master thesis project proposals: signal processing...

Claudio Sacchi Master Thesis Proposals – Academic year 2015-2016

MASTER THESIS PROJECT PROPOSALS: SIGNAL PROCESSING FOR WIRELESS AND SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS

Prof. Claudio Sacchi

Academic year 2015-2016


Outlines

General rules;

Project P1: LTE-A Small Cell Wireless Backhauling;

Project P2: Novel radio access techniques for 5G access;

Project P3: LTE Cell Synchronization;

Project P4: Reconfigurable SDR satellite transceivers;

Project P5: Iterative Detection for Turbo-coded Satellite OFDM;

Project P6: Smart wireless vehicular networking;

Project P7: SDR and SDN for terabit satellites;

Project P8: SDR implementation of ASTC Co-Dec;

Project P9: Full-Duplex satellite communications.


General rules

The listed thesis projects are specifically available for Master Students coming from University of Trento, MSc. course on Telecommunications Engineering;

BUT: if a Master student enrolled in another university (Italian, EU, extra-EU, etc.) was strongly committed to work on one of such projects, this is, in principle, allowed PROVIDED THAT he can find an internal supervisor of his/her University interested to the topic of the project as well and be ready to work in remote modality with my research group;

Pre-requirements for the proposed thesis works are:Programming skill (MATLAB, SIMULINK, C, C++);Capability of critically analyzing literature and state-of-the-art;Capability of timely delivering software tools and reports;Serious commitment and attitude to autonomous research.

Submission of papers to international journals and conferences at the end of the thesis project is welcome and strongly encouraged.


P1: LTE-A Small Cell Wireless BackhaulingFramework and scenario:

Wireless backhauling of LTE-A small cells using mm-wave (71-76 GHz, 81-86 GHz) LOS backhauling techniques;

Project topics:Use of non-coherent wideband transmission based on advanced TH-IR techniques;Study of efficient interference mitigation and detection techniques for Point-to-Multi Point backhauling;Performance analysis in terms of efficiency of backhaul operation at networking level (throughput, goodput), not only limited to the analysis at link level (BER, PER).

Thesis in cooperation with University of Rome «Tor Vergata» (URTV)Supervisors: Claudio Sacchi and Fabrizio Granelli (UNITN)Co-supervisors: Talha F. Rahman (UNITN), Cosimo Stallo (URTV)

SOFTWARE TOOLS TO BE USED: MATLAB (link level simulations), NS3 (network-level simulations)


P2: Novel radio techniques for 5G access

Framework and scenario:New waveforms for efficient radio access in 5G networksworking in the mm-wave domain (38 GHz bandwidth);

Project topics:Use of power efficient multicarrier multiple access with constant envelope, namely: CE-OFDMA;Combination of CE-OFDMA with spatial modulation in order to improve system diversity and spectral efficiency.

SOFTWARE TOOLS TO BE USED: MATLAB

Thesis in cooperation with University of Florence (UNIFI)Supervisors: Claudio Sacchi (UNITN)Co-supervisors: Talha F. Rahman (UNITN), Simone Morosi (UNIFI)


P3: LTE Cell SynchronizationFramework and scenario:

Secure cell identification and synchronization in LTE systems (with extension to LTE-A and small-cells);

Project topics:Analysis of potential attacks to LTE cell synchronization and identification;Analysis of security and efficiency of the standard LTE cell identification mechanism based on cross-correlation of binary m-sequences;Study and developments of novel solutions for LTE synchronization based on innovative signal processing methodologies and PN sequences belonging to large- cardinality sets(De Bruijn sequences)

SOFTWARE TOOLS TO BE USED: MATLAB (sequence generation, signal processing tasks)

and other open-source simulators for LTE performance testing (like: TUWIEN simulator)

Thesis in cooperation with UniversitàPolitecnica delle Marche (Ancona, Italy)Supervisor: Claudio Sacchi (UNITN) Co-supervisor: Susanna Spinsante (Università Politecnica delle Marche)


P4: Reconfigurable SDR satellite transceiversFramework and scenario:

Small satellites (cubesats) operating at low frequency bands (2 GHz);

Project topics:Study of communications constraints and impairments of Cubesats;Software-Defined-Radio (SDR) based waveform reconfigurability: narrowband single-carrier, Spread Spectrum, OFDM and/or SC-FDMA: study of a formal criterion for PHY-layer reconfiguration;Simulation of a modular SDR-based reconfigurable satellite modem; Performance analysis by means of simulations and cost/benefits analysis (with tradeoff).

