Laboratory Experiments on 5G Cellular Technologies - A Case Study on the Synergy of Research and Experiential Learning

Teaching and research complement each other. This is an advice often given to young professors, to encourage them to find synergy between research and teaching, i.e., to let research aid teaching, and vice-versa. When a professor develops new laboratory experiments for undergraduate courses in wireless communications, he/she may find it difficult to replicate research experiments, because they require expensive equipment, usually available in “research, non-teaching” laboratories. In this paper, we present a wireless laboratory that is used for both research and teaching. We show how the research on fifth generation (5G) cellular networks - including millimeter wave transmission, ultra-wideband wireless communications, and multiple-input-single-output (MISO) antennas – helped develop laboratory experiments for undergraduate engineering students. The experiments not only teach students about 5G technologies, but also how to use real-time spectrum analyzers, vector signal generators, arbitrary waveform generators, and signal analyzers, which will help their engineering and/or research careers.Cockrell School of Engineerin

The Laboratory of Wireless and Mobile Communications

The paper presents the basic information about establishing of the laboratory for Mobile Communications on the Dept. of Radio Electronics, Brno University of Technology. This information allows to experts from the practice to obtain the general notion about the extent of theoretical knowledge and practical experiences of our students in this field. This information can be also useful for the specialists from universities comparing simple their pedagogical activity in this field respecting the activity in another institute

Performance Evaluation of IEEE 802.11 ac WPA2 Laboratory Links

The increasing importance of wireless communications, involving electronic devices, has been widely recognized. Performance is a fundamental issue, resulting in more reliable and efficient communications. Security is also crucially important. Laboratory measurements are presented about several performance aspects of Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11ac WPA2 point-to-point links. Our study contributes to performance evaluation of this technology under WPA2 encryption, using available equipment (Cisco 2702i access points and TP-Link AC1900 USB 3.0 adapters). New results are given from TCP and UDP experiments concerning TCP throughput versus TCP packet length, jitter and percentage datagram loss versus UDP datagram size. Comparisons are made to corresponding results for WPA2 802.11n. Conclusions are drawn about the comparative performance of the links. Keywords: Wi-Fi, WLAN, IEEE 802.11ac, Wireless network laboratory performance, Point-to-Point WPA2 link

On the achievable capacity of MIMO-OFDM systems in the cathlab environment

aPES3N POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030629In the last years, the evolution of digital communications has been harnessed by medical applications. In that context, wireless communications are preferable over wired communications, as they facilitate the work of health technicians by reducing cabling on the stretchers. However, the use of wireless communications is challenging, especially when high data rates and low latencies are required. In those scenarios, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques might have an important role, thanks to the high capacity gains that they can exhibit, which ideally increase with the MIMO size. In this work, we study the propagation scenario of a typical medical laboratory through ray-tracing techniques. By taking into account the derived channel model, we study the potential of MIMO techniques in an IEEE 802.11ax environment. Through a set of performance results regarding the system capacity, we show that the MIMO gains might not be as high as supposed in the medical laboratory, being far from the ideal scenario. Therefore, the large data rates required by the modern medical imaging applications might only be achieved with a combination of MIMO systems and large bandwidths.publishersversionpublishe

High speed train communications systems using free space optics

In this work, we propose a broad-band free space optical (FSO) wireless communications system for high-speed trains. The system consists of optical transceivers positioned outside the train and along the railway track. The train receivers are in the coverage area of base stations positioned along the railway track to ensure continuous link availability. In this paper, we present modelling of two cases for over-ground and underground train systems before embarking to practically implement the system in our research laboratory. Also discussed is the protocol for the data distribution along the track as well as the initial experimental demonstration of the proposed link

Performance Investigations of IEEE 802.11 a54 Mbps WPA2 Laboratory Links

The increasing importance of wireless communications, involving electronic devices, has been widely recognized. Performance is a fundamental issue, resulting in more reliable and efficient communications. Security is also crucially important. Laboratory measurements are presented for several performance aspects of Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11a54 Mbps WPA2 point-to-point and four node point-to-multipoint links. Our study contributes to performance evaluation of this technology under WPA2 encryption, using available equipment (HP V-M200 access points and Linksys WPC600N adapters). New results are given from TCP and UDP experiments concerning TCP throughput versus TCP packet length, jitter and percentage datagram loss versus UDP datagram size. Comparisons are made to corresponding results for Open links. Conclusions are drawn about the comparative performance of the links. Keywords: Wi-Fi, WLAN, IEEE 802.11a, Wireless network laboratory performance, Multi-Node WPA2 link

