Performance evaluation of a prototyped wireless ground sensor networks

This thesis investigated the suitability of wireless, unattended ground sensor networks for military applications. The unattended aspect requires the network to self-organize and adapt to dynamic changes. A wireless, unattended ground sensor network was prototyped using commercial off-the-shelf technology and three to four networked nodes. Device and network performance were measured under indoor and outdoor scenarios. The measured communication range of a node varied between three and nineteen meters depending on the scenario. The sensors evaluated were an acoustic sensor, a magnetic sensor, and an acceleration sensor. The measured sensing range varied by the type of sensor. Node discovery durations observed were between forty seconds and over five minutes. Node density calculations indicated that the prototype was scalable to five hundred nodes. This thesis substantiated the feasibility of interconnecting, self-organizing sensor nodes in military applications. Tests and evaluations demonstrated that the network was capable of dynamic adaptation to failure and degradation.http://archive.org/details/performanceevalu109452263Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Predictable Reliability In Inter-Vehicle Communications

Predictably reliable communication in wireless networked sensing and control systems (WSC) is a basic enabler for performance guarantee. Yet current research efforts are either focus on maximizing throughput or based on inaccurate interference modelling methods, which yield unsatisfactory results in terms of communication reliability. In this dissertation, we discuss techniques that enable reliable communication in both traditional wireless sensor networks and highly mobile inter-vehicle communication networks. We focus our discussion on traditional wireless sensor networks in Chapter 2 where we discuss mechanisms that enable predictable and reliable communications with no centralized infrastructures. With the promising results in Chapter 2, we extend our methods to inter-vehicle communication networks in Chapter 3. We focus on the broadcast communication paradigm and the unique challenges in applying the PRK interference model into broadcast problems in highly mobile inter-vehicle communication networks. While Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 focus on average reliability, we switch our problem to a more challenging aspect: guaranteeing short-term per-packet reception probability in Chapter 4. Specifically, we describe the PRKS protocol in Chapter 2 which considers unicast transmission paradigm in traditional static wireless sensor networks. PRKS uses the PRK interference model as a basis for interference relation identification that captures characteristics of wireless communications. For communication reliability control, we design a controller that runs at each link receiver and is able to control the average link reliability to be no lower than an application requirement as well as minimizing reliability variation. We further evaluate PRKS with extensive ns-3 simulations. The CPS protocol described in Chapter 3 considers an one-hop broadcast problem in multi-hop inter-vehicle communication networks. We analyze the challenges of applying the PRK model in this particular setting and propose an approximated PRK model, i.e., gPRK model, that addresses the challenges. We further design principles that CPS uses to instantiate the gPRK model in inter-vehicle communications. We implement the CPS scheduling framework in an integrated platform with SUMO and ns-3 to evaluate our design. In Chapter 4, we conservatively estimate the background interference plus noise while nodes are receiving packets. In the meantime, receivers decide minimum power levels their sender should use and feedback their decisions to their senders. Senders fuse feedbacks and choose a power level that guarantees expected packet reception probability at each receivers’ side. We notice in our evaluation that guaranteeing short-term reliability causes extra concurrency loss

Predictable Reliability In Inter-Vehicle Communications

Predictably reliable communication in wireless networked sensing and control systems (WSC) is a basic enabler for performance guarantee. Yet current research efforts are either focus on maximizing throughput or based on inaccurate interference modelling methods, which yield unsatisfactory results in terms of communication reliability. In this dissertation, we discuss techniques that enable reliable communication in both traditional wireless sensor networks and highly mobile inter-vehicle communication networks. We focus our discussion on traditional wireless sensor networks in Chapter 2 where we discuss mechanisms that enable predictable and reliable communications with no centralized infrastructures. With the promising results in Chapter 2, we extend our methods to inter-vehicle communication networks in Chapter 3. We focus on the broadcast communication paradigm and the unique challenges in applying the PRK interference model into broadcast problems in highly mobile inter-vehicle communication networks. While Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 focus on average reliability, we switch our problem to a more challenging aspect: guaranteeing short-term per-packet reception probability in Chapter 4. Specifically, we describe the PRKS protocol in Chapter 2 which considers unicast transmission paradigm in traditional static wireless sensor networks. PRKS uses the PRK interference model as a basis for interference relation identification that captures characteristics of wireless communications. For communication reliability control, we design a controller that runs at each link receiver and is able to control the average link reliability to be no lower than an application requirement as well as minimizing reliability variation. We further evaluate PRKS with extensive ns-3 simulations. The CPS protocol described in Chapter 3 considers an one-hop broadcast problem in multi-hop inter-vehicle communication networks. We analyze the challenges of applying the PRK model in this particular setting and propose an approximated PRK model, i.e., gPRK model, that addresses the challenges. We further design principles that CPS uses to instantiate the gPRK model in inter-vehicle communications. We implement the CPS scheduling framework in an integrated platform with SUMO and ns-3 to evaluate our design. In Chapter 4, we conservatively estimate the background interference plus noise while nodes are receiving packets. In the meantime, receivers decide minimum power levels their sender should use and feedback their decisions to their senders. Senders fuse feedbacks and choose a power level that guarantees expected packet reception probability at each receivers’ side. We notice in our evaluation that guaranteeing short-term reliability causes extra concurrency loss

