CogCell: Cognitive Interplay between 60GHz Picocells and 2.4/5GHz Hotspots in the 5G Era

Rapid proliferation of wireless communication devices and the emergence of a variety of new applications have triggered investigations into next-generation mobile broadband systems, i.e., 5G. Legacy 2G--4G systems covering large areas were envisioned to serve both indoor and outdoor environments. However, in the 5G-era, 80\% of overall traffic is expected to be generated in indoors. Hence, the current approach of macro-cell mobile network, where there is no differentiation between indoors and outdoors, needs to be reconsidered. We envision 60\,GHz mmWave picocell architecture to support high-speed indoor and hotspot communications. We envisage the 5G indoor network as a combination of-, and interplay between, 2.4/5\,GHz having robust coverage and 60\,GHz links offering high datarate. This requires an intelligent coordination and cooperation. We propose 60\,GHz picocellular network architecture, called CogCell, leveraging the ubiquitous WiFi. We propose to use 60\,GHz for the data plane and 2.4/5GHz for the control plane. The hybrid network architecture considers an opportunistic fall-back to 2.4/5\,GHz in case of poor connectivity in the 60\,GHz domain. Further, to avoid the frequent re-beamforming in 60\,GHz directional links due to mobility, we propose a cognitive module -- a sensor-assisted intelligent beam switching procedure -- which reduces the communication overhead. We believe that the CogCell concept will help future indoor communications and possibly outdoor hotspots, where mobile stations and access points collaborate with each other to improve the user experience.Comment: 14 PAGES in IEEE Communications Magazine, Special issue on Emerging Applications, Services and Engineering for Cognitive Cellular Systems (EASE4CCS), July 201

Fairness in Wireless Networks: Issues, Measures and Challenges

The pervasiveness of wireless technology has indeed created massive opportunity to integrate almost everything into the Internet fabric. This can be seen with the advent of Internet of Things and Cyber Physical Systems, which involves cooperation of massive number of intelligent devices to provide intelligent services. Fairness amongst these devices is an important issue that can be analysed from several dimensions, e. g., energy usage, achieving required quality of services, spectrum sharing, and so on. This article focusses on these viewpoints while looking at fairness research. To generalize, mainly wireless networks are considered. First, we present a general view of fairness studies, and pose three core questions that help us delineate the nuances in defining fairness. Then, the existing fairness models are summarized and compared. We also look into the major fairness research domains in wireless networks such as fair energy consumption control, power control, topology control, link and flow scheduling, channel assignment, rate allocation, congestion control and routing protocols. We make a distinction amongst fairness, utility and resource allocation to begin with. Later, we present their inter-relation. At the end of this article, we list the common properties of fairness and give an example of fairness management. Several open research challenges that point to further work on fairness in wireless networks are also discussed. Indeed, the research on fairness is entangled with many other aspects such as performance, utility, optimization and throughput at the network and node levels. While consolidating the contributions in the literature, this article tries to explain the niceties of all these aspects in the domain of wireless networking

Deputy Director\u27s Comments

Abstract. Personal area networks such as home or small office LANs are usually more vulnerable to cyber-attacks than those with dedicated support staff and the ability to invest consistently in security defenses. In this paper we propose leveraging physical characteristics of these personal area networks in order to enable non-technical individuals to secure their networks or at least be aware that their devices have been compromised. Our proposal leverages records of location for mobile devices, proximity authentication, and individual homophily. In this work, we summarize previous studies on securing personal networks, proximity authentication, and software attestation. We then present a preliminary design for the detection of and recovery from infection for personal area networks. Limitations and future work are also discussed.

Adaptive Beamwidth Selection for Contention Based Access Periods in Millimeter Wave WLANs

Abstract—60 GHz wireless local area networks (WLANs) standards (e.g., IEEE 802.11ad and IEEE 802.15.3c) employ hybrid MAC protocols consisting of contention based access using CSMA/CA as well as dedicated service periods using time division multiple access (TDMA). To provide the channel access in the contention part of the protocol, quasi omni (QO) antenna patterns are defined which span over the particular spatial directions and cover a limited area around access points. In this paper, we propose an algorithm to determine the beamwidth of each QO level. The proposed algorithm takes into account the spatial distribution of nodes to allocate the beamwidth of each QO level in an adaptive fashion in order to maximizes the channel utilization and satisfy the required link budget criterion. Since the proposed algorithm minimizes the collisions, it also minimizes the average time required to transmit total packets in a QO level. Proposed algorithm improves the average channel utilization up to 20-30 % and reduces the time required to transmit total packets up to 40-50 % for the given network parameters. I

Adaptive beamwidth selection for contention based access periods in millimeter wave WLANs

Abstract: 60 GHz wireless local area networks (WLANs) standards (e.g., IEEE 802.11ad and IEEE 802.15.3c) employ hybrid MAC protocols consisting of contention based access using CSMA/CA as well as dedicated service periods using time division multiple access (TDMA). To provide the channel access in the contention part of the protocol, quasi omni (QO) antenna patterns are defined which span over the particular spatial directions and cover a limited area around access points. In this paper, we propose an algorithm to determine the beamwidth of each QO level. The proposed algorithm takes into account the spatial distribution of nodes to allocate the beamwidth of each QO level in an adaptive fashion in order to maximizes the channel utilization and satisfy the required link budget criterion. Since the proposed algorithm minimizes the collisions, it also minimizes the average time required to transmit total packets in a QO level. Proposed algorithm improves the average channel utilization up to 20-30% and reduces the time required to transmit total packets up to 40-50% for the given network parameters

Self-coexistence and spectrum sharing in device-to-device WRANs

IEEE 802.22 wireless regional area network (WRAN) standard employing cognitive radios is gaining much attention recently. The WRAN standard targets reuse of unused TV channels. We propose a device-to-device wireless regional area network (D2DWRAN) to extend the capacity of IEEE 802.22. Network capacity can be increased by supporting direct intra-cell device to device (D2D) communication through channel reuse and also with aggregation of nonadjacent multiple operating channels. Self-coexistence of neighboring IEEE 802.22 cells is a major challenge in WRANs, since the availability of channels varies frequently and channels are reused by every cell as much as possible. Currently, IEEE 802.22 does not consider D2D communication. We propose a two-tier spectrum sharing mechanism for channel allocation in D2DWRANs - both at intra-cell and inter-cell levels. Algorithms and a thorough analysis are presented. We examine our proposal through simulations. Results show significant performance improvement compared to IEEE 802.22. However, there are many hurdles to cross, such as, coexistence with other cognitive radio networks (CRNs), the intra-cell routing, allocation of other network resources, etc. We believe that further work in this domain can lead to increase in capacity not only in WRANs but also in other cellular networks

Analysis of Fi-Wi Indoor Network Architecture based on IEEE 802.15.3c

Recently 60GHz communication has emerged as a potential candidate for high speed, short range radio communication. However, since the range of 60GHz is too small, a radio over fiber (RoF) based wireless personal area network (WPAN)employing IEEE 802.15.3c MAC for 60GHz frequency band is proposed in this paper. This hybrid network is known Fi- Wi. Based on detailed performance analysis of MAC, suitability of IEEE 802.15.3c in RoF indoor networks is examined carefully. Limitations of using IEEE 802.15.3c, due to the additional delay introduced by fiber distribution network are highlighted. Analysis of different acknowledgment (ACK) mechanisms in different physical channel conditions are performed, which is helpful in selecting appropriate ACK policy based on the requirements of applications. We provide a complete and thorough analysis of Fi- WiWPAN architecture based on IEEE 802.15.3c. This is expected to help designers and practitioners