Wireless communication, identification and sensing technologies enabling integrated logistics: a study in the harbor environment

In the last decade, integrated logistics has become an important challenge in the development of wireless communication, identification and sensing technology, due to the growing complexity of logistics processes and the increasing demand for adapting systems to new requirements. The advancement of wireless technology provides a wide range of options for the maritime container terminals. Electronic devices employed in container terminals reduce the manual effort, facilitating timely information flow and enhancing control and quality of service and decision made. In this paper, we examine the technology that can be used to support integration in harbor's logistics. In the literature, most systems have been developed to address specific needs of particular harbors, but a systematic study is missing. The purpose is to provide an overview to the reader about which technology of integrated logistics can be implemented and what remains to be addressed in the future

Hybrid Satellite-Terrestrial Communication Networks for the Maritime Internet of Things: Key Technologies, Opportunities, and Challenges

With the rapid development of marine activities, there has been an increasing number of maritime mobile terminals, as well as a growing demand for high-speed and ultra-reliable maritime communications to keep them connected. Traditionally, the maritime Internet of Things (IoT) is enabled by maritime satellites. However, satellites are seriously restricted by their high latency and relatively low data rate. As an alternative, shore & island-based base stations (BSs) can be built to extend the coverage of terrestrial networks using fourth-generation (4G), fifth-generation (5G), and beyond 5G services. Unmanned aerial vehicles can also be exploited to serve as aerial maritime BSs. Despite of all these approaches, there are still open issues for an efficient maritime communication network (MCN). For example, due to the complicated electromagnetic propagation environment, the limited geometrically available BS sites, and rigorous service demands from mission-critical applications, conventional communication and networking theories and methods should be tailored for maritime scenarios. Towards this end, we provide a survey on the demand for maritime communications, the state-of-the-art MCNs, and key technologies for enhancing transmission efficiency, extending network coverage, and provisioning maritime-specific services. Future challenges in developing an environment-aware, service-driven, and integrated satellite-air-ground MCN to be smart enough to utilize external auxiliary information, e.g., sea state and atmosphere conditions, are also discussed

A Survey on Communication Networks for Electric System Automation

Published in Computer Networks 50 (2006) 877–897, an Elsevier journal. The definitive version of this publication is available from Science Direct. Digital Object Identifier:10.1016/j.comnet.2006.01.005In today’s competitive electric utility marketplace, reliable and real-time information become the key factor for reliable delivery of power to the end-users, profitability of the electric utility and customer satisfaction. The operational and commercial demands of electric utilities require a high-performance data communication network that supports both existing functionalities and future operational requirements. In this respect, since such a communication network constitutes the core of the electric system automation applications, the design of a cost-effective and reliable network architecture is crucial. In this paper, the opportunities and challenges of a hybrid network architecture are discussed for electric system automation. More specifically, Internet based Virtual Private Networks, power line communications, satellite communications and wireless communications (wireless sensor networks, WiMAX and wireless mesh networks) are described in detail. The motivation of this paper is to provide a better understanding of the hybrid network architecture that can provide heterogeneous electric system automation application requirements. In this regard, our aim is to present a structured framework for electric utilities who plan to utilize new communication technologies for automation and hence, to make the decision making process more effective and direct.This work was supported by NEETRAC under Project #04-157

Energy efficient hybrid satellite terrestrial 5G networks with software defined features

In order to improve the manageability and adaptability of future 5G wireless networks, the software orchestration mechanism, named software defined networking (SDN) with Control and User plane (C/U-plane) decoupling, has become one of the most promising key techniques. Based on these features, the hybrid satellite terrestrial network is expected to support flexible and customized resource scheduling for both massive machinetype- communication (MTC) and high-quality multimedia requests while achieving broader global coverage, larger capacity and lower power consumption. In this paper, an end-to-end hybrid satellite terrestrial network is proposed and the performance metrics, e. g., coverage probability, spectral and energy efficiency (SE and EE), are analysed in both sparse networks and ultra-dense networks. The fundamental relationship between SE and EE is investigated, considering the overhead costs, fronthaul of the gateway (GW), density of small cells (SCs) and multiple quality-ofservice (QoS) requirements. Numerical results show that compared with current LTE networks, the hybrid system with C/U split can achieve approximately 40% and 80% EE improvement in sparse and ultra-dense networks respectively, and greatly enhance the coverage. Various resource management schemes, bandwidth allocation methods, and on-off approaches are compared, and the applications of the satellite in future 5G networks with software defined features are proposed

On the secrecy performance of land mobile satellite communication systems

In this paper, we investigate the secrecy performance against eavesdropping of a land mobile satellite (LMS) system, where the satellite employs the spot beam technique, and both the terrestrial user and eavesdropper are equipped with multiple antennas and utilize maximal ratio combining (MRC) to receive the confidential message. Specifically, in terms of the availability of the eavesdropper’s CSI at the satellite, we consider both passive (Scenario I) and active (Scenario II) eavesdropping. For Scenario I where the eavesdropper’s channel state information (CSI) is unknown to the satellite, closed-form expressions for the probability of non-zero secrecy capacity and secrecy outage probability are derived. Furthermore, expressions for the asymptotic secrecy outage probability are also presented to reveal the secrecy diversity order and array gain of the considered system. For Scenario II where the eavesdropper’s CSI is available at the satellite, novel expressions for the exact and asymptotic average secrecy capacity are obtained. Based on a simple asymptotic formula, we can characterize the high signalto- noise ratio (SNR) slope and high SNR power offset of the LMS systems. Finally, simulations are provided to validate our theoretical analysis and show the effect of different parameters on the system performance

The Role of Physical Layer Security in Satellite-Based Networks

In the coming years, 6G will revolutionize the world with a large amount of bandwidth, high data rates, and extensive coverage in remote and rural areas. These goals can only be achieved by integrating terrestrial networks with non-terrestrial networks. On the other hand, these advancements are raising more concerns than other wireless links about malicious attacks on satellite-terrestrial links due to their openness. Over the years, physical layer security (PLS) has emerged as a good candidate to deal with security threats by exploring the randomness of wireless channels. In this direction, this paper reviews how PLS methods are implemented in satellite communications. Firstly, we discuss the ongoing research on satellite-based networks by highlighting the key points in the literature. Then, we revisit the research activities on PLS in satellite-based networks by categorizing the different system architectures. Finally, we highlight research directions and opportunities to leverage the PLS in future satellite-based networks