Spectrum and energy efficient multi-antenna spectrum sensing for green UAV communication

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) communication is a promising technology that provides swift and flexible on-demand wireless connectivity for devices without infrastructure support. With recent developments in UAVs, spectrum and energy efficient green UAV communication has become crucial. To deal with this issue, Spectrum Sharing Policy (SSP) is introduced to support green UAV communication. Spectrum sensing in SSP must be carefully formulated to control interference to the primary users and ground communications. In this paper, we propose spectrum sensing for opportunistic spectrum access in green UAV communication to improve the spectrum utilization efficiency. Different from most existing works, we focus on the problem of spectrum sensing of randomly arriving primary signals in the presence of non-Gaussian noise/interference. We propose a novel and improved p-norm-based spectrum sensing scheme to improve the spectrum utilization efficiency in green UAV communication. Firstly, we construct the p-norm decision statistic based on the assumption that the random arrivals of signals follow a Poisson process. Then, we analyze and derive the approximate analytical expressions of the false-alarm and detection probabilities by utilizing the central limit theorem. Simulation results illustrate the validity and superiority of the proposed scheme when the primary signals are corrupted by additive non-Gaussian noise and arrive randomly during spectrum sensing in the green UAV communication

Development of a prototype detector for MeV gamma-ray detection on a CubeSat

Trotz der beeindruckenden Fortschritte, die die Röntgen- und Gammastrahlenobservatorien in den letzten Jahrzehnten erzielt haben, ist der Energiebereich zwischen 200 keV und 50 MeV nach wie vor kaum erforscht. Diese Lücke, die in der Literatur oft als ``MeV-Lücke'' bezeichnet wird, ist nicht auf einen Mangel an überzeugender Wissenschaft zurückzuführen, sondern auf technische Herausforderungen und Nachweisschwierigkeiten, die mit MeV-Beobachtungen einhergehen. COMPTEL an Bord von CGRO (1991-2000) war das letzte Teleskop, das eine vollständige Durchmusterung des MeV-Himmels mit einer relativ bescheidenen Empfindlichkeit durchführte. Für die Zukunft sind zahlreiche Missionen vorgeschlagen worden, insbesondere AMEGO, die die Leistung von COMPTEL um mindestens eine Größenordnung verbessern sollen. Der Zeitrahmen für die Entwicklung, den Aufbau und den Start solch großer Missionen beträgt jedoch etwa 10 Jahre und ist mit erheblichen Kosten verbunden. In diesem Szenario könnte ein viel kleinerer Satellit, der sich der neuen Welle von schnellen, relativ kostengünstigen Weltraumforschungsmissionen anschließt, die durch CubeSats ermöglicht werden, in kürzerer Zeit rentabel sein. In dieser Arbeit werden die Verfügbarkeit und die Leistung eines Compton-Teleskops auf der Grundlage des CubeSat-Standards, genannt MeVCube, untersucht. Die Auswirkungen der Materialwahl und verschiedener CubeSat-Nutzlasten wurden durch Simulationen bewertet. Trotz der begrenzten Größe kann selbst ein kleines Teleskop, das auf einem CubeSat fliegt, den Energiebereich von Hunderten von keV bis zu einigen MeV mit einer Empfindlichkeit abdecken, die mit der der letzten Generation von Großmissionen wie COMPTEL und INTEGRAL vergleichbar ist. Es wurden auch experimentelle Messungen an Cadmium-Zink-Tellurid-Halbleiterdetektoren und einer für den Weltraumbetrieb geeigneten Ausleseelektronik mit geringem Stromverbrauch durchgeführt.Despite the impressive progresses achieved both by X-ray and gamma-ray observatories in the last decades, the energy range between 200 keV and 50 MeV remains poorly explored. This gap in coverage, often referred in literature as the ``MeV gap'', is not due to lack of compelling science, but instead to technical challenges and detection difficulties that comes with MeV observations. COMPTEL, on-board CGRO (1991-2000), was the last telescope to accomplish a complete survey of the MeV-sky with a relatively modest sensitivity. Many missions have been proposed for the future, most notably AMEGO, aiming to improve COMPTEL's performance by at least one order of magnitude. However, the timescale for development, assembly and launch of such large missions is around 10 years, with substantial costs. Looking at this scenario, a much smaller satellite, joining the new wave of rapid, relatively inexpensive space science missions enabled by CubeSats, may be profitable on a shorter time-scale. This thesis evaluates the availability and performance of a Compton telescope based on the CubeSat standard, named MeVCube. The impact of material choice and different CubeSat payloads has been evaluated through simulations. Despite the limited size, even a small telescope flying on a CubeSat can cover the energy range from hundreds of keV up to few MeVs with a sensitivity comparable to that of the last generation of large-scale missions like COMPTEL and INTEGRAL. Experimental measurements on Cadmium-Zinc-Telluride semiconductor detectors and low-power read-out electronics suitable for space operation have been performed as well

