Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationLow-cost wireless embedded systems can make radio channel measurements for the purposes of radio localization, synchronization, and breathing monitoring. Most of those systems measure the radio channel via the received signal strength indicator (RSSI), which is widely available on inexpensive radio transceivers. However, the use of standard RSSI imposes multiple limitations on the accuracy and reliability of such systems; moreover, higher accuracy is only accessible with very high-cost systems, both in bandwidth and device costs. On the other hand, wireless devices also rely on synchronized notion of time to coordinate tasks (transmit, receive, sleep, etc.), especially in time-based localization systems. Existing solutions use multiple message exchanges to estimate time offset and clock skew, which further increases channel utilization. In this dissertation, the design of the systems that use RSSI for device-free localization, device-based localization, and breathing monitoring applications are evaluated. Next, the design and evaluation of novel wireless embedded systems are introduced to enable more fine-grained radio signal measurements to the application. I design and study the effect of increasing the resolution of RSSI beyond the typical 1 dB step size, which is the current standard, with a couple of example applications: breathing monitoring and gesture recognition. Lastly, the Stitch architecture is then proposed to allow the frequency and time synchronization of multiple nodes' clocks. The prototype platform, Chronos, implements radio frequency synchronization (RFS), which accesses complex baseband samples from a low-power low-cost narrowband radio, estimates the carrier frequency offset, and iteratively drives the difference between two nodes' main local oscillators (LO) to less than 3 parts per billion (ppb). An optimized time synchronization and ranging protocols (EffToF) is designed and implemented to achieve the same timing accuracy as the state-of-the-art but with 59% less utilization of the UWB channel. Based on this dissertation, I could foresee Stitch and RFS further improving the robustness of communications infrastructure to GPS jamming, allow exploration of applications such as distributed beamforming and MIMO, and enable new highly-synchronous wireless sensing and actuation systems

Compilation of thesis abstracts, June 2007

NPS Class of June 2007This quarter’s Compilation of Abstracts summarizes cutting-edge, security-related research conducted by NPS students and presented as theses, dissertations, and capstone reports. Each expands knowledge in its field.http://archive.org/details/compilationofsis109452750

Enhancing Mobility in Low Power Wireless Sensor Networks

In the early stages of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), low data rate traffic patterns are assumed as applications have a single purpose with simple sensing task and data packets are generated at a rate of minutes or hours. As such, most of the proposed communication protocols focus on energy efficiency rather than high throughput. Emerging high data rate applications motivate bulk data transfer protocols to achieve high throughput. The basic idea is to enable nodes to transmit a sequence of packets in burst once they obtain a medium. However, due to the low-power, low-cost nature, the transceiver used in wireless sensor networks is prone to packet loss. Especially when the transmitters are mobile, packet loss becomes worse. To reduce the energy expenditure caused by packet loss and retransmission, a burst transmission scheme is required that can adapt to the link dynamics and estimate the number of packets to transmit in burst. As the mobile node is moving within the network, it cannot always maintain a stable link with one specific stationary node. When link deterioration is constantly detected, the mobile node has to initiate a handover process to seamlessly transfer the communication to a new relay node before the current link breaks. For this reason, it is vital for a mobile node to (1) determine whether a fluctuation in link quality eventually results in a disconnection, (2) foresee potential disconnection well ahead of time and establish an alternative link before the disconnection occurs, and (3) seamlessly transfer communication to the new link. In this dissertation, we focus on dealing with burst transmission and handover issues in low power mobile wireless sensor networks. To this end, we begin with designing a novel mobility enabled testing framework as the evaluation testbed for all our remaining studies. We then perform an empirical study to investigate the link characteristics in mobile environments. Using these observations as guidelines, we propose three algorithms related to mobility that will improve network performance in terms of latency and throughput: i) Mobility Enabled Testing Framework (MobiLab). Considering the high fluctuation of link quality during mobility, protocols supporting mobile wireless sensor nodes should be rigorously tested to ensure that they produce predictable outcomes before actual deployment. Furthermore, considering the typical size of wireless sensor networks and the number of parameters that can be configured or tuned, conducting repeated and reproducible experiments can be both time consuming and costly. The conventional method for evaluating the performance of different protocols and algorithms under different network configurations is to change the source code and reprogram the testbed, which requires considerable effort. To this end, we present a mobility enabled testbed for carrying out repeated and reproducible experiments, independent of the application or protocol types which should be tested. The testbed consists of, among others, a server side control station and a client side traffic ow controller which coordinates inter- and intra-experiment activities. ii) Adaptive Burst Transmission Scheme for Dynamic Environment. Emerging high data rate applications motivate bulk data transfer protocol to achieve high throughput. The basic idea is to enable nodes to transmit a sequence of packets in burst once they obtain a medium. Due to the low-power and low-cost nature, the transceiver used in wireless sensor networks is prone to packet loss. When the transmitter is mobile, packet loss becomes even worse. The existing bulk data transfer protocols are not energy efficient since they keep their radios on even while a large number of consecutive packet losses occur. To address this challenge, we propose an adaptive burst transmission scheme (ABTS). In the design of the ABTS, we estimate the expected duration in which the quality of a specific link remains stable using the conditional distribution function of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of received acknowledgment packets. We exploit the expected duration to determine the number of packets to transmit in burst and the duration of the sleeping period. iii) Kalman Filter Based Handover Triggering Algorithm (KMF). Maintaining a stable link in mobile wireless sensor network is challenging. In the design of the KMF, we utilized combined link quality metrics in physical and link layers, such as Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) and packet success rate (PSR), to estimate link quality fluctuation online. Then Kalman filter is adopted to predict link dynamics ahead of time. If a predicted link quality fulfills handover trigger criterion, a handover process will be initiated to discover alternative relay nodes and establish a new link before the disconnection occurs. iv) Mobile Sender Initiated MAC Protocol (MSI-MAC). In cellular networks, mobile stations are always associated with the nearest base station through intra- and inter-cellular handover. The underlying process is that the quality of an established link is continually evaluated and handover decisions are made by resource rich base stations. In wireless sensor networks, should a seamless handover be carried out, the task has to be accomplished by energy-constraint, resource-limited, and low-power wireless sensor nodes in a distributed manner. To this end, we present MSI-MAC, a mobile sender initiated MAC protocol to enable seamless handover

