Effect of Path Loss Propagation Model on the Position Estimation Accuracy of a 3-Dimensional Minimum Configuration Multilateration System

The 3-Dimensional (3-D) position estimation (PE) accuracy of a multilateration (MLAT) system depends on several factors one of which is the accuracy at which the time difference of arrival (TDOA) measurements are obtained. In this paper, signal attenuation is considered the major contributor to the TDOA estimation error and the effect of the signal attenuation based on path loss propagation model on the PE accuracy of the MLAT system is determined. The two path loss propagation models are considered namely: Okumura-Hata and the free space path loss (FSPL) model. The transmitter and receiver parameters used for the analysis are based on actual system used in the civil aviation. Monte Carlo simulation result based on square ground receiving station (GRS) configuration and at selected aircraft positions shows that the MLAT system with the Okumura-Hata model has the highest PE error. The horizontal coordinate and altitude error obtained with the Okumura-Hata are 2.5 km and 0.6 km respectively higher than that obtained with the FSPL mode

Energy efficiency in cellular wireless networks

Energy efficiency of Long Term Evolution (LTE) cellular communication networks has become a major concern for network operators, not only to reduce the operational costs, but also to reduce their environmental effects. Within LTE cellular networks, base stations are responsible for most of the energy consumption, consuming 70-95% or more of the network power depending on the network topology, configuration, radio technology and data rates that are used. Power control is an important function in cellular wireless networks and refers to setting the output power levels of transmitters, termed eNodeB in the downlink and user equipment (UEs) in the uplink. LTE utilizes two different mechanisms for uplink power control: Open Loop Power Control (OLPC) and Closed Loop Power Control (CLPC). Uplink OLPC is performed by the UE following eNodeB configuration and can compensate for long term channel variation such as path loss and shadowing. The uplink CLPC mechanism attempts to improve power control performance by compensating fast channel variations due to multipath fading. In CLPC the eNodeB sends Transmit Power Control (TPC) commands to the UE to adjust the UE’s transmit power. This thesis focuses on an Open Loop Power Control (OLPC) scheme for LTE uplink by using the Okumura-Hata propagation path loss model to set the User Equipment (UE) uplink transmit power control parameters in order to reduce the UE energy consumption. In general, the UE requires more power to connect to distant base stations than closer base stations and therefore this thesis analyses the required power levels using the Okumura-Hata propagation path loss model. Estimation of path loss is very important in initial deployment of wireless network and cell planning. This thesis analyses the Okumura-Hata propagation path loss in different receiver antenna heights (

