A Smart UAV-Femtocell Data Sensing System for Post-Earthquake Localization of People

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The Potential Short- and Long-Term Disruptions and Transformative Impacts of 5G and Beyond Wireless Networks: Lessons Learnt from the Development of a 5G Testbed Environment

The capacity and coverage requirements for 5 th generation (5G) and beyond wireless connectivity will be significantly different from the predecessor networks. To meet these requirements, the anticipated deployment cost in the United Kingdom (UK) is predicted to be between £30bn and £50bn, whereas the current annual capital expenditure (CapEX) of the mobile network operators (MNOs) is £2.5bn. This prospect has vastly impacted and has become one of the major delaying factors for building the 5G physical infrastructure, whereas other areas of 5G are progressing at their speed. Due to the expensive and complicated nature of the network infrastructure and spectrum, the second-tier operators, widely known as mobile virtual network operators (MVNO), are entirely dependent on the MNOs. In this paper, an extensive study is conducted to explore the possibilities of reducing the 5G deployment cost and developing viable business models. In this regard, the potential of infrastructure, data, and spectrum sharing is thoroughly investigated. It is established that the use of existing public infrastructure (e.g., streetlights, telephone poles, etc.) has a potential to reduce the anticipated cost by about 40% to 60%. This paper also reviews the recent Ofcom initiatives to release location-based licenses of the 5G-compatible radio spectrum. Our study suggests that simplification of infrastructure and spectrum will encourage the exponential growth of scenario-specific cellular networks (e.g., private networks, community networks, micro-operators) and will potentially disrupt the current business models of telecommunication business stakeholders - specifically MNOs and TowerCos. Furthermore, the anticipated dense device connectivity in 5G will increase the resolution of traditional and non-traditional data availability significantly. This will encourage extensive data harvesting as a business opportunity and function within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as large social networks. Consequently, the rise of new infrastructures and spectrum stakeholders is anticipated. This will fuel the development of a 5G data exchange ecosystem where data transactions are deemed to be high-value business commodities. The privacy and security of such data, as well as definitions of the associated revenue models and ownership, are challenging areas - and these have yet to emerge and mature fully. In this direction, this paper proposes the development of a unified data hub with layered structured privacy and security along with blockchain and encrypted off-chain based ownership/royalty tracking. Also, a data economy-oriented business model is proposed. The study found that with the potential commodification of data and data transactions along with the low-cost physical infrastructure and spectrum, the 5G network will introduce significant disruption in the Telco business ecosystem

Radio Resource Management for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Assisted Wireless Communications and Networking

In recent years, employing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as aerial communication platforms or users is envisioned as a promising solution to enhance the performance of the existing wireless communication systems. However, applying UAVs for information technology applications also introduces many new challenges. This thesis focuses on the UAV-assisted wireless communication and networking, and aims to address the challenges through exploiting and designing efficient radio resource management methods. Specifically, four research topics are studied in this thesis. Firstly, to address the constraint of network heterogeneity and leverage the benefits of diversity of UAVs, a hierarchical air-ground heterogeneous network architecture enabled by software defined networking is proposed, which integrates both high and low altitude platforms into conventional terrestrial networks to provide additional capacity enhancement and expand the coverage of current network systems. Secondly, to address the constraint of link disconnection and guarantee the reliable communications among UAVs as aerial user equipment to perform sensing tasks, a robust resource allocation scheme is designed while taking into account the dynamic features and different requirements for different UAV transmission connections. Thirdly, to address the constraint of privacy and security threat and motivate the spectrum sharing between cellular and UAV operators, a blockchain-based secure spectrum trading framework is constructed where mobile network operators and UAV operators can share spectrum in a distributed and trusted environment based on blockchain technology to protect users' privacy and data security. Fourthly, to address the constraint of low endurance of UAV and prolong its flight time as an aerial base station for delivering communication coverage in a disaster area, an energy efficiency maximization problem jointly optimizing user association, UAV's transmission power and trajectory is studied in which laser charging is exploited to supply sustainable energy to enable the UAV to operate in the sky for a long time

