Interference Alignment in Cognitive Relay Networks Under CSI Mismatch

In the presence of perfect channel state information (CSI), the achievable degrees of freedom (DoF) in wireless interference networks can be linearly scaled up with the number of users. Achievability is based on the idea of interference alignment (IA). However, in the presence of imperfect CSI, the sum rate becomes degraded, and full DoF may no longer be achievable. In this paper, the authors propose novel least squares (LS)- and minimum mean square error (MMSE)-based IA schemes that adaptively design beamformers by relying on the availability of imperfect CSI and knowledge of the channel estimation error variance in advance. Interestingly and unlike the other robust algorithms, the proposed adaptive schemes do not impose extra computational complexity compared to their nonadaptive counterparts. It is shown that the LS-based IA is able to outperform interference leakage minimization algorithms under both perfect and imperfect CSI. Furthermore, the authors compare the performance of the proposed MMSE-based IA with maximum signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (Max-SINR) algorithm. The authors show that while under perfect CSI, the MMSE-based IA achieves the same performance as that of Max-SINR, the former outperforms the latter under CSI mismatch. Meanwhile, it is shown that the proposed MMSE-based IA needs less CSI to be available and has less computational complexity compared to Max-SINR.

A novel interference alignment (IA) scheme based on the errors-in-variables (EIV) mathematic model has been proposed to overcome the channel state information (CSI) estimation error for the MIMO interference channels. By solving an equivalently unconstrained optimization problem, the proposed IA scheme employing a weighted total least squares (WTLS) algorithm can obtain the solution to a constrained optimization problem for transmit precoding (TPC) matrices and minimizes the distortion caused by imperfect CSI according to the EIV model. It is shown that the design of TPC matrices can be realized through an efficient iterative algorithm. The convergence of the proposed scheme is presented as well. Simulation results show that the proposed IA scheme is robust over MIMO interference channels with imperfect CSI, which yields significantly better sum rate performance than the existing IA schemes such as distributed iterative IA, maximum signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (Max SINR), and minimum mean square error (MMSE) schemes.

A fundamental problem arising in dense wireless networks is the high co-channel interference. Interference alignment (IA) was recently proposed as an effective way to combat interference in wireless networks. The concept of IA, though, is originated by the capacity study of interference channels and as such, its performance is mainly gauged under ideal assumptions, such as instantaneous and perfect channel state information (CSI) at all nodes, and homogeneous signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) users, i.e., each user has the same average SNR. Consequently, the performance of IA under realistic conditions has not been completely investigated yet. In this paper, we aim at filling this gap by providing a performance assessment of spatial IA in practical systems. Specifically, we derive a closed-form expression for the IA average sum-rate when CSI is acquired through training and users have heterogeneous SNR. A main insight from our analysis is that IA can indeed provide significant spectral efficiency gains over traditional approaches in a wide range of dense network scenarios. To demonstrate this, we consider the examples of linear, grid and random network topologies.

In wireless interference networks, orthogonal medium access techniques like time division multiple access (TDMA) and frequency division multiple access (FDMA) achieve merely one degree of freedom (DoF). However, by using interference alignment (IA) the achievable DoF can be linearly scaled up with the number of users. Nevertheless, this outperformance of IA heavily depends on the availability of perfect channel state information (CSI), which is not a realistic assumption in practice. Since under imperfect CSI, the performance of IA may become severely degraded, design of enhanced IA algorithms by relying on the availability of merely imperfect CSI is of particular interest. In this paper, we propose a least squares (LS)-based IA algorithm which adaptively designs the beamformers based on the knowledge of the channel estimation error variance, which is possible to be known in advance. Then, we compare the performance of the proposed scheme with interference leakage minimization algorithms. It is shown that under both perfect and imperfect CSI, the proposed LS-based IA outperforms interference leakage minimization algorithms.

