To mesh or not to mesh: flexible wireless indoor communication among mobile robots in industrial environments

Mobile robots such as automated guided vehicles become increasingly important in industry as they can greatly increase efficiency. For their operation such robots must rely on wireless communication, typically realized by connecting them to an existing enterprise network. In this paper we motivate that such an approach is not always economically viable or might result in performance issues. Therefore we propose a flexible and configurable mixed architecture that leverages on mesh capabilities whenever appropriate. Through experiments on a wireless testbed for a variety of scenarios, we analyse the impact of roaming, mobility and traffic separation and demonstrate the potential of our approach

Flexible Wi-Fi communication among mobile robots in Indoor industrial environments

In order to speed up industrial processes and to improve logistics, mobile robots are getting important in industry. In this paper, we propose a flexible and configurable architecture for the mobile node that is able to operate in different network topology scenarios. The proposed solution is able to operate in presence of network infrastructure, in ad hoc mode only, or to use both possibilities. In case of mixed architecture, mesh capabilities will enable coverage problem detection and overcoming. The solution is based on real requirements from an automated guided vehicle producer. First, we evaluate the overhead introduced by our solution. Since the mobile robot communication relies in broadcast traffic, the broadcast scalability in mesh network is evaluated too. Finally, through experiments on a wireless testbed for a variety of scenarios, we analyze the impact of roaming, mobility and traffic separation, and demonstrate the advantage of our approach in handling coverage problems

The uncertain future of lay counsellors : continuation of HIV services in Lesotho under pressure

Between 2006 and 2011, when antiretroviral therapy (ART) was scaled up in a context of severe human resources shortages, transferring responsibility for elements in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) care from conventional health workers to lay counsellors (LCs) contributed to increased uptake of HIV services in Lesotho. HIV tests rose from 79 394 in 2006 to 274 240 in 2011 and, in that same period, the number of people on ART increased from 17 352 to 83 624. However, since 2012, the jobs of LCs have been at risk because of financial and organizational challenges. We studied the role of LCs in HIV care in Lesotho between 2006 and 2013, and discuss potential consequences of losing this cadre. Methods included a case study of LCs in Lesotho based on: (1) review of LC-related health policy and planning documents, (2) HIV programme review and (3) workload analysis of LCs. LCs are trained to provide HIV testing and counselling (HTC) and ART adherence support. Funded by international donors, 487 LCs were deployed between 2006 and 2011. However, in 2012, the number of LCs decreased to 165 due to a decreasing donor funds, while administrative and fiscal barriers hampered absorption of LCs into the public health system. That same year, ART coverage decreased from 61% to 51% and facility-based HTC decreased by 15%, from 253 994 in 2011 to 215 042 tests in 2012. The workload analysis indicated that LCs work averagely 77 h per month, bringing considerable relief to the scarce professional health workforce. HIV statistics in Lesotho worsened dramatically in the recent era of reduced support to LCs. This suggests that in order to ensure access to HIV care in an under-resourced setting like Lesotho, a recognized and well-supported counsellor cadre is essential. The continued presence of LCs requires improved prioritization, with national and international support

Seamless Connectivity Techniques in Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks

In this chapter we describe the traditional techniques used for seamless connectivity in heterogeneous wireless network environments, and in particular adopt them in VANETs, where V2V and V2I represent the main communication protocols. Section 2 deals with the basic features of Vertical Handover (VHO) in the general context of a hybrid wireless network environment, and it discusses how decision metrics can affect handover performance (i.e. number of handover occurrences, and throughput). Instead, Section 3 briefly introduces two proposed techniques achieving seamless connectivity in VANETs. The first technique is a vertical handover mechanism applied to V2I-only communication environments; it is presented in Section 4 via an analytical model, and main simulated results are shown. The second approach is described in Section 5. It addresses a hybrid vehicular communication protocol (i.e. called as Vehicle-to-X) performing handover between V2V and V2I communications, and vice versa.

