Performance enhancements for single hop and multi-hop meshed high data rate wireless personal area networks

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The High Data Rate (HDR) Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs) typically have a limited operating range and are intended to support demanding multi-media applications at high data rates. In order to extend the communication range, HDR WPANs can operate in a wireless mesh configuration (i.e. enable multiple WPAN clusters) to communicate in a multi-hop fashion. HDR WPANs face several research challenges and some of the open key issues are limited capacity, optimum resource allocation to requesting devices and maintaining Quality of Service (QoS) for real time multimedia flows. Although, there have been some scheduling algorithms proposed for HDR WPANs, the main objective is to maintain the QoS in most cases whereas efficient and fair utilization of network capacity is still largely open for research. This thesis mainly intends to resolve the issues related to capacity of HDR WPANs such as admission control, fair allocation of Channel Time Allocations (CTAs), improvement in capacity through transmission power control, and efficient utilization of time by each flow. A technique which re-orders the time slots to reduce queuing delay for meshed WPANs is also proposed and evaluated. The first contribution aims to improve peer-to-peer connectivity in case of two or more independent piconet devices by proposing an inter-PAN communication framework that is augmented by an admission control strategy to handle the cases when the superframe capacity is congested. The queued devices are prioritized by proposing a parameter called the Rejection Ratio. The second contribution consists of a resource allocation framework for meshed WPANs. The main objectives are to reduce the control traffic due to high volume of channel time reservation requests and introduce an element of fairness in the channel time allocated to requesting devices. The objectives are achieved by using traffic prediction techniques and an estimated backoff procedure to reduce control traffic, and define different policies based on offered traffic for fair allocation of channel time. The centralized scheme uses traffic prediction techniques to use the proposed concept of bulk reservations. Based on the bulk reservations and resource allocation policies, the overall overhead is reduced while an element of fairness is shown to be maintained for certain scenarios. In the third contribution, the concepts of Time Efficiency and CTA switching are introduced to improve communication efficiency and utilization of superframe capacity in meshed WPANs. Two metrics known as Switched Time Slot (STS) and Switched Time Slot with Re-ordering (STS-R) are proposed which aim to achieve the purpose. The final contribution proposes and evaluates a technique called CTA overlappnig to improve capacity in single hop and meshed WPANs using tramission power control. Extensive simulation studies are performed to analyze and to evaluate the proposed techniques. Simulation results demonstrate significant improvements in meshed WPANs performance in terms of capacity utilization, improvement in fairness index for CTA allocation by upto 62% in some cases, reduction in control traffic overhead by upto 70% and reduction in delay for real time flows by more than 10% in some cases

Performance enhancements for single hop and multi-hop meshed high data rate wireless personal area networks

The High Data Rate (HDR) Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs) typically have a limited operating range and are intended to support demanding multi-media applications at high data rates. In order to extend the communication range, HDR WPANs can operate in a wireless mesh configuration (i.e. enable multiple WPAN clusters) to communicate in a multi-hop fashion. HDR WPANs face several research challenges and some of the open key issues are limited capacity, optimum resource allocation to requesting devices and maintaining Quality of Service (QoS) for real time multimedia flows. Although, there have been some scheduling algorithms proposed for HDR WPANs, the main objective is to maintain the QoS in most cases whereas efficient and fair utilization of network capacity is still largely open for research. This thesis mainly intends to resolve the issues related to capacity of HDR WPANs such as admission control, fair allocation of Channel Time Allocations (CTAs), improvement in capacity through transmission power control, and efficient utilization of time by each flow. A technique which re-orders the time slots to reduce queuing delay for meshed WPANs is also proposed and evaluated. The first contribution aims to improve peer-to-peer connectivity in case of two or more independent piconet devices by proposing an inter-PAN communication framework that is augmented by an admission control strategy to handle the cases when the superframe capacity is congested. The queued devices are prioritized by proposing a parameter called the Rejection Ratio. The second contribution consists of a resource allocation framework for meshed WPANs. The main objectives are to reduce the control traffic due to high volume of channel time reservation requests and introduce an element of fairness in the channel time allocated to requesting devices. The objectives are achieved by using traffic prediction techniques and an estimated backoff procedure to reduce control traffic, and define different policies based on offered traffic for fair allocation of channel time. The centralized scheme uses traffic prediction techniques to use the proposed concept of bulk reservations. Based on the bulk reservations and resource allocation policies, the overall overhead is reduced while an element of fairness is shown to be maintained for certain scenarios. In the third contribution, the concepts of Time Efficiency and CTA switching are introduced to improve communication efficiency and utilization of superframe capacity in meshed WPANs. Two metrics known as Switched Time Slot (STS) and Switched Time Slot with Re-ordering (STS-R) are proposed which aim to achieve the purpose. The final contribution proposes and evaluates a technique called CTA overlappnig to improve capacity in single hop and meshed WPANs using tramission power control. Extensive simulation studies are performed to analyze and to evaluate the proposed techniques. Simulation results demonstrate significant improvements in meshed WPANs performance in terms of capacity utilization, improvement in fairness index for CTA allocation by upto 62% in some cases, reduction in control traffic overhead by upto 70% and reduction in delay for real time flows by more than 10% in some cases.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Design and Analysis of Medium Access Control Protocols for Broadband Wireless Networks

