14 research outputs found

    From MANET to people-centric networking: Milestones and open research challenges

    Get PDF
    In this paper, we discuss the state of the art of (mobile) multi-hop ad hoc networking with the aim to present the current status of the research activities and identify the consolidated research areas, with limited research opportunities, and the hot and emerging research areas for which further research is required. We start by briefly discussing the MANET paradigm, and why the research on MANET protocols is now a cold research topic. Then we analyze the active research areas. Specifically, after discussing the wireless-network technologies, we analyze four successful ad hoc networking paradigms, mesh networks, opportunistic networks, vehicular networks, and sensor networks that emerged from the MANET world. We also present an emerging research direction in the multi-hop ad hoc networking field: people centric networking, triggered by the increasing penetration of the smartphones in everyday life, which is generating a people-centric revolution in computing and communications

    Performance evaluation of future wireless networks: node cooperation and aerial networks

    Get PDF
    Perhaps future historians will only refer to this era as the \emph{information age}, and will recognize it as a paramount milestone in mankind progress. One of the main pillars of this age is the ability to transmit and communicate information effectively and reliably, where wireless radio technology became one of the most vital enablers for such communication. A growth in radio communication demand is notably accelerating in a never-resting pace, pausing a great challenge not only on service providers but also on researches and innovators to explore out-of-the-box technologies. These challenges are mainly related to providing faster data communication over seamless, reliable and cost efficient wireless network, given the limited availability of physical radio resources, and taking into consideration the environmental impact caused by the increasing energy consumption. Traditional wireless communication is usually deployed in a cellular manner, where fixed base stations coordinate radio resources and play the role of an intermediate data handler. The concept of cellular networks and hotspots is widely adopted as the current stable scheme of wireless communication. However in many situations this fixed infrastructure could be impaired with severe damages caused by natural disasters, or could suffer congestions and traffic blockage. In addition to the fact that in the current networks any mobile-to-mobile data sessions should pass through the serving base station that might cause unnecessary energy consumption. In order to enhance the performance and reliability of future wireless networks and to reduce its environmental footprint, we explore two complementary concepts: the first is node cooperation and the second is aerial networks. With the ability of wireless nodes to cooperate lays two main possible opportunities; one is the ability of the direct delivery of information between the communicating nodes without relaying traffic through the serving base station, thus reducing energy consumption and alleviating traffic congestion. A second opportunity would be that one of the nodes helps a farther one by relaying its traffic towards the base station, thus extending network coverage and reliability. Both schemes can introduce significant energy saving and can enhance the overall availability of wireless networks in case of natural disasters. In addition to node cooperation, a complementary technology to explore is the \emph{aerial networks} where base stations are airborne on aerial platforms such as airships, UAVs or blimps. Aerial networks can provide a rapidly deployable coverage for remote areas or regions afflicted by natural disasters or even to patch surge traffic demand in public events. Where node cooperation can be implemented to complement both regular terrestrial coverage and to complement aerial networks. In this research, we explore these two complementary technologies, from both an experimental approach and from an analytic approach. From the experimental perspective we shed the light on the radio channel properties that is hosting terrestrial node cooperation and air-to-ground communication, namely we utilize both simulation results and practical measurements to formulate radio propagation models for device-to-device communication and for air-to-ground links. Furthermore we investigate radio spectrum availability for node cooperation in different urban environment, by conductive extensive mobile measurement survey. Within the experimental approach, we also investigate a novel concept of temporary cognitive femtocell network as an applied solution for public safety communication networks during the aftermath of a natural disaster. While from the analytical perspective, we utilize mathematical tools from stochastic geometry to formulate novel analytical methodologies, explaining some of the most important theoretical boundaries of the achievable enhancements in network performance promised by node cooperation. We start by determining the estimated coverage and rate received by mobile users from convectional cellular networks and from aerial platforms. After that we optimize this coverage and rate ensuring that relay nodes and users can fully exploit their coverage efficiently. We continue by analytically quantifying the cellular network performance during massive infrastructure failure, where some nodes play the role of low-power relays forming multi-hop communication links to assist farther nodes outside the reach of the healthy network coverage. In addition, we lay a mathematical framework for estimating the energy saving of a mediating relay assisting a pair of wireless devices, where we derive closed-form expressions for describing the geometrical zone where relaying is energy efficient. Furthermore, we introduce a novel analytic approach in analyzing the energy consumption of aerial-backhauled wireless nodes on ground fields through the assistance of an aerial base station, the novel mathematical framework is based on Mat\'{e}rn hard-core point process. Then we shed the light on the points interacting of these point processes quantifying their main properties. Throughout this thesis we relay on verifying the analytic results and formulas against computer simulations using Monte-Carlo analysis. We also present practical numerical examples to reflect the usefulness of the presented methodologies and results in real life scenarios. Most of the work presented in this dissertation was published in-part or as a whole in highly ranked peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings, book chapters, or otherwise currently undergoing a review process. These publications are highlighted and identified in the course of this thesis. Finally, we wish the reader to enjoy exploring the journey of this thesis, and hope it will add more understanding to the promising new technologies of aerial networks and node cooperation