Estimação de cobertura rádio em GSM-R através de redes neuronais

Trabalho Final de Mestrado para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia de Eletrónica e TelecomunicaçõesAtualmente estão a ser implementados sistemas GSM-R nas linhas ferroviárias de Portugal e para isto é necessário obter uma estimativa de sinal o mais precisa possível de forma a minimizar ao máximo o custo de instalação dos sistemas. Com base em medidas feitas anteriormente, esta dissertação propõe um método de estimativa de sinal alternativo aos modelos de estimação de cobertura rádio utilizando redes neuronais. Com medidas de várias linhas, implementou-se várias redes neuronais utilizando um método de treino supervisionado, ou seja, as redes conseguem aprender o comportamento de sinal em linhas ferroviárias com base nos parâmetros do modelo e nos parâmetros de terreno. Numa primeira experiência implementou-se uma rede neuronal multicamada, seguindo os vários passos do seu dimensionamento, para obter uma solução ótima na estimação de cobertura rádio em cada um dos cenários estudados. Esta experiência revelou uma diminuição do erro obtido na estimação de sinal apresentando-se como uma melhor solução em relação aos métodos anteriormente considerados. Numa segunda experiência pretendeu-se seguir uma abordagem diferente treinando um perceptrão com os vários parâmetros e fatores corretivos do modelo de Okumura-Hata de forma a comparar os resultados com a rede treinada anteriormente. Esta segunda experiência apresentou um aumento do erro em relação à anterior mas ainda apresentando resultados validos na estimação de sinal. Numa fase final pretendeu-se implementar uma aplicação, baseada em redes neuronais, que apresente uma solução generalizada para todos os cenários considerados. Para isto treinou-se uma rede neuronal competitiva com o objetivo de classificar as várias amostras em diferentes tipos de ambiente. Definidos os ambientes, treinou-se uma rede neuronal otimizada para cada um desses ambientes. A aplicação foi testada e apresentou um pequeno aumento do erro em relação às redes otimizadas para cada cenário mas apresenta um erro menor em relação aos métodos utilizados anteriormente provando ser uma melhor solução.Abstract: Currently GSM--R systems are being implemented in Portugal’s railway lines. For this it is necessary to obtain an estimate of the signal as precisely as possible in order to minimize as much as possible the cost of installation of the systems. Based on measurements previously made, this thesis proposes an alternative method of estimating the signal using neural networks. With the measurements of the various lines various neural networks were implemented, using a method of supervised training, in other words the networks manage to learn the signal behaviour of railway lines based on the parameters of the model and the terrainparameters. In a first experiment a multi-layered neural network was implemented, following the various steps of its design to obtain an optimal solution in the estimation of radio coverage in each of the scenarios investigated. This experiment revealed a decrease in error obtained in the estimation of the signal, presenting a better solution in relation to the previously considered methods. In a second experiment a different approach was followed, training a perceptron with the various parameters and corrective factors of the Okumura-Hata model to compare the results with the previously trained network. This second experiment presented an increase in error in relation to the previous one but obtaining valid results in the estimation of signal. In a final phase an application based on neural networks was to be implemented, presenting a generalized solution for all the scenarios considered. For this a competitive neural network was trained with the objective of classifying the various samples into different types of environment. Having defined the environments, an optimized neural network was trained for each one. The application was tested and presented a small increase in error in relation to the optimized networks for each scenario, but presented a smaller error in relation to the previous methods proving to be a better solution

A Control And Automation Engineering Approach To Railway Interlocking System Design

