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In this paper, a novel optimization algorithm, called the acceleration-aided particle swarm optimization (AAPSO), is proposed for reliable dynamic spectrum sensing in cognitive radio networks. In A-APSO, the acceleration variable of the particles in the swarm is also considered in the search space of the optimization problem. We show that the proposed A-APSO based spectrum sensing technique is more efficient in terms of performance than the corresponding one based on the standard particle swarm optimization algorithm., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 2 algorithms, 1 table

Cooperative communication has been shown to provide significant increase of transmission reliability and network capacity while expanding coverage in cellular networks. The present work is devoted to the investigation of the end-to-end performance and power allocation of a maximum-ratio-combining based regenerative multi-relay cooperative network over non-homogeneous scattering environment, which is the case in realistic wireless communication scenarios. Novel analytic expressions are derived for the end-to-end symbol-error-rate of both $M-$ary Phase-Shift Keying and $M-$ary Quadrature Amplitude Modulation over independent and non-identically distributed generalized fading channels. The offered results are expressed in closed-form involving the Lauricella function and can be readily evaluated with the aid of a proposed computational algorithm. Simple expressions are also derived for the corresponding symbol-error-rate at asymptotically high signal-to-noise ratios. The derived expressions are corroborated with respective results from computer simulations and are subsequently employed in formulating a power optimization problem that enhances the system performance under total power constraints within the multi-relay cooperative system. Furthermore, it is shown that optimum power allocation provides substantial performance gains over equal power allocation, particularly, when the source-relay and relay-destination paths are highly unbalanced., Comment: 32 pages, 10 figures

Accurate fading characterization and channel capacity determination are of paramount importance in both conventional and emerging communication systems. The present work addresses the nonlinearity of the propagation medium and its effects on the channel capacity. Such fading conditions are first characterized using information theoretic measures, namely, Shannon entropy, cross entropy and relative entropy. The corresponding effects on the channel capacity with and without power adaptation are then analyzed. Closed-form expressions are derived and validated through comparisons with respective results from computer simulations. It is shown that the effects of fading nonlinearities are significantly larger than those of fading parameters such as the scattered-wave power ratio, and the correlation coefficient between the in-phase and quadrature components in each cluster of multipath components., Comment: Latest/Priprint version

In this paper, we present a novel low-complexity scheme, which improves the performance of single-antenna multi-carrier communication systems, suffering from in-phase and quadrature (I/Q)-imbalance (IQI) at the receiver. We refer to the proposed scheme as I/Q-imbalance self-interference coordination (IQSC). IQSC does not only mitigate the detrimental effects of IQI, but, through appropriate signal processing, also coordinates the self-interference terms produced by IQI in order to achieve second-order frequency diversity. However, these benefits come at the expense of a reduction in transmission rate. More specifically, IQSC is a simple transmit diversity scheme that improves the signal quality at the receiver by elementary signal processing operations across symmetric (mirror) pairs of subcarriers. Thereby, the proposed transmission protocol has a similar complexity as Alamouti's space-time block coding scheme and does not require extra transmit power nor any feedback. To evaluate the performance of IQSC, we derive closed-form expressions for the resulting outage probability and symbol error rate. Interestingly, IQSC outperforms not only existing IQI compensation schemes but also the ideal system without IQI for the same spectral efficiency and practical target error rates, while it achieves almost the same performance as ideal (i.e., IQI-free) equal-rate repetition coding. Our findings reveal that IQSC is a promising low-complexity technique for significantly increasing the reliability of low-cost devices that suffer from high levels of IQI., Comment: Published in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications

Energy efficiency and its optimization constitute critical tasks in the design of low-power wireless networks. The present work is devoted to the error rate analysis and energy-efficiency optimization of regenerative cooperative networks in the presence of multipath fading under spatial correlation. To this end, exact and asymptotic analytic expressions are firstly derived for the symbol-error-rate of $M{-}$ary quadrature amplitude and $M{-}$ary phase shift keying modulations assuming a dual-hop decode-and-forward relay system, spatially correlated Nakagami${-}m$ multipath fading and maximum ratio combining. The derived expressions are subsequently employed in quantifying the energy consumption of the considered system, incorporating both transmit energy and the energy consumed by the transceiver circuits, as well as in deriving the optimal power allocation formulation for minimizing energy consumption under certain quality-of-service requirements. A relatively harsh path-loss model, that also accounts for realistic device-to-device communications, is adopted in numerical evaluations and various useful insights are provided for the design of future low-energy wireless networks deployments. Indicatively, it is shown that depending on the degree of spatial correlation, severity of fading, transmission distance, relay location and power allocation strategy, target performance can be achieved with large overall energy reduction compared to direct transmission reference., Comment: 43 pages, 9 figures

The statistical properties of the multivariate Gamma-Gamma ($\Gamma \Gamma$) distribution with arbitrary correlation have remained unknown. In this paper, we provide analytical expressions for the joint probability density function (PDF), cumulative distribution function (CDF) and moment generation function of the multivariate $\Gamma \Gamma$ distribution with arbitrary correlation. Furthermore, we present novel approximating expressions for the PDF and CDF of the sum of $\Gamma \Gamma$ random variables with arbitrary correlation. Based on this statistical analysis, we investigate the performance of radio frequency and optical wireless communication systems. It is noteworthy that the presented expressions include several previous results in the literature as special cases., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, accepted by IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology

Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) systems have the potential to deliver higher system throughput, compared to contemporary orthogonal multiple access techniques. For a linearly precoded multiple-input multiple-output (MISO) system, we study the downlink sum rate maximization problem, when the NOMA principles are applied. Being a non-convex and intractable optimization problem,we resort to approximate it with a minorization-maximization algorithm (MMA), which is a widely used tool in statistics. In each step of the MMA, we solve a second-order cone program, such that the feasibility set in each step contains that of the previous one, and is always guaranteed to be a subset of the feasibility set of the original problem. It should be noted that the algorithm takes a few iterations to converge. Furthermore, we study the conditions under which the achievable rates maximization can be further simplified to a low complexity design problem, and we compute the probability of occurrence of this event. Numerical examples are conducted to show a comparison of the proposed approach against conventional multiple access systems. NOMA is reported to provide better spectral and power efficiency with a polynomial time computational complexity., Comment: Submitted for journal publication

This work presents analytic solutions for a useful integral in wireless communications, which involves the Marcum $Q{-}$function in combination with an exponential function and arbitrary power terms. The derived expressions have a rather simple algebraic representation which renders them convenient both analytically and computationally. Furthermore, they can be useful in wireless communications and particularly in the context of cognitive radio communications and radar systems, where this integral is often encountered. To this end, we derive novel expressions for the probability of detection in energy detection based spectrum sensing over $\eta{-}\mu$ fading channels. These expressions are given in closed-form and are subsequently employed in analyzing the effects of generalised multipath fading conditions in cognitive radio systems. As expected, it is shown that the detector is highly dependent upon the severity of fading conditions as even slight variation of the fading parameters affect the corresponding performance significantly., Comment: Latest/Preprint Version

This work is devoted to the analysis of the performance of energy detection based spectrum sensing in the presence of enriched fading conditions which are distinct for the large number of multipath components and the lack of a dominant components. This type of fading conditions are characterized efficiently by the well known Nakagami${-}q$ or Hoyt distribution and the proposed analysis is carried out in the context of the area under the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve (AUC). Unlike the widely used probability of detection metric, the AUC is a single metric and has been shown to be rather capable of evaluating the performance of a detector in applications relating to cognitive radio, radar systems and biomedical engineering, among others. Based on this, novel analytic expressions are derived for the average AUC and its complementary metric, average CAUC, for both integer and fractional values of the involved time-bandwidth product. The derived expressions have a tractable algebraic representation which renders them convenient to handle both analytically and numerically. Based on this, they are employed in analyzing the behavior of energy detection based spectrum sensing over enriched fading conditions for different severity scenarios, which demonstrates that the performance of energy detectors is, as expected, closely related to the value of the fading parameter $q$., Comment: Latest/Priprint version. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1505.03700

