Radio Communications

In the last decades the restless evolution of information and communication technologies (ICT) brought to a deep transformation of our habits. The growth of the Internet and the advances in hardware and software implementations modified our way to communicate and to share information. In this book, an overview of the major issues faced today by researchers in the field of radio communications is given through 35 high quality chapters written by specialists working in universities and research centers all over the world. Various aspects will be deeply discussed: channel modeling, beamforming, multiple antennas, cooperative networks, opportunistic scheduling, advanced admission control, handover management, systems performance assessment, routing issues in mobility conditions, localization, web security. Advanced techniques for the radio resource management will be discussed both in single and multiple radio technologies; either in infrastructure, mesh or ad hoc networks

Smart manufacturing: role of Internet of Things in process optimization

This research is primarily focused on process optimization in manufacturing field in business-to-business context. The study is an effort to point out the issues manufacturers face at their shop floor and it provides solutions for dealing with those issues. During the last decade the Internet of Things (IoT) has gained a lot of attention from both academia and practitioners. IoT emphasizes on the importance of physical objects transferring information by using both software and the Internet. Based on the global trends, nowadays, there is a clear requirement for companies to focus on how they can implement IoT in order to facilitate their businesses and create new business and market opportunities. IoT is able to connect various things and objects around us which are able to interact with each other. In other words, IoT technologies not only connect a particular industrial system or supply chain, but also connects stakeholders and end-customers. The goal of the thesis is to discuss IoT technologies and elaborate on how they are implemented in manufacturing processes. One empirical case study on IoT applications in shop floors and production lines carried out. Two cases were selected based on being a pioneer in implementing IoT technologies into manufacturing and highly optimized production at targeted factories. The cases represent next generation of smart factories which IoT technologies and in particular RFID solutions play an important role. A qualitative document analysis was conducted. The topic of this research is relatively new and therefore majority of references used for this paper are from 2014 onwards. Data were collected from public, non-confidential information sources including press releases, newspapers, articles and journals. The research approach was primarily descriptive with the focus on differences between previous production optimization technologies and IoT applications in use today. The results of thesis demonstrates that IoT technologies bring transparency, traceability, adaptability, scalability and flexibility to the system. Therefore, the adoption of IoT has quite a few potential benefits, including improvement in cost and risk reduction, operational processes and value creation. This research also shows that using IoT technologies for their benefits is not an easy task for enterprises. Companies face many challenges on the way including layout changes in the factory’s shop floor, changes in the design of the products, security concerns and consumer privacy. Moreover, since the IoT is a recent development, different aspects of the IoT such as economical, managerial and industrial aspects need to be studied. And this makes companies hesitant to make decisions regarding the adoption of IoT

Remote/Local offloading of mobile applications as an energy saving strategy

See the attached power-point.The rapid progress of mobile computing becomes a powerful trend in development as well as in the commerce and industry areas. The limited resources affect significantly the improvement of some service quality. In this sense, offloading could result a way to improve the user experience since the user will be able to take advantage of more computing resources available in the network (for example in the access points) than just the ones that the own device offers. This project focuses on offloading techniques as an energy saving strategy that can allow increasing the battery lifetimes of mobile terminals. The project concludes that the time needed for running certain processes locally at the mobile terminals is the most relevant factor to determine if offloading provides energetic benefits or not. The different variables involved that may affect the time needed to execute or either communicate are studied in this thesis so as to check the feasibility of the proposed techniques. Furthermore, the scope is opened to wider networks where computing entities can be located more remotely than at the access points.El rápido progreso de la computación móvil se ha convertido en una significativa tendencia tanto en el ámbito del desarrollo como en del comercio y la industria. Los recursos limitados afectan significativamente la mejora de la calidad de los servicios. En este sentido, el offloading puede resultar una manera de mejorar la experiencia del usuario dado que le permite sacar provecho de recursos de computación disponibles en la red, por ejemplo en los puntos de acceso, que no solo los que le ofrece su propio dispositivo. Este proyecto está focalizado en la técnica del offloading como una estrategia de ahorro energético que permitirá incrementar la vida de las baterías de los terminales móviles. En el proyecto se concluye que el tiempo necesario para ejecutar localmente cierto proceso es el factor más relevante que determina si el offloading aporta beneficios energéticos o no. Las diferentes variables que pueden afectar el tiempo necesario de ejecución o comunicación son estudiadas en esta tesis con la intención de comprobar la viabilidad de la técnica propuesta. Además, se extiende el estudio a redes más amplias donde las entidades con capacidad computacional pueden estar situadas en puntos más lejanos que los propios puntos de acceso.El ràpid progrés de la computació mòbil s’ha convertit en una significativa tendència tan en l’àmbit del desenvolupament com en el del comerç i la indústria. La limitació de recursos afecta significativament a la millora de la qualitat dels serveis. En aquest sentit, l’offloading pot resultar una manera de millorar l’experiència de l’usuari, ja que li permet treure profit de recursos computacionals disponibles a la xarxa, per exemple en els punts d’accés, que no només els que li ofereix el seu propi dispositiu. Aquest projecte està focalitzat en la tècnica de l’offloading com a estratègia d’estalvi energètic, que permetrà incrementar la vida de les bateries dels terminals mòbils. En el projecte es conclou que el temps necessari per executar localment cert procés és el factor més rellevant que determina si l’offloading proveeix beneficis energètics o no. Les diferents variables que poden afectar el temps necessari d’execució o bé de comunicació són estudiats en aquesta tesi amb la intenció de comprovar la viabilitat de la tècnica proposada. A més a més, s’estén l’estudi a xarxes més amplies on les entitats amb capacitats computacionals poden estar situades a punts més llunyans que en els propis punts d’accés

