Spatial Interference Cancellation Research Articles

Side Null Analysis of the Main-Auxiliary Antenna Array for Noncooperative Interference Cancellation

In interference cancellation, the null at the angle of arrival (AoA) of interference can suppress interference. However, due to the large spacing between array elements and the periodicity of the array, some small nulls at the angles of noninterference are formed inevitably. When the AoA of the desired signal is in these small nulls, they impair the effectiveness of interference cancellation by attenuating the desired signal. This paper proposes the concept of a side null to represent these nulls in the noninterference direction. And the cancellation ratio of the desired signal (SCR) is deduced to quantitatively characterize the side null. The spatial noncooperative interference cancellation model based on the main-auxiliary antenna array is established. Based on this, the SCR is derived to evaluate the amount of desired signal attenuation. Then the simulation, respectively, in two-dimensional plane and three-dimensional space, describes the side null visually. Moreover, the method of side null reduction is discussed by modulation of the array. Finally, the existence of side null and its influence on interference cancellation are verified through the experiments. The results of the simulation and experiment are in good agreement, and both support the theoretical analysis.

Modeling and analysis for group delay mismatch effect on wideband adaptive spatial interference cancellation

The adaptive interference cancellation technique has been widely utilized in radar, GPS, data link, etc., systems to address challenges from external interference, such as co-site and hostile interference. Since the anti-jamming performance of the adaptive interference cancellation technique is sensitive to group delay mismatch between channels, the group delay mismatch becomes one of the main factors that limit the system’s anti-jamming capability. However, the traditional adaptive interference cancellation system’s mathematical model cannot quantitatively characterize the group delay mismatch effect on the wideband interference cancellation performance. In this paper, the mathematical model of the wideband adaptive spatial interference cancellation (ASIC) system is established, which considers the group delay mismatch, to quantitatively analyze the impact of group delay mismatch on the hostile interference cancellation. The mathematical model utilizes the weighted multi-tone signals to fit the wideband interference, and then, delay differences are attached to each tone signal to simulate the group delay mismatch. Then, the analytic expressions of weight and interference cancellation ratio are derived, which consider the interference bandwidth and group delay mismatch, to quantitatively analyze the group delay mismatch effect on the anti-jamming performance of the wideband ASIC system. Simulation results indicate that the theoretical analysis based on the mathematical model of wideband ASIC system are accurate, which can achieve the quantitative analysis of the group delay mismatch effect on the WIC performance.

Four-Element Wide Modulated Bandwidth MIMO Receiver With >35-dB Interference Cancellation

Active control of interference is necessary with increased cell density, more complicated environmental reflections, and coexistence of multiple networks for next-generation wireless communications. The existing radio receiver architectures for spatial interference cancellation (SpICa) are limited by the spatial nulls created by a phased-antenna array (PAA) and cannot cover wide modulated bandwidths (BWs). We propose a discrete-time-delay-compensating technique for canceling spatial interferences with wide modulated BWs to reduce the dynamic range requirement for the data converter. Integral to the proposed circuit is a switched-capacitor-based multiply-and-accumulate processor that incorporates a reconfigurable phase interpolator and time interleaver for precise digitally tunable delays and multiplication of the input signal to an orthogonal matrix. The digital time interleaver enables 5-ps resolution with a reconfigurable range up to 15 ns. The measured results demonstrate greater than 35-dB SpICa over 80-MHz modulated BWs in the 65-nm CMOS with 52 mW of power consumption.

On DoF-Based Interference Cancellation Under General Channel Rank Conditions

Degree-of-freedom (DoF) based models have become prevalent in studying MIMO-based wireless networks. However, most existing DoF-based models assume the channel matrix is of full-rank. Such a simplifying assumption has gradually become problematic, particularly when the number of antennas increases and the propagation environment is not close to ideal. In this paper, we address this problem by developing a general theory for the DoF-based model under general channel rank conditions. We start with a fundamental understanding on how MIMO’s DoFs are consumed at each node for spatial multiplexing (SM) and interference cancellation (IC) in the presence of rank-deficient channels. Based on this understanding, we develop a DoF model that can be used for identifying the DoF region of a multi-link MIMO network and for studying DoF scheduling in MIMO networks under general channel rank conditions. Specifically, we find that for IC, shared DoF consumption at both transmit and receive nodes is critical for efficient DoF allocation. Further, we show that DoF consumption under the existing full-rank assumption is a special case of our generalized DoF model. Based on case studies, we show that the general IC model can achieve larger feasible DoF regions or improved objective values than existing unilateral IC models. The findings of this paper pave the way for future research of many-antenna networks under general channel rank conditions.

