Subcarrier Pairing Scheme Research Articles

Wireless Information and Energy Transfer in Nonregenerative OFDM AF Relay Systems

Energy harvesting (EH) is a promising strategy to prolong the operation of energy-constrained wireless systems. Simultaneous wireless information and energy transfer (SWIET) is a potential EH technique which has recently drawn significant attention. By employing SWIET at relay nodes in wireless relay systems, the relay nodes can harvest energy and receive information from their source nodes simultaneously as radio signals can carry energy as well as information at the same time, which solves the energy scarcity problem for wireless relay nodes. In this paper, we study SWIET for nonregenerative orthogonal-frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) amplify-and-forward systems in order to maximize the end-to-end achievable rate by optimizing resource allocation. Firstly, we propose an optimal energy-transfer power allocation policy which utilizes the diversity provided by OFDM modulation. We then validate that the ordered-signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) subcarrier pairing (SP) is the optimal SP scheme. After that, we investigate the information-transfer power allocation (IPA) and EH time optimization problem which is formulated as a non-convex optimization problem. By making the approximation at high SNR regime, we convert this non-convex optimization problem into a quasi-convex programming problem, where an algorithm is derived to jointly optimize the IPA and EH time. By analytical analysis, we validate that the proposed resource allocation scheme has much lower computational complexity than peer studies in the literature. Finally, simulation results verify the optimality of our proposed resource allocation scheme.

Optimal resource allocation in wireless-powered OFDM relay networks

This paper studies resource allocation in wireless-powered orthogonal-frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) amplify-and-forward (AF) or decode-and-forward (DF) relay networks with time-switching (TS) based relaying. Our objective is to maximize end-to-end achievable rates by optimizing TS ratios of energy transfer (ET) and information transmission (IT), power allocation (PA) over all subcarriers for ET and IT as well as subcarrier pairing (SP) for IT. The formulated resource allocation problem is a mixed integer programming (MIP) problem, which is prohibitive and fundamentally difficult to solve. To simplify the MIP problem, we firstly provide an optimal ET policy and an optimal SP scheme, and then obtain a nonlinear programming problem to optimize TS ratios and PA for IT. Nevertheless, the obtained nonlinear programming problem is non-convex and still hard to tackle directly. To make it tractable, we transform the non-convex problem into a fractional programming problem, which is further converted into an equivalent optimization problem in subtractive form. By deriving the optimal solution to the equivalent optimization problem, we propose a globally optimal resource allocation scheme which bears much lower complexity as compared to the suboptimal resource allocation in the literature. Finally, our simulation results verify the optimality of our proposed resource allocation scheme and show that it outperforms the existing scheme in literature.

Optimal subcarrier pairing for MRC in powerline/wireless diversity OFDM systems

In this paper, we consider the parallel use of powerline/wireless orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems for robust smart grid communication, where the powerline and wireless subcarriers are paired to perform maximal ratio combining (MRC). An optimal subcarrier pairing scheme is proposed to maximize the data rate for MRC reception in powerline/wireless diversity OFDM systems. We verify the performance enhancement of the proposed optimal subcarrier pairing scheme by varying the system and channel parameters. Numerical results show that the proposed scheme provides about 15–30Mbps of higher data rate, which corresponds to a capacity gain of about 5–22%, compared to the pairing scheme without specific intelligence. Performance improvement in terms of outage probability is also shown.

Joint resource allocation with subcarrier pairing in cooperative OFDM DF multi‐relay networks

For conventional subcarrier pairing scheme in cooperative orthogonal frequency division multiplexing decode-and-forward multi-relay networks, to avoid interference, each subcarrier pair (SP) is assigned to a single relay. Over a specific subcarrier, the destination receives signals transmitted from the relay. In this study, to better exploit the degrees of spatial freedom, the authors propose to assign each SP to multiple relays. Thus, over a specific subcarrier, the destination receives signals transmitted from multiple relays. Under the total network power constraint, to maximise the sum transmission rate, they propose a joint resource allocation scheme, in which they jointly optimised the four types of resources: assisting relays selection, transmission mode selection, subcarrier pairing and power allocation. They further propose a suboptimal algorithm which can significantly reduce the computational complexity of the aforementioned optimal allocation scheme with sacrificing little on the performance. It is shown from simulation results that the author's proposed schemes have significant performance improvement over the resource allocation schemes in the literature.

BER modified decode-and-forward protocol for OFDM-based linear multihop networks

In orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) based multihop communications, the conventional decode-and-forward (DF) relay scheme severely suffers from the error propagation problem. This drawback is serious in multihop networks as errors made by any relay node may fail the decoder at the destination in great chance. In this paper, we propose a bit error rate (BER) modified DF protocol (BMDF) which can be applied to systems where error correction channel coding and M-ary modulation are used. By modeling all links except the last one as a binary symmetric channel (BSC), we derive a log likelihood ratio (LLR) modification function relying only on the accumulated BER of all previous links to be applied to the output of the soft demapper. Furthermore, to reduce the computational complexity and signaling overhead, the modification function is simplified from its original exponential expression and less BERs are delivered between nodes by making successive subcarriers share the same BER. In addition, for situations where the channel state information (CSI) of forward link is available, the proposed BMDF can be further enhanced by combining with subcarrier pairing (SP) and power allocation (PA), where a sorted-channel gain SP scheme and a greedy PA algorithm are proposed. The simulation results verify the significant performance improvement to the conventional DF.

