Design and Development of a Testbed Prototype for Cognitive Radio Transmission over TV White Space

Considering the ever-increasing demand and the associated high costs of wireless electromagnetic spectrum, technologies that can facilitate efficient spectrum utilization are of utmost importance. Cognitive radio (CR), in conjunction with TV White Spaces (TVWS), can be a viable solution, where unlicensed or secondary users can opportunistically use the not-currently-in-use, aka idle, TV channels registered to licensed or primary users. This thesis focuses on the design and development of a testbed prototype for real-time testing of secondary user transmission in TVWS. Once an unused TV channel has been identified, our system uses that idle channel for transmitting and receiving signals. The testbed is built on Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) device powered by GNU Radio Software, Software Defined Radio (SDR) receptor, and Spectrum Analyser. The developed prototype splits a given TVWS channel into multiple small sub-channels and performs channel characterization through end-to-end transmission and reception of information carrying signals. The channel characteristics are presented through Bit Transfer Rate (BTR) and frequency spectrum results. The prototype also facilitates provisions for applying error correction coding as a mean of undertaking comparative performance testing

Survey of Spectrum Sharing for Inter-Technology Coexistence

Increasing capacity demands in emerging wireless technologies are expected to be met by network densification and spectrum bands open to multiple technologies. These will, in turn, increase the level of interference and also result in more complex inter-technology interactions, which will need to be managed through spectrum sharing mechanisms. Consequently, novel spectrum sharing mechanisms should be designed to allow spectrum access for multiple technologies, while efficiently utilizing the spectrum resources overall. Importantly, it is not trivial to design such efficient mechanisms, not only due to technical aspects, but also due to regulatory and business model constraints. In this survey we address spectrum sharing mechanisms for wireless inter-technology coexistence by means of a technology circle that incorporates in a unified, system-level view the technical and non-technical aspects. We thus systematically explore the spectrum sharing design space consisting of parameters at different layers. Using this framework, we present a literature review on inter-technology coexistence with a focus on wireless technologies with equal spectrum access rights, i.e. (i) primary/primary, (ii) secondary/secondary, and (iii) technologies operating in a spectrum commons. Moreover, we reflect on our literature review to identify possible spectrum sharing design solutions and performance evaluation approaches useful for future coexistence cases. Finally, we discuss spectrum sharing design challenges and suggest future research directions

New Waves of IoT Technologies Research – Transcending Intelligence and Senses at the Edge to Create Multi Experience Environments

The next wave of Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) brings new technological developments that incorporate radical advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI), edge computing processing, new sensing capabilities, more security protection and autonomous functions accelerating progress towards the ability for IoT systems to self-develop, self-maintain and self-optimise. The emergence of hyper autonomous IoT applications with enhanced sensing, distributed intelligence, edge processing and connectivity, combined with human augmentation, has the potential to power the transformation and optimisation of industrial sectors and to change the innovation landscape. This chapter is reviewing the most recent advances in the next wave of the IoT by looking not only at the technology enabling the IoT but also at the platforms and smart data aspects that will bring intelligence, sustainability, dependability, autonomy, and will support human-centric solutions.acceptedVersio

