Analysis of current and potential sensor network technologies and their incorporation as embedded structural system

This document provides a brief overview of the actual wireless ad hoc sensor networks technologies and standards available, especially in view of their possible implementation for shipping container protection and monitoring within the framework of the STEC Action aiming at analyzing possible technical solutions to improve the security of the millions of containers moving in and out of Europe. Examples of applications and research projects are reported from the literature to give insights on the possibility of implementation of wireless sensor networks in real world scenarios.JRC.G.5-European laboratory for structural assessmen

i9ITS: uma proposta de armazenamento de dados abertos e integração de serviços para sistemas de transportes inteligentes

As a result of population growth, large cities face problems related to urban mobility, such as: congestion and inefficiency of public transport. Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) initiatives act as an efficient solution to improve the functioning and performance of traffic systems, reduce vehicle congestion and increase safety for citizens. However, the solution of diffusing different formats and distributed sources of information on urban mobility, interoperability of the various technologies involved and data retention are challenges that involve complex and costly efforts for governments and enterprises. In this context, a proposed present as a solution for georeferenced ITS data in order to store, integrate and orchestrate this geo-referenced urban mobility information in a way that allows interoperability among several applications. Two case studies were related; One about building an application that uses a solution for a taxi service company with real data. The second case study proposes to construct a test laboratory, use a larger number of vehicles, with the objective of feeding information to an open database, in order to a solution proposed to be tested for its performance. The use of this solution has as main objective to demonstrate the effectiveness and a solution to attend to the proposed problem, as well as to other possibilities and challenges related to ITS.Em consequência do crescimento populacional, as grandes cidades enfrentam problemas cotidianos relacionados à mobilidade urbana, tais como: congestionamentos e ineficiência de transportes públicos. Iniciativas de sistemas de transportes inteligentes (ITS) agem como uma solução eficiente para melhorar o funcionamento e desempenho dos sistemas de tráfego, reduzindo congestionamentos de veículos e aumentando a segurança para os cidadãos. No entanto, devido à existência de diferentes formatos e fontes distribuídos de informação sobre mobilidade urbana, a interoperabilidade das várias tecnologias envolvidas e a retenção desses dados são desafios que envolvem esforços complexos e onerosos para os governos e empresas. Nesse contexto, a presente proposta tem como objetivo geral apresentar uma solução para dados georreferenciados de ITS (Intelligent Transportation System) com o intuito de armazenar, integrar e orquestrar essas informações georreferenciadas de mobilidade urbana de forma que permita a interoperabilidade entre diversas aplicações. Foram relacionados dois estudos de caso; um refere-se à construção de uma aplicação que utiliza a solução i9ITS para uma empresa de serviço de táxi com dados reais. O segundo estudo de caso propõe a construção de um laboratório de teste utilizando um maior número de veículos, com o objetivo de alimentar informações para uma base de dados aberta, de forma que a solução proposta possa ser testada quanto ao seu desempenho. A utilização dessa solução tem como objetivo principal demonstrar a eficácia e a eficiência para atender ao problema proposto, bem como para outras possibilidades e desafios relacionados a ITS.São Cristóvão, S

Telecommunications Networks

This book guides readers through the basics of rapidly emerging networks to more advanced concepts and future expectations of Telecommunications Networks. It identifies and examines the most pressing research issues in Telecommunications and it contains chapters written by leading researchers, academics and industry professionals. Telecommunications Networks - Current Status and Future Trends covers surveys of recent publications that investigate key areas of interest such as: IMS, eTOM, 3G/4G, optimization problems, modeling, simulation, quality of service, etc. This book, that is suitable for both PhD and master students, is organized into six sections: New Generation Networks, Quality of Services, Sensor Networks, Telecommunications, Traffic Engineering and Routing

