Cognitive Access Policies under a Primary ARQ process via Forward-Backward Interference Cancellation

This paper introduces a novel technique for access by a cognitive Secondary User (SU) using best-effort transmission to a spectrum with an incumbent Primary User (PU), which uses Type-I Hybrid ARQ. The technique leverages the primary ARQ protocol to perform Interference Cancellation (IC) at the SU receiver (SUrx). Two IC mechanisms that work in concert are introduced: Forward IC, where SUrx, after decoding the PU message, cancels its interference in the (possible) following PU retransmissions of the same message, to improve the SU throughput; Backward IC, where SUrx performs IC on previous SU transmissions, whose decoding failed due to severe PU interference. Secondary access policies are designed that determine the secondary access probability in each state of the network so as to maximize the average long-term SU throughput by opportunistically leveraging IC, while causing bounded average long-term PU throughput degradation and SU power expenditure. It is proved that the optimal policy prescribes that the SU prioritizes its access in the states where SUrx knows the PU message, thus enabling IC. An algorithm is provided to optimally allocate additional secondary access opportunities in the states where the PU message is unknown. Numerical results are shown to assess the throughput gain provided by the proposed techniques.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, 2 table

Comunicações cooperativas em redes IEEE 802.11 multi-débito

Doutoramento em TelecomunicaçõesEsta tese apresenta um estudo sobre alguns dos protocolos de cooperação MAC para redes sem fios utilizando o sistema IEEE 802.11 multi-débito. É proposto um novo modelo de arquitetura para a categorização e análise da cooperação em redes sem fios, tendo este modelo sido aplicado a protocolos cooperativos existentes para camada MAC. É investigado como as características do meio físico, assim como os requisitos de níveis superiores podem ser aplicados ao processo de cooperação, com vista a melhorar as características de funcionamento da rede de comunicações. Para este propósito são exploradas as métricas mais relevantes para o processo de cooperação. São igualmente estudados os limites impostos pelos protocolos da camada MAC e as limitações práticas impostas por protocolos da família de normas que compõem o IEEE 802.11. Neste trabalho foi criada uma métrica multicamada, que permite considerar os requisitos aplicacionais de performance e o tipo de tráfego, assim como a mobilidade dos dispositivos, no funcionamento dos mecanismos de cooperação. Como forma de validação, e para corretamente avaliar o impacto da métrica, um novo protocolo de cooperação foi desenvolvido e implementado. O seu funcionamento é descrito de forma analítica assim como validado através de a um ambiente de simulação. Os resultados obtidos mostram que a utilização de uma métrica multicamada é uma técnica robusta, fornecendo melhorias consistentes no contexto de redes IEEE 802.11. São igualmente demonstradas várias outras características de funcionamento com impacto para as comunicações. Estes dados fornecem uma visão real e encorajadora para a realização de mais pesquisas para a melhoria da performance dos protocolos cooperativos, assim como a sua utilização num variado número de aplicações futuras. No final do documento são apresentados alguns desafios para a continuação da investigação deste tópico.This thesis presents a study on cooperative MAC protocols in Multi-rate IEEE 802.11 wireless networks. We proposed a novel architectural framework for cooperation algorithms in wireless network. This behavior model was considered for existing cooperative MAC protocols. A classification of these protocols was presented based on their cooperation objectives. We investigate how physical layer specifications and higher layer requirements can be applied in cooperation MAC protocols to enhance the overall network performance. For this purpose, we exploit the appropriate metrics which are consistent to the cooperation objectives. Performance bounds provided by MAC protocols and practical limitations posed by IEEE 802.11 standards have been also studied. A cross layer metric was achieved in cooperative MAC protocols to adapt cooperation performance to traffic service requirements and mobility scenario. In order to realize the impact of this metric, a new cooperative MAC protocol is designed and implemented. Analytical and simulation of this protocol was performed in different scenarios and environments. The obtained results have shown a robust technique in providing consistent cross layer optimization in context of IEEE 802.11 networks. A number of findings was experienced which are illustrated at the end. These observations would enhance and encourage potential research in the area and optimize the performance of cooperative protocols for a number of interesting applications in future. A summary of future research challenges is presented at the end

