LTE User Association for Self-Deployable Networks in Disaster Management Scenarios

International audienceIn a disaster scenario, both victims and first respon-ders need an access to a communication network for applications with different quality of service requirements (e.g. short delay, high throughput). As LTE compatible devices are very common nowadays, LTE shows a lot of advantages to be used as a disaster management network. However, its already deployed infrastructure may be damaged or unusable following the said disaster. In this scenario, self-deployable networks shine as they are quickly deployable and can cover areas inaccessible to humans. In this paper, we present self-deployable networks and show what the 3GPP LTE standard provides to them. We focus on the legacy best-SINR based mobile association between user equipment and base stations. Then, we show that such association is agnostic of the quality of service requirements and therefore not suitable to support efficiently the dedicated applications used in disaster management. We then propose several points of improvement in this association scheme that take specific disaster management constraints into account

Practical service placement approach for microservices architecture

Community networks (CNs) have gained momentum in the last few years with the increasing number of spontaneously deployed WiFi hotspots and home networks. These networks, owned and managed by volunteers, offer various services to their members and to the public. To reduce the complexity of service deployment, community micro-clouds have recently emerged as a promising enabler for the delivery of cloud services to community users. By putting services closer to consumers, micro-clouds pursue not only a better service performance, but also a low entry barrier for the deployment of mainstream Internet services within the CN. Unfortunately, the provisioning of the services is not so simple. Due to the large and irregular topology, high software and hardware diversity of CNs, it requires of aPeer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Unaprjeđenje cjelovitosti vojno-obrambenih komunikacijskih sustava s pomoću mrežnih pristupnih točaka s naglaskom na zemaljskim radiorelejnim vezama

Obvious changes in a very broad field of the information and communication technologies are the key driver of the accelerated development of every sphere of human activity, including private life. In the military organization, this technological progress is present through the “post 2000” concept of the networked implementation of operations, which is implemented to varying degrees in armies around the world. New confrontations on the modern front include demands for an ever-increasing volume of the electronic traffic, complexity of the systems that generate, share and consume information content, and above all, the fastest possible availability of the relevant information. The race for information superiority is accompanied, on the other hand, by an ever more destructive highly sophisticated threats, from classic degradations and physical destruction, action of the hybrid (intelligence-combat) platforms of the unmanned systems, to cyber-electromagnetic activities of an offensivedefensive nature. The new paradigms of the multi-domain warfare and expected scenarios that such forms of engagement put forward, demand from the modern military organization further normative arrangements within the functional area related to communication information systems. At the operational-strategic level, they imply the introduction of adequate organizational concepts and doctrines, while in the implementation part they require correction of the established tactics, techniques and procedures. In such an operational environment, integrative efforts within today’s militarydefence communication systems transformed into unique complete solutions have brought a special challenge. Key networking of the mission components is provided by network access points. For this reason, they are the subject of special attention of the network designers, both conceptually and in terms of implementation. The effectiveness of their functioning is also an assessment of the maturity of military thinking, inventiveness and engineering practice – which will bring along defeats or victories to any combat system in future challenges.Očigledne promjene na vrlo širokom području informacijsko-komunikacijskih tehnologija ključni su pokretač ubrzanog razvoja svake sfere ljudskog djelovanja – uključujući i privatni život. U vojnoj organizaciji ovaj tehnološki napredak prisutan je kroz tzv. post 2000 koncept umrežene provedbe operacija – koji se u različitim stupnjevima implementira u vojskama širom svijeta. Nova sučeljavanja na suvremenoj bojišnici uključuju zahtjeve za sve većim volumenom elektroničkih prometnica, usložnjavanja sustava koji generiraju, dijele i konzumiraju informacijske sadržaje te prije svega što bržu dostupnost relevantnih informacija. Utrku za informacijskom superiornošću s druge strane prate nikad destruktivnije visokosofisticirane prijetnje – od klasičnih degradacija i fizičkih uništenja, djelovanja hibridnih (obavještajno-borbenih) platformi besposadnih sustava, do kiberelektromagnetskih aktivnosti napadajno-obrambene prirode. Nove paradigme višedomenskog ratovanja i očekujući scenariji koje takvi oblici angažmana donose, od suvremene vojne organizacije traže daljnja normativna uređenja unutar funkcionalnog područja vezanog uz komunikacijsko-informacijske sustave. Ona na operativno-strategijskoj razini podrazumijevaju uvođenje adekvatnih organizacijskih koncepata i doktrina, dok u provedbenom dijelu traže korigiranje ustaljenih taktika, tehnika i procedura. U takvom operativnom okružju, poseban izazov donose integrativni napori unutar vojno-obrambenih komunikacijskih sustava današnjice, pretočeni u jedinstvena cjelovita rješenja. Ključnu umreženost misijskih sastavnica osiguravaju mrežne pristupne točke. Zbog tog su razloga predmetom od posebne pozornosti mrežnih dizajnera, i u konceptualnom i u izvedbenom smislu. Učinkovitost njihova funkcioniranja, ujedno je i ocjena zrelosti vojnog promišljanja, inventivnosti i inženjerske prakse – koja će u budućim izazovima svakom borbenom sustavu donositi poraze ili pobjede

Design, development and evaluation of the ruggedized edge computing node (RECON)

