Building Programmable Wireless Networks: An Architectural Survey

In recent times, there have been a lot of efforts for improving the ossified Internet architecture in a bid to sustain unstinted growth and innovation. A major reason for the perceived architectural ossification is the lack of ability to program the network as a system. This situation has resulted partly from historical decisions in the original Internet design which emphasized decentralized network operations through co-located data and control planes on each network device. The situation for wireless networks is no different resulting in a lot of complexity and a plethora of largely incompatible wireless technologies. The emergence of "programmable wireless networks", that allow greater flexibility, ease of management and configurability, is a step in the right direction to overcome the aforementioned shortcomings of the wireless networks. In this paper, we provide a broad overview of the architectures proposed in literature for building programmable wireless networks focusing primarily on three popular techniques, i.e., software defined networks, cognitive radio networks, and virtualized networks. This survey is a self-contained tutorial on these techniques and its applications. We also discuss the opportunities and challenges in building next-generation programmable wireless networks and identify open research issues and future research directions.Comment: 19 page

U.S. households' access to and use of electronic banking. 1989-2007

Nationwide surveys show that consumers are increasingly embracing technology to make payments and manage their personal finances. However, only about one in two consumers could be considered a heavy user of electronic banking. This article examines changes over time in consumers’ access to, adoption of, and attitudes toward various e-banking products and services and looks at several emerging technologies.Consumers' preferences ; Electronic funds transfers

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

Networking Support For Mobile Computing

With increasing use of small portable computers, wireless networks and satellites, a trend to support computing on the move has emerged. This trend is known as mobile computing or anytime and anywhere computing. Some people refer it as Nomadic computing. No matter which name is applied, all these terms really imply that a user may not maintain a fixed position in the network. The user is free to roam from one place to another. However the mobile user still expects uninterrupted network access and the ability to run some networked applications. To support such mobility, the user is typically provided a wireless interface to communicate with other fixed and mobile users. The mobile computing environment can be described by the following attributes (a) mobile users, (b) mobile support stations or base stations serving an area, (c) wireless interface, (d) wireless medium with varying channel characteristics (due to fading, noise, interference, etc.) and (e) various applications requiring specific support. A mobile computing environment raises such issues as how to route packets as the mobile user (hosts) moves from one place to the other and how to overcome limitations including limited bandwidth and storage. This tutorial presents an introduction to mobile computing, to the challenges introduced, and to emerging networking infrastructures for mobile computing

Internet of Things-aided Smart Grid: Technologies, Architectures, Applications, Prototypes, and Future Research Directions

Traditional power grids are being transformed into Smart Grids (SGs) to address the issues in existing power system due to uni-directional information flow, energy wastage, growing energy demand, reliability and security. SGs offer bi-directional energy flow between service providers and consumers, involving power generation, transmission, distribution and utilization systems. SGs employ various devices for the monitoring, analysis and control of the grid, deployed at power plants, distribution centers and in consumers' premises in a very large number. Hence, an SG requires connectivity, automation and the tracking of such devices. This is achieved with the help of Internet of Things (IoT). IoT helps SG systems to support various network functions throughout the generation, transmission, distribution and consumption of energy by incorporating IoT devices (such as sensors, actuators and smart meters), as well as by providing the connectivity, automation and tracking for such devices. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey on IoT-aided SG systems, which includes the existing architectures, applications and prototypes of IoT-aided SG systems. This survey also highlights the open issues, challenges and future research directions for IoT-aided SG systems

Motorized cart

Motorized cart is known as an effective tool and timeless that help people carry heavy loads. For farmers, it has an especially vital tool for moving goods. Oil palm farmers typically uses the wheelbarrow to move the oil palm fruit (Figure 10.1). However, there is a lack of equipment that should be further enhanced in capabilities. Motorized carts that seek to add automation to wheelbarrow as it is to help people save manpower while using it. At present, oil palm plantation industry is among the largest in Malaysia. However, in an effort to increase the prestige of the industry to a higher level there are challenges to be faced. Shortage of workers willing to work the farm for harvesting oil palm has given pain to manage oil palm plantations. Many have complained about the difficulty of hiring foreign workers and a high cost. Although there are tools that can be used to collect or transfer the proceeds of oil palm fruits such as carts available. However, these tools still have the disadvantage that requires high manpower to operate. Moreover, it is not suitable for all land surfaces and limited cargo space. Workload and manpower dependence has an impact on farmers' income