This paper reviews recent progress in adaptive signal processing techniques for digital mobile radio communications. In Radio Signal Processing (RSP) , digital signal processing is becoming more important because it makes it relatively easy to develop sophisticated adaptive processing techniques, Adaptive signal processing is especially important for carrier signal processing in RSP. Its main objective is to realize optimal or near-optimal radio signal transmission. Application environments of adaptive signal processing in mobile radio are clarified. Adaptive equalization is discussed in detail with the focus on adaptive MLSE based on the blind algorithm. Demodulation performance examples obtained by simulations and experiments are introduced, which demonstrates the recent advances in this field. Next, new trends in adaptive array processing, interference cancelling, and orthogonalization processing are reviewed. Finally, the three automatic calibration techniques that are based on adaptive signal processing are described for realizing high precision transmission devices.

The joint estimation of two unknowns, i.e. system and input sequence, is overviewed in two methodologies of equalization and identification. Statistical approaches such as optimizing the ensamble average of the cost function at the equalizer output have been widely researched. One is based on the principle of distribution matching that total system must be transparent when the equalizer output has the same distribution as the transmitted sequence. Several generalizations for the cost function to measure mis-matching between distributions have been proposed. The other approach applies the higher order statistics like polyspectrum or cumulant, which possesses the entire information of the system. For example, the total response can be evaluated by the polyspectrum measured at equalizer output, and by zero-forcing both side of the response tail the time dependency in the equalizer output can be eliminated. This is based on the second principle that IID simultaneously at input and at output requires a tranparent system. The recent progress of digital mobile communication gives an incentive to a new approach in the Viterbi algorithm. The Viterbi algorithm coupled with the blind channel identification can be established under a finite alphabet of the transmitted symbols. In the blind algorithm, length of the candidate sequence, which decides the number of trellis states, should be defined as long enough to estimate the current channel response. The channel impairments in mobile communication, null spectrum and rapid time-variance, are solved by fast estimation techniques, for example by Kalman filters or by direct solving the short time least squared error equations. The question of what algorithm has the fastest tracking ability is discussed from algebraic view points.

This paper presents an adaptive MLSE (Maximum Likelihood Sequence Estimator) suitable for TDMA cellular systems. The proposed MLSE has two special features such as handling wide dynamic range signals without analogue gain controls and fast channel tracking capability. In order to handle wide dynamic range signals without conventional AGCs (Automatic Gain Controller), the proposed MLSE uses envelope components of received signals obtained from a non-linear log-amplifier module which has wide log-linear gain characteristics. By using digital signal processing technique, the log-converted envelope components are normalized and converted to linear values which conventional adaptive MLSEs can handle. As a channel tracking algorithm of the channel estimator, the proposed MLSE adopts a QT-LMS (Quick-Tracking Least Mean Square) algorithm, which is obtained by modifying LMS algorithm to enable a faster tracking capability. The algorithm has a fast tracking capability with low complexity and is suitable for implementation in a fixed-point digital signal processor. The performances of the MLSE have been evaluated through experiments in TDMA cellular environments with π/4-shifted QPSK, 24.3k symbol/sec. It is shown that, under conditions of 65dB amplitude variations and 80Hz Doppler frequency, the MLSE successfully achieves less than 3% B.E.R., which is required for digital cellular systems.

The performance of selection diversity combined with decision feedback equalizer for reception of TDMA carriers is investigated in this paper. The second generation digital land mobile communication systems standardized in the U.S., Japan, and Europe employ TDMA carriers at transmission bit rates up to several hundreds kbit/s. In order to provide higher quality of mobile communications services to the user with employing TDMA carriers, the systems would require both diversity and equalization techniques to combat attenuation of received signal power level due to Rayleigh fading and intersymbol interference resulting from time-variant multipath fading, respectively. This paper proposes a novel integration method of selection diversity and decision feedback equalization techniques which provides the better bit error rate performance than that for the conventional selection diversity method with decision feedback equalizer. The feature of proposed method is that selection diversity and decision feedback equalization techniques are integrated so as to interwork each other. We call the proposed method by the Decision Feedback Diversity with Decision Feedback Equalizer. The detailed algorithm of the proposed method is first presented, and then the system parameters for the method are evaluated based on the computer simulation results. Finally the computer simulation results for the performance of the proposed method are presented and compared to those for the conventional Selection Diversity with Decision Feedback Equalizer and the conventional Dual Diversity Combining and Equalization method under the typical mobile radio environments, in order to demonstrate the validity of the proposed method.

