Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Wireless networks of information transmission'

A new promising approach for wireless network optimization is from a cross-layer perspective. This thesis focuses on exploiting channel state information (CSI) from the physical layer for optimal transmission scheduling at the medium access control (MAC) layer. The first part of the thesis considers exploiting CSI via a distributed channel-aware MAC protocol. The MAC protocol is analysed using a centralized design approach and a non-cooperative game theoretic approach. Structural results are obtained and provably convergent stochastic approximation algorithms that can estimate the optimal transmission policies are proposed. Especially, in the game theoretic MAC formulation, it is proved that the best response transmission policies are threshold in the channel state and there exists a Nash equilibrium at which every user deploys a threshold transmission policy. This threshold result leads to a particularly efficient stochastic-approximation-based adaptive learning algorithm and a simple distributed implementation of the MAC protocol. Simulations show that the channel-aware MAC protocols result in system throughputs that increase with the number of users. The thesis also considers opportunistic transmission scheduling from the perspective of a single user using Markov Decision Process (MDP) approaches. Both channel state in-formation and channel memory are exploited for opportunistic transmission. First, a finite horizon MDP transmission scheduling problem is considered. The finite horizon formulation is suitable for short-term delay constraints. It is proved for the finite horizon opportunistic transmission scheduling problem that the optimal transmission policy is threshold in the buffer occupancy state and the transmission time. This two-dimensional threshold structure substantially reduces the computational complexity required to compute and implement the optimal policy. Second, the opportunistic transmission scheduling problem is formulated as an infinite horizon average cost MDP with a constraint on the average waiting cost. An advantage of the infinite horizon formulation is that the optimal policy is stationary. Using the Lagrange dynamic programming theory and the super modularity method, it is proved that the stationary optimal transmission scheduling policy is a randomized mixture of two policies that are threshold in the buffer occupancy state. A stochastic approximation algorithm and a Q-learning based algorithm that can adaptively estimate the optimal transmission scheduling policies are then proposed.

The first two parts of the thesis address the issues related to 3D video transmission over wireless networks and proposes cross-layer design techniques to optimise the information exchange between dif- ferent Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) layers or system blocks. In particular, the first section of this thesis exploits the flexibility of adjusting the checksum coverage length of the transport layer pro- tocol, UDP-lite as opposed to its counterpart UDP. The study pro- poses an optimum checksum coverage length to protect only impor- tant header information of an H.264 encoded video transmission over wireless links, together with robust header compression (RoHC) and Automatic Retransmission Request (ARQ). The second part of the thesis investigates a content and Channel aware Medium Access Con- trol (MAC) layer scheduling algorithm by considering the layer prior- ities of an H.264 Scalable Video Coding (SVC) encoded 3D video transmission over an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Ac- cess (OFDMA) based wireless link with a prioritised queuing tech- nique to improve the Quality of Experience (QoE) of the end users. A considerable amount of research time was devoted to investigat- ing accurate, consistent and real-time quality evaluation techniques for 3D image/ video as cross-layer design techniques mostly rely on the quality feedbacks from end users to optimise system parameters. The first quality metric proposed is a stereoscopic image quality met- ric using the disparity histogram of the left and right views. A 3D stereoscopic video quality evaluation technique is proposed, based on the predominant energy distribution of gradients using 3D structural tensors in the next section. Finally, a near no reference quality metric is proposed for colour plus depth 3D video compression and transmis- sion, using the extracted edge information of colour images and depth maps. The research investigates a number of error resilient transmission methods to combat artifacts in 3D video delivery over wireless chan- nels. A Region-of-Interest (ROI) based transmission method for stereo- scopic videos has been proposed to mark the important areas of the video and provide Unequal Error Protection (UEP) during transmis- sion. Next, we investigate the effects of compression and packet loss on the rendered video quality and propose a model to quantify ren- dering and concealment errors at the sender-side and then use the information generated through the model to effectively deliver 3D. Finally an asymmetric coding approach is suggested for 3D medical video transmitted over band limited wireless networks by considering large data rates associated with 3D medical video as they are usually captured in high resolution and pixel depth. Key words: 3D video transmission, Cross-layer design, Orthogonal frequency-division multiple access, H.264 video compression, Scalable video coding, Robust header compression, automatic retransmission request, Quality of experience, Prioritized 3D video transmission, Un- equal error protection.

The remarkable evolution of wireless networks into the next generation to provide ubiquitous and seamless broadband applications has recently triggered the emergence of Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs). The WMNs comprise stationary Wireless Mesh Routers (WMRs) forming Wireless Backbone Mesh Networks (WBMNs) and mobile Wireless Mesh Clients (WMCs) forming the WMN access. While WMCs are limited in function and radio resources, the WMRs are expected to support heavy duty applications : that is, WMRs have gateway and bridge functions to integrate WMNs with other networks such as the Internet, cellular, IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15, IEEE 802.16, sensor networks, et cetera. Consequently, WMRs are constructed from fast switching radios or multiple radio devices operating on multiple frequency channels. WMRs are expected to be self-organized, self-configured and constitute a reliable and robust WBMN which needs to sustain high traffic volumes and long "online" time. However, meeting such stringent service expectations requires the development of decentralized dynamic transmission power control (DTPC) approaches. This thesis addresses the DTPC problem for both single and multiple channel WBMNs. For single channel networks, the problem is formulated as the minimization of both the link-centric and network-centric convex cost function. In order to solve this issue, multiple access transmission aware (MATA) models and algorithms are proposed. For multi-radio multi-channel (MRMC) WBMNs, the network is modelled as sets of unified channel graphs (UCGs), each consisting of interconnected active network users communicating on the same frequency channel. For each UCG set, the minimization of stochastic quadratic cost functions are developed subject to the dynamic Link State Information (LSI) equations from all UCGs. An energy-efficient multi-radio unification protocol (PMMUP) is then suggested at the Link-Layer (LL). Predictive estimation algorithms based on this protocol are proposed to solve such objective functions. To address transmission energy and packet instabilities, and interference across multiple channels, singularly-perturbed weakly-coupled (SPWC) control problems are formulated. In order to solve the SPWC transmission power control problem, a generalized higher-order recursive algorithm (HORA) that obtains the Riccati Stabilizing Solutions to the control problem is developed. The performance behaviours of the proposed models and algorithms are evaluated both analytically and through computer simulations. Several simulations are performed on a large number of randomly generated topologies. Simulation and analytical results confirm the efficacy of the proposed algorithms compared to the most recently studied techniques