Mission-based mobility models for UAV networks

Las redes UAV han atraído la atención de los investigadores durante la última década. Las numerosas posibilidades que ofrecen los sistemas single-UAV aumentan considerablemente al usar múltiples UAV. Sin embargo, el gran potencial del sistema multi-UAV viene con un precio: la complejidad de controlar todos los aspectos necesarios para garantizar que los UAVs cumplen la misión que se les ha asignado. Ha habido numerosas investigaciones dedicadas a los sistemas multi-UAV en el campo de la robótica en las cuales se han utilizado grupos de UAVs para diferentes aplicaciones. Sin embargo, los aspectos relacionados con la red que forman estos sistemas han comenzado a reclamar un lugar entre la comunidad de investigación y han hecho que las redes de UAVs se consideren como un nuevo paradigma entre las redes multi-salto. La investigación de redes de UAVs, de manera similar a otras redes multi-salto, se divide principalmente en dos categorías: i) modelos de movilidad que capturan la movilidad de la red, y ii) algoritmos de enrutamiento. Ambas categorías han heredado muchos algoritmos que pertenecían a las redes MANET, que fueron el primer paradigma de redes multi-salto que atrajo la atención de los investigadores. Aunque hay esfuerzos de investigación en curso que proponen soluciones para ambas categorías, el número de modelos de movilidad y algoritmos de enrutamiento específicos para redes UAV es limitado. Además, en el caso de los modelos de movilidad, las soluciones existentes propuestas son simplistas y apenas representan la movilidad real de un equipo de UAVs, los cuales se utilizan principalmente en operaciones orientadas a misiones, en la que cada UAV tiene asignados movimientos específicos. Esta tesis propone dos modelos de movilidad basados en misiones para una red de UAVs que realiza dos operaciones diferentes. El escenario elegido en el que se desarrollan las misiones corresponde con una región en la que ha ocurrido, por ejemplo, un desastre natural. La elección de este tipo de escenario se debe a que en zonas de desastre, la infraestructura de comunicaciones comúnmente está dañada o totalmente destruida. En este tipo de situaciones, una red de UAVs ofrece la posibilidad de desplegar rápidamente una red de comunicaciones. El primer modelo de movilidad, llamado dPSO-U, ha sido diseñado para capturar la movilidad de una red UAV en una misión con dos objetivos principales: i) explorar el área del escenario para descubrir las ubicaciones de los nodos terrestres, y ii) hacer que los UAVs converjan de manera autónoma a los grupos en los que se organizan los nodos terrestres (también conocidos como clusters). El modelo de movilidad dPSO-U se basa en el conocido algoritmo particle swarm optimization (PSO), considerando los UAV como las partículas del algoritmo, y también utilizando el concepto de valores dinámicos para la inercia, el local best y el neighbour best de manera que el modelo de movilidad tenga ambas capacidades: la de exploración y la de convergencia. El segundo modelo, denominado modelo de movilidad Jaccard-based, captura la movilidad de una red UAV que tiene asignada la misión de proporcionar servicios de comunicación inalámbrica en un escenario de mediano tamaño. En este modelo de movilidad se ha utilizado una combinación del virtual forces algorithm (VFA), de la distancia Jaccard entre cada par de UAVs y metaheurísticas como hill climbing y simulated annealing, para cumplir los dos objetivos de la misión: i) maximizar el número de nodos terrestres (víctimas) que se encuentran bajo el área de cobertura inalámbrica de la red UAV, y ii) mantener la red UAV como una red conectada, es decir, evitando las desconexiones entre UAV. Se han realizado simulaciones exhaustivas con herramientas software específicamente desarrolladas para los modelos de movilidad propuestos. También se ha definido un conjunto de métricas para cada modelo de movilidad. Estas métricas se han utilizado para validar la capacidad de los modelos de movilidad propuestos de emular los movimientos de una red UAV en cada misión.UAV networks have attracted the attention of the research community in the last decade. The numerous capabilities of single-UAV systems increase considerably by using multiple UAVs. The great potential of a multi-UAV system comes with a price though: the complexity of controlling all the aspects required to guarantee that the UAV team accomplish the mission that it has been assigned. There have been numerous research works devoted to multi-UAV systems in the field of robotics using UAV teams for different applications. However, the networking aspects of multi-UAV systems started to claim a place among the research community and have made UAV networks to be considered as a new paradigm among the multihop ad hoc networks. UAV networks research, in a similar manner to other multihop ad hoc networks, is mainly divided into two categories: i) mobility models that capture the network mobility, and ii) routing algorithms. Both categories have inherited previous algorithms mechanisms that originally belong to MANETs, being these the first multihop networking paradigm attracting the attention of researchers. Although there are ongoing research efforts proposing solutions for the aforementioned categories, the number of UAV networks-specific mobility models and routing algorithms is limited. In addition, in the case of the mobility models, the existing solutions proposed are simplistic and barely represent the real mobility of a UAV team, which are mainly used in missions-oriented operations. This thesis proposes two mission-based mobility models for a UAV network carrying out two different operations over a disaster-like scenario. The reason for selecting a disaster scenario is because, usually, the common communication infrastructure is malfunctioning or completely destroyed. In these cases, a UAV network allows building a support communication network which is rapidly deployed. The first mobility model, called dPSO-U, has been designed for capturing the mobility of a UAV network in a mission with two main objectives: i) exploring the scenario area for discovering the location of ground nodes, and ii) making the UAVs to autonomously converge to the groups in which the nodes are organized (also referred to as clusters). The dPSO-U mobility model is based on the well-known particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO), considering the UAVs as the particles of the algorithm, and also using the concept of dynamic inertia, local best and neighbour best weights so the mobility model can have both abilities: exploration and convergence. The second one, called Jaccard-based mobility model, captures the mobility of a UAV network that has been assigned with the mission of providing wireless communication services in a medium-scale scenario. A combination of the virtual forces algorithm (VFA), the Jaccard distance between each pair of UAVs and metaheuristics such as hill climbing or simulated annealing have been used in this mobility model in order to meet the two mission objectives: i) to maximize the number of ground nodes (i.e. victims) under the UAV network wireless coverage area, and ii) to maintain the UAV network as a connected network, i.e. avoiding UAV disconnections. Extensive simulations have been performed with software tools that have been specifically developed for the proposed mobility models. Also, a set of metrics have been defined and measured for each mobility model. These metrics have been used for validating the ability of the proposed mobility models to emulate the movements of a UAV network in each mission