Tez (Doktora) -- İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, 2014Thesis (PhD) -- İstanbul Technical University, Institute of Science and Technology, 2014Demiryollarının ilk inşaat maliyetleri oldukça yüksek olmasına rağmen diğer ulaşım sistemleri ile karşılaştırıldığında, demiryolu sistemleri daha ekonomik, güvenli ve çevrecidir. Tüm bu özelliklerine rağmen, diğer Avrupa ülkeleri ile karşılaştırıldığında yakın zamana kadar Türkiye’de demiryollarına yapılan yatırım oldukça kısıtlı kalmıştır. Son yıllarda demiryolu sektörüne yapılan yatırımların gözle görülür bir şekilde artmasıyla gelişimi hız kazanan demiryolu ulaşım sistemlerinde dışarıya bağımlılığın azaltılması gündeme gelmiştir. Bu bağlamda gerek uyum ve güncelleme sıkıntıları gerekse yüksek maliyetler nedeni ile yerli sinyalizasyon sistemlerinin geliştirilmesi Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Devlet Demiryolları (TCDD) tarafından bir ihtiyaç olarak belirtilmiştir. Bunun bir sonucu olarak Türkiye’nin ilk yerli demiryolu sinyalizasyon projesi TCDD, Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştırma Kurumu (TÜBİTAK) ve İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi (İTÜ) ortaklığında tamamlanarak TCDD’ye teslim edilmiştir. Demiryolu sistemlerinde ulaşım ve taşımanın güvenli olarak gerçekleştirilmesini sağlayan en önemli bileşen anklaşman (interlock) sistemidir. Anklaşman sisteminin geliştirilmesinde izlenilecek olan temel adımlar Avrupa Elektroteknik Standardizasyon Komitesi (European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization - CENELEC) gibi uluslararası komiteler tarafınca hazırlanan güvenlik standartlarında tanımlanmıştır. Geliştirilen sinyalizasyon sisteminin istenilen Güvenlik Bütünlüğü Seviyesi (Safety Integrity Level - SIL) seviyesini sağlayabilmesi için bu güvenlik standartlarınca tavsiye edilen yöntem, teknik ve mimarilerin kullanılması yüksek önem arz etmektedir. Uluslararası güvenlik standartlarının gereksinimlerine ek olarak, sinyalizasyon sisteminin kurulacağı ülkeye ait ihtiyaçlar ve güvenlik kriterleri de göz önünde bulundurulmalıdır. Yazılım geliştirme süreci başlangıcında yazılımdan beklenen çıktılar veya başka bir deyişle yazılım isterleri oluşturulmalıdır. Sonrasında güvenlik standartlarında tavsiye edilen yöntem ve mimarilerin istenilen SIL seviyesinin sağlanabilmesi için uygun bir şekilde seçilmesi gerekmektedir. Seçilen yöntem ve mimariler yazılım isterlerini eksiksiz sağlayacak şekilde tasarımı gerçekleştirecek olan grup tarafından yazılım geliştirme sürecinde kullanılmalıdır. Yazılım geliştirme sürecinde tasarımı gerçekleştirilen yazılım blok ve alt blokları (veya modülleri) yazılım test grubu tarafından oluşturulan test prosedürüne göre test edilerek doğrulanmalıdır. Test prosedüründe uygulanan adımlar yazılım isterlerini doğrulayacak şekilde oluşturmalıdır. Yazılım geliştirme ve test süreçleri eksiksiz şekilde tamamlandıktan sonra doğrulanmış yazılım Fabrika Kabul Testi ve Saha Kabul Testleri ile de doğrulanmalıdır. Yazılım testlerinde herhangi bir hata ile karşılaşılması durumunda hatalar raporlanmakta ve gerekli düzeltmelerin yapılması amacıyla yazılım geliştirme gruplarına sunulmaktadır. Gerekli düzeltmeler gerçekleştirildikten sonra tüm testler en baştan tekrar gerçekleştirilmelidir. Bu tezde, sabit-blok (fixed-block) demiryolu sinyalizasyon sistemlerine ilişkin fonksiyonel güvenlik gereksinimleri tanımlanmış ve en az SIL 3 seviyesine sahip bir demiryolu anklaşman sistemi tasarımında kullanılan biçimsel modelleme yöntemleri, yazılım mimarileri detaylı olarak anlatılmıştır. Özellikle, güvenlik-kritik yazılım geliştirme sürecinde kullanılan çoklu programlama (Diverse Programming, N-version Programming) tekniğinin kullanımında ortaya çıkan eşzamanlama (synchronization) problemleri tanımlanmış ve bunlara yönelik çözüm yöntemleri önerilmiştir. Karşılaşılan eşzamanlama problemleri tip-1 ve tip-2 olarak iki farklı gruba ayrılmıştır. Bu iki farklı problem için iki farklı çözüm önerilmiş ve programlanabilir mantıksal kontrolörler üzerinde uygulanarak doğrulanmıştır. 