Wideband wireless access based on direct sequence code division multiple access, called coherent multi-rate W-CDMA in this paper, designed for next generation mobile communications systems is introduced. It employs inter-cell asynchronous operation with a fast cell search algorithm, orthogonal multi-spreading factor (SF) forward links, and pilot symbol assisted coherent reverse and forward links. Inter-cell asynchronous cell site operation facilitates the continuous deployment of the system from outdoors to indoors. An orthogonal multi-SF forward link allows flexible offering of different multi-rate services to users without losing orthogonality. Gains in the radio link capacity and coverage are obtained from the use of coherent Rake combining and fast transmit power control (TPC) in both forward and reverse links. Computer simulation and field experiment results of the coherent multi-rate W-CDMA radio link performance are presented. Also presented are interference cancellation and adaptive antenna array techniques that can significantly improve the link capacity and coverage.

Open-loop (OL) transmit diversity is more subject to the influence of channel estimation error than closed-loop (CL) transmit diversity, although it has the merit of providing better performance in fast Doppler frequency environments because it doesn't require a feedback signal. This paper proposes an OL transmit diversity scheme combined with intra-subframe frequency hopping (FH) and iterative decision-feedback channel estimation (DFCE) in a shared channel for discrete Fourier transform (DFT)-precoded orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA). We apply intra-subframe FH to OL transmit diversity to mitigate the reduction in the diversity gain under high fading correlation conditions among antennas and iterative DFCE to improve the channel estimation accuracy. Computer simulation results show that the required average received signal-to-noise power ratio at the average block error rate (BLER) of 10-2 of the space-time block code (STBC) with intra-subframe FH is reduced to within approximately 0.8dB compared to codebook-based CL transmit diversity when using iterative DFCE at the maximum Doppler frequency of fD =5.55Hz. Moreover, it is shown that STBC with intra-subframe FH and iterative DFCE achieves much better BLER performance compared to CL transmit diversity when fD is higher than approximately 30Hz since the tracking ability of the latter degrades due to the fast fading variation in its feedback loop.

This paper proposes a unified packet scheduling method that considers the delay requirement of each traffic data packet whether real time (RT) or non-real time (NRT), the channel conditions of each accessing user, and the packet type in hybrid automatic repeat request (ARQ), i.e., either initially transmitted packet or retransmitted packet, in the forward link for Orthogonal Frequency and Code Division Multiplexing (OFCDM) wireless access. In the proposed packet scheduling method, the overall priority function is decided based on PTotal = αDelayPDelay + αTypePType + αSINRPSINR (PDelay, PType, and PSINR are the priority functions derived from the delay requirement, type of packet, and the received signal-to-interference plus noise power ratio (SINR), respectively, and αDelay, αType, and αSINR are the corresponding weighting factors). The computer simulation results show that the weighting factor of each priority function as αType/αDelay = 0.6, αSINR/αDelay = 0.4 assuming the linear-type function in PDelay and a constant-type function in PType is optimized. Furthermore, we show that the outage probability for achieving the packet loss rate (PLR) of less than 10-3 for non-real time (NRT) traffic users employing the proposed packet scheduling method is reduced by approximately two orders of magnitude compared to that using the Priority Queuing (PQ) method while maintaining the PLR of real-time (RT) traffic users at the same level as that using the PQ method.