Energy detection is a favorable mechanism in several applications relating to the identification of deterministic unknown signals such as in radar systems and cognitive radio communications. The present work quantifies the detrimental effects of cascaded multipath fading on energy detection and investigates the corresponding performance capability. A novel analytic solution is firstly derived for a generic integral that involves a product of the Meijer $G-$function, the Marcum $Q-$function and arbitrary power terms. This solution is subsequently employed in the derivation of an exact closed-form expression for the average probability of detection of unknown signals over $N$*Rayleigh channels. The offered results are also extended to the case of square-law selection, which is a relatively simple and effective diversity method. It is shown that the detection performance is considerably degraded by the number of cascaded channels and that these effects can be effectively mitigated by a non-substantial increase of diversity branches., Comment: 12 pages

Novel analytic solutions are derived for integrals that involve the generalized Marcum Q-function, exponential functions and arbitrary powers. Simple closed-form expressions are also derived for the specific cases of the generic integrals. The offered expressions are both convenient and versatile, which is particularly useful in applications relating to natural sciences and engineering, including wireless cpmmunications and signal processing. To this end, they are employed in the derivation of the channel capacity for fixed rate and channel inversion in the case of correlated multipath fading and switched diversity., Comment: 15 Pages, 2 Figures

This paper maximizes the achievable throughput of a relay-assisted wirelessly powered communications system, where an energy constrained source, helped by an energy constrained relay and both powered by a dedicated power beacon (PB), communicates with a destination. Considering the time splitting approach, the source and relay first harvest energy from the PB, which is equipped with multiple antennas, and then transmits information to the destination. Simple closed-form expressions are derived for the optimal PB energy beamforming vector and time split for energy harvesting and information transmission. Numerical results and simulations demonstrate the superior performance compared with some intuitive benchmark beamforming scheme. Also, it is found that placing the relay at the middle of the source-destination path is no longer optimal., Comment: Accepted to appear in IEEE Signal Processing Letters

Modeling and analysis of cooperative spectrum sensing is an important aspect in cognitive radio systems. In this paper, the problem of energy detection (ED) of an unknown signal over Nakagami-$m$ fading is revisited. Specifically, an analytical expression for the local probability of detection is derived, while using the approach of ED at the individual secondary user (SU), a new fusion rule, based on the likelihood ratio test, is presented. The channels between the primary user to SUs and SUs to fusion center are considered to be independent Nakagami-$m$. The proposed fusion rule uses the channel statistics, instead of the instantaneous channel state information, and is based on the Neyman-Pearson criteria. Closed-form solutions for the system-level probability of detection and probability of false alarm are also derived. Furthermore, a closed-form expression for the optimal number of cooperative SUs, needed to minimize the total error rate, is presented. The usefulness of factor graph and sum-product-algorithm models for computing likelihoods, is also discussed to highlight its advantage, in terms of computational cost. The performance of the proposed schemes have been evaluated both by analysis and simulations. Results show that the proposed rules perform well over a wide range of the signal-to-noise ratio., Comment: 29 pages, 9 figures

The smart electricity grid enables a two-way flow of power and data between suppliers and consumers in order to facilitate the power flow optimization in terms of economic efficiency, reliability and sustainability. This infrastructure permits the consumers and the micro-energy producers to take a more active role in the electricity market and the dynamic energy management (DEM). The most important challenge in a smart grid (SG) is how to take advantage of the users' participation in order to reduce the cost of power. However, effective DEM depends critically on load and renewable production forecasting. This calls for intelligent methods and solutions for the real-time exploitation of the large volumes of data generated by a vast amount of smart meters. Hence, robust data analytics, high performance computing, efficient data network management, and cloud computing techniques are critical towards the optimized operation of SGs. This research aims to highlight the big data issues and challenges faced by the DEM employed in SG networks. It also provides a brief description of the most commonly used data processing methods in the literature, and proposes a promising direction for future research in the field., Comment: Published in ELSEVIER Big Data Research