Transparent Spectrum Co-Access in Cognitive Radio Networks

The licensed wireless spectrum is currently under-utilized by as much as 85%. Cognitive radio networks have been proposed to employ dynamic spectrum access to share this under-utilized spectrum between licensed primary user transmissions and unlicensed secondary user transmissions. Current secondary user opportunistic spectrum access methods, however, remain limited in their ability to provide enough incentive to convince primary users to share the licensed spectrum, and they rely on primary user absence to guarantee secondary user performance. These challenges are addressed by developing a Dynamic Spectrum Co-Access Architecture (DSCA) that allows secondary user transmissions to co-access transparently and concurrently with primary user transmissions. This work exploits dirty paper coding to precode the cognitive radio channel utilizing the redundant information found in primary user relay networks. Subsequently, the secondary user is able to provide incentive to the primary user through increased SINR to encourage licensed spectrum sharing. Then a region of co-accessis formulated within which any secondary user can co-access the licensed channel transparently to the primary user. In addition, a Spectrum Co-Access Protocol (SCAP) is developed to provide secondary users with guaranteed channel capacity and while minimizing channel access times. The numerical results show that the SCAP protocol build on the DSCA architecture is able to reduce secondary user channel access times compared with opportunistic spectrum access and increased secondary user network throughput. Finally, we present a novel method for increasing the secondary user channel capacity through sequential dirty paper coding. By exploiting similar redundancy in secondary user multi-hop networks as in primary user relay networks, the secondary user channel capacity can be increased. As a result of our work in overlay spectrum sharing through secondary user channel precoding, we provide a compelling argument that the current trend towards opportunistic spectrum sharing needs to be reconsidered. This work asserts that limitations of opportunistic spectrum access to transparently provide primary users incentive and its detrimental effect on secondary user performance due to primary user activity are enough to motivate further study into utilizing channel precoding schemes. The success of cognitive radios and its adoption into federal regulator policy will rely on providing just this type of incentive

Dynamic control of wireless networks with confidential communications

Future wireless communication systems are rapidly transforming to satisfy everincreasing and varying mobile user demands. Cross-layer networking protocols have the potential to play a crucial role in this transformation by jointly addressing the requirements of user applications together with the time-varying nature of wireless networking. As wireless communications becoming an integral and crucial part of our daily lives with many of our personal data is being shared via wireless transmissions, the issue of keeping personal transactions confidential is at the forefront of any network design. Wireless communications is especially prone to attacks due to its broadcast nature. The conventional cryptographical methods can only guarantee secrecy with the assumption that it is computationally prohibitive for the eavesdroppers to decode the messages. On the other hand, information-theoretical secrecy as defined by Shannon in his seminal work has the potential to provide perfect secrecy regardless of the computational power of the eavesdropper. Recent studies has shown that information-theoretical secrecy is possible over noisy wireless channels. In this thesis, we aim to design simple yet provably optimal cross-layer algorithms taking into account information-theoretical secrecy as a Quality of Service (QoS) requirement. Our work has the potential to improve our understanding the interplay between the secrecy and networking protocols. In most of this thesis, we consider a wireless cellular architecture, where all nodes participate in communication with a base station. When a node is transmitting a confidential messages, other legitimate nodes are considered as eavesdroppers, i.e., all eavesdroppers are internal. We characterize the region of achievable open and confidential data rate pairs for a single and then a multi-node scenario. We define the notion of confidential opportunistic scheduler, which schedules a node that has the largest instantaneous confidential information rate, with respect to the best eavesdropper node, which has the largest mean cross-channel rate. Having defined the operational limits of the system, we then develop dynamic joint scheduling and flow control algorithms when perfect and imperfect channel state information (CSI) is available. The developed algorithms are simple index policies, in which scheduling and flow control decisions are given in each time instant independently. In real networks, instantaneous CSI is usually unavailable due to computational and communication overheads associated with obtaining this information. Hence, we generalize our model for the case where only the distributions of direct- and crosschannel CSI are available at the transmitter. In order to provide end-to-end reliability, Hybrid Automatic Retransmission reQuest (HARQ) is employed. The challenge of using HARQ is that the dynamic control policies proposed in the preceding chapter are no longer optimal, since the decisions at each time instant are no longer independent. This is mainly due to the potential of re-transmitting a variant of the same message successively until it is decoded at the base station. We solve this critical issue by proposing a novel queuing model, in which the messages transmitted the same number of times previously are stored in the same queue with scheduler selecting a head-of-line message from these queues. We prove that with this novel queuing model, the dynamic control algorithms can still be optimal. We then shift our attention to providing confidentiality in multi-hop wireless networks, where there are multiple source-destination pairs communicating confidential messages, to be kept confidential from the intermediate nodes. For this case, we propose a novel end-to-end encoding scheme, where the confidential information is encoded into one very long message. The encoded message is then divided into multiple packets, to be combined at the ultimate destination for recovery, and being sent over different paths so that each intermediate node only has partial view of the whole message. Based on the proposed end-to-end encoding scheme, we develop two different dynamic policies when the encoded message is finite and asymptotically large, respectively. When the encoded message has finite length, our proposed policy chooses the encoding rates for each message, based on the instantaneous channel state information, queue states and secrecy requirements. Also, the nodes keep account of the information leaked to intermediate nodes as well the information reaching the destination in order to provide confidentiality and reliability. We demonstrate via simulations that our policy has a performance asymptotically approaching that of the optimal policy with increasing length of the encoded message. All preceding work assumes that the nodes are altruistic and/or well-behaved, i.e., they cooperatively participate into the communication of the confidential messages. In the final chapter of the thesis, we investigate the case with non-altruistic nodes, where non-altruistic nodes provide a jamming service to nodes with confidential communication needs and receiving in turn the right to access to the channel. We develop optimal resource allocation and power control algorithms maximizing the aggregate utility of both nodes with confidential communication needs as well as the nodes providing jamming service