    Location and Map Awareness Technologies in Next Wireless Networks

    Get PDF
    In a future perspective, the need of mapping an unknown indoor environment, of localizing and retrieving information from objects with zero costs and efforts could be satisfied by the adoption of next 5G technologies. Thanks to the mix of mmW and massive arrays technologies, it will be possible to achieve a higher indoor localization accuracy without relying on a dedicated infrastructure for localization but exploiting that designed for communication purposes. Besides users localization and navigation objectives, mapping and thus, the capability of reconstructing indoor scenarios, will be an important field of research with the possibility of sharing environmental information via crowd-sourcing mechanisms between users. Finally, in the Internet of Things vision, it is expected that people, objects and devices will be interconnected to each other with the possibility of exchanging the acquired and estimated data including those regarding objects identification, positioning and mapping contents. To this end, the merge of RFID, WSN and UWB technologies has demonstrated to be a promising solution. Stimulated by this framework, this work describes different technological and signal processing approaches to ameliorate the localization capabilities and the user awareness about the environment. From one side, it has been focused on the study of the localization and mapping capabilities of multi-antenna systems based on 5G technologies considering different technological issues, as for example those related to the existing available massive arrays. From the other side, UWB-RFID systems relying on passive communication schemes have been investigated in terms of localization coverage and by developing different techniques to improve the accuracy even in presence of NLOS conditions

    Optimization of 5G Second Phase Heterogeneous Radio Access Networks with Small Cells