L’émergence de petites caméras CMOS et de microphones MEMS, à coût et puissance réduits, a contribué au développement d’une technologie permettant la transmission de flux multimédia (audio, image, vidéo) : les réseaux de capteurs multimédia. Cette technologie, offrant de nouvelles perspectives d’applications potentielles où la collecte d’informations visuelles et/ou acoustiques apporte une plus- value certaine, suscite un intérêt manifeste. Avec des données multimédia, la qualité de service devient désormais une exigence fondamentale pour la transmission dans un environnement contraint en ressources. Dans le contexte spécifique de cette thèse, nous considérons un déploiement par voie aérienne d’une grande quantité de capteurs image pour des applications critiques de surveillance telles que la détection d’intrusion ou des opérations de recherche et sauvetage. La prise en compte de la criticité des applications constitue un aspect important de cette thèse, novateur par rapport aux contributions déjà effectuées dans le domaine. Nos travaux se fondent sur une méthode d’ordonnancement adaptatif de l’activité des capteurs image qui fournit, pour chacun d’entre eux, son ensemble de cover-sets. La détection d’un événement dans le réseau déclenche la transmission d’une large quantité d’informations visuelles, émanant de plusieurs sources pour résoudre les ambiguïtés. L’objectif de cette thèse est d’optimiser cette transmission simultanée d’images causant des désagréments sur le réseau. Nous avons tout d’abord proposé une stratégie de sélection des cover-sets pertinents à activer pour une transmission efficace des images capturées. Cette stratégie, basée sur des critères d’état et de voisinage, assure un compromis entre autonomie et criticité. Une extension multi-chemin de GPSR assure la remontée des images émises des sources sélectionnées au puits. Une seconde contribution, également une approche de sélection, se fonde sur les informations de chemins à 2 sauts pour la sélection des cover-sets. Contrairement à la précédente, elle accorde une priorité à la criticité par rapport à la préservation de l’énergie, même si cette préservation est faite de manière indirecte. Un protocole de routage multi-chemin T-GPSR essentiellement basé sur les informations à 2 sauts est associé à la seconde approche de sélection. Une étude de performances de la mobilité du puits sur les propositions basées sur les informations à 2 sauts constitue notre troisième contribution
Recent advances of inexpensive and low-power CMOS cameras and MEMS mi- crophones have led to the emergence of Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks (WMSNs). WMSNs promise a wide spectrum of potential applications which require to ubiquitously capture multimedia content (visual and audio information). To support the transmission of multimedia content in a resource constrained environment, WMSNs may require a certain level of quality of service (QoS) in terms of delay, bandwidth, jitter, reliability, quality level etc. In this thesis, we consider Wireless Image Sensor Networks (WISNs) where sensor nodes equipped with miniaturized visual cameras to provide accurate information in various geographical parts of an area of interest can be thrown in mass for mission-critical applications such as intrusion detection or search & rescue. An innovative and important aspect of this thesis is to take into account the criticality of applications. The network adopts an adaptive scheduling of image sensor node’s activity based on the application criticality level, where each node computes its cover-sets. So, event detection triggers the simulataneous transmission of a large volume of visual data from multiples sources to the Sink. The main objective of this thesis is to optimize this simultaneous transmission of images that can degrade network performance. With this goal in mind, we first proposed a multi-criteria approach to select the suitable cover-sets to be activated for reliable transmission of images in mission-critical applications. The proposed approach takes into account various parameters that affect the image quality at the Sink in a multi-hop transmission network and guarantees a compromise between autonomy and criticality. A modified version of GPSR routing protocol supporting the transmission of multimedia streams ensures the transfer of images from selected sources to the Sink. The second contribution consists in an optimized selection strategy based on 2-hop neighborhood information to determine the most relevant cover-sets to be activated to increase reliability for image transmission. This selection approach prioritizes the application’s criticality. A multipath extension of GPSR, called T-GPSR, wherein routing decisions are based 2-hop neighborhood information is also proposed. A performance study of the sink mobility on proposals based on 2-hop information is our third contribution

Compressed video bitstream transmissions over wireless networks are addressed in this work. We first consider error control and power allocation for transmitting wireless video over CDMA networks in conjunction with multiuser detection. We map a layered video bitstream to several CDMA fading channels and inject multiple source/parity layers into each of these channels at the transmitter. We formulate a combined optimization problem and give the optimal joint rate and power allocation for each of linear minimum mean-square error (MMSE) multiuser detector in the uplink and two types of blind linear MMSE detectors, i.e., the direct-matrix-inversion (DMI) blind detector and the subspace blind detector, in the downlink. We then present a multiple-channel video transmission scheme in wireless CDMA networks over multipath fading channels. For a given budget on the available bandwidth and total transmit power, the transmitter determines the optimal power allocations and the optimal transmission rates among multiple CDMA channels, as well as the optimal product channel code rate allocation. We also make use of results on the large-system CDMA performance for various multiuser receivers in multipath fading channels. We employ a fast joint source-channel coding algorithm to obtain the optimal product channel code structure. Finally, we propose an end-to-end architecture for multi-layer progressive video delivery over space-time differentially coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (STDC-OFDM) systems. We propose to use progressive joint source-channel coding to generate operational transmission distortion-power-rate (TD-PR) surfaces. By extending the rate-distortion function in source coding to the TD-PR surface in joint source-channel coding, our work can use the ??equal slope?? argument to effectively solve the transmission rate allocation problem as well as the transmission power allocation problem for multi-layer video transmission. It is demonstrated through simulations that as the wireless channel conditions change, these proposed schemes can scale the video streams and transport the scaled video streams to receivers with a smooth change of perceptual quality.

Wireless interference networks refer to communication systems in which multiple source–destination pairs share the same transmission medium, and each source’s transmission interferes with the reception at non-intended destinations. Optimizing the transmission of each source–destination pair is interrelated with that of the other pairs, and characterizing the performance limits of these networks is a challenging task. Solving the problem of managing the interference and data communications for these networks would potentially make it possible to apply solutions to several existing and emerging communication systems. Wireless devices can carefully coordinate the use of scarce radio resources in order to deal effectively with interference and establish successful communications. In order to enable coordinated transmission, terminals must usually have a certain level of knowledge about the propagation environment; that is, channel state information (CSI). In practice, however, no CSI is a priori available at terminals (transmitters and receivers), and proper channel training mechanisms (such as pilot-based channel training and channel state feedback) should be employed to acquire CSI. This requires each terminal to share available radio resources between channel training and data transmissions. Allocating more resources for channel training leads to an accurate CSI estimation, and consequently, a precise coordination. However, it leaves fewer resources for data transmissions. This creates the need to investigate optimum resource allocation. This thesis investigates an information-theoretic approach towards the performance analysis of interference networks, and employs signal processing techniques to design transmission schemes for achieving these limits in the following scenarios. First, the smallest interference network with two single-input single-output (SISO) source–destination pairs is considered. A fixed-rate transmission is desired between each source–destination pair. Transmission schemes based on point-to-point codes are developed. The transmissions may not always attain successful communication, which means that outage events may be declared. The outage probability is quantified and the ε-outage achievable rate region is characterized. Next, a multi-user SISO interference network is studied. A pilot-assisted ergodic interference alignment (PAEIA) scheme is proposed to conduct channel training, channel state feedback, and data communications. The performance limits are evaluated, and optimum radio resource allocation problems are investigated. The analysis is extended to multi-cell wireless interference networks. A low-complexity pilot-assisted opportunistic user scheduling (PAOUS) scheme is proposed. The proposed scheme includes channel training, one-bit feedback transmission, user scheduling and data transmissions. The achievable rate region is computed, and the optimum number of cells that should be active simultaneously is determined. A multi-user MIMO interference network is also studied. Here, each source sends multiple data streams; specifically, the same number as the degrees of freedom of the network. Distributed transceiver design and power control algorithms are proposed that only require local CSI at terminals.

QC 20141201

Ad hoc wireless networks have emerged as a promising communication scheme to meet the ever growing portability and infrastructureless demand of wireless services. The transmission power level affects signal quality and interference which causes congestion and thus impacts the communication performance. Hence, power control has been the focus of extensive research. In this thesis, we examine the problem of power control in wireless networks, specially in ad hoc wireless networks. Two important types of power control, which are power control with fixed SNIR targets and power control with variable SNIR targets, are discussed in the thesis. We first introduce some important techniques and results involved in the development of power control algorithms and give literature review. A PI power control approach from literature is introduced. Due to lack of stability analysis, we show there are problems in the existing algorithm. We then propose a stable Proportional-integral (PI) power control algorithm. A forgetting factor is adopted to improve the transient performance. Distributed power control algorithms for systems with fixed SNIR targets might diverge when the feasibility condition is not satisfied. Multi-objective optimisation (MO) is adopted to deal with power control with variable SNIR targets. After discussing the existing MO algorithm, we propose a quadratic multiobjective-optimisation (QMO) algorithm where a quadratic objective function and the greedy methodology are adopted for the dynamics. Theoretical and simulation results of convergence of the new algorithms are given. We also provide review of some important power control frameworks which can be used to show convergence of power control algorithms. However, the QMO algorithm does not fall into any existing framework. In order to show convergence of the QMO algorithm, we suggest a new generalised framework in this thesis.

The advent of the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) led to the standardisation of the first video codecs for interpersonal video communications, followed closely by the development of standards for the compression, storage and distribution of digital video in the PC environment, mainly targeted at CD-ROM storage. At the same time the second-generation digital wireless networks, and the third-generation networks being developed, have enough bandwidth to support digital video services. The radio propagation medium is a difficult environment in which to deploy low bit error rate, real time services such as video. The video coding standards designed for ISDN and storage applications, were targeted at low bit error rate levels, orders of magnitude lower than the typical bit error rates experienced on wireless networks. This thesis is concerned with the transmission of digital, compressed video over wireless networks. It investigates the behaviour of motion compensated, hybrid interframe DPCM/DCT video coding algorithms, which form the basis of current coding algorithms, in the presence of high bit error rates commonly found on digital wireless networks. A group of video codecs, based on the ITU-T H.261 standard, are developed which are robust to the burst errors experienced on radio channels. The radio link is simulated at low level, to generate typical error files that closely model real world situations, in a Rayleigh fading environment perturbed by co-channel interference, and on frequency selective channels which introduce inter symbol interference. Typical anti-multipath techniques, such as antenna diversity, are deployed to mitigate the effects of the channel. Link layer error control techniques are also investigated.