Advances in mode-stirred reverberation chambers for wireless communication performance evaluation

Reverberation chambers (RC) are a popular tool for laboratory wireless communication performance evaluation, and their sandardization for Over-The-Air (OTA) measurements is underway. Yet, the inherent limitations of singlecavity RCs to emulate isotropic Rayleigh-fading scenarios with uniform phase distribution and high elevation angular spread put their representation of realistic scenarios into jeopardy. Recent advances in the last few years, however, have solved all these limitations by using more general mode-stirred reverberation chambers (MSC), wherein the number of cavities, their stirring and coupling mechanisms, and their software postprocessing algorithms is far from simple, representing a new era for wireless communications research, development, and over-the-air testing. This article highlights recent advances in the development of second-generation mode-stirred chambers for wireless communications performance evaluatio

'THz Torch' wireless communications links

The low-cost 'THz Torch’ technology, which exploits the thermal infrared spectrum (ca. 10 to 100 THz), was recently introduced to provide secure low data rate communications links across short ranges. In this thesis, the channel model for 'THz Torch’ wireless communications links is redeveloped from a thermodynamics perspective. Novel optimization-based channel estimators are also proposed to calibrate parameters in the channel model. Based on these theoretical advances, a cognitive 'THz Torch’ receiver, which combines conventional digital communications with state-of-the-art deep learning techniques, is presented to achieve cognitive synchronization and demodulation. The newly reported 'THz Torch’ wireless link is capable of bypassing the thermal time constant constraints normally associated with both the thermal emitter and sensor, allowing truly asynchronous data transfer with direct electronic modulation. Experimental results obtained in both laboratory environments and field trials demonstrate step-change improvements in channel range, bit rate, bit error rate and demodulation speed. This work represents a paradigm shift in modulation-demodulation with a thermal-based physical layer and offers a practical solution for implementing future ubiquitous secure 'THz Torch’ wireless communications links. The cognitive receiver concept also has wide-ranging implications for future communications and sensor technologies, making them more resilient when operating in harsh environments.Open Acces

Development of Multiple Protocols in Novel Simulation Environment

abstract: When one considers the current state of wireless communications, it becomes clear that it is both absolutely amazing and something of a mess. Present communications standards are the result of local optimizations over time that led to a confusing set of suboptimal and fragile wireless standards. Starting from a clean sheet of paper, Bliss Laboratory for Information, Signals, and Systems (BLISS) is considering a fluid set of communications standards co-optimized with flexible but power-efficient computational implementations that will enable the next revolution of wireless communications. The main aim is to enable much higher data rates and much lower data rates with corresponding lower power consumption as the needs of the users vary. The thesis mainly looks at the different sections of the work done, to prime the development of the protocol development engine. It discusses channel modeling, and system integration of receiver and channel noise. It also proposes a Carrier-Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) Media Access Control (MAC) layer protocol implementation for (Wireless Fidelity) Wi-Fi protocol. This work also talks about the Graphical User Interface (GUI), which is a part of Protocol Development Kit (PDK) - a combination of the Protocol Recommendation Engine (PRE) and simulation package to aid the development of protocols. It also sheds light on the Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B) radio protocol, that will eventually replace radar as Air Traffic Control's (ATC) primary tool for separating aircraft. All the algorithms used in this thesis, to define radio operation were in principle defined by mathematical descriptions; however, to test and implement these algorithms they had to be converted to a computer language. There were multiple phases of this conversion. In the first phase, the implementation of these algorithms was done in Matrix Laboratory (MATLAB). To aid this development, basic radio finite state machines and radio algorithmic tools were provided.Dissertation/ThesisMasters Thesis Electrical Engineering 201

A Low Cost Wireless Data Acquisition System for Distribution Automation System

This paper presents the design and development of a 16F877A microcontroller-based wireless data acquisition system. Besides that, this paper also presents study of the possibility of different existing methodologies that linked to field data acquisition from distribution automation systems. Various existing data transmission technique was studied, especially for wireless systems such as satellite, radio, GSM and paging. The hardware and software implementation are described in this paper. The system will be used for reading, storing and analyzing data that obtained from DAS. The wireless communications are based on the GSM network. The laboratory results are compared with the simulation results to make the final conclusion of the algorithm function properly