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

Propagation, Localization and Navigation in Tunnel-like Environments

La robótica de servicio, entendida como aquella destinada al uso de uno o varios robots con fines de, por ejemplo, vigilancia, rescate e inspecciones, ha ido tomando cada vez más relevancia en los últimos años. Debido a los grandes avances en las distintas áreas de la robótica, los robots han sido capaces de ejecutar satisfactoriamente tareas que resultan peligrosas o incluso imposibles para los humanos, en diversos entornos. Entre ellos, los entornos confinados como túneles, minas y tuberías, han atraído la atención en aplicaciones relacionadas con transporte ferroviario, redes vehiculares, búsqueda y rescate, y vigilancia, tanto en el ámbito civil como militar. En muchas tareas, la utilización de varios robots resulta más provechoso que utilizar sólo uno. Para cooperar, los robots deben intercambiar información sobre el entorno y su propio estado, por lo que la comunicación entre ellos resulta crucial. Debido a la imposibilidad de utilizar redes cableadas entre robots móviles, se despliegan redes inalámbricas. Para determinar la calidad de señal entre dos robots, inicialmente se utilizaban modelos de propagación basados únicamente en la distancia entre ellos. Sin embargo, estas predicciones sólo resultan útiles en exteriores y sin la presencia de obstáculos, que sólo componen una pequeña parte de los escenarios de la robótica de servicio. Mas aún, la naturaleza altamente multi-trayecto de la propagación electromagnética en túneles hace que éstos actúen como guías de onda para cierto rango de frecuencias, extendiendo considerablemente el alcance de comunicación en comparación con entornos exteriores. Sin embargo, la señal se ve afectada con profundos desvanecimientos (llamados fadings en inglés). Esto los convierte en un reto para la robótica que considera la comunicación entre robots como fundamental. Además, la naturaleza hostil de estos entornos, así como también la falta de características visuales y estructurales, dificultan la localización en estos escenarios, cuestión que resulta fundamental para ejecutar con éxito una tarea con un robot. Los métodos de localización utilizados en interiores, como aquellos basados en SLAM visual, resultan imprecisos por la falta de características distintivas para cámaras o lásers, mientras que los sensores utilizados en exteriores, como el GPS, no funcionan dentro de túneles o tuberías. En esta tesis abordamos problemas fundamentales para la robótica con el fin de proporcionar herramientas necesarias para la exploración con robots en entornos tipo túnel, manteniendo la conectividad de la red de comunicaciones formada por varios robots y una estación base. Para ello, primeramente caracterizamos, en términos de propagación, los dos escenarios tipo túnel más comunes: un túnel de hormigón y una tubería metálica. Hacemos énfasis en el fenómeno de los fadings, ya que son el problema más importante a considerar para mantener la comunicación. Posteriormente presentamos una estrategia de navegación para desplegar un equipo de robots en un túnel, lidiando con los fadings para mantener la conectividad de la red formada por los robots. Esta estrategia ha sido validada a través de numerosos experimentos realizados en un túnel real, el túnel de Somport. Luego, abordamos el problema de la localización, proponiendo e implementando una técnica que permite estimar la posición de un robot dentro de una tubería, basada en la periodicidad de los fadings. El método es validado a través de experimentos reales en tuberías de pequeña y grandes dimensiones. Finalmente, proponemos esquemas de diversidad espacial, de forma que se facilita la navegación mientras se mejora la localización.Deploying a team of robots for search and rescue, inspection, or surveillance, has increasingly gained attention in the last years. As a result of the advances in several areas of robotics, robots have been able to successfully execute tasks that are hazardous or even impossible for humans in a variety of scenarios, such as outdoors, indoors, or even underground. Among these scenarios, tunnel-like environments (such as tunnels, mines, or pipes) have attracted attention for train applications, vehicular networks, search and rescue, and even service and surveillance missions in both military and civilian contexts. In most of the tasks, utilizing a multi-robot team yields better results than a singlerobot system, as it makes the system more robust while reducing the time required to complete tasks. In order to cooperate, robots must exchange information about their current state and the surrounding environment, making communication between them a crucial task. However, due to the mobile nature of robots used for exploration, a wired architecture is not possible nor convenient. Instead, a wireless network is often deployed. Wireless propagation in tunnel-like environments, characterized for the presence of strong fading phenomena, differs from regular indoor and outdoor scenarios, posing multiple challenges for communication-aware robotics. In addition, accurate localization is a problem in environments such as tunnels or pipes. These environments generally lack distinctive visual and/or structural features and are longer than they are wide in shape. Standard indoor localization techniques do not perform well in pipelines or tunnels given the lack of exploitable features, while outdoor techniques (GPS in particular) do not work in these scenarios. In this thesis, we address basic robotics-related problems in order to provide some tools necessary for robotics exploration in tunnel-like scenarios under connectivity constraints. In the first part, we characterize, in terms of propagation, two of the most common tunnel-like environments: a pipe and a tunnel. We emphasize the spatial-fadings phenomena, as it is one of the most relevant issues to deal with, in a communications context. Secondly, we present a navigation strategy to deploy a team of robots for tunnel exploration, in particular maintaining network connectivity in the presence of these fadings. Several experiments conducted in a tunnel allow us to validate the connectivity maintenance of the system. Next, we address the localization problem and propose a technique that uses the periodicity of the fadings to estimate the position of the robots from the base station. The method is validated in small-scale and large-scale pipes. Finally, we propose spatial diversity schemes in order to ease the navigation while improving the localization

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

Proceedings of the Third International Mobile Satellite Conference (IMSC 1993)