This paper presents a performance comparison of the channel-interleaving method in the frequency domain, i.e., bit interleaving after channel encoding, symbol interleaving after data modulation, and chip interleaving after spreading, for Variable Spreading Factor-Orthogonal Frequency and Code Division Multiplexing (VSF-OFCDM) wireless access with frequency domain spreading, in order to reduce the required average received signal energy per symbol-to-background noise power spectrum density ratio (Es/N0) and achieve the maximum radio link capacity. Simulation results show that, for QPSK data modulation employing turbo coding with the channel coding rate R=3/4, the chip-interleaving method decreases the required average received Es/N0 the most for various radio parameters and propagation model conditions, where the number of code-multiplexing, Cmux, the spreading factor, SF, the r.m.s. delay spread, σ, the number of multipaths, L, and the maximum Doppler frequency, fD, are varied as parameters. For example, when Cmux=12 of SF=16, the improvement in the required average received Es/N0 from the case without interleaving at the average packet error rate (PER) of 10-2, is approximately 0.3, 0.3, and 1.4 dB for the bit, symbol, and chip interleaving, respectively, in a L=12-path exponential decayed Rayleigh fading channel with σ of 0.043 µsec and fD of 20 Hz. This is because the chip interleaving obtains a higher diversity gain by replacing the chip assignment over the entire bandwidth. Meanwhile, in 16QAM data modulation with R=1/2, the performance of the chip interleaving is deteriorated, when Cmux/SF>0.25, due to the inter-code interference caused by different fading variations over the spreading duration since the successive chips during the spreading duration are interleaved to the separated sub-carriers. Thus, bit interleaving exhibits the best performance although the difference between bit interleaving and symbol interleaving is slight. Consequently, we conclude that the bit-interleaving method is the best among the three interleaving methods for reducing the required received Es/N0 considering the tradeoff between the randomization effect of burst errors and the mitigation of inter-code interference assuming the application of adaptive modulation and channel coding scheme in OFCDM employing frequency domain spreading.

This paper presents laboratory experimental results on the throughput performance when key techniques such as adaptive modulation and channel coding (AMC) and hybrid automatic repeat request (ARQ) with packet combining are employed by an implemented transceiver based on the High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) air interface in a multipath fading channel. In AMC operation, we applied four modulation and coding schemes (MCSs): MCS1 (QPSK data modulation with the channel coding rate of R = 1/2, hereafter simply referred to as QPSK with R = 1/2), MCS2 (QPSK with R = 3/4), MCS3 (16 QAM with R = 1/2), and MCS4 (16 QAM with R = 3/4). The results elucidate that a peak average throughput above 5.0 Mbps is achieved at the average received signal energy per chip-to-background noise power spectrum density ratio (Ec/N0) of more than approximately 20 dB in a one-path fading channel; nevertheless, the achievable peak throughput becomes approximately 2.9 (2.6) Mbps due to severe multipath interference (MPI) in a two-path fading channel where the average signal power of the second path is 6 (3) dB lower than that of the first path, assuming nine-code-channel multiplexing with the fading maximum Doppler frequency of fD = 5 Hz. Furthermore, we clarify that although the throughput performance employing Type-II hybrid ARQ (i.e., Incremental redundancy) is almost the same as that employing Type-I hybrid ARQ with packet combining (i.e., Chase combining) in a two-path fading channel, Incremental redundancy exhibits superiority over Chase combing in a one-path fading channel for a high Doppler frequency channel such as fD = 80 Hz.

This paper proposes frequency domain precoding vector switching (PVS) transmit diversity for synchronization signals to achieve fast physical cell identity (PCID) detection for the narrowband (NB)-Internet-of-Things (IoT) radio interface. More specifically, we propose localized and distributed frequency domain PVS transmit diversity schemes for the narrowband primary synchronization signal (NPSS) and narrowband secondary synchronization signal (NSSS), and NPSS and NSSS detection methods including a frequency offset estimation method suitable for frequency domain PVS transmit diversity at the receiver in a set of user equipment (UE). We conduct link-level simulations to compare the detection probabilities of NPSS and NSSS, i.e., PCID using the proposed frequency domain PVS transmit diversity schemes, to those using the conventional time domain PVS transmit diversity scheme. The results show that both the distributed and localized frequency domain PVS transmit diversity schemes achieve a PCID detection probability almost identical to that of the time domain PVS transmit diversity scheme when the effect of the frequency offset due to the frequency error of the UE temperature compensated crystal oscillator (TCXO) is not considered. We also show that for a maximum frequency offset of less than approximately 8 kHz, localized PVS transmit diversity achieves almost the same PCID detection probability. It also achieves a higher PCID detection probability than one-antenna transmission although it is degraded compared to the time domain PVS transmit diversity when the maximum frequency offset is greater than approximately 10 kHz.

