Resource management in future mobile networks: from millimetre-wave backhauls to airborne access networks

The next generation of mobile networks will connect vast numbers of devices and support services with diverse requirements. Enabling technologies such as millimetre-wave (mm-wave) backhauling and network slicing allow for increased wireless capacities and logical partitioning of physical deployments, yet introduce a number of challenges. These include among others the precise and rapid allocation of network resources among applications, elucidating the interactions between new mobile networking technology and widely used protocols, and the agile control of mobile infrastructure, to provide users with reliable wireless connectivity in extreme scenarios. This thesis presents several original contributions that address these challenges. In particular, I will first describe the design and evaluation of an airtime allocation and scheduling mechanism devised specifically for mm-wave backhauls, explicitly addressing inter-flow fairness and capturing the unique characteristics of mm-wave communications. Simulation results will demonstrate 5x throughput gains and a 5-fold improvement in fairness over recent mm-wave scheduling solutions. Second, I will introduce a utility optimisation framework targeting virtually sliced mm-wave backhauls that are shared by a number of applications with distinct requirements. Based on this framework, I will present a deep learning solution that can be trained within minutes, following which it computes rate allocations that match those obtained with state-of-the-art global optimisation algorithms. The proposed solution outperforms a baseline greedy approach by up to 62%, in terms of network utility, while running orders of magnitude faster. Third, the thesis investigates the behaviour of the Transport Control Protocol (TCP) in Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks and discusses the implications of employing Radio Link Control (RLC) acknowledgements under different link qualities, on the performance of transport protocols. Fourth, I will introduce a reinforcement learning approach to optimising the performance of airborne cellular networks serving users in emergency settings, demonstrating rapid convergence (approx. 2.5 hours on a desktop machine) and a 5dB improvement of the median Signal-to-Noise-plus-Interference-Ratio (SINR) perceived by users, over a heuristic based benchmark solution. Finally, the thesis discusses promising future research directions that follow from the results obtained throughout this PhD project

QoS-driven adaptive resource allocation for mobile wireless communications and networks

Quality-of-service (QoS) guarantees will play a critically important role in future mobile wireless networks. In this dissertation, we study a set of QoS-driven resource allocation problems for mobile wireless communications and networks. In the first part of this dissertation, we investigate resource allocation schemes for statistical QoS provisioning. The schemes aim at maximizing the system/network throughput subject to a given queuing delay constraint. To achieve this goal, we integrate the information theory with the concept of effective capacity and develop a unified framework for resource allocation. Applying the above framework, we con-sider a number of system infrastructures, including single channel, parallel channel, cellular, and cooperative relay systems and networks, respectively. In addition, we also investigate the impact of imperfect channel-state information (CSI) on QoS pro-visioning. The resource allocation problems can be solved e±ciently by the convex optimization approach, where closed-form allocation policies are obtained for different application scenarios. Our analyses reveal an important fact that there exists a fundamental tradeoff between throughput and QoS provisioning. In particular, when the delay constraint becomes loose, the optimal resource allocation policy converges to the water-filling scheme, where ergodic capacity can be achieved. On the other hand, when the QoS constraint gets stringent, the optimal policy converges to the channel inversion scheme under which the system operates at a constant rate and the zero-outage capacity can be achieved. In the second part of this dissertation, we study adaptive antenna selection for multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) communication systems. System resources such as subcarriers, antennas and power are allocated dynamically to minimize the symbol-error rate (SER), which is the key QoS metric at the physical layer. We propose a selection diversity scheme for MIMO multicarrier direct-sequence code- division-multiple-access (MC DS-CDMA) systems and analyze the error performance of the system when considering CSI feedback delay and feedback errors. Moreover, we propose a joint antenna selection and power allocation scheme for space-time block code (STBC) systems. The error performance is derived when taking the CSI feedback delay into account. Our numerical results show that when feedback delay comes into play, a tradeoff between performance and robustness can be achieved by dynamically allocating power across transmit antennas

Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

Being infrastructure-less and without central administration control, wireless ad-hoc networking is playing a more and more important role in extending the coverage of traditional wireless infrastructure (cellular networks, wireless LAN, etc). This book includes state-of-the-art techniques and solutions for wireless ad-hoc networks. It focuses on the following topics in ad-hoc networks: quality-of-service and video communication, routing protocol and cross-layer design. A few interesting problems about security and delay-tolerant networks are also discussed. This book is targeted to provide network engineers and researchers with design guidelines for large scale wireless ad hoc networks

AN EFFICIENT INTERFERENCE AVOIDANCE SCHEME FOR DEVICE-TODEVICE ENABLED FIFTH GENERATION NARROWBAND INTERNET OF THINGS NETWOKS’

Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) is a low-power wide-area (LPWA) technology built on long-term evolution (LTE) functionalities and standardized by the 3rd-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). Due to its support for massive machine-type communication (mMTC) and different IoT use cases with rigorous standards in terms of connection, energy efficiency, reachability, reliability, and latency, NB-IoT has attracted the research community. However, as the capacity needs for various IoT use cases expand, the LTE evolved packet core (EPC) system's numerous functionalities may become overburdened and suboptimal. Several research efforts are currently in progress to address these challenges. As a result, an overview of these efforts with a specific focus on the optimized architecture of the LTE EPC functionalities, the 5G architectural design for NB-IoT integration, the enabling technologies necessary for 5G NB-IoT, 5G new radio (NR) coexistence with NB-IoT, and feasible architectural deployment schemes of NB-IoT with cellular networks is discussed. This thesis also presents cloud-assisted relay with backscatter communication as part of a detailed study of the technical performance attributes and channel communication characteristics from the physical (PHY) and medium access control (MAC) layers of the NB-IoT, with a focus on 5G. The numerous drawbacks that come with simulating these systems are explored. The enabling market for NB-IoT, the benefits for a few use cases, and the potential critical challenges associated with their deployment are all highlighted. Fortunately, the cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (CPOFDM) based waveform by 3GPP NR for improved mobile broadband (eMBB) services does not prohibit the use of other waveforms in other services, such as the NB-IoT service for mMTC. As a result, the coexistence of 5G NR and NB-IoT must be manageably orthogonal (or quasi-orthogonal) to minimize mutual interference that limits the form of freedom in the waveform's overall design. As a result, 5G coexistence with NB-IoT will introduce a new interference challenge, distinct from that of the legacy network, even though the NR's coexistence with NB-IoT is believed to improve network capacity and expand the coverage of the user data rate, as well as improves robust communication through frequency reuse. Interference challenges may make channel estimation difficult for NB-IoT devices, limiting the user performance and spectral efficiency. Various existing interference mitigation solutions either add to the network's overhead, computational complexity and delay or are hampered by low data rate and coverage. These algorithms are unsuitable for an NB-IoT network owing to the low-complexity nature. As a result, a D2D communication based interference-control technique becomes an effective strategy for addressing this problem. This thesis used D2D communication to decrease the network bottleneck in dense 5G NBIoT networks prone to interference. For D2D-enabled 5G NB-IoT systems, the thesis presents an interference-avoidance resource allocation that considers the less favourable cell edge NUEs. To simplify the algorithm's computing complexity and reduce interference power, the system divides the optimization problem into three sub-problems. First, in an orthogonal deployment technique using channel state information (CSI), the channel gain factor is leveraged by selecting a probable reuse channel with higher QoS control. Second, a bisection search approach is used to find the best power control that maximizes the network sum rate, and third, the Hungarian algorithm is used to build a maximum bipartite matching strategy to choose the optimal pairing pattern between the sets of NUEs and the D2D pairs. The proposed approach improves the D2D sum rate and overall network SINR of the 5G NB-IoT system, according to the numerical data. The maximum power constraint of the D2D pair, D2D's location, Pico-base station (PBS) cell radius, number of potential reuse channels, and cluster distance impact the D2D pair's performance. The simulation results achieve 28.35%, 31.33%, and 39% SINR performance higher than the ARSAD, DCORA, and RRA algorithms when the number of NUEs is twice the number of D2D pairs, and 2.52%, 14.80%, and 39.89% SINR performance higher than the ARSAD, RRA, and DCORA when the number of NUEs and D2D pairs are equal. As a result, a D2D sum rate increase of 9.23%, 11.26%, and 13.92% higher than the ARSAD, DCORA, and RRA when the NUE’s number is twice the number of D2D pairs, and a D2D’s sum rate increase of 1.18%, 4.64% and 15.93% higher than the ARSAD, RRA and DCORA respectively, with an equal number of NUEs and D2D pairs is achieved. The results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed scheme. The thesis also addressed the problem where the cell-edge NUE's QoS is critical to challenges such as long-distance transmission, delays, low bandwidth utilization, and high system overhead that affect 5G NB-IoT network performance. In this case, most cell-edge NUEs boost their transmit power to maximize network throughput. Integrating cooperating D2D relaying technique into 5G NB-IoT heterogeneous network (HetNet) uplink spectrum sharing increases the system's spectral efficiency and interference power, further degrading the network. Using a max-max SINR (Max-SINR) approach, this thesis proposed an interference-aware D2D relaying strategy for 5G NB-IoT QoS improvement for a cell-edge NUE to achieve optimum system performance. The Lagrangian-dual technique is used to optimize the transmit power of the cell-edge NUE to the relay based on the average interference power constraint, while the relay to the NB-IoT base station (NBS) employs a fixed transmit power. To choose an optimal D2D relay node, the channel-to-interference plus noise ratio (CINR) of all available D2D relays is used to maximize the minimum cell-edge NUE's data rate while ensuring the cellular NUEs' QoS requirements are satisfied. Best harmonic mean, best-worst, half-duplex relay selection, and a D2D communication scheme were among the other relaying selection strategies studied. The simulation results reveal that the Max-SINR selection scheme outperforms all other selection schemes due to the high channel gain between the two communication devices except for the D2D communication scheme. The proposed algorithm achieves 21.27% SINR performance, which is nearly identical to the half-duplex scheme, but outperforms the best-worst and harmonic selection techniques by 81.27% and 40.29%, respectively. As a result, as the number of D2D relays increases, the capacity increases by 14.10% and 47.19%, respectively, over harmonic and half-duplex techniques. Finally, the thesis presents future research works on interference control in addition with the open research directions on PHY and MAC properties and a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis presented in Chapter 2 to encourage further study on 5G NB-IoT

