'Faster-than-Nyquist Signaling via Spatiotemporal Symbol-Level Precoding for Multi-User MISO Redundant Transmissions

in International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP-2020), Barcelona 4-8 May 2020 (2020, May)

This paper tackles the problem of both multi-user and intersymbol interference stemming from co-channel users transmitting at a faster-than-Nyquist (FTN) rate in multi-antenna downlink transmissions. We ... [more ▼]

This paper tackles the problem of both multi-user and intersymbol interference stemming from co-channel users transmitting at a faster-than-Nyquist (FTN) rate in multi-antenna downlink transmissions. We propose a framework for redundant block-based symbol-level precoders enabling the trade-off between constructive and destructive multi-user and interblock interference (IBI) effects at the single-antenna user terminals. Redundant elements are added as guard interval to handle IBI destructive effects. It is shown that, within this framework, accelerating the transmissions via FTN signaling improves the error-free spectral efficiency, up to a certain acceleration factor beyond which the transmitted information cannot be perfectly recovered by linear filtering followed by sampling. Simulation results corroborate that the proposed spatiotemporal symbol-level precoding can change the amount of added redundancy from zero (full IBI) to half (IBI-free) the equivalent channel order, so as to achieve a target balance between spectral and energy efficiencies. [less ▲]

Interference Exploitation via Symbol-Level Precoding: Overview, State-of-the-Art and Future Directions

in IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials (2020), 22(2), 796-839

Interference is traditionally viewed as a performance limiting factor in wireless communication systems, which is to be minimized or mitigated. Nevertheless, a recent line of work has shown that by ... [more ▼]

Interference is traditionally viewed as a performance limiting factor in wireless communication systems, which is to be minimized or mitigated. Nevertheless, a recent line of work has shown that by manipulating the interfering signals such that they add up constructively at the receiver side, known interference can be made beneficial and further improve the system performance in a variety of wireless scenarios, achieved by symbol-level precoding (SLP). This paper aims to provide a tutorial on interference exploitation techniques from the perspective of precoding design in a multi-antenna wireless communication system, by beginning with the classification of constructive interference (CI) and destructive interference (DI). The definition for CI is presented and the corresponding mathematical characterization is formulated for popular modulation types, based on which optimization-based precoding techniques are discussed. In addition, the extension of CI precoding to other application scenarios as well as for hardware efficiency is also described. Proof-of-concept testbeds are demonstrated for the potential practical implementation of CI precoding, and finally a list of open problems and practical challenges are presented to inspire and motivate further research directions in this area. [less ▲]

Hardware Precoding Demonstration in Multi-Beam UHTS Communications under Realistic Payload Characteristics

in Proceedings of the 37th International Communications Satellite Systems Conference (2019, November 01)

In this paper, we present a new hardware test-bed to demonstrate closed-loop precoded communications for interference mitigation in multi-beam ultra high throughput satellite systems under realistic ... [more ▼]

In this paper, we present a new hardware test-bed to demonstrate closed-loop precoded communications for interference mitigation in multi-beam ultra high throughput satellite systems under realistic payload and channel impairments. We build the test-bed to demonstrate a real-time channel aided precoded transmission under realistic conditions such as the power constraints and satellite-payload non-linearities. We develop a scalable architecture of an SDR platform with the DVB-S2X piloting. The SDR platform consists of two parts: analog-to-digital (ADC) and digital-to-analog (DAC) converters preceded by radio frequency (RF) front-end and Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) backend. The former introduces realistic impairments in the transmission chain such as carrier frequency and phase misalignments, quantization noise of multichannel ADC and DAC and non-linearities of RF components. It allows evaluating the performance of the precoded transmission in a more realistic environment rather than using only numerical simulations. We benchmark the performance of the communication standard in realistic channel scenarios, evaluate received signal SNR, and measure the actual channel throughput using LDPC codes. [less ▲]

Demonstrator of Precoding Technique for a Multi-Beams Satellite System

in 2019 8th International Workshop on Tracking, Telemetry and Command Systems for Space Applications (TTC) (2019)

Advanced Symbol-level Precoding Schemes for Interference Exploitation in Multi-antenna Multi-user Wireless Communications

Doctoral thesis (2018)

The utilization of multi-antenna transmitters relying on full frequency reuse has proven to be an effective strategy towards fulfilling the constantly increasing throughput requirements of wireless ... [more ▼]