The main limitation of visible light communication (VLC) is the narrow modulation bandwidth, which reduces the achievable data rates. In this paper, we apply the non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) scheme to enhance the achievable throughput in high-rate VLC downlink networks. We first propose a novel gain ratio power allocation (GRPA) strategy that takes into account the users' channel conditions to ensure efficient and fair power allocation. Our results indicate that GRPA significantly enhances system performance compared to the static power allocation. We also study the effect of tuning the transmission angles of the light emitting diodes (LEDs) and the field of views (FOVs) of the receivers, and demonstrate that these parameters can offer new degrees of freedom to boost NOMA performance. Simulation results reveal that NOMA is a promising multiple access scheme for the downlink of VLC networks., Comment: Published in IEEE Photonics Technology Letters. 4 pages, 5 figures

In this paper, we investigate the performance of cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) with multiple antenna nodes over composite and generalized fading channels. We model the probability density function (PDF) of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) using the mixture gamma (MG) distribution. We then derive a generalized closed-form expression for the probability of energy detection, which can be used efficiently for generalized multipath as well as composite (multipath and shadowing) fading channels. The composite effect of fading and shadowing scenarios in CSS is mitigated by applying an optimal fusion rule that minimizes the total error rate (TER), where the optimal number of nodes is derived under the Bayesian criterion, assuming erroneous feedback channels. For imperfect feedback channels, we demonstrate the existence of a TER floor as the number of antennas of the CR nodes increases. Accordingly, we derive the optimal rule for the number of antennas that minimizes the TER. Numerical and Monte-Carlo simulations are presented to corroborate the analytical results and to provide illustrative performance comparisons between different composite fading channels., Comment: Submitted to IEEE Trans. Veh. Techn

Considerable efforts have been devoted to statistical modeling and the characterization of channels in a range of statistical models for fading channels. In this paper, we consider a unified approach to model wireless channels by the mixture of Gaussian (MoG) distribution. Simulations provided have shown the new probability density function to accurately characterize multipath fading as well as composite fading channels. We utilize the well known expectation-maximization algorithm to estimate the parameters of the MoG model and further utilize the Kullback-Leibler divergence and the mean square error criteria to demonstrate that our model provides both high accuracy and low computational complexity, in comparison with existing results. Additionally, we provide closed form expressions for several performance metrics used in wireless communication systems, including the moment generating function, the raw moments, the amount of fading, the outage probability, the average channel capacity, and the probability of energy detection for cognitive radio. Numerical Analysis and Monte-Carlo simulations are presented to corroborate the analytical results and to provide detailed performance comparisons with the other models in the literature., Comment: This paper is submitted to IEEE Trans. Veh. Tech. (Edited: V2)

The increasing demand for spectral and energy efficient communication networks has spurred a great interest in energy harvesting (EH) cognitive radio networks (CRNs). Such a revolutionary technology represents a paradigm shift in the development of wireless networks, as it can simultaneously enable the efficient use of the available spectrum and the exploitation of radio frequency (RF) energy in order to reduce the reliance on traditional energy sources. This is mainly triggered by the recent advancements in microelectronics that puts forward RF energy harvesting as a plausible technique in the near future. On the other hand, it is suggested that the operation of a network relying on harvested energy needs to be redesigned to allow the network to reliably function in the long term. To this end, the aim of this survey paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the recent development and the challenges regarding the operation of CRNs powered by RF energy. In addition, the potential open issues that might be considered for the future research are also discussed in this paper., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, Accepted in IEEE Communications Magazine

In this paper, we consider a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system consisting of one source, one destination and one eavesdropper, where each node is equipped with an arbitrary number of antennas. To improve the security of source-destination transmissions, we investigate the antenna selection at the source and propose the optimal antenna selection (OAS) and suboptimal antenna selection (SAS) schemes, depending on whether the source node has the global channel state information (CSI) of both the main link (from source to destination) and wiretap link (from source to eavesdropper). Also, the traditional space-time transmission (STT) is studied as a benchmark. We evaluate the secrecy performance of STT, SAS, and OAS schemes in terms of the probability of zero secrecy capacity. Furthermore, we examine the generalized secrecy diversity of STT, SAS, and OAS schemes through an asymptotic analysis of the probability of zero secrecy capacity, as the ratio between the average gains of the main and wiretap channels tends to infinity. This is different from the conventional secrecy diversity which assumes an infinite signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) received at the destination under the condition that the eavesdropper has a finite received SNR. It is shown that the generalized secrecy diversity orders of STT, SAS, and OAS schemes are the product of the number of antennas at source and destination. Additionally, numerical results show that the proposed OAS scheme strictly outperforms both the STT and SAS schemes in terms of the probability of zero secrecy capacity., Comment: 11 pages; IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, 2015

Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets) are known to enhance the bandwidth efficiency and throughput of wireless networks by more effectively utilizing the network resources. However, the higher density of users and access points in HetNets introduces significant inter-user interference that needs to be mitigated through complex and sophisticated interference cancellation schemes. Moreover, due to significant channel attenuation and presence of hardware impairments, e.g., phase noise and amplifier nonlinearities, the vast bandwidth in the millimeter-wave band has not been fully utilized to date. In order to enable the development of multi-Gigabit per second wireless networks, we introduce a novel millimeter-wave HetNet paradigm, termed hybrid HetNet, which exploits the vast bandwidth and propagation characteristics in the 60 GHz and 70-80 GHz bands to reduce the impact of interference in HetNets. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the performance advantage of hybrid HetNets with respect to traditional networks. Next, two specific transceiver structures that enable hand-offs from the 60 GHz band, i.e., the V-band to the 70-80 GHz band, i.e., the E-band, and vice versa are proposed. Finally, the practical and regulatory challenges for establishing a hybrid HetNet are outlined., Comment: 12 pages, 5 Figures, IEEE Communication Magazine. In press

In this paper, an energy harvesting dual-hop relaying system without/with the presence of co-channel interference (CCI) is investigated. Specifically, the energy constrained multi-antenna relay node is powered by either the information signal of the source or via the signal receiving from both the source and interferer. In particular, we first study the outage probability and ergodic capacity of an interference free system, and then extend the analysis to an interfering environment. To exploit the benefit of multiple antennas, three different linear processing schemes are investigated, namely, 1) Maximum ratio combining/maximal ratio transmission (MRC/MRT), 2) Zero-forcing/MRT (ZF/MRT) and 3) Minimum mean-square error/MRT (MMSE/MRT). For all schemes, both the systems outage probability and ergodic capacity are studied, and the achievable diversity order is also presented. In addition, the optimal power splitting ratio minimizing the outage probability is characterized. Our results show that the implementation of multiple antennas increases the energy harvesting capability, hence, significantly improves the systems performance. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the CCI could be potentially exploited to substantially boost the performance, while the choice of a linear processing scheme plays a critical role in determining how much gain could be extracted from the CCI., Comment: accepted, to appear IEEE TCOM

This paper introduces the Solar Lab Notebook (SLN), an electronic lab notebook for improving the process of recording and sharing solar related digital information in an organized manner. SLN is a pure web-based application (available online: http://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/sln) that runs client-side only, employing a clean and very friendly graphical user interface design, and thus providing a true cross-platform user experience. Furthermore, SLN leverages unique technologies offered by modern web browsers, such as the FileReader API, the Blob interface and Local Storage mechanism; it is coded entirely using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, and powered by the extremely well documented XML file format. For high-security labs, it can be utilized as an ultra-portable and secure digital notebook solution, since it is functionally self-contained, and does not require any server-side process running on either the local or a remote system. Finally, the W3C XML Schema language is used to define a list of rules, namely a data standard, that an SLN file must conform to in order to be valid. In this way, developers are able to implement their own validation functions in their projects, or use one of the freely available tools to check if a data file is properly structured. Similarly, scientific groups at different labs can easily share information, being confident about the integrity of the exchanged data., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, 1 table. Final content