Adaptive Coded Modulation Classification and Spectrum Sensing for Cognitive Radio Systems. Adaptive Coded Modulation Techniques for Cognitive Radio Using Kalman Filter and Interacting Multiple Model Methods

The current and future trends of modern wireless communication systems place heavy demands on fast data transmissions in order to satisfy end users’ requirements anytime, anywhere. Such demands are obvious in recent applications such as smart phones, long term evolution (LTE), 4 & 5 Generations (4G & 5G), and worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) platforms, where robust coding and modulations are essential especially in streaming on-line video material, social media and gaming. This eventually resulted in extreme exhaustion imposed on the frequency spectrum as a rare natural resource due to stagnation in current spectrum management policies. Since its advent in the late 1990s, cognitive radio (CR) has been conceived as an enabling technology aiming at the efficient utilisation of frequency spectrum that can lead to potential direct spectrum access (DSA) management. This is mainly attributed to its internal capabilities inherited from the concept of software defined radio (SDR) to sniff its surroundings, learn and adapt its operational parameters accordingly. CR systems (CRs) may commonly comprise one or all of the following core engines that characterise their architectures; namely, adaptive coded modulation (ACM), automatic modulation classification (AMC) and spectrum sensing (SS). Motivated by the above challenges, this programme of research is primarily aimed at the design and development of new paradigms to help improve the adaptability of CRs and thereby achieve the desirable signal processing tasks at the physical layer of the above core engines. Approximate modelling of Rayleigh and finite state Markov channels (FSMC) with a new concept borrowed from econometric studies have been approached. Then insightful channel estimation by using Kalman filter (KF) augmented with interacting multiple model (IMM) has been examined for the purpose of robust adaptability, which is applied for the first time in wireless communication systems. Such new IMM-KF combination has been facilitated in the feedback channel between wireless transmitter and receiver to adjust the transmitted power, by using a water-filling (WF) technique, and constellation pattern and rate in the ACM algorithm. The AMC has also benefited from such IMM-KF integration to boost the performance against conventional parametric estimation methods such as maximum likelihood estimate (MLE) for channel interrogation and the estimated parameters of both inserted into the ML classification algorithm. Expectation-maximisation (EM) has been applied to examine unknown transmitted modulation sequences and channel parameters in tandem. Finally, the non-parametric multitaper method (MTM) has been thoroughly examined for spectrum estimation (SE) and SS, by relying on Neyman-Pearson (NP) detection principle for hypothesis test, to allow licensed primary users (PUs) to coexist with opportunistic unlicensed secondary users (SUs) in the same frequency bands of interest without harmful effects. The performance of the above newly suggested paradigms have been simulated and assessed under various transmission settings and revealed substantial improvements

Cross-Layer Adaptive ARQ for Uplink Video Streaming in Tandem Wireless/Wireline Networks ∗

Abstract — In this paper, we focus on improving the robustness of packetized multimedia streaming in tandem-connected wireless LANs and wireline packet switched networks. To this aim we initially develop an analytical model that expresses the end-to-end packet loss rate and latency, as a function of the retransmissionbased error control mechanisms employed both at the application and wireless link layers. The developed model is the basis of an algorithm that dynamically identifies the optimal number of retransmissions at each protocol layer, so that the overall effective packet loss rate is minimized. Realistic video streaming experiments show considerable quality improvements in terms od PSNR, by avoiding the overall number of retransmissions. I