Fiabilisation des transmissions dans les réseaux de capteurs sans fils

Over the past decades, we have witnessed a proliferation of potential application domainsfor wireless sensor networks (WSN). A comprehensive number of new services such asenvironment monitoring, target tracking, military surveillance and healthcare applicationshave arisen. These networked sensors are usually deployed randomly and left unattendedto perform their mission properly and efficiently. Meanwhile, sensors have to operate ina constrained environment with functional and operational challenges mainly related toresource limitations (energy supply, scarce computational abilities...) and to the noisyreal world of deployment. This harsh environment can cause packet loss or node failurewhich hamper the network activity. Thus, continuous delivery of data requires reliabledata transmission and adaptability to the dynamic environment. Ensuring network reliabilityis consequently a key concern in WSNs and it is even more important in emergencyapplication such disaster management application where reliable data delivery is the keysuccess factor. The main objective of this thesis is to design a reliable end to end solution for data transmission fulfilling the requirements of the constrained WSNs. We tackle two design issues namely recovery from node failure and packet losses and propose solutions to enhance the network reliability. We start by studying WSNs features with a focus on technical challenges and techniques of reliability in order to identify the open issues. Based on this study, we propose a scalable and distributed approach for network recovery from nodefailures in WSNs called CoMN2. Then, we present a lightweight mechanism for packetloss recovery and route quality awareness in WSNs called AJIA. This protocol exploitsthe overhearing feature characterizing the wireless channels as an implicit acknowledgment(ACK) mechanism. In addition, the protocol allows for an adaptive selection of therouting path by achieving required retransmissions on the most reliable link. We provethat AJIA outperforms its competitor AODV in term of delivery ratio in different channelconditions. Thereafter, we present ARRP, a variant of AJIA, combining the strengthsof retransmissions, node collaboration and Forward Error Correction (FEC) in order toprovide a reliable packet loss recovery scheme. We verify the efficiency of ARRP throughextensive simulations which proved its high reliability in comparison to its competitor.Vu les perspectives qu'ils offrent, les réseaux de capteur sans fil (RCSF) ont perçu un grand engouement de la part de la communauté de recherche ces dernières années. Les RCSF couvrent une large gamme d'applications variant du contrôle d'environnement, le pistage de cible aux applications de santé. Les RCSFs sont souvent déployés aléatoirement. Ce dispersement des capteurs nécessite que les protocoles de transmission utilisés soient résistants aux conditions environnementales (fortes chaleurs ou pluies par exemple) et aux limitations de ressources des nœuds capteurs. En effet, la perte de plusieurs nœuds capteurs peut engendrer la perte de communication entre les différentes entités. Ces limitations peuvent causer la perte des paquets transmis ce qui entrave l'activité du réseau. Par conséquent, il est important d'assurer la fiabilité des transmissions de données dans les RCSF d'autant plus pour les applications critiques comme la détection d'incendies. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons une solution complète de transmission de données dans les RCSF répondant aux exigences et contraintes de ce type de réseau. Dans un premier temps, nous étudions les contraintes et les challenges liés à la fiabilisation des transmissions dans les RCSFs et nous examinons les travaux proposés dans la littérature. Suite à cette étude nous proposons COMN2, une approche distribuée et scalable permettant de faire face à la défaillance des nœuds. Ensuite, nous proposons un mécanisme de contrôle d'erreur minimisant la perte de paquets et proposant un routage adaptatif en fonction de la qualité du lien. Cette solution est basée sur des acquittements implicites (overhearing) pour la détection des pertes des paquets. Nous proposons ensuite ARRP une variante de AJIA combinant les avantages des retransmissions, de la collaboration des nœuds et des FEC. Enfin, nous simulons ces différentes solutions et vérifions leurs performances par rapport à leurs concurrents de l'état de l'art