This work is devoted to the derivation of novel analytic expressions and bounds for a family of special functions that are useful in wireless communication theory. These functions are the well-known Nuttall $Q{-}$function, the incomplete Toronto function, the Rice $Ie$-function and the incomplete Lipschitz-Hankel integrals. Capitalizing on the offered results, useful identities are additionally derived between the above functions and the Humbert, $\Phi_{1}$, function as well as for specific cases of the Kamp${\it \acute{e}}$ de F${\it \acute{e}}$riet function. These functions can be considered useful mathematical tools that can be employed in applications relating to the analytic performance evaluation of modern wireless communication systems such as cognitive radio, cooperative and free-space optical communications as well as radar, diversity and multi-antenna systems. As an example, new closed-form expressions are derived for the outage probability over non-linear generalized fading channels, namely, $\alpha{-}\eta{-}\mu$, $\alpha{-}\lambda{-}\mu$ and $\alpha{-}\kappa{-}\mu$ as well as for specific cases of the $\eta{-}\mu$ and $\lambda{-}\mu$ fading channels. Furthermore, simple expressions are presented for the channel capacity for the truncated channel inversion with fixed rate and the corresponding optimum cut-off signal-to-noise ratio for single-and multi-antenna communication systems over Rician fading channels. The accuracy and validity of the derived expressions is justified through extensive comparisons with respective numerical results., Comment: 63 pages

We study a cloud network with M distributed receiving antennas and L users, which transmit their messages towards a centralized decoder (CD), where M>=L. We consider that the cloud network applies the Compute-and-Forward (C&F) protocol, where L antennas/relays are selected to decode integer equations of the transmitted messages. In this work, we focus on the best relay selection and the optimization of the Physical-Layer Network Coding (PNC) at the relays, aiming at the throughput maximization of the network. Existing literature optimizes PNC with respect to the maximization of the minimum rate among users. The proposed strategy maximizes the sum rate of the users allowing nonsymmetric rates, while the optimal solution is explored with the aid of the Pareto frontier. The problem of relay selection is matched to a coalition formation game, where the relays and the CD cooperate in order to maximize their profit. Efficient coalition formation algorithms are proposed, which perform joint relay selection and PNC optimization. Simulation results show that a considerable improvement is achieved compared to existing results, both in terms of the network sum rate and the players' profits., Comment: Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications

Multidimensional lattice constellations which present signal space diversity (SSD) have been extensively studied for single-antenna transmission over fading channels, with focus on their optimal design for achieving high diversity gain. In this two-part series of papers we present a novel combinatorial geometrical approach based on parallelotope geometry, for the performance evaluation of multidimensional finite lattice constellations with arbitrary structure, dimension and rank. In Part I, we present an analytical expression for the exact symbol error probability (SEP) of multidimensional signal sets, and two novel closed-form bounds, named Multiple Sphere Lower Bound (MLSB) and Multiple Sphere Upper Bound (MSUB). Part II extends the analysis to the transmission over fading channels, where multidimensional signal sets are commonly used to combat fading degradation. Numerical and simulation results show that the proposed geometrical approach leads to accurate and tight expressions, which can be efficiently used for the performance evaluation and the design of multidimensional lattice constellations, both in Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) and fading channels.

This is the second part of a two-part series of papers, where the error performance of multidimensional lattice constellations with signal space diversity (SSD) is investigated. In Part I, following a novel combinatorial geometrical approach which is based on parallelotope geometry, we have presented an exact analytical expression and two closed-form bounds for the symbol error probability (SEP) in Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN). In the present Part II, we extend the analysis and present a novel analytical expression for the Frame Error Probability (FEP) of multidimensional lattice constellations over Nakagami-m fading channels. As the FEP of infinite lattice constellations is lower bounded by the Sphere Lower Bound (SLB), we propose the Sphere Upper Bound (SUB) for block fading channels. Furthermore, two novel bounds for the FEP of multidimensional lattice constellations over block fading channels, named Multiple Sphere Lower Bound (MSLB) and Multiple Sphere Upper Bound (MSUB), are presented. The expressions for the SLB and SUB are given in closed form, while the corresponding ones for MSLB and MSUB are given in closed form for unitary block length. Numerical and simulation results illustrate the tightness of the proposed bounds and demonstrate that they can be efficiently used to set the performance limits on the FEP of lattice constellations of arbitrary structure, dimension and rank.

