55,184 research outputs found
Hybrid Satellite-Terrestrial Communication Networks for the Maritime Internet of Things: Key Technologies, Opportunities, and Challenges
With the rapid development of marine activities, there has been an increasing
number of maritime mobile terminals, as well as a growing demand for high-speed
and ultra-reliable maritime communications to keep them connected.
Traditionally, the maritime Internet of Things (IoT) is enabled by maritime
satellites. However, satellites are seriously restricted by their high latency
and relatively low data rate. As an alternative, shore & island-based base
stations (BSs) can be built to extend the coverage of terrestrial networks
using fourth-generation (4G), fifth-generation (5G), and beyond 5G services.
Unmanned aerial vehicles can also be exploited to serve as aerial maritime BSs.
Despite of all these approaches, there are still open issues for an efficient
maritime communication network (MCN). For example, due to the complicated
electromagnetic propagation environment, the limited geometrically available BS
sites, and rigorous service demands from mission-critical applications,
conventional communication and networking theories and methods should be
tailored for maritime scenarios. Towards this end, we provide a survey on the
demand for maritime communications, the state-of-the-art MCNs, and key
technologies for enhancing transmission efficiency, extending network coverage,
and provisioning maritime-specific services. Future challenges in developing an
environment-aware, service-driven, and integrated satellite-air-ground MCN to
be smart enough to utilize external auxiliary information, e.g., sea state and
atmosphere conditions, are also discussed
Cognitive Radio Networks: Realistic or Not?
A large volume of research has been conducted in the cognitive radio (CR)
area the last decade. However, the deployment of a commercial CR network is yet
to emerge. A large portion of the existing literature does not build on real
world scenarios, hence, neglecting various important interactions of the
research with commercial telecommunication networks. For instance, a lot of
attention has been paid to spectrum sensing as the front line functionality
that needs to be completed in an efficient and accurate manner to enable an
opportunistic CR network architecture. This is necessary to detect the
existence of spectrum holes without which no other procedure can be fulfilled.
However, simply sensing (cooperatively or not) the energy received from a
primary transmitter cannot enable correct dynamic spectrum access. For example,
the low strength of a primary transmitter's signal does not assure that there
will be no interference to a nearby primary receiver. In addition, the presence
of a primary transmitter's signal does not mean that CR network users cannot
access the spectrum since there might not be any primary receiver in the
vicinity. Despite the existing elegant and clever solutions to the DSA problem
no robust, implementable scheme has emerged. In this paper, we challenge the
basic premises of the proposed schemes. We further argue that addressing the
technical challenges we face in deploying robust CR networks can only be
achieved if we radically change the way we design their basic functionalities.
In support of our argument, we present a set of real-world scenarios, inspired
by realistic settings in commercial telecommunications networks, focusing on
spectrum sensing as a basic and critical functionality in the deployment of
CRs. We use these scenarios to show why existing DSA paradigms are not amenable
to realistic deployment in complex wireless environments.Comment: Work in progres
Green Cellular Networks: A Survey, Some Research Issues and Challenges
Energy efficiency in cellular networks is a growing concern for cellular
operators to not only maintain profitability, but also to reduce the overall
environment effects. This emerging trend of achieving energy efficiency in
cellular networks is motivating the standardization authorities and network
operators to continuously explore future technologies in order to bring
improvements in the entire network infrastructure. In this article, we present
a brief survey of methods to improve the power efficiency of cellular networks,
explore some research issues and challenges and suggest some techniques to
enable an energy efficient or "green" cellular network. Since base stations
consume a maximum portion of the total energy used in a cellular system, we
will first provide a comprehensive survey on techniques to obtain energy
savings in base stations. Next, we discuss how heterogeneous network deployment
based on micro, pico and femto-cells can be used to achieve this goal. Since
cognitive radio and cooperative relaying are undisputed future technologies in
this regard, we propose a research vision to make these technologies more
energy efficient. Lastly, we explore some broader perspectives in realizing a
"green" cellular network technologyComment: 16 pages, 5 figures, 2 table
Innovation in the Wireless Ecosystem: A Customer-Centric Framework
The Federal Communications Commission’s Notice of Inquiry in GN 09-157 Fostering Innovation and Investment in the Wireless Communications Market is a significant event at an opportune moment. Wireless communications has already radically changed the way not only Americans but people the world over communicate with each other and access and share information, and there appears no end in sight to this fundamental shift in communication markets. Although the wireless communications phenomenon is global, the US has played and will continue to play a major role in the shaping of this market. At the start of a new US Administration and important changes in the FCC, it is most appropriate that this proceeding be launched.
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