1800’lü yılların ortalarından bugüne kadar kullanılmakta olan sabit-blok sinyalizasyon sistemleri, yolcu ve taşıma yoğunluğun artması, trenler arası yolculuk sürelerinin (headway time) gerekenden yüksek olması nedeniyle özellikle metro sistemlerinde yerini hareketli-blok (moving-block) sistemlere bırakmaktadır. Hareketli-blok sistemlerin en bilinen örneği olan Haberleşme Tabanlı Tren Kontrolü (Communication Based Train Control - CBTC) uygulamaları ile mevcut metro ve şehir içi demiryolu hatları daha etkin ve verimli bir şekilde kullanılabilmektedir. Buna ek olarak, farklı Avrupa ülkelerinde uygulanan tren kontrol, sinyalizasyon yöntemleri ile güvenlik kriterlerinin tek bir çatı altında toplanması, bu kriter ve uygulamaların şehir içi şehirlerarası demiryolu hatlarında da kullanılabilmesi amacıyla Avrupa Raylı Ulaşım Yönetim Sistemi (European Rail Traffic Management System - ERTMS) tanımlanmıştır. ERTMS, Avrupa Demiryolu Trafik Kontrolü (European Rail Traffic Control - ETCS) ve Demiryolu Mobil İletişim için Küresel Sistem (Global System for Mobile communications - Railway - GSM-R) uygulamalarının bir araya getirilmesi sonucunda oluşturulmuştur. ETCS uygulama seviyesi 1 ve 2, ek güvenlik kriterleri getirilmiş olan sabit-blok sistemlerdir. ETCS uygulama seviyesi 3 ise seviye 1 ve 2’den farklı olarak hareketli-blok sistemler olarak tanımlanmaktadır. ETCS uygulama seviye 3’ün en önemli bir diğer avantajı ise, sabit-blok sistemlerde kullanılan yol boyu sinyallerin ve ray devrelerinin kaldırılmış olmasıdır. Güvenli tren hareketi için gereken tüm bilgiler tren üzeri bilgisayar ve trafik kumanda merkezi arasında GSM-R vasıtası iletilmektedir. Sabit-blok demiryolu sinyalizasyon sistemlerinde gerçekleştirilen çözüm ve uygulamalara ek olarak, hareketli-blok sinyalizasyon sistemlerinin temel bileşenleri ve kavramları da tez kapsamında açıklanmıştır. Hareketli-blok sistemlerde trenlerin birbirini güvenli bir şekilde takip edebilmeleri için göz önünde bulundurulması gereken kriterler tanımlanmıştır. Avrupa Demiryolu Ajansı (European Railway Agency - ERA) ve Uluslararası Demiryolu Sendikası (International Union of Railways - UIC) gibi kurumların konu hakkında tavsiye ve önerilerine uygun olarak tren frenleme eğrilerinin hesaplanması ve güvenli tren takip mesafesi gibi kavramlar da açıklanmıştır. ERA ve UIC tarafından tanımlanmış güvenli tren takip mesafeleri ve tren frenleme mesafeleri göz önünde bulundurularak, ETCS uygulama seviye 3 kriterlerine göre aynı demiryolu hattı üzerinde aynı yönde ilerleyen trenlerin birbirlerini güvenli olarak takip etmesini sağlayan bir çevrimiçi uyarlamalı kontrolör tasarım yönteminin uygulaması önerilmiştir. Önerilen bu kontrolörün doğrulanması amacıyla benzetim çalışmaları yapılmış ve kontrolörün doğruluğu gösterilmiştir.Despite the high initial costs of railway constructions, railway systems are more economic, safer and more environment friendly than other ways of transport. Notwithstanding all these positive features, the investments in Turkey had been rather limited in comparison with other European countries until recent years. A need for reducing the dependency to other countries has arisen in line with the development in railway transportation after a visible increase in the investments on railway sector in recent years. Owing to high costs and problems in adaptation, development of local signaling systems has been required by TCDD. As a result, the first signaling system has been developed by the partnership of TCDD, TUBITAK and ITU. The most important component of railway systems that enables a safe transportation is interlocking. The safety basis of developing an interlocking system is described by standards developed by international committees like CENELEC. In order to provide the required SIL, using these techniques, methods and architectures has a great importance. Besides the international safety standards, the needs and safety rules of the country where the signaling system to be applied have to be considered. In this thesis, functional safety requirements related to fixed-block railway signaling systems are described, and formal modeling methods and software architectures used for a minimum SIL 3 railway interlocking system has discussed in detail. In particular, some of the problems that arise in using the diverse programming technique, which is used in developing failsafe software, have been determined and solution methods to these problems have been proposed. . Besides fixed-block signaling systems, moving-block signaling systems are also explained within the thesis. The implementation levels of European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) are explained, and application of an online adaptive controller design method that guarantees the trains to follow each other within safe distances is proposed.DoktoraPh

