On the energy efficiency of spatial modulation concepts

Spatial Modulation (SM) is a Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) transmission technique which realizes low complexity implementations in wireless communication systems. Due the transmission principle of SM, only one Radio Frequency (RF) chain is required in the transmitter. Therefore, the complexity of the transmitter is lower compared to the complexity of traditional MIMO schemes, such as Spatial MultipleXing (SMX). In addition, because of the single RF chain configuration of SM, only one Power Amplifier (PA) is required in the transmitter. Hence, SM has the potential to exhibit significant Energy Efficiency (EE) benefits. At the receiver side, due to the SM transmission mechanism, detection is conducted using a low complexity (single stream) Maximum Likelihood (ML) detector. However, despite the use of a single stream detector, SM achieves a multiplexing gain. A point-to-point closed-loop variant of SM is receive space modulation. In receive space modulation, the concept of SM is extended at the receiver side, using linear precoding with Channel State Information at the Transmitter (CSIT). Even though receive space modulation does not preserve the single RF chain configuration of SM, due to the deployed linear precoding, it can be efficiently incorporated in a Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA) or in a Virtual Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (VMIMO) architecture. Inspired by the potentials of SM, the objectives of this thesis are the evaluation of the EE of SM and its extension in different forms of MIMO communication. In particular, a realistic power model for the power consumption of a Base Station (BS) is deployed in order to assess the EE of SM in terms of Mbps/J. By taking into account the whole power supply of a BS and considering a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) multiple access scheme, it is shown that SM is significantly more energy efficient compared to the traditional MIMO techniques. In the considered system setup, it is shown that SM is up to 67% more energy efficient compared to the benchmark systems. In addition, the concept of space modulation is researched at the receiver side. Specifically, based on the union bound technique, a framework for the evaluation of the Average Bit Error Probability (ABEP), diversity order, and coding gain of receive space modulation is developed. Because receive space modulation deploys linear precoding with CSIT, two new precoding methods which utilize imperfect CSIT are proposed. Furthermore, in this thesis, receive space modulation is incorporated in the broadcast channel. The derivation of the theoretical ABEP, diversity order, and coding gain of the new broadcast scheme is provided. It is concluded that receive space modulation is able to outperform the corresponding traditional MIMO scheme. Finally, SM, receive space modulation, and relaying are combined in order to form a novel virtual MIMO architecture. It is shown that the new architecture practically eliminates or reduces the problem of the inefficient relaying of the uncoordinated virtual MIMO space modulation architectures. This is undertaken by using precoding in a novel fashion. The evaluation of the new architecture is conducted using simulation and theoretical results.