This paper proposes an adaptive radio parameter control scheme that utilizes an optimum radio parameter set comprising the maximum number of retransmissions in hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) in addition to the data modulation and channel coding scheme (MCS) according to the Quality of Service (QoS) requirements (i.e., the required packet error rate and delay) and propagation conditions such as the delay spread in the forward link of Orthogonal Frequency and Code Division Multiplexing (OFCDM) broadband wireless access. We elucidate by simulation evaluation that most of the optimum MCSs are common regardless of the delay requirement of traffic data, i.e., common between non-real time (NRT) and real-time (RT) class data. Concretely, the three MCSs of QPSK with the coding rate of R=1/2, 16QAM with R=1/2 and 3/4 are optimum ones, although the additional MCS of QPSK with R=1/3 is effective only for the RT class data in the lower received average received signal energy per symbol-to-background noise power density ratio (Es/N0) region. Furthermore, application of a much higher MCS set, 16QAM with R=5/6 and 64QAM with R=3/4, in addition to the three common MCSs improves the throughput under much higher Es/N0 conditions in a small delay spread environment. The simulation results show that the delay requirement, i.e., the maximum number of retransmissions, in HARQ does not affect the key radio parameter such as MCS, because of informative results such as a smaller number of retransmissions associated with a less-efficient MCS achieves a higher throughput than does using a more highly-efficient MCS allowing a larger number of retransmissions. Consequently, it is concluded that the proposed adaptive radio parameter control according to the QoS requirements substantially results in the selection of the optimum MCS irrespective of the delay requirement except for the extreme case where no retransmissions are allowed and for special propagation channel conditions.

This paper proposes a three-step cell search algorithm that utilizes only the common pilot channel (CPICH) in the forward link and employs spreading by a combination of a cell-specific scrambling code (CSSC) and an orthogonal short code for Orthogonal Frequency and Code Division Multiplexing (OFCDM) broadband packet wireless access. In the proposed cell search algorithm, the OFCDM symbol timing, i.e., Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) window timing, is estimated by detecting the guard interval timing in the first step. Then, in the second step, the frame timing and CSSC group are simultaneously detected by taking the correlation of the CPICH based on the property yielded by shifting the CSSC phase in the frequency domain. Finally, the CSSC within the group is identified in the third step. The most prominent feature of the proposed cell search algorithm is that it does not employ the conventional synchronization channel (SCH), which is exclusively used for the cell search. Computer simulation results elucidate that when the transmission power ratio of the CPICH to one code channel of the traffic channel (TCH) is 12 dB, the proposed cell search method achieves faster cell search time performance compared to the conventional method using the SCH with the transmission power ratio of the SCH to one code channel of the TCH of 6 dB. Furthermore, the results show that it can accomplish the cell search within 1.7 msec at 95% of the locations in a 12-path Rayleigh fading channel with the maximum Doppler frequency of 80 Hz and the r.m.s. delay spread of 0.32 µs.

This paper proposes a three-step cell search algorithm utilizing a synchronization channel (SCH) and common pilot channel (CPICH) in the forward link for OFCDM (Orthogonal Frequency and Code Division Multiplexing) broadband packet wireless access, and evaluates the cell search time performance by computer simulation. In the proposed three-step cell search algorithm, the OFCDM symbol timing, i.e., Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) window timing is estimated employing SCH or guard interval (GI) correlation in the first step. Then, the frame timing is detected by employing the SCH and the cell-specific scrambling code (CSSC) is identified by the CPICH in the second and third steps, respectively. Computer simulation results elucidate that the proposed three-step cell search algorithm achieves fast cell search time performance, i.e., cell detection probability of 90% within approximately 50 msec, assuming the number of CSSCs of 512 in a 19 hexagonal-cell model. We also clarify that there is no prominent difference in cell search time performance between the two employed SCH structures, time-multiplexed and frequency-multiplexed, assuming that the total transmit power of the SCH is the same. Based on the comparison of four substantial cell search algorithms, the GI-plus-SCH correlation method, in which FFT windowing timing detection, frame timing detection, and CSSC identification are performed by GI correlation, frequency-multiplexed SCH, and CPICH, respectively, exhibits the cell search time of approximately 44 msec at the detection probability of 90% with an optimized averaging parameter in each step.

