In this paper, we investigate the channel estimation and decoding methods exploiting the channel sparsity in pilot-assisted Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) Vector Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (V-OFDM) systems. Based on the sparse multipath channels, we utilize orthogonal and non-orthogonal pilot schemes to design the compressed sensing (CS) measurement process. For the optimization of the sensing matrix, we discuss the influence of pilot search algorithms and evaluation criteria and propose a particle swarm optimization (PSO) based pilot search algorithm with the simplified evaluation criterion to improve the pilot design procedure. Meanwhile, the effect of pilot insertion on the Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR) is reduced by a particular precoding matrix method without affecting the decoding complexity. Simulation data are used to evaluate the classical sparsity adaptive matching (SAMP) algorithms and the proposed Variable Threshold SAMP (VTSAMP) algorithm, and the results show that the improved method has higher channel estimation accuracy with unknown sparsity. On the other hand, to overcome the complexity of CS-based decoding, we design the fully connected Deep Neural Network (FC-DNN) decoders, which combine the results of channel estimation results with the prevalent neural network technology. We observe that when the sparse channels are estimated accurately by CS methods, the proposed FC-DNN can achieve the same performance as the high-precision linear decoder by using the time-domain pilots and channel estimation results. INDEX TERMS MIMO, OFDM, compressed sensing, channel estimation, peak to average power ratio, decoding, neural networks.

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The time-difference method is a common one for measuring wind speed ultrasonically, and its core is the precise arrival-time determination of the ultrasonic echo signal. However, because of background noise and different types of ultrasonic sensors, it is difficult to measure the arrival time of the echo signal accurately in practice. In this paper, a method based on the wavelet transform (WT) and Bayesian information criteria (BIC) is proposed for determining the arrival time of the echo signal. First, the time-frequency distribution of the echo signal is obtained by using the determined WT and rough arrival time. After setting up a time window around the rough arrival time point, the BIC function is calculated in the time window, and the arrival time is determined by using the BIC function. The proposed method is tested in a wind tunnel with an ultrasonic anemometer. The experimental results show that, even in the low-signal-to-noise-ratio area, the deviation between mostly measured values and preset standard values is mostly within 5 μs, and the standard deviation of measured wind speed is within 0.2 m/s.

An ultrasonic sensors system is commonly used to measure the wall thickness of buried pipelines in the transportation of oil and gas. The key of the system is to precisely measure time-of-flight difference (TOFD) produced by the reflection of ultrasonic on the inner and outer surfaces of the pipelines. In this paper, based on deep learning, a novel method termed Wave-Transform Network is proposed to tackle the issues. The network consists of two parts: part 1 is designed to separate the potential overlapping ultrasonic echo signals generated from two surfaces, and part 2 is utilized to divide the sample points of each signal into two types corresponding to before and after the arrival time of ultrasonic echo, which can determine the time-of-flight (TOF) of each signal and calculate the thickness of pipelines. Numerical simulation and actual experiments are carried out, and the results show satisfactory performances.

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