Visualization and manipulation of repair and regeneration in biological systems using light

Tissue repair after an injury is a fundamental process in biomedicine. It can involve regeneration, which uses new growth to restore tissue function. The interest in repair and regeneration is motivated by the desire to treat injuries and diseases and has attracted researchers for centuries. In the last decades, it evolved in the field of regenerative medicine, which has the ultimate goal of providing strategies for regenerating human cells, tissues, or even organs, for instance, via engineering principles. Already since the first experiments on regeneration by Abraham Trembley, novel findings in biomedicine, repair, and regeneration have been enabled or accompanied by research in optics, for example, on the development of novel microscopy techniques. Nowadays, novel optical techniques are advancing, which allow to understand the role of single cells in tissue repair processes. Moreover, repair processes within cells can be visualized and manipulated. Ultimately, optics can provide enabling techniques for regenerative therapies. This habilitation thesis aims to present several of these advances. On a single cell level, femtosecond laser nanosurgery was used to target specific intracellular structures during concurrent imaging in vitro. The relation of femtosecond laser nanosurgery to the cell state and cellular staining was investigated. Manipulation of single Z-discs in cardiomyocytes using a femtosecond oscillator laser system was accomplished, which allows to better elucidate the role of a single Z-disc in cardiomyocyte function. In particular, measurements on cell survival, (calcium-) homeostasis, and morphology yielded only minor deviations from control cells after single Z-disc ablation. A reduction in force generation was elucidated via traction force microscopy and gene expression level changes, for instance, an upregulation of -actinin were examined. Additionally, light-based systems to influence single cells in their alignment or to trigger single cells, for example, to activate other cells via optogenetics were applied. On the tissue scale, imaging via confocal microscopy or multiphoton microscopy has been applied for various contexts of regenerative approaches. Furthermore, a fiber-based imaging approach, which could later be used for longitudinal imaging in vivo and builds upon a fluorescence microscope system and an imaging fiber bundle in combination with reconstruction via a neural network, was developed. As another imaging strategy, an abdominal imaging window served to image the mouse liver in vivo via multiphoton microscopy in successive imaging sessions. Manipulation in tissue was applied in colonoids, which resemble the structure of the colon on an in vitro scale, and revealed different cell dynamics dependent on the location of the damage. In particular, activation of the Wnt signaling pathway after crypt damage was observed. Cell ablation via a femtosecond laser amplifier system during concurrent two-photon microscopy was also established during in vivo liver imaging to study micro-regenerative processes. Furthermore, laser-based delivery processes with novel materials or in the context of genome editing using CRISPR/Cas9 technology were investigated as enabling technologies for regenerative medicine. In conclusion, this thesis addresses the question of how optics can help to illuminate future directions in research on tissue repair and regeneration, as well as, regenerative therapies by addressing (longitudinal) imaging in a complex environment, sophisticated cell-manipulation strategies, and the application of novel materials for laser-based delivery