Synergistic design of communications and radar systems with common spectral and hardware resources is heralding a new era of efficiently utilizing a limited radio-frequency (RF) spectrum. Such a joint radar communications (JRC) model has advantages of low cost, compact size, less power consumption, spectrum sharing, improml performance, and safety due to enhanced information sharing. Today, millimeter-wave (mm-wave) communications have emerged as the preferred technology for short distance wireless links because they provide transmission bandwidth that is several gigahertz wide. This band is also promising for short-range radar applications, which benefit from the high-range resolution arising from large transmit signal bandwidths. Signal processing techniques are critical to the implementation of mm-wave JRC systems. Major challenges are joint waveform design and performance criteria that would optimally trade off between communications and radar functionalities. Novel multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) signal processing techniques are required because mm-wave JRC systems employ large antenna arrays. There are opportunities to exploit recent advances in cognition, compressed sensing, and machine learning to reduce required resources and dynamically allocate them with low overheads. This article provides a signal processing perspective of mm-wave JRC systems with an emphasis on waveform design.

In millimeter-wave (mmWave) systems, antenna architecture limitations make it difficult to apply conventional fully digital precoding techniques but call for low-cost analog radio frequency (RF) and digital baseband hybrid precoding methods. This paper investigates joint RF-baseband hybrid precoding for the downlink of multiuser multiantenna mmWave systems with a limited number of RF chains. Two performance measures, maximizing the spectral efficiency and the energy efficiency of the system, are considered. We propose a codebook-based RF precoding design and obtain the channel state information via a beam sweep procedure. Via the codebook-based design, the original system is transformed into a virtual multiuser downlink system with the RF chain constraint. Consequently, we are able to simplify the complicated hybrid precoding optimization problems to joint codeword selection and precoder design (JWSPD) problems. Then, we propose efficient methods to address the JWSPD problems and jointly optimize the RF and baseband precoders under the two performance measures. Finally, extensive numerical results are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid precoders.

This paper introduces an iterative optimization framework to tackle the multi-group multicast Max-Min transmit beamforming problem. In each iteration, the optimization problem is decomposed into four sub-problems, all of which can be solved using computationally efficient algorithms. The advantage of proposed method lies in its ability to handle different types of signal constraints like total power and unimodularity; a feature not exhibited by other techniques. The proposed technique outperforms the well-known semidefinite relaxation method in terms of quality of solutions.

This paper introduces a new iterative approach to solve or to approximate the solutions of the nonconvex quadratically constrained quadratic programs (QCQP). First, this constrained problem is transformed to an unconstrained problem using a specialized penalty-based method. A tight upper-bound for the alternative unconstrained objective is introduced. Then an efficient minimization approach to the alternative unconstrained objective is proposed and further studied. The proposed approach involves power iterations and minimization of a convex scalar function in each iteration, which are computationally fast. The important design problem of multigroup multicast beamforming is formulated as a nonconvex QCQP and solved using the proposed method.

We consider the problem of sum-rate maximization in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) amplify-and-forward relay networks with multi-operator. The aim is to design the MIMO relay amplification matrix (i.e., the relay beamformer) to maximize the achievable communication sum rate through the relay. The design problem for the case of single-antenna users can be cast as a non-convex optimization problem, which, in general, belongs to a class of NP-hard problems. We devise a method based on the minorization-maximization technique to obtain quality solutions to the problem. Each iteration of the proposed method consists of solving a strictly convex unconstrained quadratic program. This task can be done quite efficiently, such that the suggested algorithm can handle the beamformer design for relays with up to similar to 70 antennas within a few minutes on an ordinary personal computer. Such a performance lays the ground for the proposed method to be employed in medium-scale (or lower regime massive) MIMO scenarios.

In this paper, we investigate joint beamforming and power allocation in multicell multiple-input single-output (MISO) downlink networks. Our goal is to maximize the utility function defined as the ratio between the system weighted sum rate and the total power consumption subject to the users' quality of service requirements and per-base-station (BS) power constraints. The considered problem is nonconvex and its objective is in a fractional form. To circumvent this problem, we first resort to an virtual uplink formulations of the the primal problem by introducing an auxiliary variable and applying the uplink-downlink duality theory. By exploiting the analytic structure of the optimal beamformers in the dual uplink problem, an efficient algorithm is then developed to solve the considered problem. Furthermore, to reduce further the exchange overhead between coordinated BSs in a large-scale antenna system, an effective coordinated power allocation solution only based on statistical channel state information is reached by deriving the asymptotic optimization problem, which is used to obtain the power allocation in a long-term timescale. Numerical results validate the effectiveness of our proposed schemes and show that both the spectral efficiency and the energy efficiency can be simultaneously improved over traditional downlink coordinated schemes, especially in the middle-high transmit power region.

Design of high bandwidth and reliable feeder links are central toward provisioning new services on the user link of a multibeam satellite communication system. Toward this, utilization of the Q/V band and an exploitation of multiple gateways (GWs) as a transmit diversity measure for overcoming severe propagation effects are being considered. In this context, this contribution deals with the design of a feeder link comprising N + P GWs (N active and P redundant GWs). Toward provisioning the desired availability, a novel switching scheme is analyzed and practical aspects such as prediction-based switching and switching rate are discussed. Unlike most relevant works, a dynamic rain attenuation model is used to analytically derive average outage probability in the fundamental 1 + 1 GW case. Building on this result, an analysis for the N + P scenario leading to a quantification of the end-to-end performance is provided. This analysis aids system sizing by illustrating the interplay between the number of active and redundant GWs on the chosen metrics: average outage and average switching rate.

A digital predistortion (DPD) scheme is presented for non-linear distortion mitigation in multi-carrier satellite communication channels. The proposed DPD has a multiple-input multiple-output architecture similar to data DPD schemes. However, it enhances the mitigation performance of data DPDs using a multi-rate processing algorithm to achieve spectrum broadening of non-linear operators. Compared to single carrier (single-input single-output) signal (waveform) DPD schemes, the proposed DPD has lower digital processing rate reducing the required hardware cost of the predistorter. The proposed DPD outperforms, in total degradation, both data and signal DPD schemes. Further, it performs closest to a channel bound described by an ideally mitigated channel with limited maximum output power.

n this work, we study the design of a precoder on the user downlink of a multibeam satellite channel. The variations in channel due to phase noise introduced by on-board oscillators and the long round trip delay result in outdated channel information at the transmitter. The phase uncertainty is modelled and a robust design framework is formulated based on availability and power constraints. The optimization problem is cast into the convex paradigm after approximations and the benefits of the resulting precoder are highlighted.

This work addresses channel estimation in multiple antenna multicell interference-limited networks. Channel state information (CSI) acquisition is vital for interference mitigation. Wireless networks often suffer from multicell interference, which can be mitigated by deploying beamforming to spatially direct the transmissions. The accuracy of the estimated CSI plays an important role in designing accurate beamformers that can control the amount of interference created from simultaneous spatial transmissions to mobile users. Therefore, a new technique based on the structure of the spatial covariance matrix and the discrete cosine transform (DCT) is proposed to enhance channel estimation in the presence of interference. Bayesian estimation and least squares estimation frameworks are introduced by utilizing the DCT to separate the overlapping spatial paths that create the interference. The spatial domain is thus exploited to mitigate the contamination which is able to discriminate across interfering users. Gains over conventional channel estimation techniques are presented in our simulations which are also valid for a small number of antennas.