Aame Mammela
VTT Electronics
P.O. Box 1100,FIN-90571 Oulu, Finland
Aarne.Mammela@vtt.fi
Abstract
Signal design for digital communications in linear
multipath fading channels is discussed. We de$ne two
extremes for the symbol rate in single-carrier systems, i.e.,
the Doppler barrier and the intersymbol interference (IS0
barrier and we note that it is difficult to go beyond these
two barriers. The Doppler barrier is roughly equal to the
Doppler spread of the channel. The ISI barrier is roughly
equal to the inverse of the multipath spread of the channel.
We use the time-frequency duality and show that above the
ISI barrier it is advantageous to use frequencymultiplexed signals like orthogonal frequency division
multiplexing (OFDM) signals, and below the Doppler
barrier it is advantageous to use the corresponding timemultiplexed signals. An important parameter defining the
measurability of the channel is the spread factor or the
product of the Doppler spread and the multipath spread.
Communications in overspread channels in which the
spread factor is larger than unity is also discussed. All the
results should be useful for system designers,
1. Introduction
In digital communications in multipath fading linear
channels we have fundamental barriers both at small and
high symbol rates. Those barriers are difficult but not
impossible to pass in ordinary single-carrier systems using
ordinary full-length symbols. We refer to the barriers as
the Doppler and intersymbol interference (ISI) barriers [ 11.
The Doppler barrier for the symbol rate is roughly equal to
the Doppler spread of the channel. The IS1 barrier is
roughly equal to the inverse of the multipath spread of the
channel. The term IS1 barrier was used earlier in [2] and
the term Doppler barrier was used by the author in [ l ] .
The terminology comes originally from the aircraft where
a similar barrier for the velocity, i.e., the sonic barrier,
exists.
We note that depending on the system parameters,
similar barriers can also be caused by the analog parts of
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3. Communications
barrier
below
the
Doppler
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6. Conclusions
The signal design problems were discussed in this
paper. We concluded that above the IS1 barrier we should
use OFDM-type of signals and below the Doppler barrier
we should use time division multiplexing. In many
practical systems we are approaching an overspread
channel. An example system is the GSM/EDGE system
where in one extreme the velocity of trains is 500 km/h.
We note that originally the GSM system used TDMA to
stay well above the Doppler barrier and close to the IS1
barrier even though the bit rate per user is small. In the
EDGE system TDMA has been removed to attain higher
bit rates per user and also more bits per symbol are
transmitted (k = 3). In the future, when the bit rate will be
further increased, it will be natural to use OFDM
modulation, which is selected for some wireless local area
networks (WLAN). We have also shown that DS/CDMA
signals are not very efficient below the Doppler barrier
(signal compression is difficult) nor above the IS1 barrier
(bandwidth is too large and the IS1 may need
equalization).
References
A. Mammela, Diversity Receivers in a Fast Fading
Multipath Channel. Doctoral thesis. VTT Publications 253.
Technical Research Center of Finland, Espoo, Finland,
0-7803-6728-6/01/$10.0002001 IEEE.
1995.
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J. G. Proakis, Digital Communications. 3rd ed. McGrawHill, New York, NY, 1995.
G. M. Vitetta, B. D. Hart, A. Miimmela & D. P. Taylor,
Equalisation techniques for single-carrier, unspread digital
modulations. In: A. Molisch (ed.), Wireless Digital
Wideband Communications. Prentice-Hall, EnglewoodCliffs, NJ, 2001, pp. 155-308.
M. Schwartz, W. R. Bennett & S. Stein, Communication
Systems and Techniques. McGraw-Hill, New York, NY,
1966.
H. L. Van Trees, Detection, Estimation, and Modulation
Theory, Part 111: Radar-Sonar Signal Processing and
Gaussian Signals in Noise. John Wiley & Sons, New York,
NY, 1971.
P. A. Bello, Time-frequency duality. IEEE Transactions on
Information Theory, IT-10 (1): 18-33, January 1964.
P. A. Bello, Measurement of random time-variant linear
channels. IEEE Transactions of Information Theory, IT-15
(4): 469-475, July 1969.
[9]
[lo]
[ll]
[ 121
[13]
[ 141
[I51
Frequency-division multiplexing
Time-division multiplexing
Frequency
Frequency
I
Time
Time
Symbol rate
I
IS1 barrier = 1Multipath spread
Fig. 1. Communications below the Doppler barrier and above the IS1 barrier in an underspreadchannel.
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