Concurrent Multipath Transfer: Scheduling, Modelling, and Congestion Window Management

Known as smartphones, multihomed devices like the iPhone and BlackBerry can simultaneously connect to Wi-Fi and 4G LTE networks. Unfortunately, due to the architectural constraints of standard transport layer protocols like the transmission control protocol (TCP), an Internet application (e.g., a file transfer) can use only one access network at a time. Due to recent developments, however, concurrent multipath transfer (CMT) using the stream control transmission protocol (SCTP) can enable multihomed devices to exploit additional network resources for transport layer communications. In this thesis we explore a variety of techniques aimed at CMT and multihomed devices, such as: packet scheduling, transport layer modelling, and resource management. Some of our accomplishments include, but are not limited to: enhanced performance of CMT under delay-based disparity, a tractable framework for modelling the throughput of CMT, a comparison of modelling techniques for SCTP, a new congestion window update policy for CMT, and efficient use of system resources through optimization. Since the demand for a better communications system is always on the horizon, it is our goal to further the research and inspire others to embrace CMT as a viable network architecture; in hopes that someday CMT will become a standard part of smartphone technology

Economically sustainable public security and emergency network exploiting a broadband communications satellite

The research contributes to work in Rapid Deployment of a National Public Security and Emergency Communications Network using Communication Satellite Broadband. Although studies in Public Security Communication networks have examined the use of communications satellite as an integral part of the Communication Infrastructure, there has not been an in-depth design analysis of an optimized regional broadband-based communication satellite in relation to the envisaged service coverage area, with little or no terrestrial last-mile telecommunications infrastructure for delivery of satellite solutions, applications and services. As such, the research provides a case study of a Nigerian Public Safety Security Communications Pilot project deployed in regions of the African continent with inadequate terrestrial last mile infrastructure and thus requiring a robust regional Communications Satellite complemented with variants of terrestrial wireless technologies to bridge the digital hiatus as a short and medium term measure apart from other strategic needs. The research not only addresses the pivotal role of a secured integrated communications Public safety network for security agencies and emergency service organizations with its potential to foster efficient information symmetry amongst their operations including during emergency and crisis management in a timely manner but demonstrates a working model of how analogue spectrum meant for Push-to-Talk (PTT) services can be re-farmed and digitalized as a “dedicated” broadband-based public communications system. The network’s sustainability can be secured by using excess capacity for the strategic commercial telecommunication needs of the state and its citizens. Utilization of scarce spectrum has been deployed for Nigeria’s Cashless policy pilot project for financial and digital inclusion. This effectively drives the universal access goals, without exclusivity, in a continent, which still remains the least wired in the world

Cooperative Radio Communications for Green Smart Environments

The demand for mobile connectivity is continuously increasing, and by 2020 Mobile and Wireless Communications will serve not only very dense populations of mobile phones and nomadic computers, but also the expected multiplicity of devices and sensors located in machines, vehicles, health systems and city infrastructures. Future Mobile Networks are then faced with many new scenarios and use cases, which will load the networks with different data traffic patterns, in new or shared spectrum bands, creating new specific requirements. This book addresses both the techniques to model, analyse and optimise the radio links and transmission systems in such scenarios, together with the most advanced radio access, resource management and mobile networking technologies. This text summarises the work performed by more than 500 researchers from more than 120 institutions in Europe, America and Asia, from both academia and industries, within the framework of the COST IC1004 Action on "Cooperative Radio Communications for Green and Smart Environments". The book will have appeal to graduates and researchers in the Radio Communications area, and also to engineers working in the Wireless industry. Topics discussed in this book include: • Radio waves propagation phenomena in diverse urban, indoor, vehicular and body environments• Measurements, characterization, and modelling of radio channels beyond 4G networks• Key issues in Vehicle (V2X) communication• Wireless Body Area Networks, including specific Radio Channel Models for WBANs• Energy efficiency and resource management enhancements in Radio Access Networks• Definitions and models for the virtualised and cloud RAN architectures• Advances on feasible indoor localization and tracking techniques• Recent findings and innovations in antenna systems for communications• Physical Layer Network Coding for next generation wireless systems• Methods and techniques for MIMO Over the Air (OTA) testin

Recent Advances in Cellular D2D Communications

Device-to-device (D2D) communications have attracted a great deal of attention from researchers in recent years. It is a promising technique for offloading local traffic from cellular base stations by allowing local devices, in physical proximity, to communicate directly with each other. Furthermore, through relaying, D2D is also a promising approach to enhancing service coverage at cell edges or in black spots. However, there are many challenges to realizing the full benefits of D2D. For one, minimizing the interference between legacy cellular and D2D users operating in underlay mode is still an active research issue. With the 5th generation (5G) communication systems expected to be the main data carrier for the Internet-of-Things (IoT) paradigm, the potential role of D2D and its scalability to support massive IoT devices and their machine-centric (as opposed to human-centric) communications need to be investigated. New challenges have also arisen from new enabling technologies for D2D communications, such as non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and blockchain technologies, which call for new solutions to be proposed. This edited book presents a collection of ten chapters, including one review and nine original research works on addressing many of the aforementioned challenges and beyond