Thesis (M.S. in Electrical Engineering)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2007.
Thesis Advisor(s): McEachen, John C. ; Tummala, Murali. "December 2007." Description based on title screen as viewed on January 24, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-74). Also available in print.

In this thesis new techniques are presented to achieve performance enhancement in wireless cooperative networks. In particular, techniques to improve transmission rate and maximise end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio are described. An offset transmission scheme with full interference cancellation for a wireless cooperative network with frequency flat links and four relays is introduced. This method can asymptotically, as the size of the symbol block increases, achieve maximum transmission rate together with full cooperative diversity provided the destination node has multiple antennas. A novel full inter-relay interference cancellation method that also achieves asymptotically maximum rate and full cooperative diversity is then designed for which the destination node only requires a single antenna. Two- and four-relay selection schemes for wireless cooperative amplify and forward type networks are then studied in order to overcome the degradation of end-to-end bit error rate performance in single-relay selection networks when there are feedback errors in the relay to destination node links. Outage probability analysis for a four-relay selection scheme without interference is undertaken. Outage probability analysis of a full rate distributed transmission scheme with inter-relay interference is also studied for best single- and two-relay selection networks. The advantage of multi-relay selection when no interference occurs and when adjacent cell interference is present at the relay nodes is then shown theoretically. Simulation results for outage probability analysis are included which support the theoretical expressions. Finally, outage probability analysis of a cognitive amplify and forward type relay network with cooperation between certain secondary users, chosen by best single-, two- and four-relay selection is presented. The cognitive amplify and forward relays are assumed to exploit an underlay approach, which requires adherence to an interference constraint on the primary user. The relay selection scheme is performed either with a max-min strategy or one based on maximising exact end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio. The outage probability analyses are again confirmed by numerical evaluations.

L'étude des communications furtives, aussi connues sous le nom de communications avec faible probabilité de détection, a connu un regain d'intérêt dans la communauté Théorie de l'Information dans les années passées. Depuis que Bash et al. ont montré en 2012 que les communications point-à-point sous contrainte de furtivité obéissent à une loi en racine carrée, le nombre de contributions dans ce domaine n'a cessé de croître. Dans cette thèse, deux nouveaux problèmes de communications furtives sont présentés. Premièrement, les communications furtives sur les liens point-à-point sont étudiées quand l'adversaire observe uniquement une fraction des sorties de canal pour essayer de détecter la communication. Une borne de faisabilité pour une longueur finie de blocs est obtenue pour ce problème. Deuxièmement, le problème d'introduction d'information furtive dans un code de broadcast existant est présenté. Etant donné un code de broadcast pour transmettre de l'information à deux récepteurs, le but de cette étude est de déterminer le nombre maximum de bits d'information qui peuvent être envoyés de manière fiable à l'un des récepteurs tout en étant furtifs pour l'autre récepteur. Pour ce problème, une borne de faisabilité et une borne d'impossibilité sont obtenues dans le régime asymptotique pour une classe particulière de canaux, i.e., les canaux symétriques. Ces deux bornes caractérisent le nombre maximal de bits d'information qui peuvent être introduits de manière furtive dans le code de broadcast donné pour des canaux symétriques
The problem of covert communications, also known as communications with low-probability of detection has gained interest in the information theory community in the last years. Since Bash et al. showed in 2012 that the square-root law applied in the point-to-point case for such communications systems, the number of contributions on the topic did not cease to grow. In this thesis, two new problems of covert communications are introduced. First, the problem of covert communications over a point-to-point link where a warden observes only a fraction of channel outputs in order to try to detect the communications is studied. An achievability bound in the finite block-length regime is derived for this problem. Second, the problem of embedding covert information into a given broadcast code is introduced. Given a broadcast code to transmit a common message to two receivers, the goal is to determine the maximum number of information bits that can be reliably sent to one receiver while remaining covert with respect to the other receiver. For this problem, both an achievability and converse bound in the asymptotic block-length regime are derived for a particular class of channels, i.e., symmetric channels. Together these bounds characterize the maximum number of information bits that can be covertly embedded in a given broadcast code for symmetric channels

Mestrado em Engenharia Eletrónica e Telecomunicações
The development in telecommunications and particularly in wireless communications has been one of the most striking features of the contemporary world. The globalization only has been possible thanks to the evolution of communication technologies which increasingly have allowed to satisfy the constant people's needs of being "always connected" whatever the environment where they are. Concerning the evolution of technologies, vehicular networks have been one of the areas of great interest. This interest has been manifested both in research and in the development of the automotive industry that has produced innovative vehicles which are more and more equipped with new technologies. It is expected that communication in vehicular networks enable not only the communication between vehicles, but also a more comfortable and safe driving, making the user's experience of this type of networks richer and stimulating. The specific characteristics of vehicular networks, namely the high mobility, unpredictable routes, dynamic topology and the consequent and constant loss of connectivity, have been a challenge that has motivated studies to find solutions to these limitations. The work carried out for this dissertation is in the area of Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs) and it is based on the Delay and Disruption Tolerant Networks (DTNs). With this project, identified as "Opportunistic Transmission of Information in Vehicular Networks", we aim to study the communication and transmission of information in these networks which do not allow communication without delays and disruptions. For this purpose it is studied the performance of DTN mechanisms in these networks. In this work it is used the implementation IBR-DTN to test DTN in VANETs. This implementation showed, in previous works, to be the one that presents the best performance comparing it with other existing implementations. The study involved, in an initial phase, reading and analyzing the implementation code so that it was possible to add instructions that allowed to observe the behavior of the implementation in the several tests carried out, as well as the correction of the bugs in the implementation. In the first phase, in laboratory, with fixed nodes and in a controlled environment, several scenarios were created to simulate the possible situations a node can meet: direct transfer with and without delay, indirect transfer (multi-hop) and indirect transfer with delay which corresponds to the store and transport of the bundles (set of information) until the next node. From the analysis of the collected information and observing the corresponding graphs, it was possible to observe that the implementation was working properly in the vehicles equipment for communication. Still in laboratory it was built an heterogeneous network with several devices (servers, NetRiders, Single Board Computers (SBCs), tablet, Raspberry Pi e Macbook) to show the integration of the IBR-DTN implementation and its extension in different equipments. During this test several files were sent among these devices, which were correctly received in the nodes previously defined as destination nodes. After testing and checking that everything was working properly in the laboratory, the same implementation was transferred to a testbed with 25 vehicles and 3 fixed infrastructures in Leixões harbor. In this testbed several DTN routing protocols were tested in order to check which of them showed better performance in the delivery rate of the bundles and of the collected information (the log files were also delivered via DTN) from the On-Board Units (OBUs) to the server, located in the Internet. The routing protocol with static routes to the Road Side Units (RSUs) proved a better efficiency compared to the other protocols. This was due to the the fact that this network is well covered with RSUs, and there is no relation between the historic of contacts and the probability that the vehicles will meet again in the future.
O desenvolvimento na área das telecomunicações e, mais particularmente, nas comunicações sem-fios tem sido um dos traços mais marcantes do mundo actual. A globalização só tem sido possível graças à evolução dos meios de comunicação que cada vez mais permitem satisfazer a constante necessidade das pessoas estarem sempre ligadas, qualquer que seja o ambiente em que se encontrem. As redes veiculares têm sido uma das áreas de elevado interesse na evolução das tecnologias. Esse interesse tem-se manifestado tanto ao nível da investigação como ao nível do desenvolvimento da indústria automóvel que tem produzido veículos cada vez mais equipados com novas tecnologias. Prevê-se que a comunicação em redes veiculares permitam não só a comunicação entre os veículos, mas também uma condução mais confortável e segura, tornando a experiência dos utilizadores deste tipo de redes mais rica e estimulante. As características específicas das redes veiculares, nomeadamente a elevada mobilidade, rotas imprevisíveis, topologia dinâmica e a consequente e constante perda de conectividade, tornam-se um desafio que tem motivado estudos no sentido de se encontrarem soluções para essas limitações. O trabalho desenvolvido para esta dissertação insere-se na área das Vehicular Ad-hoc NETworks (VANETs) e baseia-se nas Delay and Disruption Tolerant Networks (DTNs). Com este projecto, identificado como "Transmissão Oportunística de Informação em Redes Veiculares", pretende-se estudar a comunicação e envio de informação nas redes que permitem uma comunicação com atrasos e disrupções. Para o efeito é estudado o desempenho de mecanismos de DTN nestas redes. Neste trabalho é utilizada a implementação IBR-DTN para testar DTN nas redes veiculares. Esta implementação mostrou, em trabalhos anteriores, ser aquela que apresenta melhor desempenho face a outras que existem. O estudo envolveu, numa fase inicial, a leitura e analise de código da implementação para que fosse possível adicionar instruções que permitissem observar o comportamento da implementação nos diversos testes realizados, bem como a correcção de erros da implementação. Na primeira fase, em laboratório, com nos fixos e num ambiente controlado, foram realizados vários cenários que mostram as situações possíveis que um nó pode encontrar: transferência direta com e sem atraso, transferência indirecta (multi-hop) e transferência indirecta com atraso que corresponde ao armazenamento e transporte dos bundles (conjunto de informação) até ao próximo nó. A partir da analise da informação recolhida e observação dos gráficos obtidos foi possível verificar o correcto funcionamento da implementação nos equipamentos de comunicação entre veículos. Ainda em laboratório foi construída uma rede heterogénea com diversos dispositivos (servidores, NetRiders, Single Board Computers (SBCs), tablet, Raspberry Pi e Macbook) com o objectivo de mostrar a integração da implementação IBR-DTN e as suas extensões em diferentes equipamentos. Neste teste foram enviados ficheiros entre estes dispositivos, os quais foram recebidos correctamente nos nos definidos como destino. Depois de testar e certificar que tudo funcionava em laboratório, a mesma implementação foi transferida para uma testbed com 25 veículos e 3 infraestruturas fixas, no porto de Leixões. Nesta testbed foram testados diversos protocolos de encaminhamento DTN de forma a verificar qual apresentava melhor desempenho na taxa de entrega dos bundles e da informação recolhida (os ficheiros de log foram também entregues através de DTN) das On-Board Units (OBUs) para o servidor, localizado na Internet. O protocolo com rotas estáticas para as Road Side Units (RSUs) demonstrou uma melhor eficiência em relação aos restantes devido ao facto de esta rede estar bem coberta e de não existir uma relação entre o histórico de contactos e a probabilidade de os veículos se encontrarem novamente.