The next-generation wireless networks are expected to integrate diverse network architectures and various wireless access technologies to provide a robust solution for ubiquitous broadband wireless access, such as wireless local area networks (WLANs), Ultra-Wideband (UWB), and millimeter-wave (mmWave) based wireless personal area networks (WPANs), etc. To enhance the spectral efficiency and link reliability, smart antenna systems have been proposed as a promising candidate for future broadband access networks. To effectively exploit the increased capabilities of the emerging wireless networks, the different network characteristics and the underlying physical layer features need to be considered in the medium access control (MAC) design, which plays a critical role in providing efficient and fair resource sharing among multiple users. In this thesis, we comprehensively investigate the MAC design in both single- and multi-hop broadband wireless networks, with and without infrastructure support. We first develop mathematical models to identify the performance bottlenecks and constraints in the design and operation of existing MAC. We then use a cross-layer approach to mitigate the identified bottleneck problems. Finally, by evaluating the performance of the proposed protocols with analytical models and extensive simulations, we determine the optimal protocol parameters to maximize the network performance. In specific, a generic analytical framework is developed for capacity study of an IEEE 802.11 WLAN in support of non-persistent asymmetric traffic flows. The analysis can be applied for effective admission control to guarantee the quality of service (QoS) performance of multimedia applications. As the access point (AP) becomes the bottleneck in an infrastructure based WLAN, we explore the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) capability in the future IEEE 802.11n WLANs and propose a MIMO-aware multi-user (MU) MAC. By exploiting the multi-user degree of freedom in a MIMO system to allow the AP to communicate with multiple users in the downlink simultaneously, the proposed MU MAC can minimize the AP-bottleneck effect and significantly improve the network capacity. Other enhanced MAC mechanisms, e.g., frame aggregation and bidirectional transmissions, are also studied. Furthermore, different from a narrowband system where simultaneous transmissions by nearby neighbors collide with each other, wideband system can support multiple concurrent transmissions if the multi-user interference can be properly managed. Taking advantage of the salient features of UWB and mmWave communications, we propose an exclusive region (ER) based MAC protocol to exploit the spatial multiplexing gain of centralized UWB and mmWave based wireless networks. Moreover, instead of studying the asymptotic capacity bounds of arbitrary networks which may be too loose to be useful in realistic networks, we derive the expected capacity or transport capacity of UWB and mmWave based networks with random topology. The analysis reveals the main factors affecting the network (transport) capacity, and how to determine the best protocol parameters to maximize the network capacity. In addition, due to limited transmission range, multi-hop relay is necessary to extend the communication coverage of UWB networks. A simple, scalable, and distributed UWB MAC protocol is crucial for efficiently utilizing the large bandwidth of UWB channels and enabling numerous new applications cost-effectively. To address this issue, we further design a distributed asynchronous ER based MAC for multi-hop UWB networks and derive the optimal ER size towards the maximum network throughput. The proposed MAC can significantly improve both network throughput and fairness performance, while the throughput and fairness are usually treated as a tradeoff in other MAC protocols

