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Research Articles (Electronic Engineering)

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    Semi-blind channel estimation for multiuser OFDM-IDMA systems.
    (2014) Adisa, Juliana Adeola.; Mneney, Stanley Henry.
    Over the last decade, the data rate and spectral efficiency of wireless mobile communications have been significantly enhanced. OFDM technology has been used in the development of advanced systems such as 3GPP LTE and terrestrial digital TV broadcasting. In general, bits of information in mobile communication systems are conveyed through radio links to receivers. The radio channels in mobile radio systems are usually multipath fading channels, which cause inter-symbol interference (ISI) in the received signal. The ability to know the channel impulse response (CIR) and Channel State Information (CSI) helps to remove the ISI from the signal and make coherent detection of the transmitted signal at the receiver end of the system easy and simple. The information about CIR and CSI are primarily provided by channel estimation. This thesis is focused on the development of multiple access communication technique, Multicarrier Interleave Division Multiple Access (MC-IDMA) and the corresponding estimation of the system channel. It compares various efficient channel estimation algorithms. Channel estimation of OFDM-IDMA scheme is important because the emphasis from previous studies assumed the implementation of MC-IDMA in a perfect scenario, where Channel State Information (CSI) is known. MC-IDMA technique incorporates three key features that will be common to the next generation communication systems; multiple access capability, resistance to multipath fading and high bandwidth efficiency. OFDM is almost completely immune to multipath fading effects and IDMA has a recently proposed multiuser capability scheme which employs random interleavers as the only method for user separation. MC-IDMA combines the features of OFDM and IDMA to produce a system that is Inter Symbol Interference (ISI) free and has higher data rate capabilities for multiple users simultaneously. The interleaver property of IDMA is used by MC-IDMA as the only means by which users are separated at the receiver and also its entire bandwidth expansion is devoted to low rate Forward Error Correction (FEC). This provides additional coding gain which is not present in conventional Multicarrier Multiuser systems, (MC-MU) such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Multicarrier-Code Division Multiple Access (MC-CDMA) systems, and others. The effect of channel fading and both cross-cell and intra-cell Multiple Access Interference (MAI) in MC-IDMA is suppressed efficiently by its low-cost turbo-type Chip-by-Chip (CBC) multiuser detection algorithm. We present the basic principles of OFDM-IDMA transmitter and receiver. Comparative studies between Multiple Access Scheme such as Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), CDMA and IDMA are carried out. A linear Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE)-based estimation algorithm is adopted and implemented. This proposed algorithm is a non-data aided method that focuses on obtaining the CSI, remove ISI and reduce the complexity of the MMSE algorithm. However, to obtain a better and improved system performance, an improved MMSE algorithm and simplified MMSE using the structured correlation and reduced auto-covariance matrix are developed in this thesis and proposed for implementation of semi-blind channel estimation in OFDM-IDMA communication systems. The effectiveness of the adopted and proposed algorithms are implemented in a Rayleigh fading multipath channel with varying mobile speeds thus demonstrating the performance of the system in a practical scenario. Also, the implemented algorithms are compared to ascertain which of these algorithms offers a better and more efficient system performance, and with less complexity. The performance of the channel estimation algorithm is presented in terms of the mean square error (MSE) and bit error rate (BER) in both slow fading and fast fading multipath scenarios and the results are documented as well.
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    Using a terminal switching exchange for computer peripheral sharing and other purposes.
    (1988) Barrett, Alan Peter.; Levy, David C.; Peplow, Roger Charles Samuel.
    Several computers and several tens of terminals at the University of Natal are linked to a terminal switching exchange network known as NUNET, which is in fact part of a countrywide network known as NllNET. This thesis describes software that was written to enhance the usefulness of the network, particularly in the Department of Electronic Engineering. The enhancements include a simple facility to provide help to users of the network, and programs that allow various computers in the Department of Electronic Engineering to create and close network connections. The programs that create and close network connections are used to provide access to printers and plotters that are connected to the network and shared by several computers. Access to peripherals through the network has been integrated into existing printer and plotter driver programs on some of the computers, thus allowing the network to be completely transparent to the user. The same network access programs also allow connections to be made between computers for the purpose of file transfers.