We investigate the diversity order of decode-and-forward relay selection in Nakagami-m fading, in cases where practical channel estimation techniques are applied. In this respect, we introduce a unified model for the imperfect channel estimates, where the effects of noise, time-varying channels, and feedback delays are jointly considered. Based on this model, the correlation between the actual and the estimated channel values, \rho, is expressed as a function of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), yielding closed-form expressions for the overall outage probability as a function of \rho. The resulting diversity order and power gain reveal a high dependence of the performance of relay selection on the high SNR behavior of \rho, thus shedding light onto the effect of channel estimation on the overall performance. It is shown that when the channel estimates are not frequently updated in applications involving time-varying channels, or when the amount of power allocated for channel estimation is not sufficiently high, the diversity potential of relay selection is severely degraded. In short, the main contribution of this paper lies in answering the following question: How fast should \rho tend to one, as the SNR tends to infinity, so that relay selection does not experience any diversity loss?

We investigate transmission protocols for relay-assisted free-space optical (FSO) systems, when multiple parallel relays are employed and there is no direct link between the source and the destination. As alternatives to all-active FSO relaying, where all the available relays transmit concurrently, we propose schemes that select only a single relay to participate in the communication between the source and the destination in each transmission slot. This selection is based on the channel state information (CSI) obtained either from all or from some of the FSO links. Thus, the need for synchronizing the relays' transmissions is avoided and the slowly varying nature of the atmospheric channel is exploited. For both relay selection and all-active relaying, novel closed-form expressions for their outage performance are derived, assuming the versatile Gamma-Gamma channel model. Furthermore, based on the derived analytical results, the problem of allocating the optical power resources to the FSO links is addressed, and optimum and suboptimum solutions are proposed. Numerical results are provided for equal and non-equal length FSO links, which illustrate the outage behavior of the considered relaying protocols and demonstrate the significant performance gains offered by the proposed power allocation schemes., Comment: 25 pages, 4 figures

The outage probability is an important performance measure for cooperative diversity schemes. However, in mobile environments, the outage probability does not completely describe the behavior of cooperative diversity schemes since the mobility of the involved nodes introduces variations in the channel gains. As a result, the capacity outage events are correlated in time and second-order statistical parameters of the achievable information-theoretic capacity such as the average capacity outage rate (AOR) and the average capacity outage duration (AOD) are required to obtain a more complete description of the properties of cooperative diversity protocols. In this paper, assuming slow Rayleigh fading, we derive exact expressions for the AOR and the AOD of three well-known cooperative diversity protocols: variable-gain amplify-and-forward, decode-and-forward, and selection decode-and-forward relaying. Furthermore, we develop asymptotically tight high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) approximations, which offer important insights into the influence of various system and channel parameters on the AOR and AOD. In particular, we show that on a double-logarithmic scale, similar to the outage probability, the AOR asymptotically decays with the SNR with a slope that depends on the diversity gain of the cooperative protocol, whereas the AOD asymptotically decays with a slope of -1/2 independent of the diversity gain., Comment: IEEE Transactions on Information Theory (2011)

We propose an adaptive transmission technique for free space optical (FSO) systems, operating in atmospheric turbulence and employing subcarrier phase shift keying (S-PSK) intensity modulation. Exploiting the constant envelope characteristics of S-PSK, the proposed technique offers efficient utilization of the FSO channel capacity by adapting the modulation order of S-PSK, according to the instantaneous state of turbulence induced fading and a pre-defined bit error rate (BER) requirement. Novel expressions for the spectral efficiency and average BER of the proposed adaptive FSO system are presented and performance investigations under various turbulence conditions and target BER requirements are carried out. Numerical results indicate that significant spectral efficiency gains are offered without increasing the transmitted average optical power or sacrificing BER requirements, in moderate-to-strong turbulence conditions. Furthermore, the proposed variable rate transmission technique is applied to multiple input multiple output (MIMO) FSO systems, providing additional improvement in the achieved spectral efficiency as the number of the transmit and/or receive apertures increases., Comment: Submitted To IEEE Transactions On Communications