The increased quality and quantity of sensors provide an ever-increasing capability to collect large quantities of high-quality data in the field. Research devoted to translating that data is progressing rapidly; however, translating field data into usable information can require high performance computing capabilities. While high performance computing (HPC) resources are available in centralized facilities, bandwidth, latency, security and other limitations inherent to edge location in field sensor applications may prevent HPC resources from being used in a timely fashion necessary for potential United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) field applications. To address these limitations, the design requirements for RECON are established and derived from a review of edge computing, in order to develop and evaluate a novel high-power, field-deployable HPC platform capable of operating in austere environments at the edge

5G framework for automated network adaptation in mission critical services

© 2019 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes,creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Mission Critical Services (MCS) are gaining interest among network operators to offer alternative communications than conventional trunked radio systems. They promise a simplified management of cloud and radio resources for service deployment. However, the network capabilities should be adapted for the changing conditions, to assure low-latency and reliability for such applications. This paper presents an on-going work on utilising 5G technology for Mission Critical Push To Talk (MCPTT) services. It describes some design elements and evaluates 5G ESSENCE architecture that enable mission critical applications.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

LTE User Association for Self-Deployable Networks in Disaster Management Scenarios

International audienceIn a disaster scenario, both victims and first respon-ders need an access to a communication network for applications with different quality of service requirements (e.g. short delay, high throughput). As LTE compatible devices are very common nowadays, LTE shows a lot of advantages to be used as a disaster management network. However, its already deployed infrastructure may be damaged or unusable following the said disaster. In this scenario, self-deployable networks shine as they are quickly deployable and can cover areas inaccessible to humans. In this paper, we present self-deployable networks and show what the 3GPP LTE standard provides to them. We focus on the legacy best-SINR based mobile association between user equipment and base stations. Then, we show that such association is agnostic of the quality of service requirements and therefore not suitable to support efficiently the dedicated applications used in disaster management. We then propose several points of improvement in this association scheme that take specific disaster management constraints into account

Deployment, Coverage And Network Optimization In Wireless Video Sensor Networks For 3D Indoor Monitoring

As a result of extensive research over the past decade or so, wireless sensor networks (wsns) have evolved into a well established technology for industry, environmental and medical applications. However, traditional wsns employ such sensors as thermal or photo light resistors that are often modeled with simple omni-directional sensing ranges, which focus only on scalar data within the sensing environment. In contrast, the sensing range of a wireless video sensor is directional and capable of providing more detailed video information about the sensing field. Additionally, with the introduction of modern features in non-fixed focus cameras such as the pan, tilt and zoom (ptz), the sensing range of a video sensor can be further regarded as a fan-shape in 2d and pyramid-shape in 3d. Such uniqueness attributed to wireless video sensors and the challenges associated with deployment restrictions of indoor monitoring make the traditional sensor coverage, deployment and networked solutions in 2d sensing model environments for wsns ineffective and inapplicable in solving the wireless video sensor network (wvsn) issues for 3d indoor space, thus calling for novel solutions. In this dissertation, we propose optimization techniques and develop solutions that will address the coverage, deployment and network issues associated within wireless video sensor networks for a 3d indoor environment. We first model the general problem in a continuous 3d space to minimize the total number of required video sensors to monitor a given 3d indoor region. We then convert it into a discrete version problem by incorporating 3d grids, which can achieve arbitrary approximation precision by adjusting the grid granularity. Due in part to the uniqueness of the visual sensor directional sensing range, we propose to exploit the directional feature to determine the optimal angular-coverage of each deployed visual sensor. Thus, we propose to deploy the visual sensors from divergent directional angles and further extend k-coverage to ``k-angular-coverage\u27\u27, while ensuring connectivity within the network. We then propose a series of mechanisms to handle obstacles in the 3d environment. We develop efficient greedy heuristic solutions that integrate all these aforementioned considerations one by one and can yield high quality results. Based on this, we also propose enhanced depth first search (dfs) algorithms that can not only further improve the solution quality, but also return optimal results if given enough time. Our extensive simulations demonstrate the superiority of both our greedy heuristic and enhanced dfs solutions. Finally, this dissertation discusses some future research directions such as in-network traffic routing and scheduling issues

Designing and Implementing Future Aerial Communication Networks

Providing "connectivity from the sky" is the new innovative trend in wireless communications. High and low altitude platforms, drones, aircrafts and airships are being considered as the candidates for deploying wireless communications complementing the terrestrial communication infrastructure. In this article, we report the detailed account of the design and implementation challenges of an aerial network consisting of LTE Advanced (LTE-A) base stations. In particular, we review achievements and innovations harnessed by an aerial network composed of Helikite platforms. Helikites can be raised in the sky to bring Internet access during special events and in the aftermath of an emergency. The trial phase of the system mounting LTE-A technology onboard Helikites to serve users on the ground showed not only to be very encouraging but that such a system could offer even a longer lasting solution provided that inefficiency in powering the radio frequency equipment in the Helikite can be overcome.Comment: IEEE Communications Magazine 201

Network-aware User Association in Public Safety Oriented Mobile Networks

International audienceIn many disaster scenarios, communication infrastructure fails to provide network services for both civilians and first responders. One solution is to have rapidly deployable mobile networks formed by interconnected base stations, that are easy to move, deploy, and configure. Such public safety-oriented networks are different from classical mobile networks in terms of scale, deployment, and architecture. In this context, we revisit the user association problem, for two main reasons. First, the backhaul, formed by the links interconnecting the base stations, must be accounted for when deciding on the association, since it may present a bottleneck with its limited bandwidth. Second, the mission-critical nature of the traffic imposes strict guaranteed bit rate constraints, that must be respected when associating users. Therefore, we propose a network-aware optimal association that minimizes the bandwidth consumption on the backhaul, while still respecting the stringent performance requirements