Optimal subcarrier pairing scheme for maximal ratio combining in OFDM power line communications

Power line communication (PLC) networks for a smart grid require high reliability for data communications. In order to improve the reliability of PLC networks, we consider a maximal ratio combining (MRC) diversity scheme for a power line orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system. An optimal subcarrier pairing scheme is proposed to maximize the MRC gain. Numerical results are presented to verify that the proposed scheme provides enhanced performance.

Subcarrier-pair Based Power Allocation for Cooperative OFDM AF Multi-Relay Networks

For conventional subcarrier pairing schemes in cooperative orthogonal frequency division multiplexing amplify and forward multi-relay networks, to avoid interference, each subcarrier pair (SP) is assigned to only one relay. Over a specific subcarrier, the destination receives signals transmitted from only one relay. In our subcarrier pairing scheme, we assign each SP to all the relays. Thus, over a specific subcarrier, the destination receives signals transmitted from all the relays. Since it is assumed that there exists the direct link from the source to the destination, we assume that the source also transmits signals during the second time slot for the direct transmission mode. We propose an enhanced joint subcarrier pairing and power allocation optimization scheme which maximizes the transmission rate subject to total network power constraint. The problem is simplified and solved by using dual method. It is shown from simulation results that our proposed scheme outperforms the other schemes.

Optimally Joint Subcarrier Pairing and Power Allocation for OFDM System with Multihop Symbol Level DF Relaying

Subcarrier pairing (SP) and power allocation (PA) can improve the channel capacity of the OFDM multi-hop relay system. Due to limitations of processing complexity and energy consumption, symbol-level relaying, which only regenerates the constellation symbols at relay nodes, is more practical than code-level relaying that requires full decoding and encoding. By modeling multi-hop symbol-level relaying as a multi-staged parallel binary symmetric channel, this paper introduces a jointly optimal SP and PA scheme which maximizes the end to end data rate. Analytical arguments are given to reveal the structures and properties of the optimal solution, and simulation results are presented to illustrate and justify the optimality.

Joint Power Allocation and Subcarrier Pairing for Cooperative OFDM AF Multi-Relay Networks

For conventional subcarrier pairing scheme in cooperative orthogonal frequency division multiplexing amplify-and-forward multi-relay networks, to avoid interference, each subcarrier pair (SP) is assigned to only one relay, over a specific subcarrier, the destination receives signals transmitted from only one relay. In this letter, we propose to assign each SP to all the relays. Thus, over a specific subcarrier, the destination receives signals transmitted from all the relays. We propose a joint power allocation and subcarrier pairing scheme which maximizes the transmission rate subject to total network power constraint. The problem is simplified and solved by using dual method.

Energy-efficient power allocation for non-regenerative OFDM relay links

We consider a two-hop non-regenerative (amplify-and-forward) relay link with one source, one destination and one relay, in which orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is used. The power allocation (PA) to maximize the energy efficiency for the whole link is investigated under quality of service (Qos) requirement and separate power constraints. An approximation method with low complexity is first proposed to convert the PA problem into a quasi-concave problem, which can obtain a tight lower bound in high SNR region. Furthermore, a more accurate approximation method with higher complexity is raised, which can approach the actual performance both in the low SNR and high SNR regions. We also introduce subcarrier pairing scheme to further enhance the energy efficiency for the link. Simulation results are shown to compare the performance of the two proposed methods.

Feedback-Aided Pilot Placement and Subcarrier Pairing for AF OFDM Relay Channels

This paper examines the use of channel feedback to adaptively determine pilot placement among subcarriers in amplify-and-forward (AF) orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) relay systems. With feedback of the previous channel estimate, pilot subcarriers at the source and relay can be reassigned to reduce channel estimation error and ensure that good subcarriers are made available for data transmission. The minimum effective signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) among data subcarriers is utilized as the performance metric for the optimization of the pilot locations. The effective SNR is defined as the receive SNR at the destination, taking into consideration the source-to-relay (SR) and relay-to-destination (RD) channels, as well as their respective channel estimation errors. The feedback gain, which is defined as the ratio between the minimum effective SNR achieved with the optimal feedback-aided pilot placement and that achieved with the equal-spaced pilot placement, is used to measure the gains achieved through feedback. In this paper, we first derive an analytic lower bound on the optimal feedback gain and show its rate of increase with respect to the number of subcarriers. These studies are performed for systems both without and with subcarrier pairing (SP) at the relay. Specifically, in systems without SP, the relay forwards each datum on the same subcarrier on which it is received. In systems with SP, the relay is allowed to reassign the subcarriers used to forward the data received from the source. With the goal of maximizing the minimum effective SNR, the optimal SP scheme is shown to be an inverse mapping between the SR and RD subcarriers with respect to their channel gains. Due to the complexity of finding the optimal placement, a suboptimal but efficient algorithm called the iterative pilot relocation (IterPR) scheme is then proposed. The effectiveness of the proposed IterPR schemes is demonstrated through numerical simulations.