Millimeter Wave Cellular Networks: A MAC Layer Perspective

The millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency band is seen as a key enabler of multi-gigabit wireless access in future cellular networks. In order to overcome the propagation challenges, mmWave systems use a large number of antenna elements both at the base station and at the user equipment, which lead to high directivity gains, fully-directional communications, and possible noise-limited operations. The fundamental differences between mmWave networks and traditional ones challenge the classical design constraints, objectives, and available degrees of freedom. This paper addresses the implications that highly directional communication has on the design of an efficient medium access control (MAC) layer. The paper discusses key MAC layer issues, such as synchronization, random access, handover, channelization, interference management, scheduling, and association. The paper provides an integrated view on MAC layer issues for cellular networks, identifies new challenges and tradeoffs, and provides novel insights and solution approaches.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, to appear in IEEE Transactions on Communication

Online Optimal State Feedback Control of Linear Systems over Wireless MIMO Fading Channels

We consider the optimal control of linear systems over wireless MIMO fading channels, where the MIMO wireless fading and random access of the remote controller may cause intermittent controllability or uncontrollability of the closed-loop control system. We formulate the optimal control design over random access MIMO fading channels as an infinite horizon average cost Markov decision process (MDP), and we propose a novel state reduction technique such that the optimality condition is transformed into a time-invariant reduced-state Bellman optimality equation. We provide the closed-form characterizations on the existence and uniqueness of the optimal control solution via analyzing the reduced-state Bellman optimality equation. Specifically, in the case that the closed-loop system is almost surely controllable, we show that the optimal control solution always exists and is unique. In the case that MIMO fading channels and the random access of the remote controller destroy the closed-loop controllability, we propose a novel controllable and uncontrollable positive semidefinite (PSD) cone decomposition induced by the singular value decomposition (SVD) of the MIMO fading channel contaminated control input matrix. Based on the decomposed fine-grained reduced-state Bellman optimality equation, we further propose a closed-form sufficient condition for both the existence and the uniqueness of the optimal control solution. The closed-form sufficient condition reveals the fact that the optimal control action may still exist even if the closed-loop system suffers from intermittent controllability or almost sure uncontrollability

Editorial introduction

We are pleased to present this special issue “Recent Trends in the Mathematics of Wireless Communication Networks: Algorithms, Models, and Methods.” Wireless communication systems have experienced a spectacular expansion over the last few decades, now providing the predominant means of Internet access. The capacity of these systems is constrained by a set of scarce resources such as radio frequencies, transmit power, and time slots. Information theory offers a powerful mathematical framework to understand how these transmission resources should be allocated so as to maximize the capacity at the physical layer, yielding valuable insights for the design of efficient schemes for, e.g., modulation, coding, and power control. Typically, however, information-theoretic models pertain to idealized scenarios: They do not account for random user behavior and dynamics at higher network layers; the practical application-specific performance requirements are largely ignored, and algorithmic implementation constraints are usually not considered. Designing systems while systematically addressing all of these aspects has posed major challenges in the last few decades. The vital need for wireless networks with significantly better performance has rejuvenated research activities toward tackling these challenges

Wireless sensor network for health monitoring

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is becoming a significant enabling technology for a wide variety of applications. Recent advances in WSN have facilitated the realization of pervasive health monitoring for both homecare and hospital environments. Current technological advances in sensors, power-efficient integrated circuits, and wireless communication have allowed the development of miniature, lightweight, low-cost, and smart physiological sensor nodes. These nodes are capable of sensing, processing, and communicating one or more vital signs. Furthermore, they can be used in wireless personal area networks (WPANs) or wireless body sensor networks (WBSNs) for health monitoring. Many studies were performed and/or are under way in order to develop flexible, reliable, secure, real-time, and power-efficient WBSNs suitable for healthcare applications. To efficiently control and monitor a patient’s status as well as to reduce the cost of power and maintenance, IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee, a communication standard for low-power wireless communication, is developed as a new efficient technology in health monitoring systems. The main contribution of this dissertation is to provide a modeling, analysis, and design framework for WSN health monitoring systems. This dissertation describes the applications of wireless sensor networks in the healthcare area and discusses the related issues and challenges. The main goal of this study is to evaluate the acceptance of the current wireless standard for enabling WSNs for healthcare monitoring in real environment. Its focus is on IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee protocols combined with hardware and software platforms. Especially, it focuses on Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance mechanism (CSMA/CA) algorithms for reliable communication in multiple accessing networks. The performance analysis metrics are established through measured data and mathematical analysis. This dissertation evaluates the network performance of the IEEE 802.15.4 unslotted CSMA/CA mechanism for different parameter settings through analytical modeling and simulation. For this protocol, a Markov chain model is used to derive the analytical expression of normalized packet transmission, reliability, channel access delay, and energy consumption. This model is used to describe the stochastic behavior of random access and deterministic behavior of IEEE 802.15.4 CSMA/CA. By using it, the different aspects of health monitoring can be analyzed. The sound transmission of heart beat with other smaller data packet transmission is studied. The obtained theoretical analysis and simulation results can be used to estimate and design the high performance health monitoring systems

Cell-free Massive MIMO and SWIPT: Access Point Operation Mode Selection and Power Control

This paper studies cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (CF-mMIMO) systems incorporating simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) for separate information users (IUs) and energy users (EUs) in Internet of Things (IoT) networks. To optimize both the spectral efficiency (SE) of IUs and harvested energy (HE) of EUs, we propose a joint access point (AP) operation mode selection and power control design, wherein certain APs are designated for energy transmission to EUs, while others are dedicated to information transmission to IUs. We investigate the problem of maximizing the total HE for EUs, considering constraints on SE for individual IUs and minimum HE for individual EUs. Our numerical results showcase that the proposed AP operation mode selection algorithm can provide up to $76\%$ and $130\%$ performance gains over random AP operation mode selection with and without power control, respectively.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, to be presented at GLOBECOM 2023, Kuala Lumpu

Design of Wireless Communication Networks for Cyber-Physical Systems with Application to Smart Grid

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are the next generation of engineered systems in which computing, communication, and control technologies are tightly integrated. On one hand, CPS are generally large with components spatially distributed in physical world that has lots of dynamics; on the other hand, CPS are connected, and must be robust and responsive. Smart electric grid, smart transportation system are examples of emerging CPS that have significant and far-reaching impact on our daily life. In this dissertation, we design wireless communication system for CPS. To make CPS robust and responsive, it is critical to have a communication subsystem that is reliable, adaptive, and scalable. Our design uses a layered structure, which includes physical layer, multiple access layer, network layer, and application layer. Emphases are placed on multiple access and network layer. At multiple access layer, we have designed three approaches, namely compressed multiple access, sample-contention multiple access, and prioritized multiple access, for reliable and selective multiple access. At network layer, we focus on the problem of creating reliable route, with service interruption anticipated. We propose two methods: the first method is a centralized one that creates backup path around zones posing high interruption risk; the other method is a distributed one that utilizes Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) and positive feedback, and is able to update multipath dynamically. Applications are treated as subscribers to the data service provided by the communication system. Their data quality requirements and Quality of Service (QoS) feedback are incorporated into cross-layer optimization in our design. We have evaluated our design through both simulation and testbed. Our design demonstrates desired reliability, scalability and timeliness in data transmission. Performance gain is observed over conventional approaches as such random access