A receiving system suitable for multipath fading channels with co-channel interference is described. This system is equipped with both an M-sectored directional antenna and an adaptive equalizer to mitigate the influence due to multipath propagation and co-channel interference. By using directional antennas, this receiving system can separate desirable signals from undesirable signals, such as multipath signals with longer delay time and co-channel interference. It accepts multipath signals which can be equalized by maximum likelihood sequence estimation, and rejects both multipath signals with longer delay time and co-channel interference. Based on computer simulation results, the performance of the proposed receiving system is analyzed assuming simple propagation models with Rayleigh-distributed multipath signals and co-channel interference.

This paper proposes a new adaptive Interference Cancelling Equalizer (ICE) with a blind algorithm. From a received signal, ICE not only eliminates inter-symbol interference, but also cancels co-channel interference. Blind ICE can operate well even if training signals for the interference are unknown. First, training signal conditions for applying blind ICE are considered. Next, a theoretical derivation for blind ICE is developed in detail by applying the maximum likelihood estimation theory. It is shown that RLS-MLSE with diversity, which is derived for mobile radio equalizers, is also effective for blind ICE. Computer simulations demonstrate the 40kb/s QDPSK transmission performance of Blind ICE as a blind canceller with two branch diversity reception under Rayleigh fading in a single interference environment. The simulations assume synchronous training; the canceller is trained for the desired signal but not for the interference signals. Blind ICE can be successfully achieved at more than -10dB CIR values when average E_b/N₀ is 15dB and a maximum Doppler frequency is 40Hz.

This paper proposes Coherent-HYBrid Direct-Sequence Fast-Frequency-Hopping (CHYB-DS-FFH) CDMA with Adaptive Interference Cancelling (AIC) for cellular mobile communications. The features of CHYB-DS-FFH are symbol-by-symbol frequency diversity and low chip-rate DS multiplexing both of which are based on a coherent FFH modulation and demodulation scheme. The combination of coherent FFH, space diversity, and AIC is very effective for reducing the performance degradation due to interference. Computer simulations demonstrate BER performance of a 2 hop 500-kHz-interval frequency hopping system using () a linear canceller or () a nonlinear canceller. Both systems employ the two branch space diversity reception of 10kb/s QPSK with FFH over a 1MHz system bandwidth. In quasi-static channels, the average BER performance is 10^-2 with average E_b/N₀ less than 8dB. In dynamic fading channels under full interference conditions, CHYB-DS-FFH with the linear adaptive interference canceller realizes a BER of 10^-2 at the average E_b/N₀ of 15dB with maximum Doppler frequency f_D of 5Hz, whereas CHYB-DS-FFH with the non-linear adaptive interference canceller achieves the same BER at the average E_b/N₀ of 15dB with f_D, equal to 30Hz.

This paper proposes using an adaptive array in a base station for signal reception and transmission in order to increase the spectral efficiency without decreasing the cell radius. The adaptive array controls the directivity pattern of the base station to reduce co-channel interference during reception; the same array pattern is applied during transmission to prevent unnecessary illumination. Computer simulation results show that the cluster size can be reduced to one with time division duplexing (TDD), indicating that we can reuse the same frequency group at all cells. Thus, the improvement in spectral efficiency is as much as 16 fold that of an omni-antenna. Moreover, load sharing, which is expected to improve the channel utilization for unbalanced load situations, is available by cell overlapping. Frequency division duplexing (FDD) requires a weight adjust function to be applied for transmission since the difference in frequency between signal reception and transmission causes null positioning error. However, simple LMS-adjusting can provide a cluster size of one as well as cell overlapping when the frequency deference is 5%.

This paper describes the performance analysis of a distributed antenna system which includes space and path diversity with radio channel estimation. This system is used for CDMA personal communication systems. In this paper, the performance of a diversity system is analyzed precisely considering multipath and inter-antenna interference. In a diversity system, the adaptive RAKE receiver which estimates the characteristics of a radio channel adaptively has been used for diversity combining. In the adaptive RAKE, the time-variant characteristic has been approximated by a time function. In this paper, the estimation performance of the adaptive RAKE is analyzed in cases of time functions of 0-th, first and second degrees. The performances are evaluated and compared with the differential RAKE. The adaptive RAKE is found to improve the signal quality of more than 2dB in comparison with the differential RAKE. It is also found that the optimum parameter design can be achieved flexibly for radio channel estimation by using higher degree time functions.

An adaptive array antenna can be considered as a useful tool of combating with fading in mobile communications. We can directly obtain the optimal weight coefficients without updating in temporal sampling, if the arrival angles and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the desired and the undesired signals can be accurately estimated. The Maximum Entropy Method (MEM) can estimate the arrival angles, and the SNR from spatially sampled signals by an array antenna more precisely than the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT). Therefore, this paper proposes and investigates an adaptive array antenna based on spatial spectral estimation using MEM. We call it MEM array. In order to reduce complexity for implementation, we also propose a modified algorithm using temporal updating as well. Furthermore, we propose a method of both improving estimation accuracy and reducing the number of antenna elements. In the method, the arrival angles can be approximately estimated by using temporal sampling instead of spatial sampling. Computer simulations evaluate MEM array in comparison with DFT array and LMS array, and show improvement owing to its modified algorithm and performance of the improved method.