Separation Framework: An Enabler for Cooperative and D2D Communication for Future 5G Networks

Soaring capacity and coverage demands dictate that future cellular networks need to soon migrate towards ultra-dense networks. However, network densification comes with a host of challenges that include compromised energy efficiency, complex interference management, cumbersome mobility management, burdensome signaling overheads and higher backhaul costs. Interestingly, most of the problems, that beleaguer network densification, stem from legacy networks' one common feature i.e., tight coupling between the control and data planes regardless of their degree of heterogeneity and cell density. Consequently, in wake of 5G, control and data planes separation architecture (SARC) has recently been conceived as a promising paradigm that has potential to address most of aforementioned challenges. In this article, we review various proposals that have been presented in literature so far to enable SARC. More specifically, we analyze how and to what degree various SARC proposals address the four main challenges in network densification namely: energy efficiency, system level capacity maximization, interference management and mobility management. We then focus on two salient features of future cellular networks that have not yet been adapted in legacy networks at wide scale and thus remain a hallmark of 5G, i.e., coordinated multipoint (CoMP), and device-to-device (D2D) communications. After providing necessary background on CoMP and D2D, we analyze how SARC can particularly act as a major enabler for CoMP and D2D in context of 5G. This article thus serves as both a tutorial as well as an up to date survey on SARC, CoMP and D2D. Most importantly, the article provides an extensive outlook of challenges and opportunities that lie at the crossroads of these three mutually entangled emerging technologies.Comment: 28 pages, 11 figures, IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials 201

Routing for Flying Networks using Software-Defined Networking

Nos últimos anos, os Veículos Aéreos Não Tripulados (UAVs) estão a ser usados de forma crescente em inúmeras aplicações, tanto militares como civis. A sua miniaturização e o preço reduzido abriram o caminho para o uso de enxames de UAVs, que permitem melhores resultados na realização de tarefas em relação a UAVs independentes. Contudo, para permitir a cooperação entre UAVs, devem ser asseguradas comunicações contínuas e fiáveis.Além disso, os enxames de UAVs foram identificados pela comunidade científica como meio para permitir o acesso à Internet a utilizadores terrestres em cenários como prestação de socorros e Eventos Temporários Lotados (TCEs), tirando partido da sua capacidade para transportar Pontos de Acesso (APs) Wi-Fi e células Long-Term Evolution (LTE). Soluções que dependem de uma Estação de Controlo (CS) capaz de posicionar os UAVs de acordo com as necessidades de tráfego dos utilizadores demonstraram aumentar a Qualidade de Serviço (QoS) oferecida pela rede. No entanto, estas soluções introduzem desafios importantes no que diz respeito ao encaminhamento do tráfego.Recentemente, foi proposta uma solução que tira partido do conhecimento da CS sobre o estado futuro da rede para atualizar dinamicamente as tabelas de encaminhamento de modo a que as ligações na rede voadora não sejam interrompidas, em vez de se recuperar da sua interrupção, como é o caso na maioria dos protocolos de encaminhamento existentes. Apesar de não considerar o impacto das reconfigurações na rede de acesso, como consequência da mobilidade dos APs, ou o balanceamento da carga na rede, esta abordagem é promissora e merece ser desenvolvida e implementada num sistema real.Esta dissertação tem como foco a implementação de um protocolo de encaminhamento para redes voadoras baseado em Software-Defined Networking (SDN). Especificamente, aborda os problemas de mobilidade e de balanceamento da carga na rede de uma perspetiva centralizada, garantindo simultaneamente comunicações ininterruptas e de banda-larga entre utilizadores terrestres e a Internet, permitindo assim que os UAVs se possam reposicionar e reconfigurar sem interferir com as ligações dos terminais à rede.In recent years, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are being increasingly used in various applications, both military and civilian. Their miniaturisation and low cost paved the way to the usage of swarms of UAVs, which provide better results when performing tasks compared to single UAVs. However, to enable cooperation between the UAVs, always-on and reliable communications must be ensured.Moreover, swarms of UAVs are being targeted by the scientific community as a way to provide Internet access to ground users in scenarios such as disaster reliefs and Temporary Crowded Events (TCEs), taking advantage of the capability of UAVs to carry Wi-Fi Access Points (APs) or Long-Term Evolution (LTE) cells. Solutions relying on a Control Station (CS) capable of positioning the UAVs according to the users' traffic demands have been shown to improve the Quality of Service (QoS) provided by the network. However, they introduce important challenges regarding network routing.Recently, a solution was proposed to take advantage of the knowledge provided by a CS regarding how the network will change, by dynamically updating the forwarding tables before links in the flying network are disrupted, rather than recovering from link failure, as is the case in most of the existing routing protocols. Although it does not consider the impact of reconfigurations on the access network due to the mobility of the APs, it is a promising approach worthy of being improved and implemented in a real system.This dissertation focuses on implementing a routing solution for flying networks based on Software-Defined Networking (SDN). Specifically, it addresses the mobility management and network load balancing issues from a centralised perspective, while simultaneously enabling uninterruptible and broadband communications between ground users and the Internet, thus allowing UAVs to reposition and reconfigure themselves without interfering with the terminals' connections to the network

