In FMCW automotive radar applications, it is often a challenge to design a chirp sequence that satisfies the requirements set by practical driving scenarios and simultaneously enables high range resolution, large maximum range, and unambiguous velocity estimation. To support long-range scenarios the chirps should have a sufficiently long duration compared to their bandwidth. At the same time, the long chirps result in ambiguous velocity estimation for targets with high velocity. The problem of velocity ambiguity is often solved by using multiple chirp sequences with co-prime delay shifts between them. However, coherent processing of multiple chirp sequences is not possible using classical spectral estimation techniques based on Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). This results in statistically not efficient velocity estimation and loss of processing gain. In this work, we propose an algorithm that can jointly process multiple chirp sequences and resolve possible ambiguities present in the velocities estimates. The resulting algorithm is statistically efficient, and gridless. Furthermore, it increases the resolution of velocity estimation beyond the natural resolution due to its super-resolution properties. These results are confirmed by both numerical simulations and experiments with automotive radar IC.

In wireless networks, an essential step for precise range-based localization is the high-resolution estimation of multipath channel delays. The resolution of traditional delay estimation algorithms is inversely proportional to the bandwidth of the training signals used for channel probing. Considering that typical training signals have limited bandwidth, delay estimation using these algorithms often leads to poor localization performance. To mitigate these constraints, we exploit the multiband and carrier frequency switching capabilities of wireless transceivers and propose to acquire channel state information (CSI) in multiple bands spread over a large frequency aperture. The data model of the acquired measurements has a multiple shift-invariance structure, and we use this property to develop a high-resolution delay estimation algorithm. We derive the Cramér-Rao Bound (CRB) for the data model and perform numerical simulations of the algorithm using system parameters of the emerging IEEE 802.11be standard. Simulations show that the algorithm is asymptotically efficient and converges to the CRB. To validate modeling assumptions, we test the algorithm using channel measurements acquired in real indoor scenarios. From these results, it is seen that delays (ranges) estimated from multiband CSI with a total bandwidth of 320 MHz show an average RMSE of less than 0.3 ns (10 cm) in 90% of the cases.

For validation and demonstration of high accuracy ranging and positioning algorithms and systems, a wideband radio signal generation and acquisition testbed, tightly synchronized in time and frequency, is needed. The development of such a testbed requires solutions to several challenges. Tight time and frequency synchronization, derived from a centrally distributed time-frequency reference signal, needs to be maintained in the hardware of the transmitter and receiver nodes, and wideband signal acquisition requires sustainable data throughput between the receiver and host PC as well as data storage at GB level. This article presents a testbed for wideband radio signal acquisition, for validation and demonstration of high accuracy ranging and positioning. It consists of multiple Ettus X310 universal software radio peripherals (USRPs) and supports high accuracy (<100 ps) time-deterministic, sustainable signal transmission and acquisition, with a bandwidth up to 320 MHz (in dual channel mode) and frequencies up to 6 GHz. Generation and processing of wideband arbitrary signal waveforms is done offline. To realize these features, radio frequency on chip (RFNoC) compatible HDL units were developed for integration in the X310 SDR platform. Wideband transmission and signal acquisition at a lower duty cycle is applied to reduce the data offloading throughput to the host’s personal computer (PC). Benchmarking of the platform was performed to demonstrate sustainable long duration dual channel acquisition. Indoor range measurements with the synchronous operation of the testbed show a decimeter-level accuracy.

This paper presents a systematic and comprehensive survey that reviews the latest research efforts focused on machine learning (ML) based performance improvement of wireless networks, while considering all layers of the protocol stack: PHY, MAC and network. First, the related work and paper contributions are discussed, followed by providing the necessary background on data-driven approaches and machine learning to help non-machine learning experts understand all discussed techniques. Then, a comprehensive review is presented on works employing ML-based approaches to optimize the wireless communication parameters settings to achieve improved network quality-ofservice (QoS) and quality-of-experience (QoE). We first categorize these works into: radio analysis, MAC analysis and network prediction approaches, followed by subcategories within each. Finally, open challenges and broader perspectives are discussed.

