Abstract:
A method and apparatus for performing blind signal separation in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system are disclosed. A transmitter generates a plurality of spatial streams of data and transmits the spatial streams via a plurality of transmit antennas. A receiver receives the transmitted spatial data streams with a plurality of receive antennas and generates a plurality of receive data streams. The receiver performs a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) on each of the receive data streams to generate a plurality of frequency domain data streams. The receiver then performs a blind signal separation on the frequency domain data streams to recover spatial streams transmitted by the transmitter. The blind signal separation may be performed by using an independent component analysis (ICA) in the complex domain. The blind signal separation may be performed individually for each OFDM subcarrier.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
       [0001]    This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/795,298 filed Apr. 27, 2006, which is incorporated by reference as if fully set forth. 
     
     FIELD OF INVENTION 
       [0002]    The present invention is related to wireless communication systems. More particularly, the present invention is related to a method and apparatus for performing blind signal separation in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0003]    An OFDM MIMO system provides one of the most prominent technologies for high speed wireless communication systems. OFDM MIMO has been adopted for the physical layer of the IEEE 802.11n wireless local area network (WLAN) standard that may support up to 675 Mbps to low mobile users. On the high mobility side, Rev C of CDMA2000 1x evolution-data optimized (1xEV-DO) will be standardized using the OFDM MIMO physical layer to provide up to 73.5 Mbps to high mobility users in a cellular environment. 
         [0004]    One of the most fundamental tasks to be performed by the OFDM MIMO receiver is separation of spatial streams. The separation of spatial streams is usually performed with the help of training sequences that are embedded in the transmitted data streams and are known to a receiver. However, the use of training sequences reduces the overall throughput, and usually requires additional processing at both physical and data link layers of the receiver. 
         [0005]    Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a method and apparatus for performing blind signal separation in an OFDM MIMO system. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0006]    The present invention is related to a method and apparatus for performing blind signal separation in an OFDM MIMO system. A transmitter generates a plurality of spatial data streams and transmits the spatial data streams via a plurality of transmit antennas. A receiver receives the transmitted spatial data streams with a plurality of receive antennas and generates a plurality of receive data streams. The receiver performs a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) on each of the receive data streams to generate a plurality of frequency domain data streams. The receiver then performs a blind signal separation on the frequency domain data streams to recover spatial streams transmitted by the transmitter. The blind signal separation may be performed by using an independent component analysis (ICA) in the complex domain. The blind signal separation may be performed individually for each OFDM subcarrier. 
     