This paper presents a multipath interference canceller (MPIC) configuration based on multipath interference (MPI) replica generation per transmit antenna (called PTA-MPIC). This configuration is associated with Space Time Transmit Diversity (STTD) for the common control physical channel (CCPCH), which takes advantage of tentative decision data after STTD decoding, and with closed-loop type phase control (PC) transmit diversity for the dedicated physical channel (DPCH) employing tentative decision data after diversity combining, in the W-CDMA forward link. This paper also proposes transmitter carrier phase verification, i.e., an antenna verification method used in PC transmit diversity, that utilizes the dedicated pilot symbols in a DPCH after the PTA-MPIC removes the MPI components. The one-stage PTA-MPIC removes the MPI from the common pilot channel (CPICH), the CCPCH, and the synchronization channel (SCH). The simulation results show that this canceller reduces the required average transmit Eb/N0 of the DPCH at the average BER of 10-3 by approximately 3.0 dB compared to that using a MF-based Rake receiver (the transmit power ratio of each common channel to DPCH is RCPICH/DPCH = 3 dB, RCCPCH/DPCH = 5 dB, and RSCH/DPCH = 3 dB, with TPC and without antenna diversity reception at the user equipment). Furthermore, it is shown that in the two-stage PTA-MPIC with MPI suppression for all channels associated with PC transmit diversity, the required average transmit Eb/N0 employing the proposed antenna verification is reduced by approximately 0.3 dB, 0.5 dB, and 1.2 dB compared to that using the conventional antenna verification when the transmission power ratio of the interfering DPCH to the desired DPCH is RInt/Des = 0 dB, 3 dB, and 6 dB for ten DPCHs. This is because the number of detection errors of the transmitted carrier phase in the second antenna due to feedback information bit decoding error is reduced.

This paper presents the best transmit diversity schemes for three types of common/shared control signals from the viewpoint of the block error rate (BLER) performance in the Evolved UTRA downlink employing OFDM radio access. This paper also presents the coverage performance of the common/shared control signals using transmit diversity with respect to the outage probability that satisfies the required BLER performance, which is a major factor determining the cell configuration. Simulation results clarify that Space-Frequency Block Code (SFBC) and the combination of SFBC and Frequency Switched Transmit Diversity (FSTD) are the best transmit diversity schemes among the open-loop type transmit diversity candidates for two-antenna and four-antenna transmission cases, respectively. Furthermore, we show through system-level simulations that SFBC is very effective in reducing the outage probability at the required BLER for the physical broadcast channel (PBCH), for the common control signal with resource block (RB)-level assignment such as the dynamic broadcast channel (D-BCH) and paging channel (PCH), and in increasing the number of accommodated L1/L2 control signals over one transmission time interval duration, using mini-control channel element (CCE)-level assignment.

This paper presents joint maximum likelihood detection (MLD) using channel coding information for orthogonal code division multiple access (CDMA) to decrease the required average received signal-to-noise power ratio (SNR) satisfying the target block error rate (BLER), and investigates the effect of joint MLD from the conventional coherent detection associated with channel coding. In the paper, we assume the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) as specified in Release 8 Long-Term Evolution (LTE) by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) as the radio interface for the uplink control channel. First, we clarify the best scheme for combining correlation signals in two frequency-hopped slots and in two receiver diversity branches for joint MLD. Then, we show that the joint MLD without channel estimation, in which correlation signals are combined in squared form, decreases the required average received SNR compared to that for joint MLD with coherent combining of the correlation signals using channel estimation. Second, we show the effectiveness of joint MLD in terms of the decrease in the required average received SNR compared to the conventional coherent detection in various delay spread channels. Third, we present a comparison of the average BLER performance levels between cyclic shift (CS)-CDMA and block spread (BS)-CDMA using joint MLD. We show that when using joint MLD, BS-CDMA is superior to CS-CDMA due to a lower required received SNR in short delay spread environments and that in contrast, CS-CDMA provides a lower required received SNR compared to BS-CDMA in long delay spread environments.