Supervisors: Claudio Sacchi (UNITN)SOFTWARE TOOLS TO BE USED: MATLAB


P5: Iterative detection for turbo-coded satellite OFDMFramework and scenario:

Broadband satellites using OFDM modulation, non-linearly distorted by High-Power-Amplifiers.

Project topics:Implementation of state-of-the-art differential turbo-coded modulation for OFDM systems with related (non-coherent) iterative decoding;Nesting of iterative channel estimation and equalization in the iterative decoder;Channel distortions due to phase noise and nonlinear amplifier distortions; Performance analysis by means of simulations – comparison with state-of-the-art solutions (coherent OFDM, CE-OFDM, etc.)

SOFTWARE TOOLS TO BE USED: MATLAB/SIMULINK

Thesis in cooperation with Dalhousie University (CANADA)Supervisor: Claudio Sacchi (UNITN), Co-supervisor: Christian Schlegel (Dalhousie)

ESA Alphasat’s ‘Aldo Paraboni Q/V Band’ hosted payload


P6: Smart wireless vehicular networking

Framework and scenario:Event detection for smart traffic management in smart cities;

Project topic:Study of efficient protocols for wireless connections of vehicle to traffic management infrastructures in case of critical event occurrence (e.g. car jams or car crashes);Objectives of the thesis: efficient management of network traffic to efficiently manage car traffic even in safety-critical situations.

SOFTWARE TOOLS TO BE USED: MATLAB, NS3, AND/OR OTHER OPEN-SOURCE NETWORK

SIMULATORS

Thesis in cooperation with Technion(ISRAEL)Supervisors: Claudio Sacchi, Fabrizio Granelli (UNITN), Co-supervisor:Reuven Cohen (Technion)


P7: SDR and SDN for Terabit Satellites

Framework and scenario:Broadband multi-beam satellites operating in mm-wave domain (EHF);

Project topic:Use of Software-Defined Radio (SDR), cognitive network and Software-Defined Network (SDN) techniques in multi-user multi-beam terabit satellites;Objectives of the thesis: Efficient bandwidth exploitation, reduction of latencies, maximization of throughput close to 1 Tb/s.

SOFTWARE TOOLS TO BE USED: MATLAB, NS3, AND EMULATIONS OVER OPEN-SOURCE SDR

PLATFORMS (TO BE DISCUSSED)

Thesis in cooperation with Dalhousie University (CANADA) and University of Rome “Tor Vergata” (ITALY)Supervisors: Claudio Sacchi, Fabrizio Granelli (UNITN), Co-supervisor: Christian Schlegel (Dalhousie), Cosimo Stallo (URTV)


P8: SDR implementation of ASTC Co-Dec

Framework and scenario:Novel space-time coding for Software-Defined-Radio (SDR)-based MIMO-OFDM systems;

Project topic:Implementation and testing of novel Algebraic Space-Time Coding (ASTC) and related decoding for MIMO-OFDM over open-source SDR platforms;Feasibility of SDR implementation of ASTC Co-Dec, test in real open-field RF environment.

SOFTWARE TOOLS TO BE USED: OPEN SOURCE GNU-RADIO (OR MATLAB) AND FPGA-BASED

USRP N210 HARDWARE PLATFORMS

Thesis in cooperation with: Higher School of Communications of Tunis (TUNISIA)Supervisors: Claudio Sacchi, Fabrizio Granelli (UNITN), External supervisor:Ahmed Bannour (Higher School of Communications of Tunis)


P9: Full-duplex satellite communications

Framework and scenario:Full-duplex LEO satellite communications for vehicular applications;

Project topic:Analysis of full-duplex interference in satellite channels;Iterative interference cancellation and channel estimation in the RF and baseband domain;SDR-oriented implementation.

SOFTWARE TOOLS TO BE USED: MATLAB SIMULINK

Thesis in cooperation with Dalhousie University(CANADA)Supervisors: Claudio Sacchi (UNITN), Co-supervisor: Christian Schlegel (Dalhousie)

master thesis project proposals: signal processing...

Documents