Flexible and scalable software defined radio based testbed for large scale body movement

Human activity (HA) sensing is becoming one of the key component in future healthcare system. The prevailing detection techniques for IHA uses ambient sensors, cameras and wearable devices that primarily require strenuous deployment overheads and raise privacy concerns as well. This paper proposes a novel, non-invasive, easily-deployable, flexible and scalable test-bed for identifying large-scale body movements based on Software Defined Radios (SDRs). Two Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) models, working as SDR based transceivers, are used to extract the Channel State Information (CSI) from continuous stream of multiple frequency subcarriers. The variances of amplitude information obtained from CSI data stream are used to infer daily life activities. Different machine learning algorithms namely K-Nearest Neighbour, Decision Tree, Discriminant Analysis and Naïve Bayes are used to evaluate the overall performance of the test-bed. The training, validation and testing processes are performed by considering the time-domain statistical features obtained from CSI data. The K-nearest neighbour outperformed all aforementioned classifiers, providing an accuracy of 89.73%. This preliminary non-invasive work will open a new direction for design of scalable framework for future healthcare systems

Non-invasive RF sensing for detecting breathing abnormalities using software defined radios

The non-contact continuous monitoring of biomarkers comprising breathing detection and heart rate are essential vital signs to evaluate the general physical health of a patient. As compared to existing methods that need dedicated equipment (such as wearable sensors), the radio frequency (RF) signals can be synthesised to continuously monitor breathing rate in a contact-less setting. In this paper, we proposed the contact less breathing rate detection using universal software radio peripheral (USRP) platform without any wearable sensor. Our system leverage on the channel state information (CSI) to record the minute movement caused by breathing over orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) in multiple sub-carriers. We presented a comparison of our breathing rate detection with wearable sensor (ground truth) results for single human subject. In this paper, we used wireless data to train, validate and test different machine learning (ML) algorithms to classify USRP data into normal, shallow and elevated breathing depending on the breathing rate. Although different ML models were developed using the K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Discriminant Analysis (DA), Naive Bayes (NB) and Decision Tree (DT) algorithms, however results showed KNN based model provided the highest accuracy for our data ( 91%) each time the trial was made. DT (17.131%), DA (59.72%) and NB (48.99%). Results presented in this paper showed that USRP based breathing rate is comparable to the wearable sensor demonstrating the potential application of our method to accurately monitor breathing rate of patients in primary or acute setting

Implementation of improvements of the Wi-Fi network of the RTBF and implementation of a Wi-Fi network for an “intelligent” building

Este Trabajo de Fin de Grado se ha realizado dentro de la Radio Televisión Belga Francófona (RTBF) en Bruselas. El objetivo de este proyecto es el diseño de una red Wi-Fi completamente confiable y de alto rendimiento para una de sus localizaciones. Para empezar, se completaron un estudio teórico y mediciones reales. La comparación entre el estudio teórico y práctico no estaba concluyente por lo que las predicciones teóricas se han modificado para corresponder a la realidad. Finalmente, la RTBF está construyendo un nuevo edificio en 2022 para el cual un estudio predictivo teórico se ha hecho para proporcionar una cantidad de puntos de accesos necesarios para una cobertura completa.This End-of-Grade work have been done inside the Francophone Belgian Radio-Television (RTBF) in Brussels. The goal of this Project is to design a fully reliable and performant Wi-Fi network for one of their localization. To begin with, a theorical study and real-life measurements were completed. The comparasion between the theorical and practical study was not concluding so the theorical predictions have been changed to correspond to reality. Finally, the RTBF is constructing a new building in 2022 for which a theorical predictive study have been done to provide the number of needed access points for a complete coverage.Grado en Ingeniería en Tecnologías de Telecomunicació

Planning and dynamic spectrum management in heterogeneous mobile networks with QoE optimization

