43 research outputs found
An approach to achieve zero turnaround time in TDD operation on SDR front-end
Thanks to the digitization and softwarization of radio communication, the development cycle of new radio technologies can be significantly accelerated by prototyping on software-defined radio (SDR) platforms. However, a slow turnaround time (TT) of the front-end of an SDR for switching from receiving mode to transmitting mode or vice versa, are jeopardizing the prototyping of wireless protocols, standards, or systems with stringent latency requirements. In this paper, a novel solution called BaseBand processing unit operating in Half Duplex mode and analog Radio Frequency front-end operating in Full Duplex mode, BBHD-RFFD, is presented to reduce the TT on SDR. A prototype is realized on the widely adopted AD9361 radio frequency frontend to prove the validity of the proposed solution. Experiments unveil that for any type of application, the TT in time division duplex (TDD) operation mode can be reduced to zero by the BBHD-RFFD approach, with negligible impact on the communication system in terms of receiver sensitivity. The impact is measured for an in-house IEEE 802.15.4 compliant transceiver. When compared against the conventional TDD approach, only a 7.5-dB degradation is observed with the BBHD-RFFD approach. The measured sensitivity of -91 dBm is still well above the minimum level (i.e., -85 dBm at 2.4 GHz) defined by the IEEE 802.15.4 standard
Interference and intrusion in wireless sensor networks
Wireless sensor network (WSN) systems for safety-critical, space and Internet of Things applications have recently begun to adopt open standards and commercial-off-the-shelf equipment, and persistently face challenges of malicious intrusion and spectrum coexistence. These threats are explored through Monte-Carlo simulation and benchtop testing, including matched protocol interference and sophisticated, interactive intrusion attacks. The need for expanding intrusion detection via a more holistic approach, whilst simultaneously improving WSN security, is illustrated. Discussions on WSN security, vulnerabilities, and attacks are also provided
System Level Design of Software-Defined Radio Platform
This major qualifying project proposes a new single-board design for a Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) On Board Unit (OBU) which consists of a Zynq 7030 system on a chip and AD9361 wideband transceiver. This software-defined radio (SDR) platform design is based on ZedBoard and FMcomms2. The advantages of this approach compared to the ZedBoard and FMcomms2 joint solution are smaller form factor, front end tuned to 5.9GHz and a more powerful processor. Since the prototype has not been manufactured due to the time constraints of this project, the working implementation of 6GHz DSRC radio 802.11p in GNU Radio has been confirmed on the lower capability hardware USRP2 and USRP N210 (Universal Software Radio Peripheral)
Facilitating Flexible Link Layer Protocols for Future Wireless Communication Systems
This dissertation addresses the problem of designing link layer protocols
which are flexible enough to accommodate the demands offuture wireless
communication systems (FWCS).We show that entire link layer protocols with
diverse requirements and responsibilities can be composed out of
reconfigurable and reusable components.We demonstrate this by designing and
implementinga novel concept termed Flexible Link Layer (FLL)
architecture.Through extensive simulations and practical experiments, we
evaluate a prototype of the suggested architecture in both
fixed-spectrumand dynamic spectrum access (DSA) networks.
FWCS are expected to overcome diverse challenges including the continual
growthin traffic volume and number of connected devices.Furthermore, they
are envisioned to support a widerange of new application requirements and
operating conditions.Technology trends, including smart homes,
communicating machines, and vehicularnetworks, will not only grow on a
scale that once was unimaginable, they will also become the predominant
communication paradigm, eventually surpassing today's human-produced
network traffic.
In order for this to become reality, today's systems have to evolve in many
ways.They have to exploit allocated resources in a more efficient and
energy-conscious manner.In addition to that, new methods for spectrum
access and resource sharingneed to be deployed.Having the diversification
of applications and network conditions in mind, flexibility at all layers
of a communication system is of paramount importance in order to meet the
desired goals.
However, traditional communication systems are often designed with specific
and distinct applications in mind. Therefore, system designers can tailor
communication systems according to fixedrequirements and operating
conditions, often resulting in highly optimized but inflexible
systems.Among the core problems of such design is the mix of data transfer
and management aspects.Such a combination of concerns clearly hinders the
reuse and extension of existing protocols.
To overcome this problem, the key idea explored in this dissertation is a
component-based design to facilitate the development of more flexible and
versatile link layer protocols.Specifically, the FLL architecture,
suggested in this dissertation, employs a generic, reconfigurable data
transfer protocol around which one or more complementary protocols, called
link layer applications, are responsible for management-related aspects of
the layer.
To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach, we have designed
andimplemented a prototype of the FLL architecture on the basis ofa
reconfigurable software defined radio (SDR) testbed.Employing the SDR
prototype as well as computer simulations, thisdissertation describes
various experiments used to examine a range of link layerprotocols for both
fixed-spectrum and DSA networks.