Interference alignment (IA) is a multi-user wireless communication strategy that enables several transmitters simultaneous communicate with their paired receivers without interfering each other. IA is a multiplexing gain optimal strategy at the expense of requiring the global channel state information (CSI) at the transmitters. Most previous works assume the availability of perfect CSI which is not possible in practice. The performance of IA algorithms based on perfect CSI drop dramatically in circumstance where CSI errors exist. In this paper we propose a robust minimum mean square error (MMSE) IA algorithm with imperfect CSI. Based on a Gaussian statistic channel error model, we give the mean square error objective function with per transmitter power constraint. The objective function is not joint convex in precoders and decoders, but convex in precoders with fixed decoders and vice versa. We convert the problem to two convex sub problems and iteratively find the solutions. Numerical results are presented to validate the effectiveness of proposed algorithm when CSI errors exist.

Interference alignment (IA) is a linear precoding strategy that can achieve optimal capacity scaling at high SNR in interference networks. Most of the existing IA designs require full channel state information (CSI) at the transmitters, which induces a huge CSI signaling cost. Hence it is desirable to improve the feedback efficiency for IA and in this paper, we propose a novel IA scheme with a significantly reduced CSI feedback. To quantify the CSI feedback cost, we introduce a novel metric, namely the feedback dimension. This metric serves as a first-order measurement of CSI feedback overhead. Due to the partial CSI feedback constraint, conventional IA schemes can not be applied and hence, we develop a novel IA precoder/decorrelator design and establish new IA feasibility conditions. Via dynamic feedback profile design, the proposed IA scheme can also achieve a flexible tradeoff between the degree of freedom (DoF) requirements for data streams, the antenna resources and the CSI feedback cost. We show by analysis and simulations that the proposed scheme achieves substantial reductions of CSI feedback overhead under the same DoF requirement in MIMO interference networks.

For the next generation of wireless communication network, a heterogeneous network architecture with macro cells, small cells, and relays offers numerous advantages, such as higher spectrum efficiency, better fairness in resource allocation, and energy efficient usage as well as optimal coverage. However, this approach encounters various network management challenges, including interference mitigation techniques. In this paper, we consider a multi-user half-duplex amplify-and-forward-MIMO relay system, where a macro basis station communicates with edge cell users via relays and each node has multiple antennas. In this context, we propose two interference alignment (IA) schemes, for which a hybrid approach of the problem formulation based on zero-forcing (ZF) and minimum-mean-square-error optimization criteria was developed to deal with interferences in perfect and imperfect channel state information (CSI) cases. In the case of perfect CSI, simulation results show that this approach provides a SNR gain of about 4 dB regarding BER performance in comparison to that achieved by the reference approach, where all filters are determined solely based on ZF criterion. Furthermore, the achieved capacity and effective signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio at each edge node are improved by around 5 dB. Having CSI errors, the system performance is significantly improved using the robust design IA approach by minimizing the expected value of cost functions.

In this paper, a comprehensive comparison analysis in terms of outage probability and average symbol error ratio (SER) is presented for cooperative cognitive multiple-input and multiple-output (CC-MIMO) multiuser systems with amplify-and-forward (AF) protocol. Specially, we consider two scenarios where the CC-MIMO multiuser systems have the perfect and imperfect channel state information (CSI). The CC-MIMO multiuser systems consist of one multi-antenna source, one single-antenna relay, and multiple multi-antenna destinations. At the secondary source and destinations, the maximal ratio transmission (MRT) and maximal ratio combining (MRC) are employed, respectively. For such CC-MIMO multiuser systems, we first obtain the exact closed-form expressions of outage probability under the two cases where the CC-MIMO multiuser systems have the perfect and imperfect CSI. Then, to reduce the implementation complexity, the tight lower bounds of outage probability and average SER are derived. Finally, to obtain insight, by using the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) approximation, the asymptotic estimations of outage probability are achieved. The numerical results show that the derivations are agreed with the simulations, which validate our derivations. At the same time, the results show that, for the systems without perfect CSI, the achievable diversity order reduces to one, regardless of the number of antennas at the cognitive source and destinations as well as the number of the cognitive destinations. Nevertheless, these key parameters affect the coding gain of the CC-MIMO multiuser systems. When the systems have the perfect CSI (or without feedback delay), the achievable diversity gain is determined by the minimum between the number of source’s antennas and the product of the number of destinations and the number of destination’s antennas. For the effect of PU’s parameters, our results indicate that primary systems only affect the coding gain but not the diversity gain.

