Tactical communication systems based on civil standards: Modeling in the MiXiM framework

In this paper, new work is presented belonging to an ongoing study, which evaluates civil communication standards as potential candidates for the future military Wide Band Waveforms (WBWFs). After an evaluation process of possible candidates presented in [2], the selection process in [1] showed that the IEEE 802.11n OFDM could be a possible military WBWF candidate, but it should be further investigated first in order to enhance or even replace critical modules. According to this, some critical modules of the physical layer has been further analyzed in [3] regarding the susceptibility of the OFDM signal under jammer influences. However, the critical modules of the MAC layer (e.g., probabilistic medium access CSMA/CA) have not been analysed. In fact, it was only suggested in [2] to replace this medium access by the better suited Unified Slot Allocation Protocol - Multiple Access (USAP-MA) [4]. In this regard, the present contribution describes the design paradigms of the new MAC layer and explains how the proposed WBWF candidate has been modelled within the MiXiM Framework of the OMNeT++ simulator.Comment: Published in: A. F\"orster, C. Sommer, T. Steinbach, M. W\"ahlisch (Eds.), Proc. of 1st OMNeT++ Community Summit, Hamburg, Germany, September 2, 2014, arXiv:1409.0093, 201

Exploiting social internet of things features in cognitive radio

Cognitive radio (CR) represents the proper technological solution in case of radio resources scarcity and availability of shared channels. For the deployment of CR solutions, it is important to implement proper sensing procedures, which are aimed at continuously surveying the status of the channels. However, accurate views of the resources status can be achieved only through the cooperation of many sensing devices. For these reasons, in this paper, we propose the utilization of the Social Internet of Things (SIoT) paradigm, according to which objects are capable of establishing social relationships in an autonomous way, with respect to the rules set by their owners. The resulting social network enables faster and trustworthy information/service discovery exploiting the social network of friend'' objects.We first describe the general approach according to which members of the SIoT collaborate to exchange channel status information. Then, we discuss the main features, i.e., the possibility to implement a distributed approach for a low-complexity cooperation and the scalability feature in heterogeneous networks. Simulations have also been run to show the advantages in terms of increased capacity and decreased interference probability

MPR+SP: Towards a Unified MPR-based MANET Extension for OSPF

International audienceHeterogeneous networks and wireless components - fixed routers as well as mobile routers - emerge as wireless mesh networks are being deployed. Such heterogeneity is bound to become more and more present in the near future as mobile ad hoc networking becomes a reality. While it is possible to cope with heterogeneity by employing different routing protocols for the fixed / wired part and for the wireless / ad hoc part of the network, this may lead to sub-optimal performance, e.g. by way of longer routing paths due to these routing protocols sharing prefixes and "connecting" the network only at distinct gateways between the two routing domains. Thus, the establishment of a single unified routing domain, and the use of a single routing protocol, for such heterogeneous networks is desired. OSPF is a natural candidate for this task, due to its wide deployment, its modularity and its similarity with the popular ad hoc routing protocol OLSR. Multiple OSPF extensions for MANETs have therefore been specified by the IETF. This paper introduces a novel OSPF extension for operation on ad hoc networks, MPR+SP, and compares it with the existing OSPF extensions via simulations, which show that MPR+SP outperforms prior art

What's Going on in Community Media

What's Going On in Community Media shines a spotlight on media practices that increase citizen participation in media production, governance, and policy. The report summarizes the findings of a nationwide scan of effective and emerging community media practices conducted by the Benton Foundation in collaboration with the Community Media and Technology Program of the University of Massachusetts, Boston. The scan includes an analysis of trends and emerging practices; comparative research; an online survey of community media practitioners; one-on-one interviews with practitioners, funders and policy makers; and the information gleaned from a series of roundtable discussions with community media practitioners in Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Portland, Oregon