A Multichannel Medium Access Control and its Performance Estimation for Multihop Wireless Sensor Networks

The thesis proposes a three-tier architecture wireless sensor network to monitor the environment of wide rural area. To enhance the network throughput, a multichannel MAC, 2HCR, is developed. The performance of 2HCR is examined for both single and bidirectional traffics. For the bidirectional traffic, a simple priority support scheme is proposed to give a priority for command traffic. Also, a procedure to estimate the throughput of multihop networks is developed to be used in network design

Applications of Repeated Games in Wireless Networks: A Survey

A repeated game is an effective tool to model interactions and conflicts for players aiming to achieve their objectives in a long-term basis. Contrary to static noncooperative games that model an interaction among players in only one period, in repeated games, interactions of players repeat for multiple periods; and thus the players become aware of other players' past behaviors and their future benefits, and will adapt their behavior accordingly. In wireless networks, conflicts among wireless nodes can lead to selfish behaviors, resulting in poor network performances and detrimental individual payoffs. In this paper, we survey the applications of repeated games in different wireless networks. The main goal is to demonstrate the use of repeated games to encourage wireless nodes to cooperate, thereby improving network performances and avoiding network disruption due to selfish behaviors. Furthermore, various problems in wireless networks and variations of repeated game models together with the corresponding solutions are discussed in this survey. Finally, we outline some open issues and future research directions.Comment: 32 pages, 15 figures, 5 tables, 168 reference

Practical design of optimal wireless metropolitan area networks: model and algorithms for OFDMA networks

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Ph.D.This thesis contributes to the study of the planning and optimisation of wireless metropolitan area networks, in particular to the access network design of OFDMAbased systems, where different parameters like base station position, antenna tilt and azimuth need to be configured during the early stages of the network life. A practical view for the solution of this problem is presented by means of the development of a novel design framework and the use of multicriteria optimisation. A further consideration of relaying and cooperative communications in the context of the design of this kind of networks is done, an area little researched. With the emergence of new technologies and services, it is very important to accurately identify the factors that affect the design of the wireless access network and define how to take them into account to achieve optimally performing and cost-efficient networks. The new features and flexibility of OFDMA networks seem particularly suited to the provision of different broadband services to metropolitan areas. However, until now, most existing efforts have been focused on the basic access capability networks. This thesis presents a way to deal with the trade-offs generated during the OFDMA access network design, and presents a service-oriented optimization framework that offers a new perspective for this process with consideration of the technical and economic factors. The introduction of relay stations in wireless metropolitan area networks will bring numerous advantages such as coverage extension and capacity enhancement due to the deployment of new cells and the reduction of distance between transmitter and receiver. However, the network designers will also face new challenges with the use of relay stations, since they involve a new source of interference and a complicated air interface; and this need to be carefully evaluated during the network design process. Contrary to the well known procedure of cellular network design over regular or hexagonal scenarios, the wireless network planning and optimization process aims to deal with the non-uniform characteristics of realistic scenarios, where the existence of hotspots, different channel characteristics for the users, or different service requirements will determine the final design of the wireless network. This thesis is structured in three main blocks covering important gaps in the existing literature in planning (efficient simulation) and optimisation. The formulation and ideas proposed in the former case can still be evaluated over regular scenarios, for the sake of simplicity, while the study of latter case needs to be done over specific scenarios that will be described when appropriate. Nevertheless, comments and conclusions are extrapolated to more general cases throughout this work. After an introduction and a description of the related work, this thesis first focuses on the study of models and algorithms for classical point-to-multipoint networks on Chapter 3, where the optimisation framework is proposed. Based on the framework, this work: - Identifies the technology-specific physical factors that affect most importantly the network system level simulation, planning and optimization process. - It demonstrates how to simplify the problem and translate it into a formal optimization routine with consideration of economic factors. - It provides the network provider, a detailed and clear description of different scenarios during the design process so that the most suitable solution can be found. Existing works on this area do not provide such a comprehensive framework. In Chapter 4: - The impact of the relay configuration on the network planning process is analysed. - A new simple and flexible scheme to integrate multihop communications in the Mobile WiMAX frame structure is proposed and evaluated. - Efficient capacity calculations that allow intensive system level simulations in a multihop environment are introduced. In Chapter 5: - An analysis of the optimisation procedure with the addition of relay stations and the derived higher complexity of the process is done. - A frequency plan procedure not found in the existing literature is proposed, which combines it with the use of the necessary frame fragmentation of in-band relay communications and cooperative procedures. - A novel joint two-step process for network planning and optimisation is proposed. Finally, conclusions and open issues are exposed

Device-to-Device Communication and Multihop Transmission for Future Cellular Networks

