UAV Command and Control, Navigation and Surveillance: A Review of Potential 5G and Satellite Systems

Drones, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are expected to be an important component of 5G/beyond 5G (B5G) communications. This includes their use within cellular architectures (5G UAVs), in which they can facilitate both wireless broadcast and point-to-point transmissions, usually using small UAS (sUAS). Allowing UAS to operate within airspace along with commercial, cargo, and other piloted aircraft will likely require dedicated and protected aviation spectrum at least in the near term, while regulatory authorities adapt to their use. The command and control (C2), or control and non-payload communications (CNPC) link provides safety critical information for the control of the UAV both in terrestrial-based line of sight (LOS) conditions and in satellite communication links for so-called beyond LOS (BLOS) conditions. In this paper, we provide an overview of these CNPC links as they may be used in 5G and satellite systems by describing basic concepts and challenges. We review new entrant technologies that might be used for UAV C2 as well as for payload communication, such as millimeter wave (mmWave) systems, and also review navigation and surveillance challenges. A brief discussion of UAV-to-UAV communication and hardware issues are also provided.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, IEEE aerospace conferenc

DISCO: Distributed Multi-domain SDN Controllers

Modern multi-domain networks now span over datacenter networks, enterprise networks, customer sites and mobile entities. Such networks are critical and, thus, must be resilient, scalable and easily extensible. The emergence of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) protocols, which enables to decouple the data plane from the control plane and dynamically program the network, opens up new ways to architect such networks. In this paper, we propose DISCO, an open and extensible DIstributed SDN COntrol plane able to cope with the distributed and heterogeneous nature of modern overlay networks and wide area networks. DISCO controllers manage their own network domain and communicate with each others to provide end-to-end network services. This communication is based on a unique lightweight and highly manageable control channel used by agents to self-adaptively share aggregated network-wide information. We implemented DISCO on top of the Floodlight OpenFlow controller and the AMQP protocol. We demonstrated how DISCO's control plane dynamically adapts to heterogeneous network topologies while being resilient enough to survive to disruptions and attacks and providing classic functionalities such as end-point migration and network-wide traffic engineering. The experimentation results we present are organized around three use cases: inter-domain topology disruption, end-to-end priority service request and virtual machine migration

Software Defined Networks based Smart Grid Communication: A Comprehensive Survey

The current power grid is no longer a feasible solution due to ever-increasing user demand of electricity, old infrastructure, and reliability issues and thus require transformation to a better grid a.k.a., smart grid (SG). The key features that distinguish SG from the conventional electrical power grid are its capability to perform two-way communication, demand side management, and real time pricing. Despite all these advantages that SG will bring, there are certain issues which are specific to SG communication system. For instance, network management of current SG systems is complex, time consuming, and done manually. Moreover, SG communication (SGC) system is built on different vendor specific devices and protocols. Therefore, the current SG systems are not protocol independent, thus leading to interoperability issue. Software defined network (SDN) has been proposed to monitor and manage the communication networks globally. This article serves as a comprehensive survey on SDN-based SGC. In this article, we first discuss taxonomy of advantages of SDNbased SGC.We then discuss SDN-based SGC architectures, along with case studies. Our article provides an in-depth discussion on routing schemes for SDN-based SGC. We also provide detailed survey of security and privacy schemes applied to SDN-based SGC. We furthermore present challenges, open issues, and future research directions related to SDN-based SGC.Comment: Accepte

A Mini Review of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) for Vehicular Communication

In recent times, peer-to-peer (P2P) has evolved, where it leverages the capability to scale compared to server-based networks. Consequently, P2P has appeared to be the future distributed systems in emerging several applications. P2P is actually a disruptive technology for setting up applications that scale to numerous concurrent individuals. Thus, in a P2P distributed system, individuals become themselves as peers through contributing, sharing, and managing the resources in a network. In this paper, P2P for vehicular communication is explored. A comprehensive of the functioning concept of both P2P along with vehicular communication is examined. In addition, the advantages are furthermore conversed for a far better understanding on the implementation

