circularly polarized at elevation angles between 5deg and 50deg. The relative received powers produced by the sum of the specularly reflected and direct signals are computed from conventional theory and are measured for various thicknesses of dielectrics. Both theory and measurement show that the received powers produced by the sum of the specularly reflected and direct signals have the same behavior throughout a range of elevation angles. A snow case study shows potential for inferring snow depth by fitting the theory to the measurements.

電波到来方向推定法とそれを用いた自動追尾受信装置の開発

Mobile relay broadcasting requires better antenna reception techniques in order to expand the receiving area. We are developing a tracking and receiving system using a phased array antenna that can operate even in severe multipath fading conditions. Accurately estimating the direction of arrival (DOA) is key to making this system work effectively. We developed a method for estimating the DOA using pilot signals allocated to specific carriers over the bandwidth of the orthogonal frequency-division signal. We also analyzed the effects of multipath interference on estimation precision. We then fabricated a prototype system and demonstrated its capability for mobile relay broadcasting in an outdoor experiment.

Design considerations and implementation of a DSP-based car-radio IF Processor

This paper describes design considerations and the implementation of a software defined radio receiver encompassing intermediate frequency (IF) digitization. The proposed system-on-chip performs the demodulation of both AM and FM stereo signals, digitized at the IF by means of a high dynamic range sigma-delta bandpass A/D converter. The chosen architecture combines hardware and software functions, trading flexible programmability with area occupancy. The software includes also true blind equalization of the FM signals, resulting in the rejection of the neighbor channels and of any other interfering signal, even under severe multipath conditions. The described chip, realized in a 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS technology, occupies an area of 15.2 mm/sup 2/ and is enclosed in a 64-pin package.

Adaptive frame selection algorithm for DVB-T

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems transmit a guard-interval, inserted in front of the effective symbol period, using signals copied from some of the last parts of the effective symbol period. This guard-interval is used to reduce distortions due to multipath conditions. However, conventional OFDM systems produce inter-symbol interference (ISI) under severe multipath or pre-ghost channel conditions even though they accurately estimate the effective symbol period. Accordingly, the paper proposes a frame selection algorithm for a fast Fourier transform (FFT) operation in an OFDM receiver to remove the ISI produced in conventional OFDM systems under multipath conditions. The proposed algorithm replaces some of the rear parts of the effective symbol period with some of the guard-interval as an FFT input frame. The replaced period in the FFT input frame is changed according to the multipath environment. Four estimation methods for determining the replaced period are also described.

Digital outside-broadcasting-link using OFDM modulation scheme

A study on digital broadcasting systems has been conducted for the multimedia era. Regarding program production, a digital outside-broadcasting-link (OBL), in particular, from mobile source is required to gather digital video and audio sources in severe multipath environments. The orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation scheme is robust under multipath fading conditions. A digital OFDM modem for OBL in the 800 MHz band has been developed to enable stable transmission of digital sources from moving vehicles. In the experimental OFDM-OBL, the compressed digital video and audio data are distributed to 572 carriers in the 9 MHz bandwidth, using differential quadrature phase shift keying (DQPSK) modulation for each carrier. In computer simulation and indoor/outdoor experiments, it is confirmed that digital OFDM-OBL can stably transmit signals, even under severe multipath fading conditions, while pictures transmitted with conventional FM-OBL are seriously degraded. This paper describes the features of the OFDM modem for the digital OBL which transmits program sources from moving vehicles, and also discusses aspects of gathering digital program sources.