Sensor networks have diverse structures and generally employ proprietary protocols to gather useful information about the physical world. This diversity generates problems to interact with these sensors since custom APIs are needed which are tedious, error prone and have steep learning curve. In this thesis, I present RESThing, a lightweight REST framework for wireless sensor networks to ease the process of interacting with these sensors by making them accessible over the Web. I evaluate the system and show that it is feasible to support widely used and standard Web protocols in wireless sensor networks. Being able to integrate these tiny devices seamlessly into the global information medium, we can achieve the Web of Things.

In public warning message systems, information dissemination across the network is a critical aspect that has to be addressed. Dissemination of warning messages should be such that it reaches as many nodes in the network in a short time. In communication networks those based on device to device interactions, dissemination of the information has lately picked up lot of interest and the need for self organization of the network has been brought up. Self organization leads to local behaviors and interactions that have global effects and helps in addressing scaling issues. The use of self organized features allows autonomous behavior with low memory usage. Some examples of self organization phenomenon that are observed in nature are Lateral Inhibition and Flocking. In order to provide self organized features to communication networks, insights from such naturally occurring phenomenon is used. Achieving small world properties is an attractive way to enhance information dissemination across the network. In small world model rewiring of links in the network is performed by altering the length and the direction of the existing links. In an autonomous wireless environment such organization can be achieved using self organized phenomenon like Lateral inhibition and Flocking and beamforming (a concept in communication). Towards this, we first use Lateral Inhibition, analogy to Flocking behavior and beamforming to show how dissemination of information can be enhanced. Lateral Inhibition is used to create virtual regions in the network. Then using the analogy of Flocking rules, beam properties of the nodes in the regions are set. We then prove that small world properties are achieved using average path length metric. However, the proposed algorithm is applicable to static networks and Flocking and Lateral Inhibition concepts, if used in a mobile scenario, will be highly complex in terms of computation and memory. In a mobile scenario such as human mobility aided networks, the network structure changes frequently. In such conditions dissemination of information is highly impacted as new connections are made and old ones are broken. We thus use stability concept in mobile networks with beamforming to show how information dissemination process can be enhanced. In the algorithm, we first predict the stability of a node in the mobile network using locally available information and then uses it to identify beamforming nodes. In the algorithm, the low stability nodes are allowed to beamform towards the nodes with high stability. The difference between high and low stability nodes is based on threshold value. The algorithm is developed such that it does not require any global knowledge about the network and works using only local information. The results are validated using how quickly more number of nodes receive the information and different state of the art algorithms. We also show the effect of various parameters such as number of sources, number of packets, mobility parameters and antenna parameters etc. on the information dissemination process in the network. In realistic scenarios however, the dynamicity in the network is not only related to mobility. Dynamic conditions also arise due to change in density of nodes at a given time. To address effect of such scenario on the dissemination of information related to public safety in a metapopulation, we use the concepts of epidemic model, beamforming and the countrywide mobility pattern extracted from the $D4D$ dataset. Here, we also propose the addition of three latent states to the existing epidemic model ($SIR$ model). We study the transient states towards the evolution of the number of devices having the information and the difference in the number of devices having the information when compared with different cases to evaluate the results. Through the results we show that enhancements in the dissemination process can be achieved in the addressed scenario