Cognitive radio systems in LTE networks

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London.The most important fact in the mobile industry at the moment is that demand for wireless services will continue to expand in the coming years. Therefore, it is vital to find more spectrums through cognitive radios for the growing numbers of services and users. However, the spectrum reallocations, enhanced receivers, shared use, or secondary markets-will not likely, by themselves or in combination, meet the real exponential increases in demand for wireless resources. Network operators will also need to re-examine network architecture, and consider integrating the fibre and wireless networks to address this issue. This thesis involves driving fibre deeper into cognitive networks, deploying microcells connected through fibre infrastructure to the backbone LTE networks, and developing the algorithms for diverting calls between the wireless and fibre systems, introducing new coexistence models, and mobility management. This research addresses the network deployment scenarios to a microcell-aided cognitive network, specifically slicing the spectrum spatially and providing reliable coverage at either tier. The goal of this research is to propose new method of decentralized-to-distributed management techniques that overcomes the spectrum unavailability barrier overhead in ongoing and future deployments of multi-tiered cognitive network architectures. Such adjustments will propose new opportunities in cognitive radio-to-fibre systematic investment strategies. Specific contributions include: 1) Identifying the radio access technologies and radio over fibre solution for cognitive network infrastructure to increase the uplink capacity analysis in two-tier networks. 2) Coexistence of macro and microcells are studied to propose a roadmap for optimising the deployment of cognitive microcells inside LTE macrocells in the case of considering radio over fibre access systems. 3) New method for roaming mobiles moving between microcells and macrocell coverage areas is proposed for managing spectrum handover, operator database, authentication and accounting by introducing the channel assigning agent entity. The ultimate goal is to reduce unnecessary channel adaptation

Towards Cyber Security for Low-Carbon Transportation: Overview, Challenges and Future Directions

In recent years, low-carbon transportation has become an indispensable part as sustainable development strategies of various countries, and plays a very important responsibility in promoting low-carbon cities. However, the security of low-carbon transportation has been threatened from various ways. For example, denial of service attacks pose a great threat to the electric vehicles and vehicle-to-grid networks. To minimize these threats, several methods have been proposed to defense against them. Yet, these methods are only for certain types of scenarios or attacks. Therefore, this review addresses security aspect from holistic view, provides the overview, challenges and future directions of cyber security technologies in low-carbon transportation. Firstly, based on the concept and importance of low-carbon transportation, this review positions the low-carbon transportation services. Then, with the perspective of network architecture and communication mode, this review classifies its typical attack risks. The corresponding defense technologies and relevant security suggestions are further reviewed from perspective of data security, network management security and network application security. Finally, in view of the long term development of low-carbon transportation, future research directions have been concerned.Comment: 34 pages, 6 figures, accepted by journal Renewable and Sustainable Energy Review

MediaSync: Handbook on Multimedia Synchronization

This book provides an approachable overview of the most recent advances in the fascinating field of media synchronization (mediasync), gathering contributions from the most representative and influential experts. Understanding the challenges of this field in the current multi-sensory, multi-device, and multi-protocol world is not an easy task. The book revisits the foundations of mediasync, including theoretical frameworks and models, highlights ongoing research efforts, like hybrid broadband broadcast (HBB) delivery and users' perception modeling (i.e., Quality of Experience or QoE), and paves the way for the future (e.g., towards the deployment of multi-sensory and ultra-realistic experiences). Although many advances around mediasync have been devised and deployed, this area of research is getting renewed attention to overcome remaining challenges in the next-generation (heterogeneous and ubiquitous) media ecosystem. Given the significant advances in this research area, its current relevance and the multiple disciplines it involves, the availability of a reference book on mediasync becomes necessary. This book fills the gap in this context. In particular, it addresses key aspects and reviews the most relevant contributions within the mediasync research space, from different perspectives. Mediasync: Handbook on Multimedia Synchronization is the perfect companion for scholars and practitioners that want to acquire strong knowledge about this research area, and also approach the challenges behind ensuring the best mediated experiences, by providing the adequate synchronization between the media elements that constitute these experiences

Application framework for wireless sensor networks [thesis]

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are based on innovative technologies that had revolutionized the methods in which we interact with the environment; i.e., through sensing the physical (e.g., fire motion, contact) and chemical (e.g., molecular concentration) properties of the natural surroundings. The hardware in which utilized by WSNs is rapidly evolving into sophisticated platforms that seamlessly integrate with different vendors and protocols (plug-n-play). In this thesis, we propose a WSN framework which provides assistance with monitoring environmental conditions; we focus on three main applications which include: a. Air-quality monitoring, b. Gas-leak detection, and c. Fire sensing. The framework involves four specifications: 1. Over the air programming (OTAP), 2. Network interconnections, 3. Sensors manageability, and 4. Alarm signaling. Their aim is to enhance the internetwork relations between the WSNs and the outside-world (i.e., main users, clients, or audience); by creating a medium in which devices efficiently communicate, independent of location or infrastructure (e.g., Internet), in order to exchange data among networked-objects and their users. Therefore, we propose a WSN-over-IP architecture which provides several renowned services of the Internet; the major functionalities include: live-data streaming (real-time), e-mailing, cloud storage (external servers), and network technologies (e.g., LAN or WLAN). WSNs themselves operate independently of the Internet; i.e., their operation involve unique protocols and specific hardware requirements which are incompatible with common network platforms (e.g., within home network infrastructure). Hybrid technologies are those which support multiple data-communication protocols within a single device; their main capabilities involve seamless integration and interoperability of different hardware vendors. We propose an overall architecture based on hybrid communication technology in which data is transmitted using three types of protocols: 802.11 (Wi-Fi), 802.15.4 and Digimesh (WSN)