Timing and Carrier Synchronization in Wireless Communication Systems: A Survey and Classification of Research in the Last 5 Years

Timing and carrier synchronization is a fundamental requirement for any wireless communication system to work properly. Timing synchronization is the process by which a receiver node determines the correct instants of time at which to sample the incoming signal. Carrier synchronization is the process by which a receiver adapts the frequency and phase of its local carrier oscillator with those of the received signal. In this paper, we survey the literature over the last 5 years (2010–2014) and present a comprehensive literature review and classification of the recent research progress in achieving timing and carrier synchronization in single-input single-output (SISO), multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), cooperative relaying, and multiuser/multicell interference networks. Considering both single-carrier and multi-carrier communication systems, we survey and categorize the timing and carrier synchronization techniques proposed for the different communication systems focusing on the system model assumptions for synchronization, the synchronization challenges, and the state-of-the-art synchronization solutions and their limitations. Finally, we envision some future research directions

Cooperative Relaying In Power Line Environment: A Survey and Tutorial

Exchange of information is essential in any society and the demand for faster, cheaper, and secure communications is increasing every day. With other hi-tech initiatives like IPv6 and Internet-of-Things (IOT) already in the horizon, demand for broadband is set to escalate beyond its current level. Inherently laden in the challenges posed by this technology are fresh opportunities in terms of penetration of data services into rural communities and development of innovative strategies for more efficient use of the grid. Though still in its developmental phase/stage, Power Line Communication (PLC) has grown beyond theoretical fantasy to become a reality. The proofs are the readily available PLC systems that can be purchased off the shelfto achieve in-house networking and the much talked about, smart metering technology; generally regarded as the “new bride” in utilities industry. One of the biggest gains of PLC is its use of existing electrical cables, thereby eliminating cost of installation and maintenance of data cables. However, given that the power infrastructure was traditionally built to deliver electricity, data signals do suffer various forms of distortions and impairments as they transit it. This paper presents a tutorial on the deployed wireless system technique which is to be adapted to PLC scenario for the purpose of managing the available source energy for achieving reliable communication system. One of these techniques is the cooperative diversity. Its application and deployment in power line environment is explored. The improvement achieved through cooperative diversity in some PLC systems were presented along with the associated limitations. Finally, future areas of research which will further improve the reliability of PLC systems and reduce its power consumption during transmission is shown

Buffer-aided successive relay selection scheme for energy harvesting IoT networks

In this paper, we analyze the impact of buffer-aided full-duplex successive relay selection schemes with energy harvesting capability of relay nodes in amplifying and forward (AF) and decode and forward (DF) relaying environments for the Internet of Things networks. We propose to select a relay pair based on the energy harvested and signal strength at relay and destination to receive and transmit in the same time slot, respectively. Contrary to the previous relay pair selection schemes which are based on the signal strength only and cause the relay overuse problem, the proposed scheme ensures the balanced use of energy of relay nodes. The proposed relay selection scheme is implemented with the time switching (TS) and power splitting (PS)-based energy harvesting models in AF and DF relaying environments separately. Furthermore, we derive the closed-form expression of the outage probability and average throughput for both the TS and PS approaches in the DF and AF relaying modes. We compare the proposed relay selection scheme with the S-MMRS scheme and prove that the proposed scheme significantly reduces the outage probability and improves the average throughput. Furthermore, the analytical findings are reinforced with the extensive Monte Carlo simulations