Design, Modeling, and Analysis for MAC Protocols in Ultra-wideband Networks

Ultra-wideband (UWB) is an appealing transmission technology for short-range, bandwidth demanded wireless communications. With the data rate of several hundred megabits per second, UWB demonstrates great potential in supporting multimedia streams such as high-definition television (HDTV), voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and console gaming in office or home networks, known as the wireless personal area network (WPAN). While vast research effort has been made on the physical layer issues of UWB, the corresponding medium access control (MAC) protocols that exploit UWB technology have not been well developed. Given an extremely wide bandwidth of UWB, a fundamental problem on how to manage multiple users to efficiently utilize the bandwidth is a MAC design issue. Without explicitly considering the physical properties of UWB, existing MAC protocols are not optimized for UWB-based networks. In addition, the limited processing capability of UWB devices poses challenges to the design of low-complexity MAC protocols. In this thesis, we comprehensively investigate the MAC protocols for UWB networks. The objective is to link the physical characteristics of UWB with the MAC protocols to fully exploit its advantage. We consider two themes: centralized and distributed UWB networks. For centralized networks, the most critical issue surrounding the MAC protocol is the resource allocation with fairness and quality of service (QoS) provisioning. We address this issue by breaking down into two scenarios: homogeneous and heterogeneous network configurations. In the homogeneous case, users have the same bandwidth requirement, and the objective of resource allocation is to maximize the network throughput. In the heterogeneous case, users have different bandwidth requirements, and the objective of resource allocation is to provide differentiated services. For both design objectives, the optimal scheduling problem is NP-hard. Our contributions lie in the development of low-complexity scheduling algorithms that fully exploit the characteristics of UWB. For distributed networks, the MAC becomes node-based problems, rather than link-based problems as in centralized networks. Each node either contends for channel access or reserves transmission opportunity through negotiation. We investigate two representative protocols that have been adopted in the WiMedia specification for future UWB-based WPANs. One is a contention-based protocol called prioritized channel access (PCA), which employs the same mechanisms as the enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA) in IEEE 802.11e for providing differentiated services. The other is a reservation-based protocol called distributed reservation protocol (DRP), which allows time slots to be reserved in a distributed manner. Our goal is to identify the capabilities of these two protocols in supporting multimedia applications for UWB networks. To achieve this, we develop analytical models and conduct detailed analysis for respective protocols. The proposed analytical models have several merits. They are accurate and provide close-form expressions with low computational effort. Through a cross-layer approach, our analytical models can capture the near-realistic protocol behaviors, thus useful insights into the protocol can be obtained to improve or fine-tune the protocol operations. The proposed models can also be readily extended to incorporate more sophisticated considerations, which should benefit future UWB network design

Multi-hop Transmission in Millimeter Wave WPAN with Directional Antenna

Millimeter-wave (mmWave) communications is a promising enabling technology for high rate (Giga-bit) multimedia applications. However, because oxygen absorption peaks at 60 GHz, mmWave signal power degrades significantly over long distances. Therefore, a traffic flow transmitting over multiple short hops is preferred to improve the flow throughput. In this thesis, we first design a hop selection metric for the piconet controller (PNC) to select appropriate relay hops for a traffic flow, aiming to improve the flow throughput and balance the traffic loads across the network. We then propose a multi-hop concurrent transmission (MHCT) scheme to exploit the spatial diversity of the mmWave WPAN by allowing multiple communication links to transmit simultaneously. By deriving the probability that two links can transmit simultaneously as a function of link length, the MHCT scheme is capable of improving spatial multiplexing gain in comparison with the single hop concurrent transmission (SHCT) scheme. We theoretically demonstrate that by properly breaking a single long hop into multiple short hops, the time resource can be utilized more efficiently, thus supporting more traffic flows in the network within the same time interval. In addition, the per-flow throughput is obtained analytically. Extensive simulations are conducted to validate the analysis and demonstrate that the proposed MHCT scheme can significantly improve the average traffic flow throughput

A study on stryi-icnos potatorum and pisum sativum as natural coagulants for meat food processing wastewater

Slow maintained load test is widely used by contractors in Malaysia to ensure the driven pile could accommodate the design load of the structure. Slow maintained load test is a test to determine load-settlement curve and pile capacity for a period of time using conventional load test. Conventional static pile load test equipment is large in size thus making it heavier and takes a long time to install. In addition, it consumes a lot of space which causes congestion at construction sites. Therefore, the objective of this thesis is to conduct a conventional load test by replacing the pile kentledge load with anchorage and reaction pile. Preparations of ten designs comprising six commercial designs were reviewed. In addition, four proposed designs were suggested for the setup. Final design was produced based on its safety factors and criteria referred via literature review. The test frame consists of reaction frame with four reaction helical pile with two helixes per reaction pile. The deformation shapes, safety factor, stress, and strain of the design and finite element of the model has been analysed with the use of SolidWorks and Pia.xis 30 software. SolidWorks software emphasizes on the model load-deflection relationship while Plaxis 30 ensures a correlation of reaction between pile uplift force and soil. Then, the model was tested on site to determine the relationship between physical load­deflection and pile-soil uplift force. The results of uplift force and displacement for numerical and physical test were nearly identical which increment of load­displacement graph pattern. The higher the uplift force, the higher the displacement obtained. In conclusion, the result obtained and the design may be considered as a guideline for future application of sustainable slow maintained pile load test