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0007]    A more detailed understanding of the invention may be had from the following description of a preferred embodiment, given by way of example and to be understood in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein: 
           [0008]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of an exemplary OFDM MIMO transmitter configured in accordance with the present invention; 
           [0009]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram of an exemplary OFDM MIMO receiver configured in accordance with the present invention; 
           [0010]      FIG. 3  shows mixing of the signals by the channel and antenna mixing; 
           [0011]      FIGS. 4A-4D  show symbols in the first four subcarriers received at the first receive antenna before separation; and 
           [0012]      FIGS. 5A-5D  show symbols in the first four subcarriers after the ICA separation in accordance with the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0013]    When referred to hereafter, the terminology “transmitter” and “receiver” may be a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU), a user equipment (UE), a mobile station, a fixed or mobile subscriber unit, a pager, a cellular telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a computer, or any other type of user device capable of operating in a wireless environment, or a base station, a Node-B, a site controller, an access point (AP), or any other type of interfacing device capable of operating in a wireless environment. 
         [0014]    The present invention is applicable to any OFDM MIMO wireless communication systems including, but not limited to, IEEE 802.11n, third generation partnership project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE), or the like. 
         [0015]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of an exemplary OFDM MIMO transmitter  100  configured in accordance with the present invention. The transmitter  100  includes a serial-to-parallel (S/P) converter  102 , a plurality of interleavers  104   1 - 104   Nss , a plurality of subcarrier mapping units  106   1 - 106   Nss , an antenna mapping unit  108 , a plurality of inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT) units  110   1 - 110   Ntx , a plurality of radio frequency (RF) units  112   1 - 112   Ntx , and a plurality of transmit antennas  114   1 - 114   Ntx . A high speed input data stream  101  is converted to a plurality of low rate data streams  103   1 - 103   Nss , (N ss  spatial streams), by the S/P converter  102 . Data  103   1 - 103   Nss  in each of the N ss  spatial streams is preferably processed by the interleavers  104   1 - 104   Nss , respectively, in order to improve the robustness in a fading environment. The interleaved data  105   1 - 105   Nss  in each of the N ss  spatial streams is converted to symbols and mapped onto subcarriers by the subcarrier mapping units  106   1 - 106   Nss . 
         [0016]    The subcarrier mapped symbols  107   1 - 107   Nss  in the N ss  spatial streams are then processed by the antenna mapping unit  108 . The antenna mapping unit  108  outputs N tx  transmit data streams  109   1 - 109   Ntx , each of which is mapped to one of the N tx  transmit antennas  114   1 - 114   Ntx . In a MIMO system, the number of spatial streams, (N ss ), is determined as follows: N ss ≦min{N tx , N rx }, where N rx  is the number of receive antennas in a receiver. The antenna mapping function performed by the antenna mapping unit  108  is represented by an antenna mapping matrix Q. Data  109   1 - 109   Ntx  on each of the N tx  transmit data streams is a linear mixing of the symbols  107   1 - 107   Nss  of N ss  spatial streams after the subcarrier mapping. 
         [0017]    After the antenna mapping, data  109   1 - 109   Ntx  on each of the N tx  transmit data streams is converted into time domain data  111   1 - 111   Ntx  by the IDFT units  110   1 - 110   Ntx . The time domain data  111   1 - 111   Ntx  is converted to RF signals  113   1 - 113   Ntx  by the RF units  112   a - 112   Ntx  and the RF signals transmitted via the transmit antennas  114   1 - 114   Ntx . 
         [0018]    Before the interface I 1  in  FIG. 1 , (i.e., before performing antenna mixing), the N ss  symbol streams are separated from each other. After the interface I 1 , the N ss  symbol streams may be mixed either by the antenna mapping matrix and the wireless channel, or by the wireless channel only. 
         [0019]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram of an exemplary OFDM MIMO receiver  200  configured in accordance with the present invention. The receiver  200  includes a plurality of receive antennas  202   1 - 202   Nrx , a plurality of RF units  204   1 - 204   Nrx , a plurality of DFT units  206   1 - 206   Nrx , a signal separation unit  208 , a plurality of subcarrier de-mapping units  210   1 - 210   Nss , a plurality of de-interleavers  212   1 - 212   Nss  and a parallel-to-serial (P/S) converter  214 . 
         [0020]    The RF signals transmitted by the transmitter  100  are detected by the receive antennas  202   1 - 202   Nrx  and a plurality of receive data streams, (N rx  receive data streams), are generated. Data  203   1 - 203   Nrx  on the receive data streams is converted to baseband signals  205   1 - 205   Nrx  by the RF units  204   1 - 204   Nrx . The baseband signals  205   1 - 205   Nrx  are then converted to frequency domain data  207   1 - 207   Nrx  by the DFT units  206   1 - 206   Nrx , (i.e., signals on each of a plurality of frequency bins, (i.e., OFDM subcarriers), are obtained for each of the receive data streams by the DFT units  206   1 - 206   Nrx , respectively). The signal on each frequency bin generated by the DFT units  206   1 - 206   Nrx  represents a mixture of the plurality of spatial streams generated and transmitted by the transmitter  100 . Those multiple spatial streams are separated by the signal separation unit  208 . In accordance with the present invention, the signal separation unit  208  performs blind signal separation to separate multiple spatial streams. The signal separation unit  208  outputs N ss  streams of data  209   1 - 209   Nss . Data  209   1 - 209   Nss  on each of the N ss  streams is processed by the subcarrier de-mapping units  210   1 - 210   Nss . Subcarrier de-mapped data  211   a - 211   Nss  is then processed by the de-interleavers  212   1 - 212   Nss . The de-interleaved data  213   1 - 213   Nss  is then merged into one data stream  215  by the P/S converter  214 . 
         [0021]    The signals during the propagation from interface I 1  in  FIG. 1  to interface I 2  in  FIG. 2  exist as linear mixture of the spatial streams in the frequency domain. The mixing coefficients are generated from the coefficients of the antenna mapping in the transmitter  100  and the frequency response of the MIMO channel. For simplicity, the effects of the antenna patterns, transmission and reception chain are assumed as part of the MIMO channel frequency response. 
         [0022]      FIG. 3  shows mixing of the signals by the channel and/or antenna mixing. The signal at each frequency bin after DFT processing, (i.e., OFDM subcarrier), on each of the receive data streams at the receiver  200  is a linear combination of the symbols in the corresponding frequency bins of the N ss  spatial streams, (after subcarrier mapping), generated by the transmitter  100 . 
         [0023]    An OFDM symbol of the i-th spatial stream is defined as follows: 
         [0000]        s   i   =[s   i (1)  s   i (2) . . .  s   i ( N   f )] T ; 
         [0000]    where N f  is the number of subcarriers. 
         [0024]    A received symbol at the j-th receive data stream is defined as follows: 
         [0000]        r   j   =[r   j (1)  r   j (2) . . .  r   j ( N   f )]. 
         [0025]    For simplicity, it is assumed that the number of transmit data streams and receive data streams are equal to the number of spatial streams, N ss . That is, i=1,2, . . . , N ss  and j=1,2, . . . , N ss . From  FIG. 3 ; 
         [0000]    
       