Internet of Things From Hype to Reality

The Internet of Things (IoT) has gained significant mindshare, let alone attention, in academia and the industry especially over the past few years. The reasons behind this interest are the potential capabilities that IoT promises to offer. On the personal level, it paints a picture of a future world where all the things in our ambient environment are connected to the Internet and seamlessly communicate with each other to operate intelligently. The ultimate goal is to enable objects around us to efficiently sense our surroundings, inexpensively communicate, and ultimately create a better environment for us: one where everyday objects act based on what we need and like without explicit instructions

Indoor Positioning and Navigation

In recent years, rapid development in robotics, mobile, and communication technologies has encouraged many studies in the field of localization and navigation in indoor environments. An accurate localization system that can operate in an indoor environment has considerable practical value, because it can be built into autonomous mobile systems or a personal navigation system on a smartphone for guiding people through airports, shopping malls, museums and other public institutions, etc. Such a system would be particularly useful for blind people. Modern smartphones are equipped with numerous sensors (such as inertial sensors, cameras, and barometers) and communication modules (such as WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, LTE/5G, and UWB capabilities), which enable the implementation of various localization algorithms, namely, visual localization, inertial navigation system, and radio localization. For the mapping of indoor environments and localization of autonomous mobile sysems, LIDAR sensors are also frequently used in addition to smartphone sensors. Visual localization and inertial navigation systems are sensitive to external disturbances; therefore, sensor fusion approaches can be used for the implementation of robust localization algorithms. These have to be optimized in order to be computationally efficient, which is essential for real-time processing and low energy consumption on a smartphone or robot

JTIT

kwartalni

Provision of broadband Internet in Oman by joining LTE-A with TV white space (TVWS)

In the last 45 years, the Sultanate of Oman has developed overdramatically and steadily in all aspects of life. This progress has included health, education and transportation sectors along with social and economic areas. The progress has also counted in the telecommunication services with many new land and wireless networks such as fibre optic networks, 3G, 4G/LTE and WiMAX. These telecommunication services have covered major cities and towns in the country, but due to the vast and inhospitable terrains of Oman with its geographical, demographical and social factors, it has been very problematic to cover major rural and urban areas of the country with satisfactory fibre and mobile services for home and mobile users by using one of the current traditional fixed and mobile technologies. Therefore, in this research, we have investigated the feasibility of using Television White Space (TVWS) technology in providing the required internet service by combining it with the ever-evolving Long Term Evolution- Advanced (LTE-A) technology as a solution to the problem mentioned above. For this purpose, and to specify the occupancy of the TVWS spectrum so to suggest a solution based on the LTE-A operating on the TVWS, we have conducted a radio spectrum occupancy measurement survey campaign for 40 MHz to 2800 MHz range. The survey was conducted in five major areas of the country. The campaign has identified that the TV spectrum (470 MHz to 890 MHZ) is idle most of the time. Further, we have implemented our proposed solution through the simulation of the Long-Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A) Ver. 12 technology operating in the TV spectrum (470-710 MHz). This type of solution is the first to use Ver. 12 on TVWS even on a simulation level. The simulation approach has been chosen over a real implementation because the technology is still in its early development stage, therefore, the hardware required for the implementation is still out of reach. Our simulation involved planning and implementation of two networks with eight scenarios. One network is our proposed network and the other is the classical LTE network operating on the 1800 MHz spectrum. The simulation results and analysis have demonstrated that our solution could provide reliable mobile and fixed service to a large number of users in a very large area with high data throughput and good Quality of Service (QoS) by using very little resources such as sites, Base Stations (BSs) and other resources. The simulation has demonstrated that one TVWS Base Station (TVWSBS) could cover up to 110 Km radius area and provide up to 4 Gigabits Per Second (4Gbps) DownLink (DL) and up to 2 Gbps UpLink (UL) data throughput. Therefore, our solution overweighs the traditional LTE/4G network in all aspects. This type of technology could meet the needs of broadband internet service for rural and congested areas of Oman using most of the existing old TV towers infrastructure and with minimum investment. Therefore, in our research, we are proposing an alternative method of providing broadband internet service that differs from the available traditional methods found in the literature considering the unique particularities of the demographic, geographic, social and environmental factors of Oman.Additionally, we have outlined TVWS regulations that could be utilised by concerned spectrum authorities in Oman and similar countries. Finally, we have developed an algorithm that could manage TVWS Database (TVWSDB) and could be incorporated in the Service Providers’ (SP) network management systems