Hybrid Satellite-Terrestrial Communication Networks for the Maritime Internet of Things: Key Technologies, Opportunities, and Challenges

With the rapid development of marine activities, there has been an increasing number of maritime mobile terminals, as well as a growing demand for high-speed and ultra-reliable maritime communications to keep them connected. Traditionally, the maritime Internet of Things (IoT) is enabled by maritime satellites. However, satellites are seriously restricted by their high latency and relatively low data rate. As an alternative, shore & island-based base stations (BSs) can be built to extend the coverage of terrestrial networks using fourth-generation (4G), fifth-generation (5G), and beyond 5G services. Unmanned aerial vehicles can also be exploited to serve as aerial maritime BSs. Despite of all these approaches, there are still open issues for an efficient maritime communication network (MCN). For example, due to the complicated electromagnetic propagation environment, the limited geometrically available BS sites, and rigorous service demands from mission-critical applications, conventional communication and networking theories and methods should be tailored for maritime scenarios. Towards this end, we provide a survey on the demand for maritime communications, the state-of-the-art MCNs, and key technologies for enhancing transmission efficiency, extending network coverage, and provisioning maritime-specific services. Future challenges in developing an environment-aware, service-driven, and integrated satellite-air-ground MCN to be smart enough to utilize external auxiliary information, e.g., sea state and atmosphere conditions, are also discussed

Adaptive multibeam antennas for spacelab. Phase A: Feasibility study

The feasibility was studied of using adaptive multibeam multi-frequency antennas on the spacelab, and to define the experiment configuration and program plan needed for a demonstration to prove the concept. Three applications missions were selected, and requirements were defined for an L band communications experiment, an L band radiometer experiment, and a Ku band communications experiment. Reflector, passive lens, and phased array antenna systems were considered, and the Adaptive Multibeam Phased Array (AMPA) was chosen. Array configuration and beamforming network tradeoffs resulted in a single 3m x 3m L band array with 576 elements for high radiometer beam efficiency. Separate 0.4m x 0.4 m arrays are used to transmit and receive at Ku band with either 576 elements or thinned apertures. Each array has two independently steerable 5 deg beams, which are adaptively controlled

Enhancing spectrum utilization through cooperation and cognition in wireless systems

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, February 2013.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections."February 2013." Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 201-217).We have seen a proliferation of wireless technologies and devices in recent years. The resulting explosion of wireless demand has put immense pressure on available spectrum. Improving spectrum utilization is therefore necessary to enable wireless networks to keep up with burgeoning demand. This dissertation presents a cognitive and cooperative wireless architecture that significantly enhances spectrum utilization. Specifically, it introduces four new systems that embody a cross-layer design for cognition and cooperation. The first system, SWIFT, is a cognitive cross technology solution that enables wideband devices to exploit higher layer network semantics to adaptively sense which portions of the spectrum are occupied by unknown narrowband devices, and weave the remaining unoccupied spectrum bands into a single high-throughput wideband link. Second, FARA is a cooperative system that enables multi-channel wireless solutions like 802.11 to dynamically use all available channels for all devices in a performance-aware manner by using information from the physical layer and allocating to each link the frequency bands that show the highest performance for that link. SourceSync, the third system, enables wireless nodes in last-hop and wireless mesh networks to cooperatively transmit synchronously in order to exploit channel diversity and increase reliability. Finally, MegaMIMO enables wireless throughput to scale linearly with the number of transmitters by enabling multiple wireless transmitters to transmit simultaneously in the same frequency bands to multiple wireless receivers without interfering with each other. The systems in this dissertation demonstrate the practicality of cognitive and cooperative wireless systems to enable spectrum sharing. Further, as part of these systems, we design several novel primitives - adaptive spectrum sensing, time alignment, frequency synchronization, and distributed phase-coherent transmission, that can serve as fundamental building blocks for wireless cognition and cooperation. Finally, we have implemented all four systems described in this dissertation, and evaluated them in wireless testbeds, demonstrating large gains in practice.by Hariharan Shankar Rahul.Ph.D

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

Optical Communication

Optical communication is very much useful in telecommunication systems, data processing and networking. It consists of a transmitter that encodes a message into an optical signal, a channel that carries the signal to its desired destination, and a receiver that reproduces the message from the received optical signal. It presents up to date results on communication systems, along with the explanations of their relevance, from leading researchers in this field. The chapters cover general concepts of optical communication, components, systems, networks, signal processing and MIMO systems. In recent years, optical components and other enhanced signal processing functions are also considered in depth for optical communications systems. The researcher has also concentrated on optical devices, networking, signal processing, and MIMO systems and other enhanced functions for optical communication. This book is targeted at research, development and design engineers from the teams in manufacturing industry, academia and telecommunication industries

ATS-6 engineering performance report. Volume 5: Propagation experiments

Propagation experiments at 1550 MHz to 1650 MHz are reviewed, including the Integrated L-Band Experiments system and results, and the Mobile L-Band Terminals for Satellite Communication system. Experiments at 4 GHz to 6 GHz are reported, including the Radio Frequency Interferometer Measurements system and results, and Earth station antenna evaluations. Experiments above 10 GHz are discussed, including Comsat and ATS-6 millimeter wave propagation/experiments, and communication ATS-6 version at 20 and 30 GHz

Applications Technology Satellite ATS-6 experiment checkout and continuing spacecraft evaluation report

The activities of the ATS-6 spacecraft are reviewed. The following subsystems and experiments are summarized: (1) radio beacon experiments; (2) spacecraft attitude precision pointing and slewing adaptive control experiment; (3) satellite instruction television experiment; (4) thermal control subsystem; (5) spacecraft propulsion subsystem; (6) telemetry and control subsystem; (7) millimeter wave experiment; and (8) communications subsystem. The results of performance evaluation of its subsystems and experiments are presented

Proceedings of the Thirteenth NASA Propagation Experimenters Meeting (NAPEX 13)

The NASA Propagation Experimenters Meeting (NAPEX), supported by the NASA Propagation Program, is convened annually to discuss studies made on radio wave propagation by investigators from domestic and international organizations. The meeting was organized into three technical sessions: the first focused on mobile satellite propagation; the second examined the propagation effects for frequencies above 10 GHz; and the third addressed studies devoted exclusively to the Olympus/Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) Program