Satellite-based mobile communications systems provide voice and data communications to users over a vast geographic area. The users may communicate via mobile or hand-held terminals, which may also provide access to terrestrial cellular communications services. While the first and second International Mobile Satellite Conferences (IMSC) mostly concentrated on technical advances, this Third IMSC also focuses on the increasing worldwide commercial activities in Mobile Satellite Services. Because of the large service areas provided by such systems, it is important to consider political and regulatory issues in addition to technical and user requirements issues. Topics covered include: the direct broadcast of audio programming from satellites; spacecraft technology; regulatory and policy considerations; advanced system concepts and analysis; propagation; and user requirements and applications

Effects of errorless learning on the acquisition of velopharyngeal movement control

Session 1pSC - Speech Communication: Cross-Linguistic Studies of Speech Sound Learning of the Languages of Hong Kong (Poster Session)The implicit motor learning literature suggests a benefit for learning if errors are minimized during practice. This study investigated whether the same principle holds for learning velopharyngeal movement control. Normal speaking participants learned to produce hypernasal speech in either an errorless learning condition (in which the possibility for errors was limited) or an errorful learning condition (in which the possibility for errors was not limited). Nasality level of the participants’ speech was measured by nasometer and reflected by nasalance scores (in %). Errorless learners practiced producing hypernasal speech with a threshold nasalance score of 10% at the beginning, which gradually increased to a threshold of 50% at the end. The same set of threshold targets were presented to errorful learners but in a reversed order. Errors were defined by the proportion of speech with a nasalance score below the threshold. The results showed that, relative to errorful learners, errorless learners displayed fewer errors (50.7% vs. 17.7%) and a higher mean nasalance score (31.3% vs. 46.7%) during the acquisition phase. Furthermore, errorless learners outperformed errorful learners in both retention and novel transfer tests. Acknowledgment: Supported by The University of Hong Kong Strategic Research Theme for Sciences of Learning © 2012 Acoustical Society of Americapublished_or_final_versio

Intelligent Circuits and Systems

ICICS-2020 is the third conference initiated by the School of Electronics and Electrical Engineering at Lovely Professional University that explored recent innovations of researchers working for the development of smart and green technologies in the fields of Energy, Electronics, Communications, Computers, and Control. ICICS provides innovators to identify new opportunities for the social and economic benefits of society.　 This conference bridges the gap between academics and R&D institutions, social visionaries, and experts from all strata of society to present their ongoing research activities and foster research relations between them. It provides opportunities for the exchange of new ideas, applications, and experiences in the field of smart technologies and finding global partners for future collaboration. The ICICS-2020 was conducted in two broad categories, Intelligent Circuits & Intelligent Systems and Emerging Technologies in Electrical Engineering

1-D broadside-radiating leaky-wave antenna based on a numerically synthesized impedance surface

A newly-developed deterministic numerical technique for the automated design of metasurface antennas is applied here for the first time to the design of a 1-D printed Leaky-Wave Antenna (LWA) for broadside radiation. The surface impedance synthesis process does not require any a priori knowledge on the impedance pattern, and starts from a mask constraint on the desired far-field and practical bounds on the unit cell impedance values. The designed reactance surface for broadside radiation exhibits a non conventional patterning; this highlights the merit of using an automated design process for a design well known to be challenging for analytical methods. The antenna is physically implemented with an array of metal strips with varying gap widths and simulation results show very good agreement with the predicted performance

Beam scanning by liquid-crystal biasing in a modified SIW structure

A fixed-frequency beam-scanning 1D antenna based on Liquid Crystals (LCs) is designed for application in 2D scanning with lateral alignment. The 2D array environment imposes full decoupling of adjacent 1D antennas, which often conflicts with the LC requirement of DC biasing: the proposed design accommodates both. The LC medium is placed inside a Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) modified to work as a Groove Gap Waveguide, with radiating slots etched on the upper broad wall, that radiates as a Leaky-Wave Antenna (LWA). This allows effective application of the DC bias voltage needed for tuning the LCs. At the same time, the RF field remains laterally confined, enabling the possibility to lay several antennas in parallel and achieve 2D beam scanning. The design is validated by simulation employing the actual properties of a commercial LC medium

Abstracts on Radio Direction Finding (1899 - 1995)

The files on this record represent the various databases that originally composed the CD-ROM issue of "Abstracts on Radio Direction Finding" database, which is now part of the Dudley Knox Library's Abstracts and Selected Full Text Documents on Radio Direction Finding (1899 - 1995) Collection. (See Calhoun record https://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10945/57364 for further information on this collection and the bibliography). Due to issues of technological obsolescence preventing current and future audiences from accessing the bibliography, DKL exported and converted into the three files on this record the various databases contained in the CD-ROM. The contents of these files are: 1) RDFA_CompleteBibliography_xls.zip [RDFA_CompleteBibliography.xls: Metadata for the complete bibliography, in Excel 97-2003 Workbook format; RDFA_Glossary.xls: Glossary of terms, in Excel 97-2003 Workbookformat; RDFA_Biographies.xls: Biographies of leading figures, in Excel 97-2003 Workbook format]; 2) RDFA_CompleteBibliography_csv.zip [RDFA_CompleteBibliography.TXT: Metadata for the complete bibliography, in CSV format; RDFA_Glossary.TXT: Glossary of terms, in CSV format; RDFA_Biographies.TXT: Biographies of leading figures, in CSV format]; 3) RDFA_CompleteBibliography.pdf: A human readable display of the bibliographic data, as a means of double-checking any possible deviations due to conversion