The paper proposes a new multicarrier 16QAM system for high-quality and high-bit-rate transmission with high spectral efficiency in land mobile radio communications. The proposed system uses a multicarrier transmission scheme to provide immunity against frequency-selective fading distortion. It also uses pilot-symbol-aided 16QAM to increase spectral efficiency, and it combines space diversity and FEC with maximum likelihood decoding to improve the bit error rate (BER) performance. Computer simulation shows that a BER of less than 10^-4 is obtained over frequency-selective fading channels with rms delay spread of less than 5.4µs. Using a bandwidth of 200kHz the proposed system can achieve high-quality transmission with a total information rate of 256kbit/s.

Antenna selection diversity is an effective method to achieve both better transmission performance and compact circuit implementation in TDMA portable radio communications. However, diversity performance in fast fading environments is insufficient. This paper proposes a novel predictive antenna selection diversity scheme, PASD, which improves the diversity performance for higher fading rates. In PASD, received signal power for the assigned data slot is predicted from previously measured data. Thus, selection errors due to the receiving power changes caused by fast Rayleigh fading can be effectively avoided. An experimental result for a 3-ch TDMA system with a frame duration of 20ms shows that the diversity gain was increased by 1.3dB over the conventional method for a fading rate of 40Hz. PASD is also shown to have improved diversity performance against cochannel interference.

This paper presents a structure of adaptive equalizer equipped with a neural network and a Viterbi decoder, and evaluates its performance under a fading environment by means of computer simulation.

The blocking probabilities of n64Kb/s multi-slot calls are generally much higher than that of single slot calls. In order to improve these blocking probabilities of multi-slot calls, we propose a scheme to limit the number of time slots to be searched for lower rate calls. We analyze the performance of our scheme in a double-buffered time-space-time switching network which accommodates multi-slot calls as well as single-slot calls. The proposed method yields the reduced blocking probabilities of multi-slot calls, the increased traffic handling capacity and the reduced CPU processing load, compared with those of the conventional methods.

This paper proposes a digitalized quadrature modulator for burst-by-burst carrier frequency hopping in TDMA-TDD systems. It employs digital frequency synthesis and a multiplexing modulation scheme to give the frequency offset to the modulated IF signal. Moreover, to reduce the frequency settling time of the RF synthesizer below the guard time duration, a phase and frequency preset (PFP) PLL synthesizer is employed. By employing the digital modulation scheme, the proposed modulator needs only one D/A converter, as a result, the complexity of adjusting the DC offset and amplitude between analog signals of the in-phase and the quadrature phase is eliminated. The performance of the proposed modulator is analyzed theoretically and simulated by computers. Theoretical analyses show that the frequency settling time with 15MHz hopping width in the 1900MHz band is reduced by more than 75% from that of the conventional synthesizer. The settling time is less than 40µs which is shorter than the typical guard time of the burst signal format. The analyses also show that the power consumption of the proposed modulator is lower than that of the conventional modulator employing a full band digital frequency converter. Furthermore, the computer simulation confirms that the power spectra and the constellations of the proposed modulator for the coherent and the π/4-shift QPSK modulation schemes can be successfully generated.

A Direct Radiating Array Antenna (DRAA) concept has been introduced to international satellite communications in order to achieve multiple shaped beams which are electrically reconfigurable. The subject of this paper is to describe the new design method for a reconfigurable DRAA. The design procedure consists of three steps, 1) derivation of the initial array layout using Fourier transform method (FTM) , 2) array shape rearrangement, 3) optimization of the final array excitation with the modified constraint least mean square (MCLMS) algorithm. At the first step, it is necessary to derive the initial array layout for the desired shaped beam with respect to array shape, number of antenna elements, and excitation distribution. For this purpose, a new closed form solution of FTM using N-polygonal desired coverage is used. At the second step, the array shape is rearranged to fit the beam forming network (BFN) configuration which can reduce insertion loss and influence on frequency variation sensitivity. At the third step, the array excitation is optimized using MCLMS which is exploited to satisfy the power sum constraints caused by the restriction of the BFN configuration. The design method provides useful insight regarding the layout design of a DRAA with well-shaped coverages, the low insertion loss of the BFN and the high sidelobe isolation characteristic. The design of the reconfigurable DRAA with the specified multiple shaped (beams is demonstrated and compared with the experimental model.

This letter proposes a high speed multifiber connector assembly method, which uses UV-curable adhesive and which does not require a polishing process, thus reducing the connector assembly time. It is confirmed that the assembly time can be reduced to less than half the time required with the conventional assembly method. The multifiber connectors assembled using this method have a low connection loss and stable mechanical characteristics.