195 research outputs found
Unified radio and network control across heterogeneous hardware platforms
Experimentation is an important step in the investigation of techniques for handling spectrum scarcity or the development of new waveforms in future wireless networks. However, it is impractical and not cost effective to construct custom platforms for each future network scenario to be investigated. This problem is addressed by defining Unified Programming Interfaces that allow common access to several platforms for experimentation-based prototyping, research, and development purposes. The design of these interfaces is driven by a diverse set of scenarios that capture the functionality relevant to future network implementations while trying to keep them as generic as possible. Herein, the definition of this set of scenarios is presented as well as the architecture for supporting experimentation-based wireless research over multiple hardware platforms. The proposed architecture for experimentation incorporates both local and global unified interfaces to control any aspect of a wireless system while being completely agnostic to the actual technology incorporated. Control is feasible from the low-level features of individual radios to the entire network stack, including hierarchical control combinations. A testbed to enable the use of the above architecture is utilized that uses a backbone network in order to be able to extract measurements and observe the overall behaviour of the system under test without imposing further communication overhead to the actual experiment. Based on the aforementioned architecture, a system is proposed that is able to support the advancement of intelligent techniques for future networks through experimentation while decoupling promising algorithms and techniques from the capabilities of a specific hardware platform
A critical analysis of research potential, challenges and future directives in industrial wireless sensor networks
In recent years, Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks (IWSNs) have emerged as an important research theme with applications spanning a wide range of industries including automation, monitoring, process control, feedback systems and automotive. Wide scope of IWSNs applications ranging from small production units, large oil and gas industries to nuclear fission control, enables a fast-paced research in this field. Though IWSNs offer advantages of low cost, flexibility, scalability, self-healing, easy deployment and reformation, yet they pose certain limitations on available potential and introduce challenges on multiple fronts due to their susceptibility to highly complex and uncertain industrial environments. In this paper a detailed discussion on design objectives, challenges and solutions, for IWSNs, are presented. A careful evaluation of industrial systems, deadlines and possible hazards in industrial atmosphere are discussed. The paper also presents a thorough review of the existing standards and industrial protocols and gives a critical evaluation of potential of these standards and protocols along with a detailed discussion on available hardware platforms, specific industrial energy harvesting techniques and their capabilities. The paper lists main service providers for IWSNs solutions and gives insight of future trends and research gaps in the field of IWSNs
Mitigation of packet loss with end-to-end delay in wireless body area network applications
The wireless body area network (WBAN) has been proposed to offer a solution to the problem of population ageing, shortage in medical facilities and different chronic diseases. The development of this technology has been further fueled by the demand for real-time application for monitoring these cases in networks. The integrity of communication is constrained by the loss of packets during communication affecting the reliability of WBAN. Mitigating the loss of packets and ensuring the performance of the network is a challenging task that has sparked numerous studies over the years. The WBAN technology as a problem of reducing network lifetime; thus, in this paper, we utilize cooperative routing protocol (CRP) to improve package delivery via end-to-end latency and increase the length of the network lifetime. The end-to-end latency was used as a metric to determine the significance of CRP in WBAN routing protocols. The CRP increased the rate of transmission of packets to the sink and mitigate packet loss. The proposed solution has shown that the end-to-end delay in the WBAN is considerably reduced by applying the cooperative routing protocol. The CRP technique attained a delivery ratio of 0.8176 compared to 0.8118 when transmitting packets in WBAN
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
Facilitating Flexible Link Layer Protocols for Future Wireless Communication Systems
This dissertation addresses the problem of designing link layer protocols
which are flexible enough to accommodate the demands offuture wireless
communication systems (FWCS).We show that entire link layer protocols with
diverse requirements and responsibilities can be composed out of
reconfigurable and reusable components.We demonstrate this by designing and
implementinga novel concept termed Flexible Link Layer (FLL)
architecture.Through extensive simulations and practical experiments, we
evaluate a prototype of the suggested architecture in both
fixed-spectrumand dynamic spectrum access (DSA) networks.
FWCS are expected to overcome diverse challenges including the continual
growthin traffic volume and number of connected devices.Furthermore, they
are envisioned to support a widerange of new application requirements and
operating conditions.Technology trends, including smart homes,
communicating machines, and vehicularnetworks, will not only grow on a
scale that once was unimaginable, they will also become the predominant
communication paradigm, eventually surpassing today's human-produced
network traffic.
In order for this to become reality, today's systems have to evolve in many
ways.They have to exploit allocated resources in a more efficient and
energy-conscious manner.In addition to that, new methods for spectrum
access and resource sharingneed to be deployed.Having the diversification
of applications and network conditions in mind, flexibility at all layers
of a communication system is of paramount importance in order to meet the
desired goals.
However, traditional communication systems are often designed with specific
and distinct applications in mind. Therefore, system designers can tailor
communication systems according to fixedrequirements and operating
conditions, often resulting in highly optimized but inflexible
systems.Among the core problems of such design is the mix of data transfer
and management aspects.Such a combination of concerns clearly hinders the
reuse and extension of existing protocols.
To overcome this problem, the key idea explored in this dissertation is a
component-based design to facilitate the development of more flexible and
versatile link layer protocols.Specifically, the FLL architecture,
suggested in this dissertation, employs a generic, reconfigurable data
transfer protocol around which one or more complementary protocols, called
link layer applications, are responsible for management-related aspects of
the layer.
To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach, we have designed
andimplemented a prototype of the FLL architecture on the basis ofa
reconfigurable software defined radio (SDR) testbed.Employing the SDR
prototype as well as computer simulations, thisdissertation describes
various experiments used to examine a range of link layerprotocols for both
fixed-spectrum and DSA networks.
This dissertation firstly outlines the challenges faced by FWCSand
describes DSA as a possible technology component for their construction.It
then specifies the requirements for future DSA systemsthat provide the
basis for our further considerations.We then review the background on link
layer protocols, surveyrelated work on the construction of flexible
protocol frameworks,and compare a range of actual link layer protocols and
algorithms.Based on the results of this analysis, we design, implement, and
evaluatethe FLL architecture and a selection of actual link layer
protocols.
We believe the findings of this dissertation add substantively to the
existing literature on link layer protocol design and are valuable for
theoreticians and experimentalists alike
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