Role of Wireless technology in mobile augmented reality system (MARS)

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Angular dispersion of radio waves in mobile channels

Multi-antenna techniques are an important solution for significantly increasing the bandwidth efficiency of mobile wireless data transmission systems. Effective and reliable design of these multi-antenna systems requires thorough knowledge of radiowave propagation in the urban environment. The aim of the work presented in this thesis is to obtain a better physical understanding of radiowave propagation in mobile radio channels in order to provide a basis for the improvement of radiowave propagation prediction techniques for urban environments using knowledge from 3-D propagation experiments and simulations combined with space-wave modelling. In particular, the work focusses on: the development of an advanced 3-D mobile channel sounding system, obtaining propagation measurement data from mobile radio propagation experiments, the analysis of measured data and the modelling of angular dispersive scattering effects for the improvement of deterministic propagation prediction models. The first part of the study presents the design, implementation and verification of a wideband high-resolution measurement system for the characterisation of angular dispersion in mobile channels. The system uses complex impulse response data obtained from a novel 3-D tilted-cross switched antenna array as input to an improved version of 3-D Unitary ESPRIT. It is capable of characterising the delay and angular properties of physically-nonstationary radio channels at moderate urban speeds with high resolution in both azimuth and elevation. For the first time, omnidirectional video data that were captured during the measurements are used in combination with the measurement results to accurately identify and relate the received radio waves directly to the actual environment while moving through it. The second part of the study presents the results of experiments in which the highresolution measurement system, described in the first part, is used in several mobile outdoor experiments in different scenarios. The objective of these measurements was to gain more knowledge in order to improve the understanding of radiowave propagation. From these results the dispersive effects in the angular domain, caused by rough building surfaces and other irregular structures was paid particular attention. These effects not only influence the total amount of received power in dense urban environments, but can also have a large impact on the performance and deployment of multi-antenna systems. To improve the data representation and support further data analysis a hierarchical clustering method is presented that can successfully identify clusters of multipath signal components in multidimensional data. By using the data obtained from an omnidirectional video camera the clusters can be related directly to the environment and the scattering effects of specific objects can be isolated. These results are important in order to improve and calibrate deterministic propagation models. In the third part of the study a new method is presented to account for the angular dispersion caused by irregular surfaces in ray-tracing based propagation prediction models. The method is based on assigning an effective roughness to specific surfaces. Unlike the conventional reflection reduction factor for Gaussian surfaces, that only reduces the ray power, the new method also distributes power in the angular domain. The results of clustered measurement data are used to calibrated the model and show that this leads to improved channel representations that are better matched to the real-world channel behavior

Analyses of location-based services in Africa and investigating methods of improving its accuracy

The subject area of this thesis analyses the provision of location-based services (LBS) in Africa and seeks methods of improving their positional accuracy. The motivation behind this work is based on the fact that mobile technology is the only modern form of information and communication technology available to most people in Africa. Therefore all services that can be offered on the mobile network should be harnessed and LBS are one of these services. This research work is novel and is the first critical analysis carried out on LBS in Africa; therefore it had to be carried out in phases. A study was first carried out to analyse the provision of LBS in Africa. It was discovered that Africa definitely lags much of the World in the provision of LBS to its mobile subscribers; only a few LBS are available and these are not adapted to the needs of the African people. A field data empirical investigation was carried out in South Africa to evaluate the performance of LBS provided. Data collected indicated that the LBS provided is not dependable due to the inaccuracy introduced by two major factors - the positioning method and the data content provided. Analyzing methods to improve the positional accuracy proved quite challenging because Africa being one of the poorest continents has most mobile subscribers using basic mobile phones. Consequently, LBS often cannot be provided in Africa based on the capability of the mobile phones but rather on the capability of the mobile operator’s infrastructure. However, provision of LBS using the network-based positioning technologies poses the challenge of dynamically varying error sources which affects its accuracy. The effect of some error sources on network-based positioning technologies were analysed and a model developed to investigate the feasibility of making the RSS-based geometric positioning technologies error aware. Major consideration is given to the geometry of the BSs whose measurements are used for position estimation. Results indicated that it is feasible to improve location information in Africa not just by improving the positioning algorithms but also by using improved prediction algorithms, incorporating up-to-date geographical information and hybrid technologies. It was also confirmed that although errors are introduced due to location estimation methods, it is impossible to model the error and make it applicable for all algorithms and all location estimations. This is because the errors are dynamically varying and unpredictable for every measurement

Discrete Event Simulations

Considered by many authors as a technique for modelling stochastic, dynamic and discretely evolving systems, this technique has gained widespread acceptance among the practitioners who want to represent and improve complex systems. Since DES is a technique applied in incredibly different areas, this book reflects many different points of view about DES, thus, all authors describe how it is understood and applied within their context of work, providing an extensive understanding of what DES is. It can be said that the name of the book itself reflects the plurality that these points of view represent. The book embraces a number of topics covering theory, methods and applications to a wide range of sectors and problem areas that have been categorised into five groups. As well as the previously explained variety of points of view concerning DES, there is one additional thing to remark about this book: its richness when talking about actual data or actual data based analysis. When most academic areas are lacking application cases, roughly the half part of the chapters included in this book deal with actual problems or at least are based on actual data. Thus, the editor firmly believes that this book will be interesting for both beginners and practitioners in the area of DES