The utilization of multi-antenna transmitters relying on full frequency reuse has proven to be an effective strategy towards fulfilling the constantly increasing throughput requirements of wireless communication systems. As a consequence, in the last two decades precoding has been a prolific research area, due to its ability to handle the interference arising among simultaneous transmissions addressed to different co-channel users. The conventional precoding strategies aim at mitigating the multi-user interference (MUI) by exploiting the knowledge of the channel state information (CSI). More recently, novel approaches have been proposed where the aim is not to eliminate the interference, but rather to control it so as to achieve a constructive interference effect at each receiver. In these schemes, referred to as symbol-level precoding (SLP), the data information (data symbols) is used together with the CSI in the precoding design, which can be addressed following several optimization strategies. In the context of SLP, the work carried out in this thesis is mainly focused on developing more advanced optimization strategies suitable to non-linear systems, where the per-antenna high-power amplifiers introduce an amplitude and phase distortion on the transmitted signals. More specifically, the main objective is to exploit the potential of SLP not only to achieve the constructive interference at the receivers, but also to control the per-antenna instantaneous transmit power, improving the power dynamics of the transmitted waveforms. In fact, a reduction of the power variation of the signals, both in the spatial dimension (across the different antennas) and in the temporal dimension, is particularly important for mitigating the non-linear effects. After a detailed review of the state of the art of SLP, the first part of the thesis is focused on improving the power dynamics of the transmitted signals in the spatial dimension, by reducing the instantaneous power imbalances across the different antennas. First, a SLP per-antenna power minimization scheme is presented, followed by a related max-min fair formulation with per-antenna power constraints. These approaches allow to reduce the power peaks of the signals across the antennas. Next, more advanced SLP schemes are formulated and solved, with the objective of further improving the spatial dynamics of the signals. Specifically, a first approach performs a peak power minimization under a lower bound constraint on the per-antenna transmit power, while a second strategy minimizes the spatial peak-to-average power ratio. The second part of this thesis is devoted to developing a novel SLP method, referred to as spatio-temporal SLP, where the temporal variation of the transmit power is also considered in the SLP optimization. This new model allows to minimize the peak-to-average power ratio of the transmitted waveforms both in the spatial and in the temporal dimensions, thus further improving the robustness of the signals to non-linear effects. Then, this thesis takes one step further, by exploiting the developed spatio-temporal SLP model in a different context. In particular, a spatio-temporal SLP scheme is proposed which enables faster-than-Nyquist (FTN) signaling over multi-user systems, by constructively handling at the transmitter side not only the MUI but also the inter-symbol interference (ISI). This strategy allows to benefit from the increased throughput provided by FTN signaling without imposing additional complexity at the user terminals. Extensive numerical results are presented throughout the thesis, in order to assess the performance of the proposed schemes with respect to the state of the art in SLP. The thesis concludes summarizing the main research findings and identifying the open problems, which will constitute the basis for the future work. [less ▲]

Symbol-level and Multicast Precoding for Multiuser Multiantenna Downlink: A State-of-the-art, Classification and Challenges

in IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials (2018)

Precoding has been conventionally considered as an effective means of mitigating or exploiting the interference in the multiantenna downlink channel, where multiple users are simultaneously served with ... [more ▼]

Precoding has been conventionally considered as an effective means of mitigating or exploiting the interference in the multiantenna downlink channel, where multiple users are simultaneously served with independent information over the same channel resources. The early works in this area were focused on transmitting an individual information stream to each user by constructing weighted linear combinations of symbol blocks (codewords). However, more recent works have moved beyond this traditional view by: i) transmitting distinct data streams to groups of users and ii) applying precoding on a symbol-per-symbol basis. In this context, the current survey presents a unified view and classification of precoding techniques with respect to two main axes: i) the switching rate of the precoding weights, leading to the classes of block-level and symbol-level precoding, ii) the number of users that each stream is addressed to, hence unicast, multicast, and broadcast precoding. Furthermore, the classified techniques are compared through representative numerical results to demonstrate their relative performance and uncover fundamental insights. Finally, a list of open theoretical problems and practical challenges are presented to inspire further research in this area. [less ▲]

Per-antenna Power Minimization in Symbol-level Precoding for the Multi-beam Satellite Downlink

in International Journal of Satellite Communications and Networking (2018)

This paper addresses the problem of multi-user interference in the forward downlink channel of a multi-beam satellite system. A symbol-level precoding scheme is considered, in order to exploit the multi ... [more ▼]