Robust spectrum sensing techniques for cognitive radio networks

Cognitive radio is a promising technology that improves the spectral utilisation by allowing unlicensed secondary users to access underutilised frequency bands in an opportunistic manner. This task can be carried out through spectrum sensing: the secondary user monitors the presence of primary users over the radio spectrum periodically to avoid harmful interference to the licensed service. Traditional energy based sensing methods assume the value of noise power as prior knowledge. They suffer from the noise uncertainty problem as even a mild noise level mismatch will lead to significant performance loss. Hence, developing an efficient robust detection method is important. In this thesis, a novel sensing technique using the F-test is proposed. By assuming a multiple antenna assisted receiver, this detector uses the F-statistic as the test statistic which offers absolute robustness against the noise variance uncertainty. In addition, since the channel state information (CSI) is required to be known, the impact of CSI uncertainty is also discussed. Results show the F-test based sensing method performs better than the energy detector and has a constant false alarm probability, independent of the accuracy of the CSI estimate. Another main topic of this thesis is to address the sensing problem for non-Gaussian noise. Most of the current sensing techniques consider Gaussian noise as implied by the central limit theorem (CLT) and it offers mathematical tractability. However, it sometimes fails to model the noise in practical wireless communication systems, which often shows a non-Gaussian heavy-tailed behaviour. In this thesis, several sensing algorithms are proposed for non-Gaussian noise. Firstly, a non-parametric eigenvalue based detector is developed by exploiting the eigenstructure of the sample covariance matrix. This detector is blind as no information about the noise, signal and channel is required. In addition, the conventional energy detector and the aforementioned F-test based detector are generalised to non-Gaussian noise, which require the noise power and CSI to be known, respectively. A major concern of these detection methods is to control the false alarm probability. Although the test statistics are easy to evaluate, the corresponding null distributions are difficult to obtain as they depend on the noise type which may be unknown and non-Gaussian. In this thesis, we apply the powerful bootstrap technique to overcome this difficulty. The key idea is to reuse the data through resampling instead of repeating the experiment a large number of times. By using the nonparametric bootstrap approach to estimate the null distribution of the test statistic, the assumptions on the data model are minimised and no large sample assumption is invoked. In addition, for the F-statistic based method, we also propose a degrees-of-freedom modification approach for null distribution approximation. This method assumes a known noise kurtosis and yields closed form solutions. Simulation results show that in non-Gaussian noise, all the three detectors maintain the desired false alarm probability by using the proposed algorithms. The F-statistic based detector performs the best, e.g., to obtain a 90% detection probability in Laplacian noise, it provides a 2.5 dB and 4 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gain compared with the eigenvalue based detector and the energy based detector, respectively

Engineered quasi-phase matching for nonlinear quantum optics in waveguides

Entanglement is the hallmark of quantum mechanics. Quantum entanglement -- putting two or more identical particles into a non-factorable state -- has been leveraged for applications ranging from quantum computation and encryption to high-precision metrology. Entanglement is a practical engineering resource and a tool for sidestepping certain limitations of classical measurement and communication. Engineered nonlinear optical waveguides are an enabling technology for generating entangled photon pairs and manipulating the state of single photons. This dissertation reports on: i) frequency conversion of single photons from the mid-infrared to 843nm as a tool for incorporating quantum memories in quantum networks, ii) the design, fabrication, and test of a prototype broadband source of polarization and frequency entangled photons; and iii) a roadmap for further investigations of this source, including applications in quantum interferometry and high-precision optical metrology. The devices presented herein are quasi-phase-matched lithium niobate waveguides. Lithium niobate is a second-order nonlinear optical material and can mediate optical energy conversion to different wavelengths. This nonlinear effect is the basis of both quantum frequency conversion and entangled photon generation, and is enhanced by i) confining light in waveguides to increase conversion efficiency, and ii) quasi-phase matching, a technique for engineering the second-order nonlinear response by locally altering the direction of a material's polarization vector. Waveguides are formed by diffusing titanium into a lithium niobate wafer. Quasi-phase matching is achieved by electric field poling, with multiple stages of process development and optimization to fabricate the delicate structures necessary for broadband entangled photon generation. The results presented herein update and optimize past fabrication techniques, demonstrate novel optical devices, and propose future avenues for device development. Quantum frequency conversion from 1848nm to 843nm is demonstrated for the first time, with >75% single-photon conversion efficiency. A new electric field poling methodology is presented, combining elements from multiple historical techniques with a new fast-feedback control system. This poling technique is used to fabricate the first chirped-and-apodized Type-II quasi-phase-matched structures in titanium-diffused lithium niobate waveguides, culminating in a measured phasematching spectrum that is predominantly Gaussian (R^2 = 0.80), nearly eight times broader than the unchirped spectrum, and agrees well with simulations

