Voice Service Support in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Mobile ad hoc networks are expected to support voice traffic. The requirement for small delay and jitter of voice traffic poses a significant challenge for medium access control (MAC) in such networks. User mobility makes it more complex due to the associated dynamic path attenuation. In this paper, a MAC scheme for mobile ad hoc networks supporting voice traffic is proposed. With the aid of a low-power probe prior to DATA transmissions, resource reservation is achieved in a distributed manner, thus leading to small delay and jitter. The proposed scheme can automatically adapt to dynamic path attenuation in a mobile environment. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of the IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM), Washington, DC, November 26 - 30, 200

Cognitive Medium Access: Exploration, Exploitation and Competition

This paper establishes the equivalence between cognitive medium access and the competitive multi-armed bandit problem. First, the scenario in which a single cognitive user wishes to opportunistically exploit the availability of empty frequency bands in the spectrum with multiple bands is considered. In this scenario, the availability probability of each channel is unknown to the cognitive user a priori. Hence efficient medium access strategies must strike a balance between exploring the availability of other free channels and exploiting the opportunities identified thus far. By adopting a Bayesian approach for this classical bandit problem, the optimal medium access strategy is derived and its underlying recursive structure is illustrated via examples. To avoid the prohibitive computational complexity of the optimal strategy, a low complexity asymptotically optimal strategy is developed. The proposed strategy does not require any prior statistical knowledge about the traffic pattern on the different channels. Next, the multi-cognitive user scenario is considered and low complexity medium access protocols, which strike the optimal balance between exploration and exploitation in such competitive environments, are developed. Finally, this formalism is extended to the case in which each cognitive user is capable of sensing and using multiple channels simultaneously.Comment: Submitted to IEEE/ACM Trans. on Networking, 14 pages, 2 figure

Cyber Insurance for Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

Heterogeneous wireless networks (HWNs) composed of densely deployed base stations of different types with various radio access technologies have become a prevailing trend to accommodate ever-increasing traffic demand in enormous volume. Nowadays, users rely heavily on HWNs for ubiquitous network access that contains valuable and critical information such as financial transactions, e-health, and public safety. Cyber risks, representing one of the most significant threats to network security and reliability, are increasing in severity. To address this problem, this article introduces the concept of cyber insurance to transfer the cyber risk (i.e., service outage, as a consequence of cyber risks in HWNs) to a third party insurer. Firstly, a review of the enabling technologies for HWNs and their vulnerabilities to cyber risks is presented. Then, the fundamentals of cyber insurance are introduced, and subsequently, a cyber insurance framework for HWNs is presented. Finally, open issues are discussed and the challenges are highlighted for integrating cyber insurance as a service of next generation HWNs.Comment: IEEE Communications Magazine (Heterogeneous Ultra Dense Networks

Energy Efficient User Association and Power Allocation in Millimeter Wave Based Ultra Dense Networks with Energy Harvesting Base Stations

Millimeter wave (mmWave) communication technologies have recently emerged as an attractive solution to meet the exponentially increasing demand on mobile data traffic. Moreover, ultra dense networks (UDNs) combined with mmWave technology are expected to increase both energy efficiency and spectral efficiency. In this paper, user association and power allocation in mmWave based UDNs is considered with attention to load balance constraints, energy harvesting by base stations, user quality of service requirements, energy efficiency, and cross-tier interference limits. The joint user association and power optimization problem is modeled as a mixed-integer programming problem, which is then transformed into a convex optimization problem by relaxing the user association indicator and solved by Lagrangian dual decomposition. An iterative gradient user association and power allocation algorithm is proposed and shown to converge rapidly to an optimal point. The complexity of the proposed algorithm is analyzed and the effectiveness of the proposed scheme compared with existing methods is verified by simulations.Comment: to appear, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, 201

On a dispersion problem in grid labeling

International audienceGiven $k$ labelings of a finite $d$-dimensional cubical grid, define the combined distance between two labels to be the sum of the $l_1$-distance between the two labels in each labeling. We want to construct $k$ labelings which maximize the minimum combined distance between any two labels. When $d = 1$, this can be interpreted as placing $n$ nonattacking rooks in a $k$-dimensional chessboard of size $n$ in such a way to maximize the minimum $l_1$-distance between any two rooks. Rook placements are also known as Latin hypercube designs in the literature. In this paper, we revisit this problem with a more geometric approach. Instead of providing explicit but complicated formulas, we construct rook placements in a $k$-dimensional chessboard of size $n$ as certain lattice-like structures for certain well-chosen values of $n$. Then, we extend these constructions to any values of $n$ using geometric arguments. With this method, we present a clean and geometric description of the known optimal rook placements in the two-dimensional square grid. Furthermore, we provide asymptotically optimal constructions of $k$ labelings of $d$-dimensional cubical grids which maximize the minimum combined distance. Finally, we discuss the extension of this problem to labelings of an arbitrary graph. We prove that deciding whether a graph has two labelings with combined distance at least 3 is at least as hard as graph isomorphism

Disorder induced field effect transistor in bilayer and trilayer graphene

We propose use of disorder to produce a field effect transistor (FET) in biased bilayer and trilayer graphene. Modulation of the bias voltage can produce large variations in the conductance when the disorder's effects are confined to only one of the graphene layers. This effect is based on the bias voltage's ability to select which of the graphene layers carries current, and is not tied to the presence of a gap in the density of states. In particular, we demonstrate this effect in models of gapless ABA-stacked trilayer graphene, gapped ABC-stacked trilayer graphene, and gapped bilayer graphene.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figure