Analysis and Comparison of Smart Homes

Tark maja on kodu, mis on osaliselt automatiseeritud. Targa maja peamine ülesanne on kõik seadmed koondada tsentraalse juhtimise alla, mis võimaldab programmeerida erinevate sündmuste korral tegevusi, mis kõige paremini maja ja omaniku soovidega kokku sobivad. Käesolev bakalaureusetöö analüüsib ning võrdleb erinevaid tehnoloogiad, mille abil on võimalik enda kodu automatiseerida. Võrreldakse kuut lahendust milleks on: Insteon, X10, Z-Wave, Android@Home, Zigbee ning DomoticHome. Lisaks on teises peatükis välja toodud kodu automatiseerimise lühiajalugu, mida siiamaani pole veel keegi kirja pannud. Samuti rakendame kaks juhtmeta ühendusega lahendust. Mõlemad süsteemid põhinevad Arduino mikrokontrolleril ning Android operatsioonisüsteemiga mobiiltelefonil. Erinevus seisneb suhtlusprotokollis. Esimene süsteem, DomoticHome, kasutab suhtlemiseks Wi-Fi tehnoloogiat. Teine põhineb Amarino toolkit-il ning Bluetooth suhtlusprotokollil. Mõlema süsteemiga saab ühendada valgusteid, temperatuuri andureid ning muud vajalikku, mis võib ühes kodus vaja minna. Seejärel saab telefoni abil neid seadmeid sisse- ja välja lülitada ning saada erinevaid mõõtmisi Arduino sensoritelt. Analüüsis sai välja toodud kõikide võrreldud tehnoloogiate plussid ning miinused vastavalt kriteeriumitele, mis lõputöö algul said ära otsustatud. Rakendamisel valmisid kaks lahendust. Mõlemaga sai sisse- ja välja lülitada Arduino külge ühendatud LED-valgustit ning mõõta toatemperatuuri thermistor-mooduli abil. Kuna DomoticHome tehnoloogia genereerib automaatselt Arduino mikrokontrollerile juhtimiskoodi, siis selle seadistamine oli võrdlemisi lihtsam kui Bluetooth ühendusega süsteemi ülespanemine. Amarino lahenduse jaoks oli vaja algul õppida Arduino mikrokontrollerit programmeerida. Tavainimese jaoks võib see osutuda keeruliseks. DomoticHome lahenduse Arduino mikrokontroller saab voolu seinapistikust või ruuterist, mille külge ta on ühendatud. Erinevalt DomoticHome-st saab Amarino Arduino mikrokontroller voolu 3-lt AA-tüüpi patareilt. Paralleelselt valminud Steve Mägi bakalaureusetöö eksperimendid näitasid, et süsteem võib mõõdukal kasutamisel järjest töötada 39 tundi ning 20 minutit. Kui inimesel pole võimalik sellise aja tagant vahetada patareisid, siis see süsteem ei sobi antud isikule ja peab valima DomoticHome lahenduse. Arvestades, et praeguseni on kodu automatsioon olnud suhteliselt kallis, siis võib loota, et kui Google enda süsteemi turule toob, siis tarkade majade arv kasvad hüppeliselt. Põhjus on selles, et süsteem toimib Androidi operatsioonisüsteemi põhjal ning tänaseks on maailmas juba 300 miljonit aktiveeritud Android seadet. üleüldiselt on tegu kiiresti areneva ning huvitava valdkonnaga. Kindlasti vajab see edasist uurimist ning arendamist

A Review of TV White Space Technology and its Deployments in Africa

The emergence of bandwidth-driven applications in the current wireless communication environment is driving a paradigm shift from the conventional fixed spectrum assignment policy to intelligent and dynamic spectrum access. Practical demands for efficient spectrum utilization have continued to drive the development of TV white space technology to provide affordable and reliable wireless connectivity. It is envisaged that transition from analogue transmission to Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) creates more spectrum opportunity for TV white space access and regulatory agencies of many countries had begun to explore this opportunity to address spectrum scarcity. To convey the evolutionary trends in the development of TV white space technology, this paper presents a comprehensive review on the contemporary approaches to TV white space technology and practical deployments of pilot projects in Africa. The paper outlines the activities in TV white space technology, which include regulations and standardization, commercial trials, research challenges, open issues and future research directions. Furthermore, it also provides an overview of the current industrial trends in TV white space technology which demonstrates that cognitive radio as an enabling technology for TV white space technology

Smart Television Services Using NFV/SDN Network Management

International audienceIntegrating joint network function virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networks (SDNs) with digital televisions (TVs) into home environments, has the potential to provide smart TV services to users, and improve their quality of experience (QoE). In this regard, this paper focuses on one of the next generation services so-called follow me service (FMS). FMS is a service offered by 5gNB to user equipments (UEs) in indoor environments (e.g., home), it enables its clients to use their smart phones to select media content from content servers, then cast it on the nearest TV set (e.g., living room) and continue watching on the next TV set (e.g., kitchen) while moving around the indoor coverage area. FMS can be provisioned by utilizing UEs geoloca-tion information and robust mechanisms for switching between multiple 5G radio access technologies (RATs), based on the intelligence of the SDN/NFV intelligent home IP gateway of the Internet of Radio Light (IoRL) project paradigm. In view that the actual IoRL system is at its early development stage, we step forward by using Mininet platform to integrate SDN/NFV virtualization into 5G multi-RAT scenario and provide performance monitoring with measurements for the identified service. Simulation results show the effectiveness of our proposal under various use case scenarios by means of minimizing the packet loss rate and improving QoE of the home users. Index Terms-Software defined networks, network function virtualisation, quality of experience, Internet of radio light, intelligent home IP gateway