The presence of rich scattering in indoor and urban radio propagation scenarios may cause a high arrival density of multipath components (MPCs). Often the MPCs arrive in clusters at the receiver, where MPCs within one cluster have similar angles and delays. The MPCs arriving within a single cluster are typically unresolvable in the delay domain. In this paper, we analyze the effects of unresolved MPCs on the bias of the delay estimation with a multiband subspace fitting algorithm. We treat the unresolved MPCs as a model error that results in perturbed subspace estimation. Starting from the first-order approximation of the perturbations, we derive the bias of the delay estimate of the line-of-sight (LOS) component. We show that it depends on the power and relative delay of the unresolved MPCs in the first cluster compared to the LOS component. Numerical experiments are included to show that the derived expression for the bias well describes the effects of unresolved MPCs on the delay estimation.

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are nowadays the most common solutions used to cope with Positioning-Navigation-Timing (PNT) applications demands. GNSS are relied on in very diverse contexts and domains, yet the interest in systems such as GPS, GALILEO and Beidou is continuously increasing. However

In this paper, we focus on the problem of blind joint calibration of multiband transceivers and time-delay (TD) estimation of multipath channels. We show that this problem can be formulated as a particular case of covariance matching. Although this problem is severely ill-posed, prior information about radio-frequency chain distortions and multipath channel sparsity is used for regularization. This approach leads to a biconvex optimization problem, which is formulated as a rank-constrained linear system and solved by a simple group Lasso algorithm. Numerical experiments show that the proposed algorithm provides better calibration and higher resolution for TD estimation than current state-of-the-art methods.

This paper presents a systematic and comprehensive survey that reviews the latest research efforts focused on machine learning (ML) based performance improvement of wireless networks, while considering all layers of the protocol stack: PHY, MAC and network. First, the related work and paper contributions are discussed, followed by providing the necessary background on data-driven approaches and machine learning to help non-machine learning experts understand all discussed techniques. Then, a comprehensive review is presented on works employing ML-based approaches to optimize the wireless communication parameters settings to achieve improved network quality-of-service (QoS) and quality-of-experience (QoE). We first categorize these works into: radio analysis, MAC analysis and network prediction approaches, followed by subcategories within each. Finally, open challenges and broader perspectives are discussed.

The presence of rich scattering in indoor and urban radio propagation scenarios may cause a high arrival density of multipath components (MPCs). Often the MPCs arrive in clusters at the receiver, where MPCs within one cluster have similar angles and delays. The MPCs arriving within a single cluster are typically unresolvable in the delay domain. In this paper, we analyze the effects of unresolved MPCs on the bias of the delay estimation with a multiband subspace fitting algorithm. We treat the unresolved MPCs as a model error that results in perturbed subspace estimation. Starting from the first-order approximation of the perturbations, we derive the bias of the delay estimate of the line-of-sight (LOS) component. We show that it depends on the power and relative delay of the unresolved MPCs in the first cluster compared to the LOS component. Numerical experiments are included to show that the derived expression for the bias well describes the effects of unresolved MPCs on the delay estimation.

The multipath radio channel is considered to have a non-bandlimited channel impulse response. Therefore, it is challenging to achieve high resolution time-delay (TD) estimation of multipath components (MPCs) from bandlimited observations of communication signals. It this paper, we consider the problem of multiband channel sampling and TD estimation of MPCs. We assume that the nonideal multi-branch receiver is used for multiband sampling, where the noise is nonuniform across the receiver branches. The resulting data model of Hankel matrices formed from acquired samples has multiple shift-invariance structures, and we propose an algorithm for TD estimation using weighted subspace fitting. The subspace fitting is formulated as a separable nonlinear least squares (NLS) problem, and it is solved using a variable projection method. The proposed algorithm supports high resolution TD estimation from an arbitrary number of bands, and it allows for nonuniform noise across the bands. Numerical simulations show that the algorithm almost attains the Cramér Rao Lower Bound, and it outperforms previously proposed methods such as multiresolution TOA, MI-MUSIC, and ESPRIT.