Dans les systèmes d'alertes publiques, l’étude de la diffusion des informations dans le réseau est essentielle. Les systèmes de diffusion des messages d'alertes doivent atteindre beaucoup de nœuds en peu de temps. Dans les réseaux de communication basés sur les interactions “device to device”, on s'est récemment beaucoup intéressé à la diffusion des informations et le besoin d'auto-organisation a été mis en évidence. L'auto-organisation conduit à des comportements locaux et des interactions qui ont un effet sur le réseau global et présentent un avantage de scalabilité. Ces réseaux auto-organisés peuvent être autonomes et utiliser peu d'espace mémoire. On peut développer des caractères auto-organisés dans les réseaux de communication en utilisant des idées venant de phénomènes naturels. Il semble intéressant de chercher à obtenir les propriétés des “small world” pour améliorer la diffusion des informations dans le réseau. Dans les modèles de “small world” on réalise un recâblage des liens dans le réseau en changeant la taille et la direction des liens existants. Dans un environnement sans-fils autonome une organisation de ce type peut être créée en utilisant le flocking, l'inhibition latérale et le “beamforming”. Dans ce but, l'auteur utilise d'abord l'analogie avec l'inhibition latérale, le flocking et le “beamforming” pour montrer comment la diffusion des informations peut être améliorée. L'analogue de l'inhibition latérale est utilisé pour créer des régions virtuelles dans le réseau. Puis en utilisant l'analogie avec les règles du flocking, on caractérise les propriétés des faisceaux permettant aux nœuds de communiquer dans les régions. Nous prouvons que les propriétés des “small world” sont vérifiées en utilisant la mesure des moyennes des longueurs des chemins. Cependant l'algorithme proposé est valable pour les réseaux statiques alors que dans les cas introduisant de la mobilité, les concepts d'inhibition latérale et de flocking nécessiteraient beaucoup plus de temps. Dans le cas d'un réseau mobile la structure du réseau change fréquemment. Certaines connexions intermittentes impactent fortement la diffusion des informations. L'auteur utilise le concept de stabilité avec le “beamforming” pour montrer comment on peut améliorer la diffusion des informations. Dans son algorithme il prévoit d'abord la stabilité du nœud en utilisant des informations locales et il utilise ce résultat pour identifier les nœuds qui réaliseront du beamforming. Dans l'algorithme, les nœuds de stabilité faible sont autorisés à faire du beamforming vers les nœuds de forte stabilité. La frontière entre forte et faible stabilité est fixée par un seuil. Cet algorithme ne nécessite pas une connaissance globale du réseau, mais utilise des données locales. Les résultats sont validés en étudiant le temps au bout duquel plus de nœuds reçoivent l'information et en comparant avec d'autres algorithmes de la littérature. Cependant, dans les réseaux réels, les changements de structure ne sont pas dus qu'à la mobilité, mais également à des changements de la densité des nœuds à un moment donné. Pour tenir compte de l'influence de tels événements sur la diffusion des informations concernant la sécurité publique, l'auteur utilise les concepts de modèle de métapopulation, épidémiologiques, “beamforming” et mobilité géographique obtenu à partir de données D4D. L'auteur propose la création de trois états latents qu'il ajoute au modèle épidémiologique connu: SIR. L'auteur étudie les états transitoires en analysant l'évolution du nombre de postes ayant reçu les informations et compare les résultats concernant ce nombre dans les différents cas. L'auteur démontre ainsi que le scenario qu'il propose permet d'améliorer le processus de diffusion des informations. Il montre aussi les effets de différents paramètres comme le nombre de sources, le nombre de paquets, les paramètres de mobilité et ceux qui caractérisent les antennes sur la diffusion des informations
In public warning message systems, information dissemination across the network is a critical aspect that has to be addressed. Dissemination of warning messages should be such that it reaches as many nodes in the network in a short time. In communication networks those based on device to device interactions, dissemination of the information has lately picked up lot of interest and the need for self organization of the network has been brought up. Self organization leads to local behaviors and interactions that have global effects and helps in addressing scaling issues. The use of self organized features allows autonomous behavior with low memory usage. Some examples of self organization phenomenon that are observed in nature are Lateral Inhibition and Flocking. In order to provide self organized features to communication networks, insights from such naturally occurring phenomenon is used. Achieving small world properties is an attractive way to enhance information dissemination across the network. In small world model rewiring of links in the network is performed by altering the length and the direction of the existing links. In an autonomous wireless environment such organization can be achieved using self organized phenomenon like Lateral inhibition and Flocking and beamforming (a concept in communication). Towards this, we first use Lateral Inhibition, analogy to Flocking behavior and beamforming to show how dissemination of information can be enhanced. Lateral Inhibition is used to create virtual regions in the network. Then using the analogy of Flocking rules, beam properties of the nodes in the regions are set. We then prove that small world properties are achieved using average path length metric. However, the proposed algorithm is applicable to static networks and Flocking and Lateral Inhibition concepts, if used in a mobile scenario, will be highly complex in terms of computation and memory. In a mobile scenario such as human mobility aided networks, the network structure changes frequently. In such conditions dissemination of information is highly impacted as new connections are made and old ones are broken. We thus use stability concept in mobile networks with beamforming to show how information dissemination process can be enhanced. In the algorithm, we first predict the stability of a node in the mobile network using locally available information and then uses it to identify beamforming nodes. In the algorithm, the low stability nodes are allowed to beamform towards the nodes with high stability. The difference between high and low stability nodes is based on threshold value. The algorithm is developed such that it does not require any global knowledge about the network and works using only local information. The results are validated using how quickly more number of nodes receive the information and different state of the art algorithms. We also show the effect of various parameters such as number of sources, number of packets, mobility parameters and antenna parameters etc. on the information dissemination process in the network. In realistic scenarios however, the dynamicity in the network is not only related to mobility. Dynamic conditions also arise due to change in density of nodes at a given time. To address effect of such scenario on the dissemination of information related to public safety in a metapopulation, we use the concepts of epidemic model, beamforming and the countrywide mobility pattern extracted from the $D4D$ dataset. Here, we also propose the addition of three latent states to the existing epidemic model ($SIR$ model). We study the transient states towards the evolution of the number of devices having the information and the difference in the number of devices having the information when compared with different cases to evaluate the results. Through the results we show that enhancements in the dissemination process can be achieved in the addressed scenario

Дисертація на здобуття наукового ступеня кандидата технічних наук за спеціальністю 05.13.05 – Комп'ютерні системи та компоненти. – Національний технічний університет "Харківський політехнічний інститут", Харків 2018. Дисертаційна робота присвячена вирішенню науково-практичної задачі удосконалення методу розподілу мережевого ресурсу комп'ютерних систем геоінформаційної системи екологічного моніторингу, що дозволяє підвищити оперативність функціонування цієї систем за рахунок використання розроблених моделей та методів розподілу обчислювального ресурсу мережі. Розроблено метод ухвалення рішень по організації стаціонарних постів системи ГІС екологічного моніторингу, який у відмінності від існуючих враховує параметр, що визначає швидкість зміни рівня поточного забруднення, величину концентрації небезпечних хімічних речовин (ОХВ) і розу вітрів, характерну для цієї місцевості. Запропоновано модель трафіку передачі даних гібридної комп'ютерної мережі ГІС екологічного моніторингу, яка враховує злиття інформаційних потоків, що мають різні статистичні моделі та метод розподілу мережевого ресурсу гібридної комп'ютерної мережі ГІС за рахунок використання технології MIMO, що дозволяє на 12-15% понизити час, необхідне на доставку даних моніторингу. Розроблена модель програмно-апаратних засобів, використання якої враховує особливості безпровідній передачі даних від декількох джерел інформації у гібридної комп'ютерної мережі ГІС.
Thesis for scientific degree candidate of technical sciences in the specialty 05.13.05 – computer systems and components. – National Technical University "Kharkіv Polytechnic Institute", Kharkіv 2018. The dissertation is devoted to the solution of the scientific and practical task of improving the method of network resource distribution of computer system of the geographic information system for ecological monitoring, which allows increasing the efficiency of functioning of these systems by using already developed models and methods of computing resource distribution of the network. The structure of GIS for environmental monitoring is developed, its main sub-systems and interaction principles are defined. The structure of hybrid computer network for digital data transmissions proposed, which allows optimizing the process of data transmission for environmental monitoring. The method of making decisions on the foundation of stationary posts of GIS for environmental monitoring is provided, which, in contrast to the existing ones, takes into account the parameter that determines the alteration rate of the then-current pollution level, the magnitude of the concentration of hazardous chemicals (HAZCHEM), and the wind rose specific for the area in question. Also, this method takes into consideration that the difference of HAZCHEM concentration in space varies from point to point. The whole from the abovementioned allows localizing zones of potential pollution and severely reducing the number of specialized observation posts (by 10-15%). The data transmission traffic model is developed for the hybrid computer network (CN) of the environmental monitoring GIS. This model takes into account the merging of information flows, which have different statistical models. The use of the offered model allows shortening the computer network data transmission rate by 13%. The network resources distribution method for the hybrid computer network of the environmental monitoring GIS is developed through the use of MIMO technology, which allows reducing the time required for monitoring data delivery by 12-15%. The model of hardware and software has been developed, the usage of which considers the features of wireless data transmission from several information sources in the hybrid computer network of GIS, thereby allowing to reduce the package loss ratio and to increase the speed of data transmission for the hybrid CN of GIS. The offered efficiency enhancement models and methods in computer networks of GIS have been examined in simulation modeling and experimental studies, which have thereby confirmed the veracity and significance of the derived results. The developed software and hardware model for ecological monitoring GIS allows reducing dates of receipt, processing and analysis of the ecological data, improving veracity and quality of the received results, and ensuring information safety.