Interference alignment (IA) is a suggested technique for multiple input multiple output (MIMO) based multipath interference channels to achieve large multiplexed gain. CSI (Channel state information) is required by IA schemes to design precoding vectors at the transmitter side. There will be significant capacity overhead in feedback link. This paper concentrates on the MIMO channels which are having overtime-correlated differential CSI feedback employed by IA design. Utmost multiplexing gain is obtained by the lowest amount of differential feedback. Because of restricted differential feedback, the interference in the upper bound is avoided by using IA system through differential CSI feedback. The analytical performance of the proposed algorithm is done using simulation results and achieved better Sum rate by using normal differential feedback and by using differential feedback through the Lloyd's algorithm.

Interference alignment (IA) is a novel technique to manage interference for multiuser wireless communications. The basic idea of IA in managing interference is based on the subspace separation. Since this property can be easily damaged, one might image that IA is sensitive to errors appeared in channel state information (CSI), which is needed at the transmitter side of each user. In this work, we will show some comparison results between IA and direct transmission (DT). In the DT scheme, the maximum likelihood (ML) receiver is used at each user. The simulation results show that IA systems are indeed very sensitive to CSI errors compared with the DT-ML system, while the complexity of the IA systems in implementation is comparable with the DT-ML systems if the constellation of transmitted symbols is of moderate cardinality.

This paper studies the impact of channel error on the achievable rate of symmetrical K-user multiple-input multiple-output linear interference alignment (IA) networks. The upper and lower bounds of the achievable sum rate are derived analytically with the assumption of orthonormal transmit precoders and receive filters designed from imperfect channel state information (CSI) over both the uncorrelated and correlated channels. For uncorrelated channels, quite tight lower and upper bounds are obtained. The impact of channel error on the degrees of freedom (DoF) and the DoF persistence conditions are also investigated. Results show that the DoF of IA networks persists only if the channel error decreases in an order higher than the signal-to-noise ratio. For correlated channel, the lower and upper bounds for one realization of IA are derived. The derived upper bound can be used to characterize the achievable rate approximately. Simulation results indicate that the achievable rate of IA network is influenced significantly by CSI uncertainty. The obtained analytical bounds provide an intuitive way to show the impact of channel error on the achievable rate and thus can help practical systems deign.