This paper addresses the problem of multi-user interference in the forward downlink channel of a multi-beam satellite system. A symbol-level precoding scheme is considered, in order to exploit the multi-user interference and transform it into useful power at the receiver side, through a joint utilization of the data information and the channel state information. In this context, a per-antenna power minimization scheme is proposed, under Quality-of-Service constraints, for multi-level modulation schemes. The consideration of the power limitations individually for each transmitting RF chain is a central aspect of this work, and it allows to deal with systems using separate per-antenna amplifiers. Moreover, this feature is also particularly relevant for systems suffering non-linear effects of the channel. This is the case of satellite systems, where the non-linear amplifiers should be properly driven in order to reduce the detrimental saturation effect. In the proposed scheme, the transmitted signals are designed in order to reduce the power peaks, while guaranteeing some specific target signal-to-noise ratios at the receivers. Numerical results are presented in order to show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, which is compared both to the state of the art in symbol-level precoding and to the conventional MMSE precoding approach. [less ▲]

Faster-than-Nyquist Signaling through Spatio-temporal Symbol-level Precoding for the Multiuser MISO Downlink Channel

in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications (2018)

This paper deals with the problem of the interference between multiple co-channel transmissions in the downlink of a multi-antenna wireless system. In this framework, symbol-level precoding is a promising ... [more ▼]

This paper deals with the problem of the interference between multiple co-channel transmissions in the downlink of a multi-antenna wireless system. In this framework, symbol-level precoding is a promising technique which is able to constructively exploit the multi-user interference and to transform it into useful power at the receiver side. While previous works on symbol-level precoding were focused on exploiting the multi-user interference, in this paper we extend this concept by jointly handling the interference both in the spatial dimension (multi-user interference) and in the temporal dimension (inter-symbol interference). Accordingly, we propose a novel precoding method, referred to as spatio-temporal symbol-level precoding. In this new precoding paradigm, faster-than-Nyquist signaling can be applied over multi-user MISO systems, and the inter-symbol interference can be tackled at the transmitter side, without additional complexity for the user terminals. While applying faster-than-Nyquist signaling, the proposed optimization strategies perform a sum power minimization with Quality-of-Service constraints. Numerical results are presented in a comparative fashion to show the effectiveness of the proposed techniques, which outperform the state of the art symbol-level precoding schemes in terms of symbol error rate, effective rate, and energy efficiency. [less ▲]

Spatial PAPR Reduction in Symbol-level Precoding for the Multi-beam Satellite Downlink

in IEEE SPAWC 2017 (2017, July)

In this work, a novel symbol-level precoding scheme is proposed, for managing the multi-user interference in the forward downlink channel of a multi-beam satellite system. Besides exploiting the ... [more ▼]

In this work, a novel symbol-level precoding scheme is proposed, for managing the multi-user interference in the forward downlink channel of a multi-beam satellite system. Besides exploiting the constructive interference effect, the proposed scheme aims at improving the robustness of the transmitted signals to the non-linear distortions of practical satellite systems. This is done by reducing the imbalances between the instantaneous power transmitted by the multiple antennas, which are detrimental in non-linear systems. More specifically, this work proposes a symbol-level precoding scheme performing the minimization of the spatial peak-to-average power ratio, under Quality-of-Service constraints. An iterative algorithm is proposed to solve the related optimization problem. Numerical results are presented to assess the performance of the proposed scheme, which outperforms the state of the art symbol-level precoding techniques in terms of spatial peak-to-average power ratio across the transmitting antennas. [less ▲]

Per-antenna Power Minimization in Symbol-Level Precoding

in IEEE GLOBECOM 2016 (2016, December)

This paper investigates the problem of the interference among multiple simultaneous transmissions in the downlink channel of a multi-antenna wireless system. A symbol-level precoding scheme is considered ... [more ▼]

This paper investigates the problem of the interference among multiple simultaneous transmissions in the downlink channel of a multi-antenna wireless system. A symbol-level precoding scheme is considered, where the data information is used, along with the channel state information, in order to exploit the multi-user interference and transform it into useful power at the receiver side. In this framework, it is important to consider the power limitations individually for each transmitting antenna, since a common practice in multi-antenna systems is the use of separate per-antenna amplifiers. Thus, herein the problem of per-antenna power minimization in symbol-level precoding is formulated and solved, under Quality-of-Service constraints. In the proposed approach, the precoding design is optimized in order to control the instantaneous power transmitted by the antennas, and more specifically to limit the power peaks, while guaranteeing some specific target signal-to-noise ratios at the receivers. Numerical results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, which outperforms the existing state of the art techniques in terms of reduction of the power peaks and of the peak-to-average power ratio across the transmitting antennas. [less ▲]