Digital signal processing for segmented HPGe detectors preprocessingalgorithms and pulse shape analysis

MINIBALL is an versatile spectrometer consisting of 24 longitudinally six-fold segmented HPGe detectors, build for the efficient detection of rare γ decays in nuclear reactions of radioactive ion beams. MINIBALL was the first spectrometer equipped with digital electronics. Pulse shape analysis algorithms to determine the interaction position of γ -rays were implemented on a Digital Signal Processor and validated in an experiment using a collimated γ -ray source. Emphasis was placed on the properties of the different digital signal processing algorithms, the consequences for the implementation and the applicability for position determination. The next generation of γ -ray spectrometers will consist of highly segmented HPGe detectors equipped with digital electronics, resulting in a more than ten-fold increase in complexity compared to current spectrometers. To enable the construction of a γ -ray tracking spectrometer, new and powerful digital electronics will be developed. Preprocessing algorithms, giving the γ -ray energy and generating event triggers, were implemented on a VME module equipped with fast A/D converters and tested with different detectors and sources. Emphasis was placed on the detailed simulation and understanding of the algorithms as well as the influence of electronics and detector onto the energy resolution

Amplitude and phase sonar calibration and the use of target phase for enhanced acoustic target characterisation

This thesis investigates the incorporation of target phase into sonar signal processing, for enhanced information in the context of acoustical oceanography. A sonar system phase calibration method, which includes both the amplitude and phase response is proposed. The technique is an extension of the widespread standard-target sonar calibration method, based on the use of metallic spheres as standard targets. Frequency domain data processing is used, with target phase measured as a phase angle difference between two frequency components. This approach minimizes the impact of range uncertainties in the calibration process. Calibration accuracy is examined by comparison to theoretical full-wave modal solutions. The system complex response is obtained for an operating frequency of 50 to 150 kHz, and sources of ambiguity are examined. The calibrated broadband sonar system is then used to study the complex scattering of objects important for the modelling of marine organism echoes, such as elastic spheres, fluid-filled shells, cylinders and prolate spheroids. Underlying echo formation mechanisms and their interaction are explored. Phase-sensitive sonar systems could be important for the acquisition of increased levels of information, crucial for the development of automated species identification. Studies of sonar system phase calibration and complex scattering from fundamental shapes are necessary in order to incorporate this type of fully-coherent processing into scientific acoustic instruments

Performance of Active Vibration Isolation in the Advanced LIGO Detectors

The second generation of LIGO detectors has finished construction and the commissioning effort is pushing the instruments towards their designed sensitivity. Around the world similar undertakings are underway, and soon a global network capable of astrophysical observation will be operational. The first sentences are being written in an important chapter of terrestrial gravitational wave detection, an entire century after the theoretical foundations of general relativity were laid, and after decades of calculation, design, proposals, plans, and laboratory work. In order to make sensitive measurements, the detector must be well isolated from the vibrations of the ground, and much of this thesis describes the effectiveness of active control platforms used to mitigate the transmission of seismic motions to the test masses. This work was performed both during the last science run of the first generation LIGO detector and as part of the commissioning of the second generation instrument

Development of an image converter of radical design

A long term investigation of thin film sensors, monolithic photo-field effect transistors, and epitaxially diffused phototransistors and photodiodes to meet requirements to produce acceptable all solid state, electronically scanned imaging system, led to the production of an advanced engineering model camera which employs a 200,000 element phototransistor array (organized in a matrix of 400 rows by 500 columns) to secure resolution comparable to commercial television. The full investigation is described for the period July 1962 through July 1972, and covers the following broad topics in detail: (1) sensor monoliths; (2) fabrication technology; (3) functional theory; (4) system methodology; and (5) deployment profile. A summary of the work and conclusions are given, along with extensive schematic diagrams of the final solid state imaging system product