The explosive demand for high data rates and the need ubiquitous wireless connectivity has led to the phenomenon of network densification, the deployment of large number of base station within a geographic area. Since the radio spectrum is limited, wireless transmissions need to share a common resource which results in interference. Interference in turn creates a bottleneck on the communication rate. Recently three breakthroughs have been made to increase the capacity of wireless networks while mitigating interference : multiple input multiple output (MIMO) beamforming, interference alignment (IA) and pattern reconfigurable antennas (PRA). While a great deal of progress has been made on understanding each individually, relatively little is known about how to use these techniques in combination to increase system performance. In this dissertation, we analyze and experimentally evaluate how these new technologies can be leveraged to enhance the rate performance of communication networks. Specifically, we address three problems: i) enhancing multi-user MIMO performance with PRA, ii) improving IA performance with PRA-based antenna selection, and iii) enabling practical blind IA with PRA. To understand the impact PRAs on MU-MIMO and IA, it is necessary to evaluate their performance through measurements. Simulation-based studies often reiterate over set of simplistic channel models and unrealistic assumptions. This dissertation focuses on a measurement-based evaluation approach. For each of these problems, a hardware testbed implementation and measurement methodology is developed for evaluating the performance of the aforementioned technologies through efficient and repeatable experiments. The first two major contributions of this dissertation focus on multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) and IA. While the theoretical rate gains of MU-MIMO and IA are substantial, the performance gains in practical systems and measured channels have been limited. One of the key limiting factors are spatially correlated user channels. In this work, we propose MU-MIMO and IA transmission schemes that leverage the pattern diversity provided by PRAs to mitigate the effects of spatial correlation in wireless channels. PRAs are capable of dynamically adjusting their radiation pattern, providing an additional degree of freedom that can be exploited to improve MU-MIMO and IA performance by treating the array configuration and radiation characteristics as additional components in the joint optimization of adaptive system parameters. We quantify the benefits of pattern diversity on the rate performance of MU-MIMO and IA systems through extensive measurements. Furthermore, we develop efficient antenna mode selection algorithms to realize those benefits without increasing the system complexity or overhead, making these techniques suitable for practical implementation. The third contribution of this dissertation focuses on a transmission technique known as blind IA. In contrast to MU-MIMO and conventional IA, blind IA is signaling scheme that suppresses interference in multi-user systems, without the knowledge of channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT). The key to performing IA without CSIT is the use of PRAs that are capable of dynamically switching among a fixed number of radiation patterns to introduce artificial fluctuations in the channel. In this dissertation, we develop a novel implementation of a blind IA system on a software defined radio platform where each of the receivers is equipped with a PRA. Our work provides the first experimental evaluation of PRA-based blind IA schemes and demonstrates significant gains in rate and reliability over traditional orthogonal transmission schemes such as TDMA.

As a novel method to increase channel capacity of networks, interference alignment (IA) technique has attracted wide attention in fifth-generation wireless networks (5G). However, when it is applied in interference networks, the problem regarding information delay arises which has not been well addressed yet. In this paper, we formally propose the novel concepts of degree of delay (DoD) to quantify the issue of information delay and analyze its determining factors, i.e., delay sensitive factor, queueing delay slot and size of dataset. To reduce DoD, three novel joint IA schemes are proposed for broadcast channel (BC) networks with different amounts of users, i.e., hybrid antenna array based partial interference elimination and retrospective interference regeneration scheme (HAA-PIE-RIR), HAA based improved PIE and RIR scheme (HAA-IPIE-RIR) and HAA based cyclic interference elimination and RIR scheme (HAA-CIE-RIR). Among the three, the second scheme extends the application scenarios of the first scheme from 2-user to K-user while bringing huge computational complexity burden. The third scheme relieves the burden but it leads to slight degree of freedom (DoF) loss. Overall, the proposed schemes achieve higher DoF and lower DoD than the existing IA schemes.

As everyone knows, the energy of signals diminishes with increasing distance, so users at the edge of hexagon cells have lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) than users at the center, which means they are more easily interfered by signals from other base stations. So we consider the application of relay to the cellular case to help users at the edge to eliminate interferences and obtain higher sum-rate. In this paper we don't only use relay to neutralize interferences but also use interference alignment to reduce the number of antennas needed in destinations. To this end, we propose a relay-aided interference alignment and neutralization scheme. The relay knows all channel state information(CSI) and can solve out all signals transmitted by sources. To align and neutralize interferences, the relay needs to retransmit the signals solved out by using proper transmitting vectors. The transmitting vectors in sources and relay are carefully designed to achieve higher sum-rate and simulation results will prove it.

The requirement for global channel state information (CSI) throughout the network is a significant hurdle to overcome in interference alignment (IA) technologies for mobile applications. In this letter, a distributed IA algorithm is proposed that uses local CSI at the receivers to determine desirable precoding matrices for all interfering transmitters. These matrices are fed back to the transmitters where they are combined, using scalar weighting, to determine the next set of transmit precoding matrices. Results herein show that, with equivalent feedback limitations, the proposed algorithm provides better SINR performance than an IA algorithm requiring full CSI-based feedback, due to the smaller dimensions of the precoding matrices.