Clustering algorithm for D2D communication in next generation cellular networks : thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand

Next generation cellular networks will support many complex services for smartphones, vehicles, and other devices. To accommodate such services, cellular networks need to go beyond the capabilities of their previous generations. Device-to-Device communication (D2D) is a key technology that can help fulfil some of the requirements of future networks. The telecommunication industry expects a significant increase in the density of mobile devices which puts more pressure on centralized schemes and poses risk in terms of outages, poor spectral efficiencies, and low data rates. Recent studies have shown that a large part of the cellular traffic pertains to sharing popular contents. This highlights the need for decentralized and distributive approaches to managing multimedia traffic. Content-sharing via D2D clustered networks has emerged as a popular approach for alleviating the burden on the cellular network. Different studies have established that D2D communication in clusters can improve spectral and energy efficiency, achieve low latency while increasing the capacity of the network. To achieve effective content-sharing among users, appropriate clustering strategies are required. Therefore, the aim is to design and compare clustering approaches for D2D communication targeting content-sharing applications. Currently, most of researched and implemented clustering schemes are centralized or predominantly dependent on Evolved Node B (eNB). This thesis proposes a distributed architecture that supports clustering approaches to incorporate multimedia traffic. A content-sharing network is presented where some D2D User Equipment (DUE) function as content distributors for nearby devices. Two promising techniques are utilized, namely, Content-Centric Networking and Network Virtualization, to propose a distributed architecture, that supports efficient content delivery. We propose to use clustering at the user level for content-distribution. A weighted multi-factor clustering algorithm is proposed for grouping the DUEs sharing a common interest. Various performance parameters such as energy consumption, area spectral efficiency, and throughput have been considered for evaluating the proposed algorithm. The effect of number of clusters on the performance parameters is also discussed. The proposed algorithm has been further modified to allow for a trade-off between fairness and other performance parameters. A comprehensive simulation study is presented that demonstrates that the proposed clustering algorithm is more flexible and outperforms several well-known and state-of-the-art algorithms. The clustering process is subsequently evaluated from an individual user’s perspective for further performance improvement. We believe that some users, sharing common interests, are better off with the eNB rather than being in the clusters. We utilize machine learning algorithms namely, Deep Neural Network, Random Forest, and Support Vector Machine, to identify the users that are better served by the eNB and form clusters for the rest of the users. This proposed user segregation scheme can be used in conjunction with most clustering algorithms including the proposed multi-factor scheme. A comprehensive simulation study demonstrates that with such novel user segregation, the performance of individual users, as well as the whole network, can be significantly improved for throughput, energy consumption, and fairness

Feature Papers of Drones - Volume I

[EN] The present book is divided into two volumes (Volume I: articles 1–23, and Volume II: articles 24–54) which compile the articles and communications submitted to the Topical Collection ”Feature Papers of Drones” during the years 2020 to 2022 describing novel or new cutting-edge designs, developments, and/or applications of unmanned vehicles (drones). Articles 1–8 are devoted to the developments of drone design, where new concepts and modeling strategies as well as effective designs that improve drone stability and autonomy are introduced. Articles 9–16 focus on the communication aspects of drones as effective strategies for smooth deployment and efficient functioning are required. Therefore, several developments that aim to optimize performance and security are presented. In this regard, one of the most directly related topics is drone swarms, not only in terms of communication but also human-swarm interaction and their applications for science missions, surveillance, and disaster rescue operations. To conclude with the volume I related to drone improvements, articles 17–23 discusses the advancements associated with autonomous navigation, obstacle avoidance, and enhanced flight plannin