Interference Cancellation in Low-Power Wireless Sensor Networks

At IMEC, Ultra-low power radio

Scope
The limited availability of spectral resources calls for more efficient ways of spectrum usage in future wireless networks. The spectral efficiency of various current and upcoming systems operating in industrial scientific and medical (ISM) bands, especially in 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz bands, are limited primarily by co-channel interference (CCI). Several techniques may be used to combat CCI. Co-channel interference cancellation is a signal processing approach to cancel CCI and can be employed in receivers using single or multiple antennas.
Advances in electronics and wireless communications have enabled the rapid development of small-size low-power wireless sensors. In a typical wireless sensor network, each node senses and transmits data constrained by a very low power budget. Hence, we are interested in the design of low-complexity interference cancellation techniques for a low power wireless node.

Project Description
The objective of this project is the design of low-power (low-complexity) interference cancellation algorithms. Provided that we have low power and we are operating in a crowded spectrum our focus is to design interference cancellation algorithms that can fulfill our unique power requirements and at the same time provide the desired quality of service.

The project is divided in three main phases:

1. Literature overview
   The student gets acquainted with the state of the art and studies the limitations of classical interference cancellation algorithms including suboptimal solutions such as decorrelator detector, non-linear decision feed-back detectors and multi-stage detectors.
2. Research on low power interference cancellation algorithms
   Algorithms designed for low-power wireless sensor nodes are proposed and studied both analytically and through simulations.
3. Implementation and Testing
   The proposed algorithms are implemented at the hardware platform available at Holst Centre. Tests will be carried out on a real-life scenario.

At the end of the project, the student is expected to produce a comprehensive project report and a technical paper.

Candidate Background
The candidate is a Master’s student in Electrical Engineering, with a solid mathematical and signal processing background. Knowledge of Matlab or C is required. Good spoken and written English is a must. Expected project duration is 8-9 months.

For all inquiries, please contact:

Linda Bouwens-Oosterbosch, Human Resource Advisor, Telephone number +31 (0)40 40 20 518.

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