Дисертація на здобуття наукового ступеня кандидата технічних наук за спеціальністю 05.13.05 – Комп'ютерні системи та компоненти. – Національний технічний університет "Харківський політехнічний інститут", Харків 2018. Дисертаційна робота присвячена вирішенню науково-практичної задачі удосконалення методу розподілу мережевого ресурсу комп'ютерних систем геоінформаційної системи екологічного моніторингу, що дозволяє підвищити оперативність функціонування цієї систем за рахунок використання розроблених моделей та методів розподілу обчислювального ресурсу мережі. Розроблено метод ухвалення рішень по організації стаціонарних постів системи ГІС екологічного моніторингу, який у відмінності від існуючих враховує параметр, що визначає швидкість зміни рівня поточного забруднення, величину концентрації небезпечних хімічних речовин (ОХВ) і розу вітрів, характерну для цієї місцевості. Запропоновано модель трафіку передачі даних гібридної комп'ютерної мережі ГІС екологічного моніторингу, яка враховує злиття інформаційних потоків, що мають різні статистичні моделі та метод розподілу мережевого ресурсу гібридної комп'ютерної мережі ГІС за рахунок використання технології MIMO, що дозволяє на 12-15% понизити час, необхідне на доставку даних моніторингу. Розроблена модель програмно-апаратних засобів, використання якої враховує особливості безпровідній передачі даних від декількох джерел інформації у гібридної комп'ютерної мережі ГІС.
Thesis for scientific degree candidate of technical sciences in the specialty 05.13.05 – computer systems and components. – National Technical University "Kharkіv Polytechnic Institute", Kharkіv 2018. The dissertation is devoted to the solution of the scientific and practical task of improving the method of network resource distribution of computer system of the geographic information system for ecological monitoring, which allows increasing the efficiency of functioning of these systems by using already developed models and methods of computing resource distribution of the network. The structure of GIS for environmental monitoring is developed, its main sub-systems and interaction principles are defined. The structure of hybrid computer network for digital data transmissions proposed, which allows optimizing the process of data transmission for environmental monitoring. The method of making decisions on the foundation of stationary posts of GIS for environmental monitoring is provided, which, in contrast to the existing ones, takes into account the parameter that determines the alteration rate of the then-current pollution level, the magnitude of the concentration of hazardous chemicals (HAZCHEM), and the wind rose specific for the area in question. Also, this method takes into consideration that the difference of HAZCHEM concentration in space varies from point to point. The whole from the abovementioned allows localizing zones of potential pollution and severely reducing the number of specialized observation posts (by 10-15%). The data transmission traffic model is developed for the hybrid computer network (CN) of the environmental monitoring GIS. This model takes into account the merging of information flows, which have different statistical models. The use of the offered model allows shortening the computer network data transmission rate by 13%. The network resources distribution method for the hybrid computer network of the environmental monitoring GIS is developed through the use of MIMO technology, which allows reducing the time required for monitoring data delivery by 12-15%. The model of hardware and software has been developed, the usage of which considers the features of wireless data transmission from several information sources in the hybrid computer network of GIS, thereby allowing to reduce the package loss ratio and to increase the speed of data transmission for the hybrid CN of GIS. The offered efficiency enhancement models and methods in computer networks of GIS have been examined in simulation modeling and experimental studies, which have thereby confirmed the veracity and significance of the derived results. The developed software and hardware model for ecological monitoring GIS allows reducing dates of receipt, processing and analysis of the ecological data, improving veracity and quality of the received results, and ensuring information safety.

La transmisión asistida por relay o transmisión cooperativa es una nueva técnica de diversidad espacial donde aparece un elemento nuevo (un relay o un usuario cooperativo) en la tradicional transmisión punto a punto (fuente a destino). Ahora en la comunicación intervienen tres enlaces: fuente-relay, relay-destino y fuente-destino. El relay, además de asistir a la fuente en la transmisión de un mensaje, permite combatir las degradaciones que puede sufrir el canal como el shadowing y el pathloss. Aunque esta técnica está basada en el trabajo realizado en los 70 por Van der Meulen, Cover y El Gamal, ha sido en los últimos años cuando se han vuelto a considerar el uso de relays. En realidad, la transmisión asistida por un relay puede verse como un sistema virtual multi-antena (virtual MIMO) donde las antenas están distribuidas en diferentes terminales. Sin embargo, al contrario de los sistemas multi-antena y debido a la limitación de la actual tecnología radio, el relay debe trabajar en modo half-duplex, ya que no puede transmitir y recibir simultáneamente en la misma banda. Este hecho, motiva que la transmisión deba realizarse en dos fases ortogonales en función del modo del relay (recibiendo datos - relay-receive phase o transmitiendo datos - relay-transmit phase). Estas fases pueden implementarse en el dominio de la frecuencia o el tiempo.
Esta tesis investiga protocolos y estrategias para la transmisión asistida por relay para mejorar la eficiencia espectral y homogeneizar el servicio para todos los usuarios en un sistema de comunicación celular. La introducción del relay en la comunicación implica la redefinición de muchas técnicas y protocolos considerados en las comunicaciones punto a punto y en los sistemas multi-antena, situados en la capa física y/o superiores.
En primer lugar se presentan los achievable rates obtenidos por la transmisión asistida por relay en función del rol del relay (amplifica y retransmite o decodifica y retransmite), el tipo de transmisión (siempre transmite, incremental o selectiva), los datos transmitidos por el relay (repite los símbolos recibidos o son independientes) y el tipo del protocolo half duplex. En función de los terminales activos en cada fase de la comunicación (fuente, destino o relay), existen hasta cuatro protocolos. Otro aspecto considerado es la asignación de recursos (resource allocation) para cada fase de la comunicación, la cual puede estar fijada de antemano o puede ser ajustada dinámicamente en función de los canales de los diferentes enlaces. En el caso de que todos los coeficientes del canal se conocieran perfectamente, los terminales podrían transmitir síncronamente, mejorando la comunicación gracias a la ganancia debida a técnicas de pre-codificación por medio de los autovectores del canal (con antenas distribuidas).
Además dos técnicas de transmisión asistida por relay son evaluadas cuando existen múltiples relays por destino. Ambas dependen del tipo de mensajes transmitidos a cada relay (mensajes independientes o uno común). La asignación de recursos para ambas técnicas puede verse como un problema convexo.
Tres escenarios resumen diferentes tipos de transmisión asistida por relay para múltiples fuentes y un solo destino: RMAC (Relay-assisted Multiple Access Channel), UC (User Cooperation) and MARC (Multiple Access Relay Channel). Su diferencia se basa en el tipo de relay half- duplex considerado. La transmisión puede hacerse síncrona o asíncronamente. Las fuentes y los relays están limitados en potencia y el acceso de ellos en cada fase de la comunicación pude hacerse por medio de TDMA (time division multiple access), FDMA (frequency division multiple access) or SC (superposition coding multiple access). La asignación de recursos puede ser formulada como un problema convexo en algunos casos y la solución óptima puede ser encontrada.
Seguidamente la transmisión asistida por relay y duplexada en tiempo es aplicada a un sistema celular centralizado basado en TDMA en el downlink. Con el objetivo de mejorar la eficiencia espectral se propone el reuso espacial de un slot temporal para las transmisiones de los relays hacia sus respectivos destinos (slot de relay), generando interferencia para todos los restantes destinos activos. Un algoritmo de control de potencia basado en la teoría de juegos es propuesto para combatir la interferencia generada. Bajo esa configuración, un algoritmo de scheduling investiga las posibles ganancias debidas al multi-user gain y mide el overhead introducido.
Otra forma de tratar con la interferencia es la de controlar el rate de nuestra transmisión (rate control management). Bajo ciertas condiciones es posible modelar la función de densidad de probabilidad de la potencia interferente. En ese caso, la fuente ajusta el rate para maximizar el throughput de la comunicación. Esta solución es extendida para el caso en el que cada destino es asistido por varios relays. Las dos soluciones propuestas son capaces de proporcionar mejores resultados que la transmisión directa, a pesar de la interferencia existente en el slot de relay.
Finalmente, se investiga el control dinámico del enlace para la transmisión asistida por relay con dos diferentes tipos de conocimiento sobre el canal: conocimiento estadístico (statistical knowledge of the channel state) o conocimiento del canal instantáneo (actual information about the current channel state).
Estos dos tipos de conocimiento derivan en diferentes estrategias a utilizar para seleccionar la modulación y el esquema de codificación (MCS). En el primer caso, los rates seleccionados no están adaptados al canal actual, por lo que el destino puede recibir erróneamente los mensajes. Los protocolos de retransmisión de mensajes (ARQ - automatic repeat request) son los encargados de asegurarse la correcta recepción y son redefinidos para la transmisión asistida por relay.. En este trabajo, se especifica los códigos espacio-tiempo distribuidos, la codificación en al fuente y el relay y la longitud de las retransmisiones. Cuando la fuente conoce algún parámetro del canal instantáneo puede adaptar el MCS para esa realización del canal. En ese caso se investiga la predicción del error en las transmisiones asistidas por relay, y con ello es posible diseñar el MCS para que maximice la cantidad de información transmitida para una probabilidad de pérdida de paquete o que maximice el throughput.
The relay-assisted or cooperative transmission is a relatively new class of spatial diversity technique where a new element comes up in the conventional source-destination or point-to point communication: an assisting relay or cooperating user. The relay assists to the source in transmitting a message to the destination and allows dealing with the channel impairments like shadowing and pathloss. Although the seminal works were issued in the 70's by van der Meulen, Cover and El Gamal, it has been during the last years when it has re-gained more attention by the researchers. In fact, the relay-assisted transmission can be seen as a virtual MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) with distributed antennas. In contrast to MIMO systems, the transmission requires the use of additional channel resources because of the limitation of the current radio technology: the relay terminal is constrained to work in half-duplex mode, which motivates that the transmission must be carried out in two orthogonal phases (relay-receive and relay-transmit phase), duplexed in time or frequency domains.
This dissertation investigates protocols and strategies for the relay-assisted transmission which improve the spectral efficiency and homogenize service in the cellular communication systems. The new element present in the communication, the relay terminal, imposes a redefinition of many techniques and protocols commonly used in the point-to-point and MIMO systems, which are placed at the physical and upper layers.
First, achievable rates using the relay-assisted transmission are provided which depend on the role of the relay (amplify-and-forward or decode-and-forward), the type of the transmission (persistent transmission, incremental or selective relaying), the data transmitted by the relays (repetition or unconstrained coding) and the type of half-duplex protocol. There are up to four protocol definition depending on the activity of the terminals on each phase. An additional aspect addressed is the resource allocation for each phase, that is, either it is fixed beforehand (static) or it is adjusted dynamically (dynamic) as a function of the channel quality. For the single-user relay- assisted transmission the resources can be allocated based on the channel quality of the different links. Moreover, if there is complete channel state information about all channel coefficients, source and relay can transmit synchronously enhancing the transmission thanks to the (distributed) eigenvector precoding techniques.
Two relay-assisted transmission techniques are evaluated when a destination is assisted by multiple relays. Both depend on the messages intended to each assisting relay (independent or common messaging). The resource allocation for both techniques is shown to be convex.
Additionally, three different scenarios illustrate the multi-user relay-assisted transmission with a single destination and different types of half-duplex relays: RMAC (Relay-assisted Multiple Access Channel), UC (User Cooperation) and MARC (Multiple Access Relay Channel). The relay-assisted transmission can be done synchronously or asynchronously. The sources and relays are power limited and access in each phase of the communication by TDMA (time division multiple access), FDMA (frequency division multiple access) or SC (superposition coding multiple access). For those scenarios the allocation of transmitted power and time resources can be formulated as a convex problem under some circumstances, evaluating the optimal solution.
Afterwards, the relay-assisted transmission duplexed in time is applied to a centralized cellular system based on TDMA in the downlink. The reuse of one time slot for the transmissions done from the relays to destinations (relay slot) is proposed to improve the spectral efficiency. This solution produces interference for all the destinations active in that time slot. A power control algorithm (at the relays) based on game theory is proposed to combat the generated interference. Under that configuration a scheduler algorithm explores the multi-user gain for the relay-assisted transmission, measuring the introduced overhead.
Another way of dealing with the interference is by rate control management. Under some circumstances it is possible to model the probability density function (pdf) of the interfering power. In such a case, the source can tune the transmission rate in order to maximize the throughput. This solution is extended to the case where each destination is assisted by multiple relays. In spite of the interfering power, both proposed solutions are able to provide significant gains over the direct transmission.
Finally, the dynamic link control of the relay assisted transmission is investigated under two different assumptions on the knowledge about the channel: statistical knowledge of the channel state and actual information about the current channel state. Both types of knowledge lead to different transmission strategies, in terms of selecting the modulation and coding scheme (MCS). Under the first case, the transmission rates are not adapted to the current channel realization and the destination can decode wrongly the messages. The Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) protocols are redefined for the relayassisted transmission to cope with these events. In this work we specify the (distributed) space-time codes, the coding at the source and relay and the length of the retransmissions. When there is actual information about the channel state the MCS can be adapted to the current channel realization. In such a case, the link error prediction for the relay-assisted transmission is investigated, and thus the MCS can be designed for maximizing the information rate for a given probability of packet loss or maximizing the throughput.