This paper presents the effect of transmit diversity on the initial and neighboring cell search time performance and the most appropriate transmit diversity scheme based on system-level simulations employing synchronization signals for the Long Term Evolution (LTE) downlink. The synchronization signals including the primary synchronization signal (PSS) and secondary synchronization signal (SSS) are the first physical channel that a set of user equipment (UE) acquires at the initial radio-link connection. The transmit diversity candidates assumed in the paper are Precoding Vector Switching (PVS), Cyclic Delay Diversity (CDD), Time Switched Transmit Diversity (TSTD), and Frequency Switched Transmit Diversity (FSTD), which are all suitable for simple blind detection at a UE. System-level simulation results show that transmit diversity is effective in improving the detection probabilities of the received PSS timing and PSS sequence in the first step and those of the SSS sequence and radio frame timing in the second step of the cell search process. We also show that PVS achieves fast cell search time performance of less than approximately 20ms at the location probability of 90% regardless of the inter-cell site distance up to 10km. Hence, we conclude that PVS is the best transmit diversity scheme for the synchronization signals from the viewpoint of decreasing the initial and neighboring cell search times.

This paper experimentally demonstrates the possibility of 2-Mbps data transmission using a 5-MHz bandwidth (chip rate of 4.096 Mcps) wideband DS-CDMA (W-CDMA) mobile radio link in frequency-selective multipath fading environments. To reduce the mobile station transceiver complexity, three-orthogonal code multiplexing with the spreading factor (SF) of 4 is employed. In such a small SF transmission, the increased multipath interference (MPI) significantly degrades the transmission performance. We consider two-branch antenna diversity reception and fast transmit power control (TPC) as well as channel coding to mitigate the influence of MPI. Laboratory experimental results show that the use of antenna diversity reception is significant and that the fast TPC improves the transmission performance. Furthermore, the impact of the fading maximum Doppler frequency, fD, and that of the channel coding interleaving size, Tint, on the achievable BER performance are also investigated.

This paper proposes a fast target cell search algorithm used during intermittent reception in the idle mode of a mobile station (MS) for inter-cell asynchronous W-CDMA mobile radio. In the proposed scheme, since the base station (BS) informs a MS of the relative average received timing differences between the scrambling code of its BS and those of the surrounding BSs in addition to the scrambling codes, the MS only has to search over the restricted timing duration for the informed scrambling codes. Therefore, the target cell search (i.e., in which the number of candidate cells is limited) can be achieved as fast as in inter-cell synchronous systems. A computer simulation demonstrates that the target cell search time per one super frame (= 720 msec) at the cell detection probability of 95% is accomplished within 5.9 msec (this corresponds to the intermittent time ratio required for the target cell search to become 0.82%), when the transmit power ratios of the common pilot channel (CPICH) and common control physical channel (CCPCH) required for cell search to a dedicated traffic channel (DTCH) are 3 and 6 dB, respectively. In this simulation, the average power delay profile was generated by averaging the instantaneous ones (it was coherently accumulated pilot signal over a 512-chip duration (= 125 µsec) using 4 correlators) over a period of three super frames for 19 target cell-site candidates using the search window with a 10-chip duration (= 2.4 µsec).

This paper investigates the influence of the number of antennas, the angle difference between the direction of arrival (DOA) of the desired signal and those of interfering signals, and the antenna arrangement on the BER performance of the coherent adaptive antenna array diversity (CAAAD) receiver in the wideband DS-CDMA (W-CDMA) reverse link. Experiments assuming high-rate interfering users were conducted in a radio anechoic room using a three-sectored antenna with a 120-degree beam (maximum number of antennas was six). The experimental results showed that the degree to which the interference was suppressed from high-rate users of the CAAAD receiver was significantly increased by increasing the number of antennas, especially when the number of interfering users was larger than degree of freedom of the CAAAD. It was also verified that although the BER performance of the CAAAD receiver significantly improved compared to a single sectored antenna, the improvement remarkably decreased when the DOA difference between the desired signal and interfering signals was within approximately 10-15 degrees irrespective of the number of antennas. Finally, we show that the BER performance difference between the linear and conformal arrangements was small when using the three-sectored antenna.