         
           
             
               
                 
                   
                     
                       r 
                       j 
                     
                      
                     
                       ( 
                       k 
                       ) 
                     
                   
                   = 
                   
                     
                       ∑ 
                       
                         i 
                         = 
                         1 
                       
                       
                         N 
                         ss 
                       
                     
                      
                     
                       
                         H 
                         ij 
                         k 
                       
                        
                       
                         
                           
                             s 
                             i 
                           
                            
                           
                             ( 
                             k 
                             ) 
                           
                         
                         . 
                       
                     
                   
                 
               
               
                 
                   Equation 
                    
                   
                       
                   
                    
                   
                     ( 
                     1 
                     ) 
                   
                 
               
             
           
         
       
     
         [0026]    A symbol vector of symbols mapped onto the same subcarrier of the N ss  spatial streams is defined as follows for the receiver side and the transmitter side, respectively: 
         [0000]    
       
         
           
             
               
                 
                   
                     
                       r 
                       k 
                     
                     = 
                     
                       
                         [ 
                         
                           
                             
                               
                                 
                                   r 
                                   1 
                                 
                                  
                                 
                                   ( 
                                   k 
                                   ) 
                                 
                               
                             
                             
                               
                                 
                                   r 
                                   2 
                                 
                                  
                                 
                                   ( 
                                   k 
                                   ) 
                                 
                               
                             
                             
                               ⋯ 
                             
                             
                               
                                 
                                   r 
                                   
                                     N 
                                     ss 
                                   
                                 
                                  
                                 
                                   ( 
                                   k 
                                   ) 
                                 
                               
                             
                           
                         
                         ] 
                       
                       T 
                     
                   
                   ; 
                   and 
                 
               
               
                 
                   Equation 
                    
                   
                       
                   
                    
                   
                     ( 
                     2 
                     ) 
                   
                 
               
             
             
               
                 
                   
                     s 
                     k 
                   
                   = 
                   
                     
                       
                         [ 
                         
                           
                             
                               
                                 
                                   s 
                                   1 
                                 
                                  
                                 
                                   ( 
                                   k 
                                   ) 
                                 
                               
                             
                             
                               
                                 
                                   s 
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                                  
                                 
                                   ( 
                                   k 
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                               ⋯ 
                             
                             
                               
                                 
                                   s 
                                   
                                     N 
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                                  
                                 
                                   ( 
                                   k 
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                         ] 
                       
                       T 
                     
                     . 
                   
                 
               
               
                 
                   Equation 
                    
                   
                       
                   
                    
                   
                     ( 
                     3 
                     ) 
                   
                 
               
             
           
         
       
     
       Then; 
       [0027]        r   k   =H   k   s   k ;   Equation (4) 
         [0000]    where H k  is the mixing matrix for the k-th subcarrier, (i.e., frequency bin). The element H ji   k  denotes the overall frequency response of the MIMO channel between i-th transmit antenna and j-th receive antenna. 
         [0028]    By arranging the vectors given in Equation (4) in a single column vector, 
         [0000]    
       
         
           
             
               
                 
                   
                     
                       [ 
                       
                         
                           
                             
                               r 
                               1 
                             
                           
                         
                         
                           
                             
                               r 
                               2 
                             
                           
                         
                         
                           
                             ⋮ 
                           
                         
                         
                           
                             
                               r 
                               
                                 N 
                                 f 
                               
                             
                           
                         
                       
                       ] 
                     
                     = 
                     
                       
                         [ 
                         
                           
                             
                               
                                 H 
                                 1 
                               
                             
                             
                               0 
                             
                             
                               ⋯ 
                             
                             
                               0 
                             
                           
                           
                             
                               0 
                             
                             
                               
                                 H 
                                 2 
                               
                             
                             
                               ⋯ 
                             
                             
                               0 
                             
                           
                           
                             
                               ⋮ 
                             
                             
                               
                                   
                               
                             
                             
                               
                                   
                               
                             
                             
                               ⋮ 
                             
                           
                           