This dissertation firstly outlines the challenges faced by FWCSand
describes DSA as a possible technology component for their construction.It
then specifies the requirements for future DSA systemsthat provide the
basis for our further considerations.We then review the background on link
layer protocols, surveyrelated work on the construction of flexible
protocol frameworks,and compare a range of actual link layer protocols and
algorithms.Based on the results of this analysis, we design, implement, and
evaluatethe FLL architecture and a selection of actual link layer
protocols.
We believe the findings of this dissertation add substantively to the
existing literature on link layer protocol design and are valuable for
theoreticians and experimentalists alike
Reconfigurable Antenna Systems: Platform implementation and low-power matters
Antennas are a necessary and often critical component of all wireless systems, of which they share the ever-increasing complexity and the challenges of present and emerging trends. 5G, massive low-orbit satellite architectures (e.g. OneWeb), industry 4.0, Internet of Things (IoT), satcom on-the-move, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Autonomous Vehicles, all call for highly flexible systems, and antenna reconfigurability is an enabling part of these advances. The terminal segment is particularly crucial in this sense, encompassing both very compact antennas or low-profile antennas, all with various adaptability/reconfigurability requirements. This thesis work has dealt with hardware implementation issues of Radio Frequency (RF) antenna reconfigurability, and in particular with low-power General Purpose Platforms (GPP); the work has encompassed Software Defined Radio (SDR) implementation, as well as embedded low-power platforms (in particular on STM32 Nucleo family of micro-controller). The hardware-software platform work has been complemented with design and fabrication of reconfigurable antennas in standard technology, and the resulting systems tested. The selected antenna technology was antenna array with continuously steerable beam, controlled by voltage-driven phase shifting circuits. Applications included notably Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) deployed in the Italian scientific mission in Antarctica, in a traffic-monitoring case study (EU H2020 project), and into an innovative Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) antenna concept (patent application submitted). The SDR implementation focused on a low-cost and low-power Software-defined radio open-source platform with IEEE 802.11 a/g/p wireless communication capability. In a second embodiment, the flexibility of the SDR paradigm has been traded off to avoid the power consumption associated to the relevant operating system. Application field of reconfigurable antenna is, however, not limited to a better management of the energy consumption. The analysis has also been extended to satellites positioning application. A novel beamforming method has presented demonstrating improvements in the quality of signals received from satellites. Regarding those who deal with positioning algorithms, this advancement help improving precision on the estimated position
Innovative energy-efficient wireless sensor network applications and MAC sub-layer protocols employing RTS-CTS with packet concatenation
of energy-efficiency as well as the number of available applications. As a consequence there
are challenges that need to be tackled for the future generation of WSNs. The research work
from this Ph.D. thesis has involved the actual development of innovative WSN applications contributing
to different research projects. In the Smart-Clothing project contributions have been
given in the development of a Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) to monitor the foetal movements
of a pregnant woman in the last four weeks of pregnancy. The creation of an automatic
wireless measurement system for remotely monitoring concrete structures was an contribution
for the INSYSM project. This was accomplished by using an IEEE 802.15.4 network enabling for
remotely monitoring the temperature and humidity within civil engineering structures. In the
framework of the PROENEGY-WSN project contributions have been given in the identification
the spectrum opportunities for Radio Frequency (RF) energy harvesting through power density
measurements from 350 MHz to 3 GHz. The design of the circuits to harvest RF energy
and the requirements needed for creating a WBAN with electromagnetic energy harvesting and
Cognitive Radio (CR) capabilities have also been addressed. A performance evaluation of the
state-of-the art of the hardware WSN platforms has also been addressed. This is explained by
the fact that, even by using optimized Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols, if the WSNs
platforms do not allow for minimizing the energy consumption in the idle and sleeping states,
energy efficiency and long network lifetime will not be achieved.
The research also involved the development of new innovative mechanisms that tries and solves
overhead, one of the fundamental reasons for the IEEE 802.15.4 standard MAC inefficiency. In
particular, this Ph.D. thesis proposes an IEEE 802.15.4 MAC layer performance enhancement by
employing RTS/CTS combined with packet concatenation. The results have shown that the use
of the RTS/CTS mechanism improves channel efficiency by decreasing the deferral time before
transmitting a data packet. In addition, the Sensor Block Acknowledgment MAC (SBACK-MAC)
protocol has been proposed that allows the aggregation of several acknowledgment responses
in one special Block Acknowledgment (BACK) Response packet. Two different solutions are
considered. The first one considers the SBACK-MAC protocol in the presence of BACK Request
(concatenation) while the second one considers the SBACK-MAC in the absence of BACK Request
(piggyback). The proposed solutions address a distributed scenario with single-destination and
single-rate frame aggregation. The throughput and delay performance is mathematically derived
under both ideal conditions (a channel environment with no transmission errors) and non
ideal conditions (a channel environment with transmission errors). An analytical model is proposed,
capable of taking into account the retransmission delays and the maximum number of
backoff stages. The simulation results successfully validate our analytical model. For more
than 7 TX (aggregated packets) all the MAC sub-layer protocols employing RTS/CTS with packet
concatenation allows for the optimization of channel use in WSNs, v8-48 % improvement in the
maximum average throughput and minimum average delay, and decrease energy consumption