The radio and network planning and optimisation are continuous processes that do not end after the network has been launched. To achieve the best trade-offs, especially between quality and costs, operators make use of several coverage and capacity enhancement methods. The research from this thesis proposes methods such as the implementation of cell zooming and Relay Stations (RSs) with dynamic sleep modes and Carrier Aggregation (CA) for coverage and capacity enhancements. Initially, a survey is presented on ubiquitous mesh networks implementation scenarios and an updated characterization of requirements for services and applications is proposed. The performance targets for the key parameters, delay, delay variation, information loss and throughput have been addressed for all types of services. Furthermore, with the increased competition, mobile operator’s success does not only depend on how good the offered Quality of Service (QoS) is, but also if it meets the end user’s expectations, i.e., Quality of Experience (QoE). In this context, a model for the mapping between QoS parameters and QoE has been proposed for multimedia traffic. The planning and optimization of fixed Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) networks with RSs in conjunction with cell zooming has been addressed. The challenging case of a propagation measurement-based scenario in the hilly region of Covilhã has been considered. A cost/revenue function has been developed by taking into account the cost of building and maintaining the infrastructure with the use of RSs. This part of the work also investigates the energy efficiency and economic implications of the use of power saving modes for RSs in conjunction with cell zooming. Assuming that the RSs can be switched-off or zoomed out to zero in periods when the traffic exchange is low, such as nights and weekends, it has been shown that energy consumption may be reduced whereas cellular coverage and capacity, as well as economic performance may be improved. An integrated Common Radio Resource Management (iCRRM) entity is proposed that implements inter-band CA by performing scheduling between two Long Term Evolution – Advanced (LTE-A) Component Carriers (CCs). Considering the bandwidths available in Portugal, the 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz CCs have been considered whilst mobile video traffic is addressed. Through extensive simulations it has been found that the proposed multi-band schedulers overcome the capacity of LTE systems without CA. Result shown a clear improvement of the QoS, QoE and economic trade-off with CA

Secure short-range communications

Analysts predict billions of everyday objects will soon become ``smart’\u27 after designers add wireless communication capabilities. Collectively known as the Internet of Things (IoT), these newly communication-enabled devices are envisioned to collect and share data among themselves, with new devices entering and exiting a particular environment frequently. People and the devices they wear or carry may soon encounter dozens, possibly hundreds, of devices each day. Many of these devices will be encountered for the first time. Additionally, some of the information the devices share may have privacy or security implications. Furthermore, many of these devices will have limited or non-existent user interfaces, making manual configuration cumbersome. This situation suggests that devices that have never met, nor shared a secret, but that are in the same physical area, must have a way to securely communicate that requires minimal manual intervention. In this dissertation we present novel approaches to solve these short-range communication issues. Our techniques are simple to use, secure, and consistent with user intent. We first present a technique called Wanda that uses radio strength as a communication channel to securely impart information onto nearby devices. We focus on using Wanda to introduce new devices into an environment, but Wanda could be used to impart any type of information onto wireless devices, regardless of device type or manufacturer. Next we describe SNAP, a method for a single-antenna wireless device to determine when it is in close physical proximity to another wireless device. Because radio waves are invisible, a user may believe transmissions are coming from a nearby device when in fact the transmissions are coming from a distant adversary attempting to trick the user into accepting a malicious payload. Our approach significantly raises the bar for an adversary attempting such a trick. Finally, we present a solution called JamFi that exploits MIMO antennas and the Inverse-Square Law to securely transfer data between nearby devices while denying more distant adversaries the ability to recover the data. We find JamFi is able to facilitate reliable and secure communication between two devices in close physical proximity, even though they have never met nor shared a key

Proceedings of the Second International Mobile Satellite Conference (IMSC 1990)

Presented here are the proceedings of the Second International Mobile Satellite Conference (IMSC), held June 17-20, 1990 in Ottawa, Canada. Topics covered include future mobile satellite communications concepts, aeronautical applications, modulation and coding, propagation and experimental systems, mobile terminal equipment, network architecture and control, regulatory and policy considerations, vehicle antennas, and speech compression

Quantifying Potential Energy Efficiency Gain in Green Cellular Wireless Networks

Conventional cellular wireless networks were designed with the purpose of providing high throughput for the user and high capacity for the service provider, without any provisions of energy efficiency. As a result, these networks have an enormous Carbon footprint. In this paper, we describe the sources of the inefficiencies in such networks. First we present results of the studies on how much Carbon footprint such networks generate. We also discuss how much more mobile traffic is expected to increase so that this Carbon footprint will even increase tremendously more. We then discuss specific sources of inefficiency and potential sources of improvement at the physical layer as well as at higher layers of the communication protocol hierarchy. In particular, considering that most of the energy inefficiency in cellular wireless networks is at the base stations, we discuss multi-tier networks and point to the potential of exploiting mobility patterns in order to use base station energy judiciously. We then investigate potential methods to reduce this inefficiency and quantify their individual contributions. By a consideration of the combination of all potential gains, we conclude that an improvement in energy consumption in cellular wireless networks by two orders of magnitude, or even more, is possible.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1210.843