Multiple-antenna techniques in nonorthogonal multiple access: a review

As a promising physical layer technique, nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) can admit multiple users over the same space-time resource block, and thus improve the spectral efficiency and increase the number of access users. Specifically, NOMA provides a feasible solution to massive Internet of Things (IoT) in 5G and beyond-5G wireless networks over a limited radio spectrum. However, severe co-channel interference and high implementation complexity hinder its application in practical systems. To solve these problems, multiple-antenna techniques have been widely used in NOMA systems by exploiting the benefits of spatial degrees of freedom. This study provides a comprehensive review of various multiple-antenna techniques in NOMA systems, with an emphasis on spatial interference cancellation and complexity reduction. In particular, we provide a detailed investigation on multiple-antenna techniques in two-user, multiuser, massive connectivity, and heterogeneous NOMA systems. Finally, future research directions and challenges are identified.

A Self Interference Nulling Filter Using Effective Channel Information for Full Duplex Systems

We propose a spatial domain interference cancelation scheme for full duplex bi-directional communication systems. Although the conventional pre-processing filters, such as null space projection and minimum mean square error (MMSE), can eliminate self interference, they require the spatial dimensions more than the number of receive antennas. However, proposed scheme requires only one spatial dimension regardless of the number of receive antennas, which enables more efficient antenna allocation. Simulation results show that proposed scheme obtains higher achievable rate than the half duplex system and the MMSE filter.

Spatial Interference Cancellation in MIMO Systems Using Side Lobe Canceller Structure

In this paper, a new MIMO receiver structure is proposed in which interferences are suppressed using a canceller operating in the spatial domain. The method presented in this paper is based on the assumption that a MIMO system with a certain number of antennas at the transmitter and receiver side is available. Distance between the antenna elements is subject to various factors and is selected in such a way that fading between different antenna pairs is independent of each other. In the proposed structure, without imposing additional restriction on the size of the array on the receiver, some auxiliary antennas are placed between every two adjacent elements to create antenna sets. Adaptive nulling is performed in each set to place nulls in the direction of the interferences. Then, the MIMO receiver processing is done such as is required in the conventional MIMO receiver without auxiliary antennas. In other words, the proposed structure added some auxiliary antennas to the MIMO receiver to cancel interferences that are separable in the spatial domain. To evaluate performance of the proposed structure, bit error rate (BER) of the conventional MIMO receiver and the proposed structure are compared in the space–time block-coded (STBC) MIMO system. Simulation results show that, in comparison with the conventional STBC technique, the proposed method has a better performance in the presence of interference.

A Scheduling Algorithm for MIMO DoF Allocation in Multi-Hop Networks

Recently, a new MIMO degree-of-freedom (DoF) model was proposed to allocate DoF resources for spatial multiplexing (SM) and interference cancellation (IC) in a multi-hop network. Although this DoF model promises many benefits, it hinges upon a global node ordering to keep track of IC responsibilities among all the nodes. An open question about this model is whether its global ordering property can be achieved among the nodes in the network through distributed operations. In this paper, we explore this question by studying DoF scheduling in a multi-hop MIMO network, with the objective of maximizing the minimum throughput among a set of sessions. We propose an efficient DoF scheduling algorithm to solve it and show that our algorithm only requires local operations. We prove that the resulting DoF scheduling solution is globally feasible and show that there exists a corresponding feasible global node ordering for IC, albeit such global ordering is implicit. Simulation results show that the solution values obtained by our algorithm are relatively close to the upper bound values computed by CPLEX solver, thereby indicating that our algorithm is highly competitive.

Novel schemes for interference‐resilient OFDM wireless communication

SummaryThis research work introduces some novel techniques for interference‐resilient OFDM wireless communication. Firstly, novel schemes for spatial multiplexing and interference cancelation based on signal subspace estimation are proposed. Secondly, the OFDM system is designed such that it meets three main objectives simultaneously, namely, (i) interference‐resiliency, (ii) throughput maximization, and (iii) energy consumption minimization. Interference‐cancelation techniques in prior art mostly consider maximization of throughput without any focus on energy consumption. On the other hand, the literature in energy minimization is limited to interference‐free environments. Most of the previous techniques also have a drawback that they cannot operate in smart or dynamically changing interference environments. The focus here is on interference‐resilient communication with equal attention to both throughput and energy‐efficiency maximization in dynamic hostile environments. The optimization problem is formulated, and then optimal policies and switching thresholds are found for throughput and energy‐efficient interference‐resilient communication. Methodologies for estimating the channel and jammer conditions and then adapting the transmission strategies accordingly are proposed. Moreover, to have an effective defense against smart jamming scenario, a constant‐payoff scheme is also introduced. Simulation results are compared with previous techniques that demonstrate the efficacy of proposed research. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

MIMO slotted ALOHA systems with collision resolution and truncated HARQ transmission and combining