This paper presents the fast cell search time performance based on laboratory and field experiments of a 2-step cell search algorithm that uses scrambling code masking for inter-cell asynchronous wideband DS-CDMA (W-CDMA) mobile radio. The scrambling code is masked at different time positions during each scrambling period on the forward-link common control channel (CCH) to detect the scrambling code timing at the mobile receiver. Experiments were conducted using the CCH-to-dedicated traffic channel (DTCH) power ratio, R of 3 dB, 10 DTCHs, and 16 scrambling codes in a single-cell and two-cell models. The field experimental results show that the cell search time of about 600 msec was achieved in vehicular environments at the detection probability of 90% and the average received Eb/N0 (N0 is the background noise without interference) of 13-15 dB for DTCH, even in the worst case scenario when the received signal power ratios of the CCH from two cell sites were 0 dB. The cell search time that was achieved with the 3-step cell search algorithm previously proposed by the authors is estimated from the experimental results; the cell search can be accomplished within about 720 msec at a probability of 96% for 512 scrambling codes and 16 scrambling code groups.

In DS-CDMA (including W-CDMA), a received signal can be resolved into multiple paths to be Rake combined. An important design problem of the Rake receiver is how to accurately search the paths with a sufficiently large signal-to-interference plus background noise power ratio (SIR). This paper investigates the performance of a coherent Rake receiver using pilot symbol-assisted channel estimation with fast transmit power control, and thereby optimizes three key parameters: the total averaging period, Tavg, consisting of a combination of coherent summation and power summation; each period of the summations for measuring the average power delay profile; and path-selection threshold M from the generated power delay profile. We used a path search algorithm, which searches the paths that have M times greater average signal power than the interference plus background noise power measured in the average power delay profile generated using time-multiplexed pilot symbols. It was clarified by both simulation and laboratory experiments that when M = 4, Tavg = 50-100 msec, and the number of slots for coherent accumulation R = 2, the required average transmit Eb/N0 for obtaining the average BER of 10-3 is almost minimized with and without antenna diversity for both ITU-R Vehicular-B and average equal power L-path delay profile model, in which each path suffered independent Rayleigh fading. The paper also shows that based on the field experiments, the path search algorithm with optimized path-selection parameters is robust against actual dynamic changes in the power delay profile shape.

This paper proposes an adaptive selection algorithm for the surviving symbol replica candidates (ASESS) based on the maximum reliability in maximum likelihood detection with QR decomposition and the M-algorithm (QRM-MLD) for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) multiplexing. In the proposed algorithm, symbol replica candidates newly-added at each stage are ranked for each surviving symbol replica from the previous stage using multiple quadrant detection. Then, branch metrics are calculated only for the minimum number of symbol replica candidates with a high level of reliability using an iterative loop based on symbol ranking results. Computer simulation results show that the computational complexity of the QRM-MLD employing the proposed ASESS algorithm is reduced to approximately 1/4 and 1/1200 compared to that of the original QRM-MLD and that of the conventional MLD with squared Euclidian distance calculations for all symbol replica candidates, respectively, assuming the identical achievable average packet error rate (PER) performance in 4-by-4 MIMO multiplexing with 16QAM data modulation. The results also show that 1-Gbps throughput is achieved at the average received signal energy per bit-to-noise power spectrum density ratio (Eb/N0) per receiver antenna of approximately 9 dB using the ASESS algorithm in QRM-MLD associated with 16QAM modulation and Turbo coding with the coding rate of 8/9 assuming a 100-MHz bandwidth for a 12-path Rayleigh fading channel (root mean square (r.m.s.) delay spread of 0.26 µs and maximum Doppler frequency of 20 Hz).

This paper investigates an accurate channel estimation method using the common pilot channel (CPICH) in addition to a dedicated pilot channel (PICH) when the fading correlation between the dedicated PICH and CPICH is high, and clarifies the area in which the proposed channel estimation method is effective for adaptive antenna array transmit diversity (AAA-TD) in the forward link. Computer simulation results elucidate that although a more precise channel estimation is possible by using the primary-CPICH (P-CPICH) transmitted from an omni-directional antenna in addition to the dedicated PICH for the area where the distance, d, between a base station and a mobile terminal is longer than approximately 200 m, no improvement is obtained for the area where the value of d is shorter than approximately 200 m. Meanwhile, by employing the secondary-CPICH (S-CPICH) transmitted with several directional beams in addition to the dedicated PICH, the required average received Eb/N0 at the average BER of 10-3 is decreased by approximately 0.4 (0.2-0.4) dB compared to the channel estimation method using only the dedicated PICH regardless of the value of d when the number of antennas is 4 (8).