The next generation wireless networks i.e. 5G aim to provide multi-Gbps data traffic, in order to satisfy the increasing demand for high-definition video, among other high data rate services, as well as the exponential growth in mobile subscribers. To achieve this dramatic increase in data rates, current research is focused on improving the capacity of current 4G network standards, based on Long Term Evolution (LTE), before radical changes are exploited which could include acquiring additional/new spectrum. The LTE network has a reuse factor of one; hence neighbouring cells/sectors use the same spectrum, therefore making the cell edge users vulnerable to inter-cell interference. In addition, wireless transmission is commonly hindered by fading and pathloss. In this direction, this thesis focuses on improving the performance of cell edge users in LTE and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) networks by initially implementing a new Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) algorithm to mitigate cell edge user interference. Subsequently Device-to-Device (D2D) communication is investigated as the enabling technology for maximising Resource Block (RB) utilisation in current 4G and emerging 5G networks. It is demonstrated that the application, as an extension to the above, of novel power control algorithms, to reduce the required D2D TX power, and multihop transmission for relaying D2D traffic, can further enhance network performance. To be able to develop the aforementioned technologies and evaluate the performance of new algorithms in emerging network scenarios, a beyond-the-state-of-the-art LTE system-level simulator (SLS) was implemented. The new simulator includes Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) antenna functionalities, comprehensive channel models (such as Wireless World initiative New Radio II i.e. WINNER II) and adaptive modulation and coding schemes to accurately emulate the LTE and LTE-A network standards. Additionally, a novel interference modelling scheme using the ‘wrap around’ technique was proposed and implemented that maintained the topology of flat surfaced maps, allowing for use with cell planning tools while obtaining accurate and timely results in the SLS compared to the few existing platforms. For the proposed CoMP algorithm, the adaptive beamforming technique was employed to reduce interference on the cell edge UEs by applying Coordinated Scheduling (CoSH) between cooperating cells. Simulation results show up to 2-fold improvement in terms of throughput, and also shows SINR gain for the cell edge UEs in the cooperating cells. Furthermore, D2D communication underlaying the LTE network (and future generation of wireless networks) was investigated. The technology exploits the proximity of users in a network to achieve higher data rates with maximum RB utilisation (as the technology reuses the cellular RB simultaneously), while taking some load off the Evolved Node B (eNB) i.e. by direct communication between User Equipment (UE). Simulation results show that the proximity and transmission power of D2D transmission yields high performance gains for a D2D receiver, which was demonstrated to be better than that of cellular UEs with better channel conditions or in close proximity to the eNB in the network. The impact of interference from the simultaneous transmission however impedes the achievable data rates of cellular UEs in the network, especially at the cell edge. Thus, a power control algorithm was proposed to mitigate the impact of interference in the hybrid network (network consisting of both cellular and D2D UEs). It was implemented by setting a minimum SINR threshold so that the cellular UEs achieve a minimum performance, and equally a maximum SINR threshold to establish fairness for the D2D transmission as well. Simulation results show an increase in the cell edge throughput and notable improvement in the overall SINR distribution of UEs in the hybrid network. Additionally, multihop transmission for D2D UEs was investigated in the hybrid network: traditionally, the scheme is implemented to relay cellular traffic in a homogenous network. Contrary to most current studies where D2D UEs are employed to relay cellular traffic, the use of idle nodes to relay D2D traffic was implemented uniquely in this thesis. Simulation results show improvement in D2D receiver throughput with multihop transmission, which was significantly better than that of the same UEs performance with equivalent distance between the D2D pair when using single hop transmission

Resource Sharing via Planed Relay for HWN

We present an improved version of adaptive distributed cross-layer routing algorithm (ADCR) for hybrid wireless network with dedicated relay stations () in this paper. A mobile terminal (MT) may borrow radio resources that are available thousands mile away via secure multihop RNs, where RNs are placed at pre-engineered locations in the network. In rural places such as mountain areas, an MT may also communicate with the core network, when intermediate MTs act as relay node with mobility. To address cross-layer network layers routing issues, the cascaded ADCR establishes routing paths across MTs, RNs, and cellular base stations (BSs) and provides appropriate quality of service (QoS). We verify the routing performance benefits of over other networks by intensive simulation

Recent advances in radio resource management for heterogeneous LTE/LTE-A networks

As heterogeneous networks (HetNets) emerge as one of the most promising developments toward realizing the target specifications of Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) networks, radio resource management (RRM) research for such networks has, in recent times, been intensively pursued. Clearly, recent research mainly concentrates on the aspect of interference mitigation. Other RRM aspects, such as radio resource utilization, fairness, complexity, and QoS, have not been given much attention. In this paper, we aim to provide an overview of the key challenges arising from HetNets and highlight their importance. Subsequently, we present a comprehensive survey of the RRM schemes that have been studied in recent years for LTE/LTE-A HetNets, with a particular focus on those for femtocells and relay nodes. Furthermore, we classify these RRM schemes according to their underlying approaches. In addition, these RRM schemes are qualitatively analyzed and compared to each other. We also identify a number of potential research directions for future RRM development. Finally, we discuss the lack of current RRM research and the importance of multi-objective RRM studies