Signal and System Design for Wireless Power Transfer : Prototype, Experiment and Validation

A new line of research on communications and signals design for Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) has recently emerged in the communication literature. Promising signal strategies to maximize the power transfer efficiency of WPT rely on (energy) beamforming, waveform, modulation and transmit diversity, and a combination thereof. To a great extent, the study of those strategies has so far been limited to theoretical performance analysis. In this paper, we study the real over-the-air performance of all the aforementioned signal strategies for WPT. To that end, we have designed, prototyped and experimented an innovative radiative WPT architecture based on Software-Defined Radio (SDR) that can operate in open-loop and closed-loop (with channel acquisition at the transmitter) modes. The prototype consists of three important blocks, namely the channel estimator, the signal generator, and the energy harvester. The experiments have been conducted in a variety of deployments, including frequency flat and frequency selective channels, under static and mobility conditions. Experiments highlight that a channeladaptive WPT architecture based on joint beamforming and waveform design offers significant performance improvements in harvested DC power over conventional single-antenna/multiantenna continuous wave systems. The experimental results fully validate the observations predicted from the theoretical signal designs and confirm the crucial and beneficial role played by the energy harvester nonlinearity.Comment: Accepted to IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communication

Understanding user experience of mobile video: Framework, measurement, and optimization

Since users have become the focus of product/service design in last decade, the term User eXperience (UX) has been frequently used in the field of Human-Computer-Interaction (HCI). Research on UX facilitates a better understanding of the various aspects of the user’s interaction with the product or service. Mobile video, as a new and promising service and research field, has attracted great attention. Due to the significance of UX in the success of mobile video (Jordan, 2002), many researchers have centered on this area, examining users’ expectations, motivations, requirements, and usage context. As a result, many influencing factors have been explored (Buchinger, Kriglstein, Brandt & Hlavacs, 2011; Buchinger, Kriglstein & Hlavacs, 2009). However, a general framework for specific mobile video service is lacking for structuring such a great number of factors. To measure user experience of multimedia services such as mobile video, quality of experience (QoE) has recently become a prominent concept. In contrast to the traditionally used concept quality of service (QoS), QoE not only involves objectively measuring the delivered service but also takes into account user’s needs and desires when using the service, emphasizing the user’s overall acceptability on the service. Many QoE metrics are able to estimate the user perceived quality or acceptability of mobile video, but may be not enough accurate for the overall UX prediction due to the complexity of UX. Only a few frameworks of QoE have addressed more aspects of UX for mobile multimedia applications but need be transformed into practical measures. The challenge of optimizing UX remains adaptations to the resource constrains (e.g., network conditions, mobile device capabilities, and heterogeneous usage contexts) as well as meeting complicated user requirements (e.g., usage purposes and personal preferences). In this chapter, we investigate the existing important UX frameworks, compare their similarities and discuss some important features that fit in the mobile video service. Based on the previous research, we propose a simple UX framework for mobile video application by mapping a variety of influencing factors of UX upon a typical mobile video delivery system. Each component and its factors are explored with comprehensive literature reviews. The proposed framework may benefit in user-centred design of mobile video through taking a complete consideration of UX influences and in improvement of mobile videoservice quality by adjusting the values of certain factors to produce a positive user experience. It may also facilitate relative research in the way of locating important issues to study, clarifying research scopes, and setting up proper study procedures. We then review a great deal of research on UX measurement, including QoE metrics and QoE frameworks of mobile multimedia. Finally, we discuss how to achieve an optimal quality of user experience by focusing on the issues of various aspects of UX of mobile video. In the conclusion, we suggest some open issues for future study

Energy-efficient wireless communication

In this chapter we present an energy-efficient highly adaptive network interface architecture and a novel data link layer protocol for wireless networks that provides Quality of Service (QoS) support for diverse traffic types. Due to the dynamic nature of wireless networks, adaptations in bandwidth scheduling and error control are necessary to achieve energy efficiency and an acceptable quality of service. In our approach we apply adaptability through all layers of the protocol stack, and provide feedback to the applications. In this way the applications can adapt the data streams, and the network protocols can adapt the communication parameters

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

A resource management scheme for multi-user GFDM with adaptive modulation in frequency selective fading channels

The topic is "Low-latency communication for machine-type communication in LTE-A" and need to be specified in more detail.This final project focus on designing and evaluating a resource management scheme for a multi-user generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM) system, when a frequency selective fading channel and adaptive modulation is used. GFDM with adaptive subcarrier, sub-symbol and power allocation are considered. Assuming that the transmitter has a perfect knowledge of the instantaneous channel gains for all users, I propose a multi-user GFDM subcarrier, sub-symbol and power allocation algorithm to minimize the total transmit power. This work analyzes the performance of using a specific set of parameters for aligning GFDM with long term evolution (LTE) grid. The results show that the performance of the proposed algorithm using GFDM is closer to the performance of using OFDM and outperforms multiuser GFDM systems with static frequency division multiple access (FDMA) techniques which employ fixed subcarrier allocation schemes. The advantage between GFDM and OFDM is that the latency of the system can be reduced by a factor of 15 if independent demodulation is considered.El objetivo de este proyecto final es el de diseñar y evaluar un esquema para administrar los recursos de un sistema multi-usuario donde se utiliza generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM), cuando el canal es de frequencia de desvanecimiento selectivo y se utiliza modulación adaptiva. Consideramos un sistema GFDM con subportadora, sub-símbolo i asignación de potencia adaptiva. Asumiendo que el transmisor conoce perfectamente el estado del canal para todos los usuarios, propongo un algoritmo que asigna los recursos de forma que la potencia total de transmisión es mínima. Este trabajo analiza la eficiencia de utilizar un grupo de parámetros concretos para alinear el sistema GFDM con el sistema de LTE. Los resultados muestran que el comportamiento del algoritmo en GFDM es muy similar al de OFDM, pero mucho mayor que cuando se compara con sistemas de asignación de recursos estáticos.L’objectiu d’aquest projecte final es dissenyar i avaluar un esquema per administrar els recursos per a un sistema multi-usuari fent servir generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM), quan el canal es de freqüència esvaniment selectiu i es fa servir modulació adaptativa. Considerem un sistema GFDM amb subportadora, sub-símbol i assignació de potencia adaptativa. Assumint que el transmissor coneix perfectament l’estat del canal per tots els usuaris, proposo un algoritme que assigna els recursos de forma que la potencia total de transmissió es la mínima. Aquest treball analitza l’eficiència de fer servir un grup de paràmetres concrets per tal d’alinear el sistema GFDM amb el sistema de LTE. Els resultats mostren que el comportament de l’algoritme en GFDM es molt similar al de OFDM i que millora bastant els resultats quan el comparem amb sistemes d’assignament de recursos estàtics

Maximizing Foundation Effectiveness: Aligning Program Strategy, Organizational Capacity, Strategic Planning, and Performance Assessment to Achieve Success

This paper outlines a framework for increasing the philanthropic performance of an organization by focusing on strategic planning and development of tight logic models for the organization's programs. Strategic planning gets broken down into five steps: meta-planning, evaluation of the internal/external environment, establishment of priorities and vision, development of the strategic plan, and implementation/refinement. Though this paper stresses evaluation and meticulous planning, it finishes by imploring organizations to "allow room for serendipity, improvisation, and intuition in the process, too.