Skip to main content
Article
Timing and Carrier Synchronization with Channel Estimation in Multi-Relay Cooperative Networks
IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing (2012)
  • Ali A. Nasir, Australian National University
  • Hani Mehrpouyan
  • Steven D. Blostein
  • Salman Durrani, Australian National University
  • Rodney A. Kennedy, Australian National University
Abstract

Multiple distributed nodes in cooperative networks generally are subject to multiple carrier frequency offsets (MCFOs) and multiple timing offsets (MTOs), which result in time varying channels and erroneous decoding. This paper seeks to develop estimation and detection algorithms that enable cooperative communications for both decode-and-forward (DF) and amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying networks in the presence of MCFOs, MTOs, and unknown channel gains. A novel transceiver structure at the relays for achieving synchronization in AF-relaying networks is proposed. New exact closed-form expressions for the Cramér-Rao lower bounds (CRLBs) for the multi-parameter estimation problem are derived. Next, two iterative algorithms based on the expectation conditional maximization (ECM) and space-alternating generalized expectation-maximization (SAGE) algorithms are proposed for jointly estimating MCFOs, MTOs, and channel gains at the destination. Though the global convergence of the proposed ECM and SAGE estimators cannot be shown analytically, numerical simulations indicate that through appropriate initialization the proposed algorithms can estimate channel and synchronization impairments in a few iterations. Finally, a maximum likelihood (ML) decoder is devised for decoding the received signal at the destination in the presence of MCFOs and MTOs. Simulation results show that through the application of the proposed estimation and decoding methods, cooperative systems result in significant performance gains even in presence of impairments.

Keywords
  • cooperative communications,
  • Cramér-Rao lower bounds (CRLB),
  • expectation conditional maximization (ECM),
  • space-alternating generalized expectation-maximization (SAGE),
  • timing and carrier synchronization
Publication Date
February, 2012
Publisher Statement
© 2012 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. doi: 10.1109/TSP.2011.2174792
Citation Information
Ali A. Nasir, Hani Mehrpouyan, Steven D. Blostein, Salman Durrani, et al.. "Timing and Carrier Synchronization with Channel Estimation in Multi-Relay Cooperative Networks" IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing Vol. 60 Iss. 2 (2012)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/hani_mehrpouyan/16/