Network coding for reliable wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks are used in many applications and are now a key element in the increasingly growing Internet of Things. These networks are composed of small nodes including wireless communication modules, and in most of the cases are able to autonomously con gure themselves into networks, to ensure sensed data delivery. As more and more sensor nodes and networks join the Internet of Things, collaboration between geographically distributed systems are expected. Peer to peer overlay networks can assist in the federation of these systems, for them to collaborate. Since participating peers/proxies contribute to storage and processing, there is no burden on speci c servers and bandwidth bottlenecks are avoided. Network coding can be used to improve the performance of wireless sensor networks. The idea is for data from multiple links to be combined at intermediate encoding nodes, before further transmission. This technique proved to have a lot of potential in a wide range of applications. In the particular case of sensor networks, network coding based protocols and algorithms try to achieve a balance between low packet error rate and energy consumption. For network coding based constrained networks to be federated using peer to peer overlays, it is necessary to enable the storage of encoding vectors and coded data by such distributed storage systems. Packets can arrive to the overlay through any gateway/proxy (peers in the overlay), and lost packets can be recovered by the overlay (or client) using original and coded data that has been stored. The decoding process requires a decoding service at the overlay network. Such architecture, which is the focus of this thesis, will allow constrained networks to reduce packet error rate in an energy e cient way, while bene ting from an e ective distributed storage solution for their federation. This will serve as a basis for the proposal of mathematical models and algorithms that determine the most e ective routing trees, for packet forwarding toward sink/gateway nodes, and best amount and placement of encoding nodes.As redes de sensores sem fios são usadas em muitas aplicações e são hoje consideradas um elemento-chave para o desenvolvimento da Internet das Coisas. Compostas por nós de pequena dimensão que incorporam módulos de comunicação sem fios, grande parte destas redes possuem a capacidade de se configurarem de forma autónoma, formando sistemas em rede para garantir a entrega dos dados recolhidos. (…

Conceção e desempenho de retransmissões sem fios cooperativas

Doutoramento em Engenharia Eletrotécnica/TelecomunicaçõesIn recent years, a new paradigm for communication called cooperative communications has been proposed for which initial information theoretic studies have shown the potential for improvements in capacity over traditional multi-hop wireless networks. Extensive research has been done to mitigate the impact of fading in wireless networks, being mostly focused on Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems. Recently, cooperative relaying techniques have been investigated to increase the performance of wireless systems by using diversity created by different single antenna devices, aiming to reach the same level of performance of MIMO systems with low cost devices. Cooperative communication is a promising method to achieve high spectrum efficiency and improve transmission capacity for wireless networks. Cooperative communications is the general idea of pooling the resources of distributed nodes to improve the overall performance of a wireless network. In cooperative networks the nodes cooperate to help each other. A cooperative node offering help is acting like a middle man or proxy and can convey messages from source to destination. Cooperative communication involves exploiting the broadcast nature of the wireless medium to form virtual antenna arrays out of independent singleantenna network nodes for transmission. This research aims at contributing to the field of cooperative wireless networks. The focus of this research is on the relay-based Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol. Specifically, I provide a framework for cooperative relaying called RelaySpot which comprises on opportunistic relay selection, cooperative relay scheduling and relay switching. RelaySpot-based solutions are expected to minimize signaling exchange, remove estimation of channel conditions, and improve the utilization of spatial diversity, minimizing outage and increasing reliability.Nos últimos anos foi proposto um novo paradigma de comunicação, chamado de comunicação cooperativa, para o qual estudos iniciais de teoria da informação demonstraram ter potencial para melhorias na capacidade em redes sem fios tradicionais multi-hop. Uma extensa pesquisa tem sido realizada para mitigar o impacto da atenuação em redes sem fios, tendo-se debruçado principalmente em sistemas Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO). Recentemente têm sido investigadas técnicas de retransmissão cooperativas para aumentar o desempenho de sistemas sem fios, usando a diversidade criada por diferentes antenas individuais com o objetivo de atingir o mesmo nível de desempenho dos sistemas MIMO com dispositivos de baixo custo. A comunicação cooperativa é um método promissor para atingir uma elevada eficiência na ocupação espectral e melhorar a capacidade de transmissão em redes sem fios. A comunicação cooperativa tem por ideia base a junção de recursos de nós distribuídos para melhorar o desempenho global de uma rede sem fios. Em redes cooperativas os nós cooperam para ajudarem-se mutuamente. Um nó cooperativo que ofereça ajuda estará agindo como um intermediário ou mediador, podendo transmitir mensagens da origem para o destino. A comunicação cooperativa explora a natureza da transmissão em difusão das comunicações sem fios para formar antenas múltiplas virtuais com vários nós de rede independentes e com antenas únicas. Esta investigação visou contribuir para a área científica das redes sem fios cooperativas. O foco da pesquisa foi nos protocolos de controlo de acesso ao meio (MAC) com retransmissão cooperativa. Especificamente, proponho uma arquitetura para enquadrar a retransmissão cooperativa, chamada RelaySpot (ponto de retransmissão), que explora a seleção oportunista de retransmissores, o escalonamento de retransmissores cooperativos e a comutação entre retransmissores. As comunicações baseadas na RelaySpot deverão ter uma troca de sinalização reduzida, não usam estimativas das condições do canal e melhoram o aproveitamento da diversidade espacial, minimizando a interrupção e aumentando a fiabilidade