IP Mobility Support in Multi-hop Vehicular Communications Networks

The combination of infrastructure-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-vehicle communications, namely the multi-hop Vehicular Communications Network (VCN) , appears as a promising solution for the ubiquitous access to IP services in vehicular environments. In this thesis, we address the challenges of multi-hop VCN, and investigate the seamless provision of IP services over such network. Three different schemes are proposed and analyzed. First, we study the limitations of current standards for the provision of IP services, such as 802.11p/WAVE, and propose a framework that enables multi-hop communications and a robust IP mobility mechanism over WAVE. An accurate analytical model is developed to evaluate the throughput performance, and to determine the feasibility of the deployment of IP-based services in 802.11p/WAVE networks. Next, the IP mobility support is extended to asymmetric multi-hop VCN. The proposed IP mobility and routing mechanisms react to the asymmetric links, and also employ geographic location and road traffic information to enable predictive handovers. Moreover, since multi-hop communications suffer from security threats, it ensures that all mobility signalling is authenticated among the participant vehicles. Last, we extend our study to a heterogeneous multi-hop VCN, and propose a hybrid scheme that allows for the on-going IP sessions to be transferred along the heterogeneous communications system. The proposed global IP mobility scheme focuses on urban vehicular scenarios, and enables seamless communications for in-vehicle networks, commuters, and pedestrians. The overall performance of IP applications over multi-hop VCN are improved substantially by the proposed schemes. This is demonstrated by means of analytical evaluations, as well as extensive simulations that are carried out in realistic highway and urban vehicular scenarios. More importantly, we believe that our dissertation provides useful analytical tools, for evaluating the throughput and delay performance of IP applications in multi-hop vehicular environments. In addition, we provide a set of practical and efficient solutions for the seamless support of IP tra c along the heterogeneous and multi-hop vehicular network, which will help on achieving ubiquitous drive-thru Internet, and infotainment traffic access in both urban and highway scenarios

Routage et gestion de la mobilité dans les réseaux personnels

L'objectif de cette thèse est d'étudier des méthodes et des stratégies efficaces pour le routage et la gestion de la mobilité dans le cadre des réseaux personnels. Dans un premier temps, nous proposons le cadre de nos études: Personal Ubiquitous Environments (PUE). Un PUE est constitué d'un ensemble d'utilisateurs ayant des terminaux disposant d'interfaces réseau hétérogènes, et dont l'objectif est de mettre en oeuvre des mécanismes de coopération et de partage des ressources de manière totalement distribuée. Dans ce cadre, la thèse a proposé des solutions innovantes contribuant à améliorer la communication inter et intra réseau personnels. La première contribution porte sur le protocole PNRP (Personal Network Routing Protocol) dont le but est de développer un routage à base de politiques (policy-based routing) pour les environnements personnels. La seconde, intitulée ADD (Adaptive Distributed gateway Discovery), est un mécanisme totalement distribué pour la découverte de multiples chemins vers une passerelle vers un réseau opéré. De plus, étant donné que ces environnements sont hétérogènes par leurs compositions (réseaux d'accès, terminaux ...), une architecture de gestion de la mobilité qui permet une gestion unifiée de la localisation et de la mobilité sans coutures appliquant lénsemble des noeuds a également été traitée. Les résultats d'évaluation par simulation démontrent l'applicabilité et léfficacité des ces protocoles.The aim of this thesis is to investigate methods and strategies for efficient routing and mobility management in personal environments. The concept of Personal Ubiquitous Environments (PUE) is introduced which accommodates heterogeneous devices and access networks of different users and sustain the notion of sharing resources in a distributed manner. A prerequisite for achieving the resource (devices, networks) sharing in personal environments is the deployment of suitable communication protocols which establish efficient multi-hop routes betweens the devices of the PUE. Personal Network Routing Protocol (PNRP) has been developed to perform policy-based routing in personal environments. Moreover, in certain personal networking scenarios, the infrastructure network components (i.e. gateways) are more than one-hop distance from the user's devices; Adaptive Distributed gateway Discovery (ADD) protocol is thereby proposed to efficiently discover the multi-hop routes towards the gateway in a totally distributed manner. All the more, since the personal environments regroups heterogeneous access networks, an efficient mobility management architecture is proposed which offers unified location management and seamless handover experience to dynamic personal nodes. The proposed protocols are assessed by means of numerous communication scenarios; the simulation results demonstrate the applicability of the proposed protocols