abstract = "Automatic modulation classification detects the
modulation type of received communication signals. It
has important applications in military scenarios to
facilitate jamming, intelligence, surveillance, and
threat analysis. The renewed interest from civilian
scenes has been fuelled by the development of
intelligent communications systems such as cognitive
radio and software defined radio. More specifically, it
is complementary to adaptive modulation and coding
where a modulation can be deployed from a set of
candidates according to the channel condition and
system specification for improved spectrum efficiency
and link reliability. In this research, we started by
improving some existing methods for higher
classification accuracy but lower complexity. Machine
learning techniques such as k-nearest neighbour and
support vector machine have been adopted for simplified
decision making using known features. Logistic
regression, genetic algorithm and genetic programming
have been incorporated for improved classification
performance through feature selection and combination.
We have also developed a new distribution test based
classifier which is tailored for modulation
classification with the inspiration from
Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The proposed classifier is
shown to have improved accuracy and robustness over the
standard distribution test. For blind classification in
imperfect channels, we developed the combination of
minimum distance centroid estimator and non-parametric
likelihood function for blind modulation classification
without the prior knowledge on channel noise. The
centroid estimator provides joint estimation of channel
gain and carrier phase o set where both can be
compensated in the following nonparametric likelihood
function. The non-parametric likelihood function, in
the meantime, provide likelihood evaluation without a
specifically assumed noise model. The combination has
shown to have higher robustness when different noise
types are considered. To push modulation classification
techniques into a more timely setting, we also
developed the principle for blind classification in
MIMO systems. The classification is achieved through
expectation maximization channel estimation and
likelihood based classification. Early results have
shown bright prospect for the method while more work is
needed to further optimize the method and to provide a
more thorough validation.",
notes = "GP-KNN classifier. AWGN channels.
Supervisors: A. K. Nandi and H. Meng and W. Al-Nauimy",