Bounds and Approximations for the Distribution of a Sum of Lognormal Random Variables

A sum of lognormal random variables (RVs) appears in many problems of science and engineering. For example, it is invloved in computing the distribution of recevied signal and interference powers for radio channels subject to lognormal shadow fading. Its distribution has no closed-from expression and it is typically characterized by approximations, asymptotes or bounds. We give a novel upper bound on the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of a sum of $N$ lognormal RVs. The bound is derived from the tangential mean-arithmetic mean inequality. By using the tangential mean, our method replaces the sum of $N$ lognormal RVs with a product of $N$ shifted lognormal RVs. It is shown that the bound can be made arbitrarily close to the desired CDF, and thus it becomes more accurate than any other bound or approximation, as the shift approaches infinity. The bound is computed by numerical integration, for which we introduce the Mellin transform, which is applicable to products of RVs. At the left tail of the CDF, the bound can be expressed by a single Q-function. Moreover, we derive simple new approximations to the CDF, expressed as a product $N$ Q-functions, which are more accurate than the previous method of Farley.

Permutation Polynomial Interleaved Zadoff-Chu Sequences

Constant amplitude zero autocorrelation (CAZAC) sequences have modulus one and ideal periodic autocorrelation function. Such sequences have been used in communications systems, e.g., for reference signals, synchronization signals and random access preambles. We propose a new family CAZAC sequences, which is constructed by interleaving a Zadoff-Chu sequence by a quadratic permutation polynomial (QPP), or by a permutation polynomial whose inverse is a QPP. It is demonstrated that a set of orthogonal interleaved Zadoff-Chu sequences can be constructed by proper choice of QPPs.

Joint radar and communications with multicarrier chirp-based waveform

We consider a multicarrier chirp-based waveform for joint radar and communication (JRC) systems and derive its time discrete periodic ambiguity function (AF). An advantage of the waveform is that it includes a set of waveform parameters (e.g., chirp rate) which together with the transmit sequence, can be selected to flexibly shape the AF to be thumbtack-like, or to be ridge-like, either along the delay axis or the Doppler axis. These shapes are applicable for different use cases, e.g., target detection or time- and frequency synchronization. The results show that better signal detection performance than OFDM and DFT-s-OFDM can be achieved on channels with large Doppler frequency. Furthermore, it is shown how transmit sequences can be selected in order to achieve 0 dB peak-to-average-power-ratio (PAPR) of the waveform.