In this study, optimal channel switching (time sharing) strategies are investigated under average power and cost constraints in order to maximize the average number of correctly received symbols between a transmitter and a receiver that are connected via multiple additive Gaussian noise channels. The optimal strategy is shown to perform channel switching either among at most three channels with full channel utilization (i.e., no idle periods), or between at most two channels with partial channel utilization. In addition, it is stated that the optimal solution must operate at the maximum average power and the maximum average cost, which facilitates low-complexity approaches for calculating the optimal strategy. For two-channel strategies, an upper bound in terms of the noise standard deviations of the employed channels is provided for the ratio between the optimal power levels. Furthermore, a simple condition depending solely on the systems parameters is derived, under which partial channel utilization cannot be optimal. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the validity of the theoretical results.

Optimal channel switching that provides the highest performance over a set of Gaussian channels with variable utilization costs is investigated in the presence of average power and average cost constraints. First, generic cost functions are considered, and it is shown that the optimal channel switching strategy performs channel switching (time sharing) among at most three different channels and always operates at the average power and average cost limits. Also, for channel switching between two channels, relations between the optimal power levels are obtained depending on the average power limit, and it is proved that the ratio of the optimal power levels is upper bounded by the ratio of the larger noise variance to the smaller one. In addition, for logarithmic cost functions, the convexity properties of the error probability are investigated as a function of power and cost, and the optimal channel switching strategy is shown to employ at most two channels, which can easily be determined based on specific formulas, when the average power limit is larger than a certain threshold. Numerical examples are presented to provide illustrations of the theoretical results.

Optimal channel switching and detector design is studied for M-ary communication systems in the presence of stochastic signaling, which facilitates randomization of signal values transmitted for each information symbol. Considering the presence of multiple additive noise channels (which can have non-Gaussian distributions in general) between a transmitter and a receiver, the joint optimization of the channel switching (timesharing) strategy, stochastic signals, and detectors is performed in order to achieve the minimum average probability of error. It is proved that the optimal solution to this problem corresponds to either (i) switching between at most two channels with deterministic signaling over each channel, or (ii) time-sharing between at most two different signals over a single channel (i.e., stochastic signaling over a single channel). For both cases, the optimal solutions are shown to employ corresponding maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) detectors at the receiver. Numerical results are presented to investigate the proposed approach.

Optimal detector randomization is studied for the downlink of a multiuser communications system, in which users can perform time-sharing among multiple detectors. A formulation is provided to obtain optimal signal amplitudes, detectors, and detector randomization factors. It is shown that the solution of this joint optimization problem can be calculated in two steps, resulting in significant reduction in computational complexity. It is proved that the optimal solution is achieved via randomization among at most min{K,Nd} detector sets, where K is the number of users and \Nd is the number of detectors at each receiver. Lower and upper bounds are derived on the performance of optimal detector randomization, and it is proved that the optimal detector randomization approach can reduce the worst-case average probability of error of the optimal approach that employs a single detector for each user by up to K times. Various sufficient conditions are obtained for the improvability and nonimprovability via detector randomization. In the special case of equal crosscorrelations and noise powers, a simple solution is developed for the optimal detector randomization problem, and necessary and sufficient conditions are presented for the uniqueness of that solution. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the improvements achieved via detector randomization.

In this study, the jointly optimal power control with signal constellation randomization is proposed for the downlink of a multiuser communications system. Unlike a conventional system in which a fixed signal constellation is employed for all the bits of a user (for given channel conditions and noise power), power control with signal constellation randomization involves randomization/time-sharing among different signal constellations for each user. A formulation is obtained for the problem of optimal power control with signal constellation randomization, and it is shown that the optimal solution can be represented by a randomization among (K+1) or fewer distinct signal constellations for each user, where K denotes the number of users. In addition to the original nonconvex formulation, an approximate solution based on convex relaxation is derived. Then, detailed performance analysis is presented when the receivers employ symmetric signaling and sign detectors. Specifically, the maximum asymptotical improvement ratio is shown to be equal to the number of users, and the conditions under which the maximum and minimum asymptotical improvement ratios are achieved are derived. Numerical examples are presented to investigate the theoretical results, and to illustrate performance improvements achieved via the proposed approach.

ABSTRACT In this study, optimal and suboptimal receivers are investigated for code‐multiplexed transmitted‐reference (CM‐TR) ultra‐wideband systems. First, a single‐user scenario is considered, and a CM‐TR system is modeled as a generalized noncoherent pulse‐position modulated system. Based on that model, the optimal receiver that minimizes the bit error probability is derived. Then, it is shown that the conventional CM‐TR receiver converges to the optimal receiver under certain conditions and achieves close‐to‐optimal performance in practical cases. Next, multi‐user systems are considered, and the conventional receiver, blinking receiver, and chip discriminator are investigated. Also, the linear minimum mean‐squared error (MMSE) receiver is derived for the downlink of a multi‐user CM‐TR system. In addition, the maximum likelihood receiver is obtained as a performance benchmark. The practicality and the computational complexity of the receivers are discussed, and their performance is evaluated via simulations. The linear MMSE receiver is observed to provide the best trade‐off between performance and complexity/practicality. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.