    Get PDF
    Due to the exponential increase in high data-demanding applications and their services per coverage area, it is becoming challenging for the existing cellular network to handle the massive sum of users with their demands. It is conceded to network operators that the current wireless network may not be capable to shelter future traffic demands. To overcome the challenges the operators are taking interest in efficiently deploying the heterogeneous network. Currently, 5G is in the commercialization phase. Network evolution with addition of small cells will develop the existing wireless network with its enriched capabilities and innovative features. Presently, the 5G global standardization has introduced the 5G New Radio (NR) under the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). It can support a wide range of frequency bands (<6 GHz to 100 GHz). For different trends and verticals, 5G NR encounters, functional splitting and its cost evaluation are well-thought-out. The aspects of network slicing to the assessment of the business opportunities and allied standardization endeavours are illustrated. The study explores the carrier aggregation (Pico cellular) technique for 4G to bring high spectral efficiency with the support of small cell massification while benefiting from statistical multiplexing gain. One has been able to obtain values for the goodput considering CA in LTE-Sim (4G), of 40 Mbps for a cell radius of 500 m and of 29 Mbps for a cell radius of 50 m, which is 3 times higher than without CA scenario (2.6 GHz plus 3.5 GHz frequency bands). Heterogeneous networks have been under investigation for many years. Heterogeneous network can improve users service quality and resource utilization compared to homogeneous networks. Quality of service can be enhanced by putting the small cells (Femtocells or Picocells) inside the Microcells or Macrocells coverage area. Deploying indoor Femtocells for 5G inside the Macro cellular network can reduce the network cost. Some service providers have started their solutions for indoor users but there are still many challenges to be addressed. The 5G air-simulator is updated to deploy indoor Femto-cell with proposed assumptions with uniform distribution. For all the possible combinations of apartments side length and transmitter power, the maximum number of supported numbers surpassed the number of users by more than two times compared to papers mentioned in the literature. Within outdoor environments, this study also proposed small cells optimization by putting the Pico cells within a Macro cell to obtain low latency and high data rate with the statistical multiplexing gain of the associated users. Results are presented 5G NR functional split six and split seven, for three frequency bands (2.6 GHz, 3.5GHz and 5.62 GHz). Based on the analysis for shorter radius values, the best is to select the 2.6 GHz to achieve lower PLR and to support a higher number of users, with better goodput, and higher profit (for cell radius u to 400 m). In 4G, with CA, from the analysis of the economic trade-off with Picocell, the Enhanced multi-band scheduler EMBS provide higher revenue, compared to those without CA. It is clearly shown that the profit of CA is more than 4 times than in the without CA scenario. This means that the slight increase in the cost of CA gives back more than 4-time profit relatively to the ”without” CA scenario.Devido ao aumento exponencial de aplicações/serviços de elevado débito por unidade de área, torna-se bastante exigente, para a rede celular existente, lidar com a enormes quantidades de utilizadores e seus requisitos. É reconhecido que as redes móveis e sem fios atuais podem não conseguir suportar a procura de tráfego junto dos operadores. Para responder a estes desafios, os operadores estão-se a interessar pelo desenvolvimento de redes heterogéneas eficientes. Atualmente, a 5G está na fase de comercialização. A evolução destas redes concretizar-se-á com a introdução de pequenas células com aptidões melhoradas e características inovadoras. No presente, os organismos de normalização da 5G globais introduziram os Novos Rádios (NR) 5G no contexto do 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). A 5G pode suportar uma gama alargada de bandas de frequência (<6 a 100 GHz). Abordam-se as divisões funcionais e avaliam-se os seus custos para as diferentes tendências e verticais dos NR 5G. Ilustram-se desde os aspetos de particionamento funcional da rede à avaliação das oportunidades de negócio, aliadas aos esforços de normalização. Exploram-se as técnicas de agregação de espetro (do inglês, CA) para pico células, em 4G, a disponibilização de eficiência espetral, com o suporte da massificação de pequenas células, e o ganho de multiplexagem estatística associado. Obtiveram-se valores do débito binário útil, considerando CA no LTE-Sim (4G), de 40 e 29 Mb/s para células de raios 500 e 50 m, respetivamente, três vezes superiores em relação ao caso sem CA (bandas de 2.6 mais 3.5 GHz). Nas redes heterogéneas, alvo de investigação há vários anos, a qualidade de serviço e a utilização de recursos podem ser melhoradas colocando pequenas células (femto- ou pico-células) dentro da área de cobertura de micro- ou macro-células). O desenvolvimento de pequenas células 5G dentro da rede com macro-células pode reduzir os custos da rede. Alguns prestadores de serviços iniciaram as suas soluções para ambientes de interior, mas ainda existem muitos desafios a ser ultrapassados. Atualizou-se o 5G air simulator para representar a implantação de femto-células de interior com os pressupostos propostos e distribuição espacial uniforme. Para todas as combinações possíveis do comprimento lado do apartamento, o número máximo de utilizadores suportado ultrapassou o número de utilizadores suportado (na literatura) em mais de duas vezes. Em ambientes de exterior, propuseram-se pico-células no interior de macro-células, de forma a obter atraso extremo-a-extremo reduzido e taxa de transmissão dados elevada, resultante do ganho de multiplexagem estatística associado. Apresentam-se resultados para as divisões funcionais seis e sete dos NR 5G, para 2.6 GHz, 3.5GHz e 5.62 GHz. Para raios das células curtos, a melhor solução será selecionar a banda dos 2.6 GHz para alcançar PLR (do inglês, PLR) reduzido e suportar um maior número de utilizadores, com débito binário útil e lucro mais elevados (para raios das células até 400 m). Em 4G, com CA, da análise do equilíbrio custos-proveitos com pico-células, o escalonamento multi-banda EMBS (do inglês, Enhanced Multi-band Scheduler) disponibiliza proveitos superiores em comparação com o caso sem CA. Mostra-se claramente que lucro com CA é mais de quatro vezes superior do que no cenário sem CA, o que significa que um aumento ligeiro no custo com CA resulta num aumento de 4-vezes no lucro relativamente ao cenário sem CA
    corecore