Cooperative Radio Communications for Green Smart Environments

The demand for mobile connectivity is continuously increasing, and by 2020 Mobile and Wireless Communications will serve not only very dense populations of mobile phones and nomadic computers, but also the expected multiplicity of devices and sensors located in machines, vehicles, health systems and city infrastructures. Future Mobile Networks are then faced with many new scenarios and use cases, which will load the networks with different data traffic patterns, in new or shared spectrum bands, creating new specific requirements. This book addresses both the techniques to model, analyse and optimise the radio links and transmission systems in such scenarios, together with the most advanced radio access, resource management and mobile networking technologies. This text summarises the work performed by more than 500 researchers from more than 120 institutions in Europe, America and Asia, from both academia and industries, within the framework of the COST IC1004 Action on "Cooperative Radio Communications for Green and Smart Environments". The book will have appeal to graduates and researchers in the Radio Communications area, and also to engineers working in the Wireless industry. Topics discussed in this book include: • Radio waves propagation phenomena in diverse urban, indoor, vehicular and body environments• Measurements, characterization, and modelling of radio channels beyond 4G networks• Key issues in Vehicle (V2X) communication• Wireless Body Area Networks, including specific Radio Channel Models for WBANs• Energy efficiency and resource management enhancements in Radio Access Networks• Definitions and models for the virtualised and cloud RAN architectures• Advances on feasible indoor localization and tracking techniques• Recent findings and innovations in antenna systems for communications• Physical Layer Network Coding for next generation wireless systems• Methods and techniques for MIMO Over the Air (OTA) testin

Cooperative Radio Communications for Green Smart Environments

The demand for mobile connectivity is continuously increasing, and by 2020 Mobile and Wireless Communications will serve not only very dense populations of mobile phones and nomadic computers, but also the expected multiplicity of devices and sensors located in machines, vehicles, health systems and city infrastructures. Future Mobile Networks are then faced with many new scenarios and use cases, which will load the networks with different data traffic patterns, in new or shared spectrum bands, creating new specific requirements. This book addresses both the techniques to model, analyse and optimise the radio links and transmission systems in such scenarios, together with the most advanced radio access, resource management and mobile networking technologies. This text summarises the work performed by more than 500 researchers from more than 120 institutions in Europe, America and Asia, from both academia and industries, within the framework of the COST IC1004 Action on "Cooperative Radio Communications for Green and Smart Environments". The book will have appeal to graduates and researchers in the Radio Communications area, and also to engineers working in the Wireless industry. Topics discussed in this book include: • Radio waves propagation phenomena in diverse urban, indoor, vehicular and body environments• Measurements, characterization, and modelling of radio channels beyond 4G networks• Key issues in Vehicle (V2X) communication• Wireless Body Area Networks, including specific Radio Channel Models for WBANs• Energy efficiency and resource management enhancements in Radio Access Networks• Definitions and models for the virtualised and cloud RAN architectures• Advances on feasible indoor localization and tracking techniques• Recent findings and innovations in antenna systems for communications• Physical Layer Network Coding for next generation wireless systems• Methods and techniques for MIMO Over the Air (OTA) testin

MEQSILHOUETTE: a mm-VLBI observation and signal corruption simulator

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) aims to resolve the innermost emission of nearby supermassive black holes, Sgr A* and M87, on event horizon scales. This emission is predicted to be gravitationally lensed by the black hole which should produce a shadow (or silhouette) feature, a precise measurement of which is a test of gravity in the strong-field regime. This emission is also an ideal probe of the innermost accretion and jet-launch physics, offering the new insights into this data-limited observing regime. The EHT will use the technique of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) at (sub)millimetre wavelengths, which has a diffraction limited angular resolution of order ~ 10 µ-arcsec. However, this technique suffers from unique challenges, including scattering and attenuation in the troposphere and interstellar medium; variable source structure; as well as antenna pointing errors comparable to the size of the primary beam. In this thesis, we present the meqsilhouette software package which is focused towards simulating realistic EHT data. It has the capability to simulate a time-variable source, and includes realistic descriptions of the effects of the troposphere, the interstellar medium as well as primary beams and associated antenna pointing errors. We have demonstrated through several examples simulations that these effects can limit the ability to measure the key science parameters. This simulator can be used to research calibration, parameter estimation and imaging strategies, as well as gain insight into possible systematic uncertainties

Characterisation of human body and environmental effects on the performance of mobile terminal antennas

PhDProvision of efficient services to the user anywhere at anytime is being a centre of research and development in Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN) and Wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN). Antenna is the essential part of WPAN/WBAN applications that got affected by two major factors: human body presence and nature of the surrounding environment. The presence of the human body in the proximity of the antenna causes electromagnetic (EM) reflections from the body surface and absorptions in the lossy body tissues resulting in antenna detuning, radiation pattern degradations and impedance mismatch. On the other hand, incident radio waves undergo reflections, difractions and scattering from the surrounding environment objects including buildings, trees, vehicles and ground, causing multipath fading. The thesis gives an overview of the main investigations, results and analyses accomplished in a study concerning the commercially available Bluetooth and GPS antennas working in the vicinity of the human body. Detailed numerical modelling process is adopted followed by measurements for validation. The thesis highlights the role of surface waves as a potential transmission medium in an on-body Bluetooth wireless communication link taking into account the effects of antenna-body separations and presence of the surrounding objects blocking the direct communication path. The thesis also presents a novel statistical model to evaluate the performance of GPS mobile terminal antennas in the multipath environment. This model characterises the antenna performance and identifies the key factors that can be used to enhance it, in a real working environment outside an anechoic chamber. The study also deals with presence of the human body in the multipath environment and its effects on the operation of the GPS antennas

Recovering handset diversity and MIMO capacity with polarization-agile antennas

Journal ArticleDesign guidance is provided for multiple-input-multiple- output (MIMO) antenna systems on handsets-a strong prospect for next generation wireless devices. Handheld wireless devices are likely to be rotated out of their optimal polarization, thereby experiencing significant power losses. An existing polarization-agile antenna design and a novel four-spoke extension recover significant fractions of the rotation-induced losses both in switched-antenna diversity and capacity calculations-all but 1 dB of diversity gains at a 99% system reliability, half of the CΕ losses or 80% of the Cο,1 losses. These gains benefit four- and ten-element arrays and remain significant in the presence of 6 dB cross coupling and in volume-restricted arrays. Diversity order investigations also demonstrate a new, non-Rayleigh locus of curves describing patch antennas subject to rotation

Pathway to the Square Kilometre Array - The German White Paper -

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is the most ambitious radio telescope ever planned. With a collecting area of about a square kilometre, the SKA will be far superior in sensitivity and observing speed to all current radio facilities. The scientific capability promised by the SKA and its technological challenges provide an ideal base for interdisciplinary research, technology transfer, and collaboration between universities, research centres and industry. The SKA in the radio regime and the European Extreme Large Telescope (E-ELT) in the optical band are on the roadmap of the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) and have been recognised as the essential facilities for European research in astronomy. This "White Paper" outlines the German science and R&D interests in the SKA project and will provide the basis for future funding applications to secure German involvement in the Square Kilometre Array.Comment: Editors: H. R. Kl\"ockner, M. Kramer, H. Falcke, D.J. Schwarz, A. Eckart, G. Kauffmann, A. Zensus; 150 pages (low resolution- and colour-scale images), published in July 2012, language English (including a foreword and an executive summary in German), the original file is available via the MPIfR homepag