Energy-efficient wireless communication

In this chapter we present an energy-efficient highly adaptive network interface architecture and a novel data link layer protocol for wireless networks that provides Quality of Service (QoS) support for diverse traffic types. Due to the dynamic nature of wireless networks, adaptations in bandwidth scheduling and error control are necessary to achieve energy efficiency and an acceptable quality of service. In our approach we apply adaptability through all layers of the protocol stack, and provide feedback to the applications. In this way the applications can adapt the data streams, and the network protocols can adapt the communication parameters

Public Safety Radio System

The goal of this project was to create a Public Safety Integration Center (PSIC). The PSIC is a radio laboratory whose goal is to encourage the betterment of public safety communications and interoperability. It allows students to perform radio related projects, hardware manufacturers to demonstrate their equipment, and radio equipment to be tested with respect to integration and interoperability. In order to achieve this goal, equipment donated by SAIC was studied, reverse engineered, and reconfigured to suit the needs of the PSIC

Wireless industrial monitoring and control networks: the journey so far and the road ahead

While traditional wired communication technologies have played a crucial role in industrial monitoring and control networks over the past few decades, they are increasingly proving to be inadequate to meet the highly dynamic and stringent demands of today’s industrial applications, primarily due to the very rigid nature of wired infrastructures. Wireless technology, however, through its increased pervasiveness, has the potential to revolutionize the industry, not only by mitigating the problems faced by wired solutions, but also by introducing a completely new class of applications. While present day wireless technologies made some preliminary inroads in the monitoring domain, they still have severe limitations especially when real-time, reliable distributed control operations are concerned. This article provides the reader with an overview of existing wireless technologies commonly used in the monitoring and control industry. It highlights the pros and cons of each technology and assesses the degree to which each technology is able to meet the stringent demands of industrial monitoring and control networks. Additionally, it summarizes mechanisms proposed by academia, especially serving critical applications by addressing the real-time and reliability requirements of industrial process automation. The article also describes certain key research problems from the physical layer communication for sensor networks and the wireless networking perspective that have yet to be addressed to allow the successful use of wireless technologies in industrial monitoring and control networks

Performance Comparison of Dual Connectivity and Hard Handover for LTE-5G Tight Integration in mmWave Cellular Networks

MmWave communications are expected to play a major role in the Fifth generation of mobile networks. They offer a potential multi-gigabit throughput and an ultra-low radio latency, but at the same time suffer from high isotropic pathloss, and a coverage area much smaller than the one of LTE macrocells. In order to address these issues, highly directional beamforming and a very high-density deployment of mmWave base stations were proposed. This Thesis aims to improve the reliability and performance of the 5G network by studying its tight and seamless integration with the current LTE cellular network. In particular, the LTE base stations can provide a coverage layer for 5G mobile terminals, because they operate on microWave frequencies, which are less sensitive to blockage and have a lower pathloss. This document is a copy of the Master's Thesis carried out by Mr. Michele Polese under the supervision of Dr. Marco Mezzavilla and Prof. Michele Zorzi. It will propose an LTE-5G tight integration architecture, based on mobile terminals' dual connectivity to LTE and 5G radio access networks, and will evaluate which are the new network procedures that will be needed to support it. Moreover, this new architecture will be implemented in the ns-3 simulator, and a thorough simulation campaign will be conducted in order to evaluate its performance, with respect to the baseline of handover between LTE and 5G.Comment: Master's Thesis carried out by Mr. Michele Polese under the supervision of Dr. Marco Mezzavilla and Prof. Michele Zorz

Reliable Communication in Wireless Networks

Wireless communication systems are increasingly being used in industries and infrastructures since they offer significant advantages such as cost effectiveness and scalability with respect to wired communication system. However, the broadcast feature and the unreliable links in the wireless communication system may cause more communication collisions and redundant transmissions. Consequently, guaranteeing reliable and efficient transmission in wireless communication systems has become a big challenging issue. In particular, analysis and evaluation of reliable transmission protocols in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and radio frequency identification system (RFID) are strongly required. This thesis proposes to model, analyze and evaluate self-configuration algorithms in wireless communication systems. The objective is to propose innovative solutions for communication protocols in WSNs and RFID systems, aiming at optimizing the performance of the algorithms in terms of throughput, reliability and power consumption. The first activity focuses on communication protocols in WSNs, which have been investigated, evaluated and optimized, in order to ensure fast and reliable data transmission between sensor nodes. The second research topic addresses the interference problem in RFID systems. The target is to evaluate and develop precise models for accurately describing the interference among readers. Based on these models, new solutions for reducing collision in RFID systems have been investigated