Improving Fairness and Utilisation in Ad Hoc Networks

Ad hoc networks represent the current de-facto alternative for infrastructure-less environments, due to their self-configuring and resilience characteristics. Ad hoc networks flexibility benefits, such as unrestrained computing, lack of centralisation, and ease of deployment at low costs, are tightly bound with relevant deficiencies such as limited resources and management difficulty. Ad hoc networks witnessed high attention from the research community due to the numerous challenges faced when deploying such a technology in real scenarios. Starting with the nature of the wireless environment, which raises significant transmission issues when compared with the wired counterpart, ad hoc networks require a different approach when addressing the data link problems. Further, the high packet loss due to wireless contention, independent of network congestion, requires a different approach when considering quality of service degradation and unfair channel resources distribution among competing flows. Although these issues have already been considered to some extent by researchers, there is still room to improve quality of service by reducing the effect of packet loss and fairly distributing the medium access among competing nodes. The aim of this thesis is to propose a set of mechanisms to alleviate the effect of packet loss and to improve fairness in ad hoc networks. A transport layer algorithm has been proposed to overcome the effects of hidden node collisions and to reduce the impact of wireless link contention by estimating the four hop delay and pacing packet transmissions accordingly. Furthermore, certain topologies have been identified, in which the standard IEEE 802.11 faces degradation in channel utilisation and unfair bandwidth allocation. Three link layer mechanisms have been proposed to tackle the challenges the IEEE 802.11 faces in the identified scenarios to impose fairness in ad hoc networks through fairly distributing channel resources between competing nodes. These mechanisms are based on monitoring the collision rate and penalising the greedy nodes where no competing nodes can be detected but interference exists, monitoring traffic at source nodes to police access to the channel where only source nodes are within transmission range of each other, and using MAC layer acknowledgements to flag unfair bandwidth allocation in topologies where only the receivers are within transmission range of each other. The proposed mechanisms have been integrated into a framework designed to adapt and to dynamically select which mechanism to adopt, depending on the network topology. It is important to note that the proposed mechanisms and framework are not alternatives to the standard MAC protocol but are an enhancement and are triggered by the failure of the IEEE 802.11 protocol to distribute the channel resources fairly. All the proposed mechanisms have been validated through simulations and the results obtained from the experiments show that the proposed schemes fairly distribute channel resources fairly and outperform the performance of the IEEE 802.11 protocol in terms of channel utilisation as well as fairness

Design for testability of high-order OTA-C filters

Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.A study of oscillation-based test for high-order Operational Transconductance Amplifier-C (OTA-C) filters is presented. The method is based on partition of a high-order filter into second-order filter functions. The opening Q-loop and adding positive feedback techniques are developed to convert the second-order filter section into a quadrature oscillator. These techniques are based on an open-loop configuration and an additional positive feedback configuration. Implementation of the two testability design methods for nth-order cascade, IFLF and leapfrog (LF) filters is presented, and the area overhead of the modified circuits is also discussed. The performances of the presented techniques are investigated. Fourth-order cascade, inverse follow-the-leader feedback (IFLF) and LF OTA-C filters were designed and simulated for analysis of fault coverage using the adding positive feedback method based on an analogue multiplexer. Simulation results show that the oscillation-based test method using positive feedback provides high fault coverage of around 97%, 96% and 95% for the cascade, IFLF and LF OTA-C filters, respectively. Copyright ÂPeer reviewe

Mining and Infrastructure Development in Nigeria: Appraisal of the Legal and Policy Framework for Investment and Sukuk

This research study focuses on the extractive minerals sector as limited current research exists on the Nigeria‟s mining sector, compare to oil and gas which has been extensively researched. Nigeria has distinctive opportunities and challenges in relation to its extractive industries. Over the years, Nigeria has recorded significant fortunes in terms of revenue generated from oil and gas sector. However, failure to manage these resources effectively, diversify the economy and invest in infrastructure to create inclusive growth, has kept the country entangled in development challenges. Furthermore, the recent instability in global oil markets has resulted in considerable drop in Nigeria‟s revenue and thereby compounded the problem, hence, diversification is necessary. While Nigeria‟s mining sector is considered to be a potential alternative source of revenue, poor regulatory and policy frameworks, inadequate infrastructure and lack of investment create a serious setback to the sector. This study seeks to investigate the factors that can improve foreign direct investment and enable the use of innovative financial instruments for financing mining projects in Nigeria. Overall, the study explores key issues underpinning debates on mining and development. It finds that reviving the mining industry in Nigeria requires integrated reform to address issues of investment, industrial infrastructure and effective regulation. Adopting a three-pronged approach of analysis through legal, spatial and economic dimensions, this thesis interrogates how foreign direct investment and Islamic Finance instruments, particularly Sukuk could stimulate Nigeria‟s mining sector

On Exactly Marginal Deformations Dual to BB-Field Moduli of IIB Theory on SE5_5

The complex dimension of the space of exactly marginal deformations for quiver CFTs dual to IIB theory compactified on $Y^{p,q}$ is known to be generically three. Simple general formulas already exist for two of the exactly marginal directions in the space of couplings, one of which corresponds to the sum of the (inverse squared of) gauge couplings, and the other to the $\beta$-deformation. Here we identify the third exactly marginal direction, which is dual to the modulus $\int B_{2}$ on the gravity side. This identification leads to a relation between the field theory gauge couplings and the vacuum expectation value of the gravity modulus that we further support by a computation related to the chiral anomaly induced by added fractional branes. We also present a simple algorithm for finding similar exactly marginal directions in any CFT described by brane tiling, and demonstrate it for the quiver CFTs dual to IIB theory compactified on $L^{1,5,2}$ and the Suspended Pinch Point.Comment: 28 pages, JHEP style. v2: minor corrections, added references and acknowledgements. v3: a number of speculative comments regarding the application of the Konishi anomaly equation to our problem are removed. v4: the proposal in Eq. (2.4) added back as a conjectur