                             
                               0 
                             
                             
                               0 
                             
                             
                               ⋯ 
                             
                             
                               
                                 H 
                                 
                                   N 
                                   f 
                                 
                               
                             
                           
                         
                         ] 
                       
                        
                       
                         [ 
                         
                           
                             
                               
                                 s 
                                 1 
                               
                             
                           
                           
                             
                               
                                 s 
                                 2 
                               
                             
                           
                           
                             
                               ⋮ 
                             
                           
                           
                             
                               
                                 s 
                                 
                                   N 
                                   f 
                                 
                               
                             
                           
                         
                         ] 
                       
                     
                   
                   ; 
                 
               
               
                 
                   Equation 
                    
                   
                       
                   
                    
                   
                     ( 
                     5 
                     ) 
                   
                 
               
             
           
         
       
     
         [0000]    or 
         [0000]      r=Hs;   Equation (6) 
         [0000]    where r ε C N     f     N     ss     ×1 , s ε C N     f     N     ss     ×1  and H ε C N     f     N     ss     ×N     f     N     ss   . 
         [0029]    The model in Equation (6) is an ICA model. ICA is a blind signal separation technique in which original signals are separated and restored when a plurality of signals are linearly mixed up by an unknown coefficient. Many algorithms have been developed for performing ICA. 
         [0030]    The signal separation unit  208  receives the symbol vector r and estimates the mixing matrix H to separate the transmitted symbols. The linear transformation by the signal separation unit is essentially the inverse of the mixing matrix given in Equation (6). The signal separation unit  208  may directly perform ICA on the received symbol vector r. 
         [0031]    Alternatively, the signal separation unit  208  may apply the ICA to each of the subcarrier components individually. The mixing matrix in Equation (5) is block diagonal with the majority of elements of zero. This is the result of the fact that the mixing occurs only on individual OFDM subcarriers. The signals in different OFDM subcarriers are orthogonal and therefore they do not mix. Instead of performing a single ICA in accordance with Equation (5), N f  individual ICA operations may be performed in accordance with Equation (4). 
         [0032]      FIGS. 4A-4D  and  5 A- 5 D show simulations results. In the simulation, the OFDM MIMO system comprises two spatial streams. Each of the streams includes 64 sub-carriers, (i.e. 64 frequency bins). The frequency separation between the carriers is 312.5 KHz and the overall bandwidth of the OFDM signal is 20 MHz. The channel model is IEEE TGn case B for 5 GHz and a transmitter-receiver separation of 5 m. The modulation is quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK). Before the received signals are passed to the ICA processing, forty (40) OFDM symbols are accumulated. The ICA algorithm used for the separation is the steepest descent ICA with symmetric orthogonalization. The separation is conducted for each of the subcarriers separately.  FIGS. 4A-4D  show the symbols in the first four subcarriers, (SC 1 -SC 4 ), of the first received antenna before separation, respectively, while  FIGS. 5A-5D  show the corresponding symbols obtained after the separation. As shown in  FIGS. 5A-5D , the symbols are separated in a successful manner in accordance with the present invention. 
         [0033]    Although the features and elements of the present invention are described in the preferred embodiments in particular combinations, each feature or element can be used alone without the other features and elements of the preferred embodiments or in various combinations with or without other features and elements of the present invention. The methods or flow charts provided in the present invention may be implemented in a computer program, software, or firmware tangibly embodied in a computer-readable storage medium for execution by a general purpose computer or a processor. Examples of computer-readable storage mediums include a read only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a register, cache memory, semiconductor memory devices, magnetic media such as internal hard disks and removable disks, magneto-optical media, and optical media such as CD-ROM disks, and digital versatile disks (DVDs). 
         [0034]    Suitable processors include, by way of example, a general purpose processor, a special purpose processor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in association with a DSP core, a controller, a microcontroller, Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) circuits, any other type of integrated circuit (IC), and/or a state machine. 
         [0035]    A processor in association with software may be used to implement a radio frequency transceiver for use in a wireless transmit receive unit (WTRU), user equipment (UE), terminal, base station, radio network controller (RNC), or any host computer. The WTRU may be used in conjunction with modules, implemented in hardware and/or software, such as a camera, a video camera module, a videophone, a speakerphone, a vibration device, a speaker, a microphone, a television transceiver, a hands free headset, a keyboard, a Bluetooth® module, a frequency modulated (FM) radio unit, a liquid crystal display (LCD) display unit, an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display unit, a digital music player, a media player, a video game player module, an Internet browser, and/or any wireless local area network (WLAN) module.