Spatial stochastic models for network analysis

This thesis proposes new stochastic interacting particle models for networks, and studies some fundamental properties of these models. This thesis considers two application areas of networking - engineering design questions in future wireless systems and algorithmic tasks in large scale graph structured data. The key innovation introduced in this thesis is to bring tools and ideas from stochastic geometry to bear on the problems in both these application domains. We identify certain fundamental questions in design and engineering both wireless systems and large scale graph structured data processing systems. Subsequently, we identify novel stochastic geometric models, that captures the fundamental properties of these networks, which forms the first research contribution. We then rigorously study these models, by bringing to bear new tools from stochastic geometry, random graphs, percolation and Markov processes to establish structural results and fundamental phase transitions in these models. Using our developed mathematical methodology, we then identify design insights and develop algorithms, which we demonstrate are instructive in many practical settings. In the setting of wireless systems, this thesis studies both ad-hoc and cellular networks. In the ad-hoc network setting, we aim to understand fundamental limits of the simplest possible protocol to access the spectrum, namely a link transmits whenever it has data to send by treating all interference as noise. Surprisingly this basic question itself was not understood, as the system dynamics is coupled spatially due to the interference links cause one another and temporally due to randomness in traffic arrivals. We propose a novel interacting particle model called the spatial birth-death wireless network model to understand the stability properties of the simple spectrum access protocol. Using tools from Palm calculus and fluid limit theory, we establish a tight characterization of when this model is stable. Furthermore, we show that whenever stable, the links in steady-state exhibit a form of clustering. Leveraging these structural results, we propose two mean field heuristics to obtain formulas for key performance metrics such as average delay experienced by a link. We empirically find that the proposed formulas for delay predicts accurately the system behavior. We subsequently study scalability properties of this model by introducing an appropriate infinite dimensional version of the model we call the Interference Queueing Networks model. The model consists of a queue located at each grid point of an infinite regular integer lattice, with the queues interacting with each other in a translation invariant fashion. We then prove several structural properties of the model namely, tight conditions for existence of stationary solutions and some sufficient conditions for uniqueness of stationary solutions. Remarkably, we obtain exact formula for mean delay in this model, unlike the continuum model where we relied on mean-field type heuristics to obtain insights. In the setting of cellular networks, we study optimal association schemes by mobile phones in the case when there are several possible base station technologies operating on orthogonal bands. We show that this choice leads to a performance gain we term technology diversity. Interestingly, we show that the performance gain relies on the amount of instantaneous information a user has on the various base station technologies that it can leverage to make the association decision. We outline optimal association schemes under various information settings that a user may have on the network. Moreover, we propose simple heuristics for association that relies on a user obtaining minimal instantaneous information and are thus practical to implement. We prove that in certain natural asymptotic regime of parameters, our proposed heuristic policy is also optimal, and thus quantifying the value of having fine grained information at a user for association. We empirically observe that the asymptotic result is valid even at finite parameter regimes that are typical in todays networks. In the application of analyzing large scale graph structured data, we consider the graph clustering problem with side information. Graph clustering is a standard and widely used task which consists in partitioning the set of nodes of a graph into underlying clusters where nodes in the same cluster are similar to each other and nodes across different clusters are different. Motivated by applications in social and biological networks, we consider the task of clustering nodes of a graph, when there is side information on the nodes, other than that contained in the graph. For instance in social networks, one has access to meta data about a person (node in a social graph) such as age, location, income etc, along with the combinatorial data of who are his friends on the social graph. Similarly, in biological networks, there is often meta-data about an experiment that provides additional contextual data about a node, in addition to the combinatorial data. In this thesis, we propose a generative model for such graph structured data with side information, which is inspired by random graph models in stochastic geometry such as the random connection model and the generative models for networks with clusters without contexts, such as the stochastic block model or the planted partition model. We propose a novel graph model called the planted partition random connection model. Roughly speaking, in this model, each node has two labels - an observable R [superscript d] valued (for some fixed d) feature label and an unobservable binary valued community label. Conditional on the node labels, edges are drawn at random in this graph depending on both the feature and community labels of the two end points. The clustering task consists in recovering the underlying partition of nodes corresponding to the respective community labels better than a random assignment, when given an observation of the graph generated and the features of all nodes. We show that if the 'density of nodes', i.e., average number of nodes having features in an unit volume of space of R [superscript d] is small, then no algorithm can cluster the graph that can asymptotically beat a random assignment of community labels. On the contrary, if the density of nodes is sufficiently high, we give a simple algorithm that recovers the true underlying partition strictly better a random assignment. We then apply the proposed algorithm to a problem in computational biology called Haplotype Phasing and observe empirically, that it obtains state of art results. This demonstrates, both the validity of our generative model, as well as our new algorithm.Electrical and Computer Engineerin

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