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2016.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages [77]-79).
An increasing number of applications rely on wireless networks for distributing information. Communicating time-sensitive data such as position, video, voice and telemetry, can be particularly challenging in wireless networks due to packet losses. In this thesis, we consider a single-hop wireless network, in which a base station is sending time-sensitive data packets to a set of clients. Our goal is to study transmission scheduling strategies for real-time traffic. Even though this problem has been explored in the literature, we present novel results that provide useful insight into the optimal scheduling problem. Previous work considered the problem of maximizing the throughput of networks with instantaneous feedback and without feedback. We address the general case of delayed feedback. Delayed feedback is particularly important for communication systems in which the round trip delay is much greater than the packet transmission time, and it has a significant impact on the scheduling decisions and network performance. In addition, we consider the case of clients receiving multiple parallel packet flows with heterogeneous deadlines. It is a well-known result that the Shortest Time to Extinction (STE) policy optimizes the throughput in wired networks. In this thesis, we establish a class of wireless networks for which the STE policy is throughput-optimal, i.e. minimizes the expected number of packets that expire due to the deadlines. Finally, we study the wireless network from the perspective of the Age of Information (AoI). This recently proposed performance metric represents the freshness of the information at the clients. We use Dynamic Programming to formulate and solve the problem of characterizing the scheduling policy that minimizes the AoI. The AoI metric is compared with throughput, and insights are drawn from numerical results. Simulations suggest that AoI-optimal policies are always throughput-optimal, while the converse is not true.
by Igor Kadota.
S.M.

Computer and Information Science
Ph.D.
With the rapid development of mobile devices technology, they are becoming very popular and a part of our everyday lives. These devices, which are equipped with wireless radios, such as cellular and WiFi radios, affect almost every aspect of our lives. People use smartphone and tablets to access the Internet, watch videos, chat with their friends, and etc. The wireless connections that these devices provide is more convenient than the wired connections. However, there are two main challenges in wireless networks: error-prone wireless links and network resources limitation. Network coding is widely used to provide reliable data transmission and to use the network resources efficiently. Network coding is a technique in which the original packets are mixed together using algebraic operations. In this dissertation, we study the applications of network coding in making the wireless transmissions robust against transmission errors and in efficient resource management. In many types of data, the importance of different parts of the data are different. For instance, in the case of numeric data, the importance of the data decreases from the most significant to the least significant bit. Also, in multi-layer videos, the importance of the packets in different layers of the videos are not the same. We propose novel data transmission methods in wireless networks that considers the unequal importance of the different parts of the data. In order to provide robust data transmissions and use the limited resources efficiently, we use random linear network coding technique, which is a type of network coding. In the first part of this dissertation, we study the application of network coding in resource management. In order to use the the limited storage of cache nodes efficiently, we propose to use triangular network coding for content distribution. We also design a scalable video-on-demand system, which uses helper nodes and network coding to provide users with their desired video quality. In the second part, we investigate the application of network coding in providing robust wireless transmissions. We propose symbol-level network coding, in which each packet is partitioned to symbols with different importance. We also propose a method that uses network coding to make multi-layer videos robust against transmission errors.
Temple University--Theses

Wireless sensor networks have been deployed outdoors ever since their inception. They have been used in areas such as precision farming, tracking wildlife, and monitoring glaciers. These diverse application areas all have different requirements and constraints, shaping the way in which the sensor network communicates. Yet something they all share is the exposure to an outdoor environment, which at times can be harsh, uncontrolled and difficult to predict. Therefore, understanding the implications of an outdoor environment is an essential step towards reliable wireless sensor network operations. In this thesis we consider aspects of how the environment influence outdoor wireless sensor networks. Specifically, we experimentally study how meteorological factors impact radio links, and find that temperature is most significant. This motivates us to further study and propose a first order model describing the impact of temperature on wireless sensor nodes. We also analyze transmission errors in an outdoor wireless sensor networks, identifying and explaining patterns in the way data gets corrupted. The findings lead to a design and evaluation of an approach for probabilistic recover of corrupt data in outdoor wireless sensor networks. Apart from the experimental findings we have conducted two different outdoor deployments for which large data sets has been collected, containing both link and meteorological measurements.
WISENET