We present a novel analytical framework for the evaluation of important second order statistical parameters, as the level crossing rate (LCR) and the average fade duration (AFD) of the amplify-and-forward multihop Rayleigh fading channel. More specifically, motivated by the fact that this channel is a cascaded one, which can be modelled as the product of N fading amplitudes, we derive novel analytical expressions for the average LCR and AFD of the product of N Rayleigh fading envelopes, or of the recently so-called N*Rayleigh channel. Furthermore, we derive simple and efficient closed-form approximations to the aforementioned parameters, using the multivariate Laplace approximation theorem. It is shown that our general results reduce to the specific dual-hop case, previously published. Numerical and computer simulation examples verify the accuracy of the presented mathematical analysis and show the tightness of the proposed approximations.

Second order statistics provides a dynamic representation of a fading channel and plays an important role in the evaluation and design of the wireless communication systems. In this paper, we present a novel analytical framework for the evaluation of important second order statistical parameters, as the level crossing rate (LCR) and the average fade duration (AFD) of the amplify-and-forward multihop Rayleigh fading channel. More specifically, motivated by the fact that this channel is a cascaded one and can be modeled as the product of N fading amplitudes, we derive novel analytical expressions for the average LCR and the AFD of the product of N Rayleigh fading envelopes (or of the recently so-called N*Rayleigh channel). Furthermore, we derive simple and efficient closed-form approximations to the aforementioned parameters, using the multivariate Laplace approximation theorem. It is shown that our general results reduce to the corresponding ones of the specific dual-hop case, previously published. Numerical and computer simulation examples verify the accuracy of the presented mathematical analysis and show the tightness of the proposed approximations.

We present a novel and accurate approximation for the distribution of the sum of equally correlated Nakagami-m variates. Ascertaining on this result we study the performance of Equal Gain Combining (EGC) receivers, operating over equally correlating fading channels. Numerical results and simulations show the accuracy of the proposed approximation and the validity of the mathematical analysis.

We present novel exact expressions and accurate closed-form approximations for the level crossing rate (LCR) and the average fade duration (AFD) of the double Nakagami-m random process. These results are then used to study the second order statistics of multiple input multiple output (MIMO) keyhole fading channels with space-time block coding. Numerical and computer simulation examples validate the accuracy of the presented mathematical analysis and show the tightness of the proposed approximations.

The Gamma-Gamma (GG) distribution has recently attracted the interest within the research community due to its involvement in various communication systems. In the context of RF wireless communications, GG distribution accurately models the power statistics in composite shadowing/fading channels as well as in cascade multipath fading channels, while in optical wireless (OW) systems, it describes the fluctuations of the irradiance of optical signals distorted by atmospheric turbulence. Although GG channel model offers analytical tractability in the analysis of single input single output (SISO) wireless systems, difficulties arise when studying multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems, where the distribution of the sum of independent GG variates is required. In this paper, we present a novel simple closed-form approximation for the distribution of the sum of independent, but not necessarily identically distributed GG variates. It is shown that the probability density function (PDF) of the GG sum can be efficiently approximated either by the PDF of a single GG distribution, or by a finite weighted sum of PDFs of GG distributions. To reveal the importance of the proposed approximation, the performance of RF wireless systems in the presence of composite fading, as well as MIMO OW systems impaired by atmospheric turbulence, are investigated. Numerical results and simulations illustrate the accuracy of the proposed approach.

In selective cooperative relaying only a single relay out of the set of available relays is activated, hence the available power and bandwidth resources are efficiently utilized. However, implementing selective cooperative relaying in time-varying channels may cause frequent relay switchings that deteriorate the overall performance. In this paper, we study the rate at which a relay switching occurs in selective cooperative relaying applications in time-varying fading channels. In particular, we derive closed-form expressions for the relay switching rate (measured in Hz) for opportunistic relaying (OR) and distributed switch and stay combining (DSSC). Additionally, expressions for the average relay activation time for both of the considered schemes are also provided, reflecting the average time that a selected relay remains active until a switching occurs. Numerical results manifest that DSSC yields considerably lower relay switching rates than OR, along with larger average relay activation times, rendering it a better candidate for implementation of relay selection in fast fading environments.