Wireless Technologies for IoT in Smart Cities

[EN] As cities continue to grow, numerous initiatives for Smart Cities are being conducted. The concept of Smart City encompasses several concepts being governance, economy, management, infrastructure, technology and people. This means that a Smart City can have different communication needs. Wireless technologies such as WiFi, ZigBee, Bluetooth, WiMax, 4G or LTE (Long Term Evolution) have presented themselves as solutions to the communication needs of Smart City initiatives. However, as most of them employ unlicensed bands, interference and coexistence problems are increasing. In this paper, the wireless technologies available nowadays for IoT (Internet of Things) in Smart Cities are presented. Our contribution is a review of wireless technologies, their comparison and the problems that difficult coexistence among them. In order to do so, the characteristics and adequacy of wireless technologies to each domain are considered. The problems derived of over-crowded unlicensed spectrum and coexistence difficulties among each technology are discussed as well. Finally, power consumption concerns are addressed.García-García, L.; Jimenez, JM.; Abdullah, MTA.; Lloret, J. (2018). Wireless Technologies for IoT in Smart Cities. Network Protocols and Algorithms. 10(1):23-64. doi:10.5296/npa.v10i1.12798S236410

Device-to-device communications for 5G Radio Access Networks

Nowadays it is very popular to share video clips and images to one’s social network in the proximity. Direct device-to-device (D2D) communication is one of the means to respond to this requirement. D2D offers users improved end-to-end latency times, and additionally can provide higher data rates. At the same time the overall cellular network congestion decreases. D2D is also known as Proximity Services (ProSe). LTE is missing direct D2D communication. Currently D2D for 5G is standardised in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Releases 12, and in parallel Mobile and wireless communications Enablers for the Twenty-twenty Information Society (METIS) project has D2D as one of its research topics. Multiple articles have been published about D2D communication. This thesis is a literature based thesis following D2D communication in 5G literature. The scope is to describe similarities and differences found in Technical Reports and Technical Specifications of the 3GPP Release 12, in deliverables written in METIS project and in some selected D2D related publications about D2D communications. 3GPP Release 12 concentrates on ProSe at least for public safety. ProSe communication out-of-coverage is only for public safety purposes. METIS provides multiple solutions for diverse D2D topics, for example, device discovery, radio resource management, mobility management and relaying. METIS provides solutions for D2D communication not yet mature enough for development and implementation but which might be realized in the future.Nykyisin on suosittua lähettää lyhyitä videoita tai kuvia läheisyydessä oleville ystäville. Laitteiden välinen suora kommunikointi eli D2D-viestintä tuo ratkaisun tähän vaatimukseen. D2D-viestinnän ansiosta viive lyhenee ja lisäksi siirtonopeudet kasvavat. Samaan aikaan koko verkon kuormitus vähenee. Suora kahden laitteen välinen kommunikointi puuttuu LTE:stä. Tällä hetkellä 3GPP Release 12 standardisoi suoraa kahden laitteen välistä kommunikointia. Samanaikaisesti Mobile and wireless communications Enablers for the Twenty-twenty Information Society (METIS) –projektin yhtenä tutkimuskohteenaan on kahden laitteen välinen suora kommunikointi, Lisäksi on lukuisia julkaisuja liittyen D2D-viestintään. Tämä diplomityö perustuu kirjallisuuteen. Sen tavoitteena on selvittää, miten kahden laitteen välistä suoraa kommunikointia on kuvattu 3GPP Release 12:ta teknisissä spesifikaatioissa, METIS-projektin julkaisuissa sekä muutamassa valitussa tieteellisessä julkaisussa. Tavoitteena on selvittää D2D-viestinnän yhtäläisyyksiä sekä poikkeamia. 3PGG Release 12 standardointi keskittyy D2D-viestinnän käyttöön ainakin julkisessa pelastustyössä. D2D-viestinnän tulee ainakin julkisessa pelastustyössä toimia myös siellä missä matkapuhelinverkko ei toimi tai sitä ei ole olemassa. METIS tarjoaa useita ratkaisuja D2D-viestinnän eri osa-alueille, esimerkiksi laitteiden tunnistamiseen, resurssien hallintaan, liikkuvuuden hallintaa ja viestien edelleen lähettämiseen. METIS-projekti on tuottanut D2D-viestinnän ratkaisuja, joiden toteuttaminen on järkevää ja mahdollista vasta tulevaisuudessa