In this paper, we investigate throughput and delay enhancement for two multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems one with space-time block coding (STBC), the other with spatial multiplexing (SM) at the transmitter. Users operate using the slotted ALOHA (SA) protocol to access the wireless channel resulting in a high probability of collision. For both systems, we consider the uplink scenario, and we propose to recover the collided packets with spatial successive interference cancelation (SSIC) and a protocol for retransmission and combining of unsuccessfully received collided packets applying a truncated Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) scheme. For the first system, we propose to use channel realizations of collided packets as different signatures to separate them. Moreover, we propose a solution for the problem when the received powers are comparable. For this system, we note that the orthogonality of the STBC matrix allows the use of a simple linear processing step for the initialization of SSIC. For the SM multi-user system, the separation of collided packets is based on V-BLAST processing and SSIC. We also propose how to combine retransmitted packets. For both systems, we evaluate the block error rate, the throughput, and the delay. A comparison is done with the single-user case and with other receivers proposed in the literature.

Sparsity Enhanced Mismatch Model for Robust Spatial Intercell Interference Cancelation in Heterogeneous Networks

Performance of precoder-based spatial intercell interference cancelation in heterogeneous networks is often hampered due to lack of accurate channel state information. Performance can be augmented by modifying the design of the precoder to incorporate the channel estimate mismatch by using deterministic and probabilistic mismatch models. Previously proposed models either have been deemed too conservative (deterministic) or are prone to error due to inaccuracy in the probability distribution function and corresponding parameters (stochastic). A new deterministic mismatch model is proposed herein in an attempt to alleviate these problems. Different from all previously proposed deterministic models, the proposed model, called sparsity enhanced mismatch model (SEMM), exploits the inherent sparse characteristics of MIMO interference channels. The SEMM has two variants, i.e., SEMM (angular) and SEMM (eigenmode). The SEMM incorporates a basis expansion model to bring forth the inherent sparsity, which exists in MIMO interference channels. In the context of precoder design for heterogeneous network, it is analytically shown, and by simulation, the proposed mismatch models enable the aggressor-transmitter (A-Tx) to allocate more transmission power to the sparse elements of the interfering link so that performance in the communicating link is enhanced compared with conventional norm ball mismatch model.

A novel MIMO DoF model for multi-hop networks

The rapid advances of MIMO to date have mainly stayed at the physical layer or single-hop communications. Such advantages have not been fully realized at the network level, particularly for multi-hop networks. This is mainly due to the lack of a tractable and accurate model that can characterize MIMO's powerful capabilities such as spatial multiplexing (SM) and interference cancellation (IC). Recently a new DoF-based model was proposed to capture MIMO's SM and IC capabilities in multi-hop networks. This model is based on a novel node-ordering concept and only requires simple numeric computation on DoFs. In this article we review previous models for MIMO and then describe this new DoF model. This new DoF model has the potential to enable significant advances in MIMO research in the networking community.

Distributed Scheduling in MIMO Empowered Cognitive Radio Ad Hoc Networks

Two fast growing technologies, MIMO and cognitive radio (CR), can both effectively combat the transmission interference among links and thus increase the network throughput. MIMO exploits spatial degree of freedom (DoF) through spatial multiplexing and interference cancellation within the same frequency channel, while CR exploits all available frequency channels for transmissions. We consider an ad hoc network where each node is equipped with an array of cognitive radios. A radio can tune to a different channel and transmit independently, or transmit together with other radios on the same channel using MIMO mode. Additionally, different frequency and spatial channels could have different conditions. There is a big challenge for nodes to distributively coordinate in selecting a transmission channel and/or a spatial DoF taking advantage of this unprecedented flexibility and diversity of channels for a higher network performance. In this work, we mathematically model the opportunities and constraints for such a network with the objective of maximizing the weighted network throughput. We propose a centralized algorithm as our comparison benchmark, and a distributed algorithm to flexibly assign spectrum channel or spatial DoF exploiting the multiuser diversity, channel diversity and spatial diversity for a higher performance in a practical network. The algorithm further supports different transmission priorities, reduces transmission delay and ensures fair transmissions among nodes by providing all nodes with certain transmission probability. The performance of our algorithms are studied through extensive simulations and the results demonstrate that our algorithm is very effective and can significantly increase the network throughput while reducing the delay.

