Studies on efficient spectrum sharing in coexisting wireless networks.

Wireless communication is facing serious challenges worldwide: the severe spectrum shortage along with the explosive increase of the wireless communication demands. Moreover, different communication networks may coexist in the same geographical area. By allowing multiple communication networks cooperatively or opportunistically sharing the same frequency will potentially enhance the spectrum efficiency. This dissertation aims to investigate important spectrum sharing schemes for coexisting networks. For coexisting networks operating in interweave cognitive radio mode, most existing works focus on the secondary network’s spectrum sensing and accessing schemes. However, the primary network can be selfish and tends to use up all the frequency resource. In this dissertation, a novel optimization scheme is proposed to let primary network maximally release unnecessary frequency resource for secondary networks. The optimization problems are formulated for both uplink and downlink orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA)-based primary networks, and near optimal algorithms are proposed as well. For coexisting networks in the underlay cognitive radio mode, this work focuses on the resource allocation in distributed secondary networks as long as the primary network’s rate constraint can be met. Global optimal multicarrier discrete distributed (MCDD) algorithm and suboptimal Gibbs sampler based Lagrangian algorithm (GSLA) are proposed to solve the problem distributively. Regarding to the dirty paper coding (DPC)-based system where multiple networks share the common transmitter, this dissertation focuses on its fundamental performance analysis from information theoretic point of view. Time division multiple access (TDMA) as an orthogonal frequency sharing scheme is also investigated for comparison purpose. Specifically, the delay sensitive quality of service (QoS) requirements are incorporated by considering effective capacity in fast fading and outage capacity in slow fading. The performance metrics in low signal to noise ratio (SNR) regime and high SNR regime are obtained in closed forms followed by the detailed performance analysis

Medium access control protocol design for wireless communications and networks review

Medium access control (MAC) protocol design plays a crucial role to increase the performance of wireless communications and networks. The channel access mechanism is provided by MAC layer to share the medium by multiple stations. Different types of wireless networks have different design requirements such as throughput, delay, power consumption, fairness, reliability, and network density, therefore, MAC protocol for these networks must satisfy their requirements. In this work, we proposed two multiplexing methods for modern wireless networks: Massive multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) and power domain non-orthogonal multiple access (PD-NOMA). The first research method namely Massive MIMO uses a massive number of antenna elements to improve both spectral efficiency and energy efficiency. On the other hand, the second research method (PD-NOMA) allows multiple non-orthogonal signals to share the same orthogonal resources by allocating different power level for each station. PD-NOMA has a better spectral efficiency over the orthogonal multiple access methods. A review of previous works regarding the MAC design for different wireless networks is classified based on different categories. The main contribution of this research work is to show the importance of the MAC design with added optimal functionalities to improve the spectral and energy efficiencies of the wireless networks

Dynamic Resource Allocation in Cognitive Radio Networks: A Convex Optimization Perspective

This article provides an overview of the state-of-art results on communication resource allocation over space, time, and frequency for emerging cognitive radio (CR) wireless networks. Focusing on the interference-power/interference-temperature (IT) constraint approach for CRs to protect primary radio transmissions, many new and challenging problems regarding the design of CR systems are formulated, and some of the corresponding solutions are shown to be obtainable by restructuring some classic results known for traditional (non-CR) wireless networks. It is demonstrated that convex optimization plays an essential role in solving these problems, in a both rigorous and efficient way. Promising research directions on interference management for CR and other related multiuser communication systems are discussed.Comment: to appear in IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, special issue on convex optimization for signal processin

Low-latency Networking: Where Latency Lurks and How to Tame It

While the current generation of mobile and fixed communication networks has been standardized for mobile broadband services, the next generation is driven by the vision of the Internet of Things and mission critical communication services requiring latency in the order of milliseconds or sub-milliseconds. However, these new stringent requirements have a large technical impact on the design of all layers of the communication protocol stack. The cross layer interactions are complex due to the multiple design principles and technologies that contribute to the layers' design and fundamental performance limitations. We will be able to develop low-latency networks only if we address the problem of these complex interactions from the new point of view of sub-milliseconds latency. In this article, we propose a holistic analysis and classification of the main design principles and enabling technologies that will make it possible to deploy low-latency wireless communication networks. We argue that these design principles and enabling technologies must be carefully orchestrated to meet the stringent requirements and to manage the inherent trade-offs between low latency and traditional performance metrics. We also review currently ongoing standardization activities in prominent standards associations, and discuss open problems for future research

Cross-layer schemes for performance optimization in wireless networks

Wireless networks are undergoing rapid progress and inspiring numerous applications. As the application of wireless networks becomes broader, they are expected to not only provide ubiquitous connectivity, but also support end users with certain service guarantees. End-to-end delay is an important Quality of Service (QoS) metric in multihop wireless networks. This dissertation addresses how to minimize end-to-end delay through joint optimization of network layer routing and link layer scheduling. Two cross-layer schemes, a loosely coupled cross-layer scheme and a tightly coupled cross-layer scheme, are proposed. The two cross-layer schemes involve interference modeling in multihop wireless networks with omnidirectional antenna. In addition, based on the interference model, multicast schedules are optimized to minimize the total end-to-end delay. Throughput is another important QoS metric in wireless networks. This dissertation addresses how to leverage the spatial multiplexing function of MIMO links to improve wireless network throughput. Wireless interference modeling of a half-duplex MIMO node is presented. Based on the interference model, routing, spatial multiplexing, and scheduling are jointly considered in one optimization model. The throughput optimization problem is first addressed in constant bit rate networks and then in variable bit rate networks. In a variable data rate network, transmitters can use adaptive coding and modulation schemes to change their data rates so that the data rates are supported by the Signal to Noise and Interference Ratio (SINR). The problem of achieving maximum throughput in a millimeter-wave wireless personal area network is studied --Abstract, page iv