Continuous advances in electronics, wireless technologies, manufacturing processes, and software engineering have led to the proliferation of a plethora of mobile devices — mobile phones, tablets, wearables, sensors, smart consumer electronics, etc. — in our everyday lives. The interconnection of these devices into a single web of communication, information, and computation gives rise to a densely meshed wireless ecosystem that transforms the way users interact with their environment. However, ubiquitous interactions with devices that collect data about user activities pose challenging privacy and security problems. Without protection mechanisms, the systems we deploy breach user privacy, often without the user’s knowledge or consent. The collected information could reveal the user whereabouts, track his motion through space, infer his habits and personal preferences, record user relationships, acquaintances, and contacts, and compromise sensitive information. We investigate the leakage of the so-called contextual information in wireless communications. We focus on event-driven wireless sensor networks (WSNs), whereby wireless transmissions are triggered upon the detection of important events such as the detection of an object of interest, the recording of an abnormal physical parameter, etc. Privacy in event-driven WSNs is particularly important, because traffic patterns can be directly associated to events. We devise general traffic analysis techniques for extracting contextual information from WSN communications. We further investigate the inference of contextual information when the WSN transmissions are protected by traffic normalization methods, which rely on statistical source anonymity (SSA). To counter traffic analysis, we develop resource-efficient communication and routing methods for reporting events over multi-hop routes without revealing the event location and occurrence time, as well as the location of the sink. Our work explores the tradeoff between the communication overhead for normalizing traffic and the end-to-end real packet delay for delivering the event report to the sink. This is achieved by limiting the number of fake transmissions for obfuscating traffic patterns. To do so, we map the problem of selecting fake sources to the problem of finding a minimum connected dominating set (MCDS) that covers the WSN deployment area. We then impose transmission schedules on the fake sources to accelerate the delivery of real event reports. Finally, we propose strong privacy traffic normalization techniques that reduce the number of fake transmissions without relying on the concept of statistical source anonymity. In the proposed solution, the WSN is partitioned into connected dominating sets (CDSs) that are activated in a round-robin fashion. We show that our methods reduce the communication by several orders of magnitude, while maintaining privacy under strong adversary models.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2018.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 157-162).
In shared spectrum, wireless communication systems experience interference that can cause packet transmission failures. The channel conditions that determine these losses are driven by an underlying time-evolving state, which is usually hidden from the wireless network and can only be partially observed through interaction with the channel. This introduces a trade-off between exploration and exploitation: the nodes of the network must schedule their transmissions to both observe the channels and achieve high throughput. The optimal balance between these objectives is determined by the network's stochastic traffic demand. Solving this joint learning and scheduling problem is complex. In this thesis, we devise queue-length-based scheduling policies that can adapt to the network's traffic, while simultaneously exploring the channel conditions. We begin by considering controller policies for a transmitter that has multiple available channels. Packets stochastically arrive to the transmitter's queue, and at each time slot, the transmitter can attempt transmission on one of the channels. For each channel, transmission attempts fail according to a random process with unknown mean. The objective of the transmitter is to learn the channel's rates while simultaneously minimizing its queue backlog. We proceed to formulate transmission policies that are asymptotically order optimal. Next, we consider transmission scheduling when the network under our control is sharing its channels with an uncooperative network. Transmission collisions cause the uncooperative network to reattempt transmission. Therefore, the experienced interference is correlated over time through the uncooperative network's queueing dynamics, which are hidden from our network and must be estimated through observation. We derive upper and lower bounds on the maximum attainable rate of successful transmissions in a two user network and use these bounds to characterize the performance of larger networks. These results lead to a queue-length-based method for stabilizing the networks. Finally, we extend our results to networks that have complex constraints on simultaneous transmissions. The network must learn its channel rates while also supporting its stochastic traffic demand. We devise a frame-based max-weight algorithm that learns the channel rates over the duration of a frame to stabilize the network.
Supported by the United States Air Force Air Force Contract No. FA8702-15-D-0001 Sponsored by by NSF AST-1547331 Sponsored by by NSF CNS-1701964 Sponsored by by NSF CNS-1524317 Sponsored by by NSF CNS-1217048 Sponsored by Army Research Office (ARO) grant number W911NF-17-1-0508
by Thomas Benjamin Stahlbuhk.
Ph. D.

Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2004.
Thesis research directed by: Electrical Engineering. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.

Advancements in broadband wireless networks and video compression tech- nologies have led to a tremendous increase in the demand for wireless multimedia services over recent years. Popular wireless transmission techniques enabling en- hanced throughput include orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) while the recent video coding standard, namely the H.264/ AYC, enables up to twice the compression efficiency to be attained relative to previous video com- pression techniques. Regardless of these developments, the highly dynamic and unpredictable nature of wireless channels, along with the requirements for main- taining the quality of service (Q08) and seamless video playback for all users, impose severe constraints on the design of wireless multimedia systems. A video coding technique that has been developed for such environments is the scalable video coding (8YC), which allows parts of the encoded bitstream to be discarded in response to a drop in the channel quality. However, state-of-the-art resource allocation techniques for SYC transmission over the wireless medium suffer from high computational complexity. Low-complexity, sub-optimal alternatives, on the other hand, are not always adequate. Given the sparse nature of spectrum resources, and the paradigm shift in spectrum access with the advent of cognitive radio systems, it is evident that sub-optimal algorithms having large optimality gaps are not desired. In fact, such approaches would be in contradiction to the definition of spectrum efficient, cognitive radio systems. In this thesis, resource allocation schemes for the transmission of H.264 SYC over wireless networks are investigated. In particular, OFDM systems are consid- ered, including OFDM-based cognitive radio networks. Cross-layer optimisation techniques for fine grain scalable (FGS) video sequences are analysed. Although the problem is initially non-convex and has non-polynomial-time (NP) complex- ity, low complexity techniques are derived that lead to solutions very close to the optimal. Resource allocation schemes for coarse grain scalable (CGS) and medium grain scalable (MGS) sequences over OFDM-based cognitive systems are also investigated. As opposed to FGS, CGS/MGS do not allow an encoded bitstream to be truncated at random bit location. Consequently, new methods are derived that focus on this particular type of video coding. The presence of multiple antennas at the cognitive transmitter and their effect on the aggregate visual quality of all secondary users are also discussed. Furthermore, a joint call admission control (CAC) and resource allocation for the transmission of CGS and MGS video sequences over orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) are analysed. This scheme considers the sce- narios where the available channel resources are not enough to support the video data of all users. Finally, rate-adaptation techniques for scalable video transmission over wire- less networks are presented. Rate-adaptation refers to the methods by which the encoding parameters of the video coding are adapted in response to the chan- nel conditions. Interestingly, it is shown that under a given channel condition, increasing the granularity of a scalable sequence lead to diminishing returns in terms of the rate achieved. Moreover, the transmission of scalable sequences over cognitive radio networks where perfect channel knowledge is not available is investigated. The effect of the granularity of the bitstream on the interference observed by incumbent users is also presented. It is shown that the probability of exceeding the interference threshold can be significantly reduced by proper specification of the video encoding parameters.

Wireless sensor networks have many sensor devices that send their data to the sink or base station for further processing. This is called direct delivery. But this leads to heavy traffic in the network and as the nodes are limited with energy, this decreases the lifetime of the network. So data aggregation technique is introduced to improve the lifetime. This technique aggregates or merges the multiple incoming packets in to single packet and forwards it to sink. There is different data aggregation techniques based on the topology of the network. This report clearly explains the purpose of data aggregation and gathering in WSN, data aggregation in flat networks and data aggregation in hierarchical networks, different data aggregation techniques in cluster based networks, chain based, tree based and grid based networks. Data aggregation technique can successfully minimize the data traffic and energy consumption only when it is carried out in a secure manner. Part2 of the survey explains the possible attacks that affect data aggregation in wireless sensor network. The secure data aggregation techniques in wireless sensor networks are also discussed in this report.