A DoF-Based Link Layer Model for Multi-Hop MIMO Networks

The rapid advances of MIMO to date have mainly stayed at the physical layer. Such fruits have not fully benefited MIMO research at the network layer mainly due to the computational complexity associated with the matrix-based model that MIMO involves. Recently, there have been some efforts to simplify link layer model for MIMO so as to facilitate research at the upper layers. These models only require simple numeric computations on MIMO's degrees-of-freedom (DoFs) to characterize spatial multiplexing (SM) and interference cancellation (IC). Thus, these models are much simpler than the original matrix-based model from the communications world. However, achievable DoF regions of these DoF-based models are not analyzed. In this paper, we re-visit this important problem of MIMO modeling. Based on accounting of how DoFs are consumed for SM and IC, we develop a tractable link layer model for multi-hop MIMO networks. We show that under common assumptions of DoF-based models and additional assumption of no dependency cycle, this model includes all the feasible solutions by the matrix-based model under SM and IC for any network topology. This work offers an important building block for theoretical research on multi-hop MIMO networks.

The Ergodic Rate Density of ALOHA Wireless Ad-Hoc Networks

In recent years, much attention has been paid to the analysis of random wireless ad hoc networks (WANETs) that combine the effect of the physical layer and the medium access layer. However, most works have concentrated on an outage rate model which does not accurately describe the performance of modern communication systems. In this work we consider the ergodic rate density (ERD) of a random ALOHA WANET with a homogenous Poisson point process node distribution. We present two novel lower bounds on the ERD, one for general transmission and reception strategies and the other for receivers with a spatial interference cancellation capability. The bounds are simpler than previously published results for ALOHA WANETs (that have primarily considered the outage rate density). In addition, the bounds and the bounding technique are quite general and enable the derivation of closed form expressions of the ERD for various network models. The efficiency and simplicity of the bounds are demonstrated through several applications, and insights are drawn on the behavior of the network performance as function of the path-loss factor, transmission strategies and number of antennas. Simulation results demonstrate that these simple lower bounds predict the performance of ALOHA WANETs with high accuracy.

Spatial Interference Cancellation for Multiantenna Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Interference between nodes is a critical impairment in mobile ad hoc networks. This paper studies the role of multiple antennas in mitigating such interference. Specifically, a network is studied in which receivers apply zero-forcing beamforming to cancel the strongest interferers. Assuming a network with Poisson-distributed transmitters and independent Rayleigh fading channels, the transmission capacity is derived, which gives the maximum number of successful transmissions per unit area. Mathematical tools from stochastic geometry are applied to obtain the asymptotic transmission capacity scaling and characterize the impact of inaccurate channel state information (CSI). It is shown that, if each node cancels interferers, the transmission capacity decreases as as the outage probability vanishes. For fixed , as grows, the transmission capacity increases as where is the path-loss exponent. Moreover, CSI inaccuracy is shown to have no effect on the transmission capacity scaling as vanishes, provided that the CSI training sequence has an appropriate length, which we derive. Numerical results suggest that canceling merely one interferer by each node may increase the transmission capacity by an order of magnitude or more, even when the CSI is imperfect.

On the Asymptotic Capacity of Multi-Hop MIMO Ad Hoc Networks

Multi-input multi-output (MIMO) is a key technology to increase the capacity of wireless networks. Although there has been extensive work on MIMO at the physical and link layers, there is limited work on MIMO at the network layer (i.e., multi-hop MIMO network), particularly results on capacity scaling laws. In this paper, we investigate capacity scaling laws for MIMO ad hoc networks. Our goal is to find the achievable throughput of each node as the number of nodes in the network increases. We employ a MIMO network model that captures spatial multiplexing and interference cancellation. We show that for a MIMO network with n randomly located nodes, each equipped with α antennas and a rate of W on each data stream, the achievable throughput of each node is Θ(αW/√(n ln n)).

Adaptive Spatial Intercell Interference Cancellation in Multicell Wireless Networks

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

Performance improvements for sector antennas using feature extraction and spatial interference cancellation

Effective utilization of the spatial domain enhances the capacity of a mobile radio network. A common technique is to use sector antennas, where the sectors are formed by weighting the outputs from the antenna elements. This results in spatial domain selectivity, which significantly improves the signal-to-(noise and interference) ratio in the received signals. However, the operation of the sector antenna will be limited by the sidelobes of the corresponding beam patterns. By introducing a blind spatial interference canceler that combines the fix beamformers in the sector antenna with blind signal separation, a significant improvement in the multiuser interference suppression can be achieved. Thus, it will be able to efficiently handle the near-far problem, where the users are received with different power. The blind signal separation is performed by an independent component analysis algorithm. The convergence rate of the algorithm is significantly improved compared to the standard formulation by taking into account the modulation format. The algorithm is further improved by introducing a forgetting factor on the weight update. The blind spatial interference canceler is evaluated by simulations using the mean square error and the bit error rate as quality measures. The results show that the mean square error obtained from the blind spatial interference canceler is within 0.5 dB from the optimum Wiener solution for signal-to-noise ratios greater than 0 dB.