Multitasking on Wireless Sensor Networks

A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is a loose interconnection among distributed embedded devices called motes. Motes have constrained sensing, computing, and communicating resources and operate for a long period of time on a small energy supply. Although envisioned as a platform for facilitating and inspiring a new spectrum of applications, after a decade of research the WSN is limited to collecting data and sporadically updating system parameters. Programming other applications, including those that have real-time constraints, or designing WSNs operating with multiple applications require enhanced system architectures, new abstractions, and design methodologies. This dissertation introduces a system design methodology for multitasking on WSNs. It allows programmers to create an abstraction of a single, integrated system running with multiple tasks. Every task has a dedicated protocol stack. Thus, different tasks can have different computation logics and operate with different communication protocols. This facilitates the execution of heterogeneous applications on the same WSN and allows programmers to implement a variety of system services. The services that have been implemented provide energy-monitoring, tasks scheduling, and communication between the tasks. The experimental section evaluates implementations of the WSN software designed with the presented methodology. A new set of tools for testbed deployments is introduced and used to test examples of WSNs running with applications interacting with the physical world. Using remote testbeds with over 100 motes, the results show the feasibility of the proposed methodology in constructing a robust and scalable WSN system abstraction, which can improve the run-time performance of applications, such as data collection and point-to-point streaming

Unified Role Assignment Framework For Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks are made possible by the continuing improvements in embedded sensor, VLSI, and wireless radio technologies. Currently, one of the important challenges in sensor networks is the design of a systematic network management framework that allows localized and collaborative resource control uniformly across all application services such as sensing, monitoring, tracking, data aggregation, and routing. The research in wireless sensor networks is currently oriented toward a cross-layer network abstraction that supports appropriate fine or course grained resource controls for energy efficiency. In that regard, we have designed a unified role-based service paradigm for wireless sensor networks. We pursue this by first developing a Role-based Hierarchical Self-Organization (RBSHO) protocol that organizes a connected dominating set (CDS) of nodes called dominators. This is done by hierarchically selecting nodes that possess cumulatively high energy, connectivity, and sensing capabilities in their local neighborhood. The RBHSO protocol then assigns specific tasks such as sensing, coordination, and routing to appropriate dominators that end up playing a certain role in the network. Roles, though abstract and implicit, expose role-specific resource controls by way of role assignment and scheduling. Based on this concept, we have designed a Unified Role-Assignment Framework (URAF) to model application services as roles played by local in-network sensor nodes with sensor capabilities used as rules for role identification. The URAF abstracts domain specific role attributes by three models: the role energy model, the role execution time model, and the role service utility model. The framework then generalizes resource management for services by providing abstractions for controlling the composition of a service in terms of roles, its assignment, reassignment, and scheduling. To the best of our knowledge, a generic role-based framework that provides a simple and unified network management solution for wireless sensor networks has not been proposed previously

Cellular, Wide-Area, and Non-Terrestrial IoT: A Survey on 5G Advances and the Road Towards 6G

The next wave of wireless technologies is proliferating in connecting things among themselves as well as to humans. In the era of the Internet of things (IoT), billions of sensors, machines, vehicles, drones, and robots will be connected, making the world around us smarter. The IoT will encompass devices that must wirelessly communicate a diverse set of data gathered from the environment for myriad new applications. The ultimate goal is to extract insights from this data and develop solutions that improve quality of life and generate new revenue. Providing large-scale, long-lasting, reliable, and near real-time connectivity is the major challenge in enabling a smart connected world. This paper provides a comprehensive survey on existing and emerging communication solutions for serving IoT applications in the context of cellular, wide-area, as well as non-terrestrial networks. Specifically, wireless technology enhancements for providing IoT access in fifth-generation (5G) and beyond cellular networks, and communication networks over the unlicensed spectrum are presented. Aligned with the main key performance indicators of 5G and beyond 5G networks, we investigate solutions and standards that enable energy efficiency, reliability, low latency, and scalability (connection density) of current and future IoT networks. The solutions include grant-free access and channel coding for short-packet communications, non-orthogonal multiple access, and on-device intelligence. Further, a vision of new paradigm shifts in communication networks in the 2030s is provided, and the integration of the associated new technologies like artificial intelligence, non-terrestrial networks, and new spectra is elaborated. Finally, future research directions toward beyond 5G IoT networks are pointed out.Comment: Submitted for review to IEEE CS&

A Comprehensive Overview on 5G-and-Beyond Networks with UAVs: From Communications to Sensing and Intelligence

Due to the advancements in cellular technologies and the dense deployment of cellular infrastructure, integrating unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into the fifth-generation (5G) and beyond cellular networks is a promising solution to achieve safe UAV operation as well as enabling diversified applications with mission-specific payload data delivery. In particular, 5G networks need to support three typical usage scenarios, namely, enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC), and massive machine-type communications (mMTC). On the one hand, UAVs can be leveraged as cost-effective aerial platforms to provide ground users with enhanced communication services by exploiting their high cruising altitude and controllable maneuverability in three-dimensional (3D) space. On the other hand, providing such communication services simultaneously for both UAV and ground users poses new challenges due to the need for ubiquitous 3D signal coverage as well as the strong air-ground network interference. Besides the requirement of high-performance wireless communications, the ability to support effective and efficient sensing as well as network intelligence is also essential for 5G-and-beyond 3D heterogeneous wireless networks with coexisting aerial and ground users. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive overview of the latest research efforts on integrating UAVs into cellular networks, with an emphasis on how to exploit advanced techniques (e.g., intelligent reflecting surface, short packet transmission, energy harvesting, joint communication and radar sensing, and edge intelligence) to meet the diversified service requirements of next-generation wireless systems. Moreover, we highlight important directions for further investigation in future work.Comment: Accepted by IEEE JSA