Cross-Layering Approaches in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

Wireless ad hoc networks are temporary formed, infrastructureless networks. Due to the unstable channel conditions and network connectivity, their characteristics impose serious challenges in front of network designers. The layering approach to network design does not fit the ad hoc environment well. Therefore, various cross-layering approaches, where protocol layers actively interact, exchange inherent layer information and fine tune their parameters according to the network status are becoming increasingly popular. This paper presents an in-depth analysis of the latest cross-layering approaches for wireless ad hoc networks supported by several examples. A special emphasis is put on the link and network layer related cross-layer designs. Several link adaptation and efficient service discovery schemes are elaborated through analytical and simulation studies. Their performance shows the potentials of the cross-layering for boosting system characteristics in wireless ad hoc networks. Liljana Gavrilovska currently holds a position of full professor at Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University “St. Cyril and Metodij” – Skopje, Macedonia. She is chief of Telecommunications Laboratory and teaches undergraduate courses in telecommunication networks, data transmission and switching and traffic theory, and graduate courses in wireless, mobile and personal networks, teletraffic engineering and planning, and broadband multiservices networks. In 2000 she joined the Center for PersonKommunikation, Aalborg University, Denmark, as a visiting professor and during 2001--2002 she held a position of associate research professor at the same university. Currently she holds a part-time position of associated research professor with Center for Teleinfrastructur (CTIF). Prof. Gavrilovska was involved in several EU (ACTS ASAP, IST PACWOMAN, MAGNET, TEMPUS) and national/international projects. She published numerous conference and journal papers and participated in several workshops. At the moment she is working on the book “Ad Hoc Networking Towards Seamless Communications” together with prof. R. Prasad. Her research interests include wireless and personal area networks, ad hoc networking, networking protocols, traffic analysis, QoS, and optimization techniques. She is a senior member of IEEE and serves as a Chair of Macedonian Communication Chapter.     

Advanced networking services for distributed multimedia streaming applications

Increased network speeds coupled with new services delivered via the Internet have increased the demand for intelligence and flexibility in network systems. This paper argues that both can be provided by new hardware platforms comprised of heterogeneous multi-core systems with specialized communication support. We present and evaluate an experimental network service platform that uses an emergent class of devices—network processors—as its communication support, coupled via a dedicated interconnect to a host processor acting as a computational core. A software infrastructure spanning both enables the dynamic creation of application-specific services on the network processor, mediated by middleware and controlled by kernel-level communication support. Experimental evaluations use a Pentium IV-based computational core coupled with an IXP 2400 network processor. The sample application services run on both include an image manipulation application and application-level multicasting.

Power and Channel Optimization for WiFi Networks Based on REM Data

The very high commercial exploitation of the WiFi based technologies in recent years and the absence of solutions for optimal WiFi orchestration, usually leads to suboptimal spectrum usage and user performances. The combination of WiFi based radio resource management (RRM) and the radio environmental maps (REMs) can provide an efficient solution for a Smart-WiFi technology, which improves the underlying spectrum usage as well as network performance. The REM facilitates efficient utilization of the radio environmental data, like device location, estimated channel models, real-time interference levels between the networks, WiFi channels occupancies etc. This information can be utilized for an intelligent and optimal RRM decision making in WiFi related scenarios. This paper proposes a novel REM based RRM approach for management and optimization of commercial WiFi devices that utilizes the available underlying radio environmental information. The paper demonstrates the proposed approach on a commercially available platform, conducting on-the-fly radio environmental data acquisition and optimized WiFi RRM allocation. The simulation analysis results also show that the proposed Smart-WiFi leverage noticeable performance gains for large scale scenarios, compared to conventional WiFi networks.     

Optimization of Spectrum Usage and Coexistence Analysis of DVB-T and LTE-800 systems

This paper investigates the possible coexistence issues between the digital video broadcasting-terrestrial (DVB-T) system and the long term evolution (LTE) that operate in adjacent frequency bands. The proposed methodology for interference assessment evaluates the DVB-T performance degradation in presence of aggregate LTE-800 interference targeting the territory of Macedonia as evaluation area. The simulation analysis quantifies the percentage of interference degraded pixels and obtains the probability of pixel DVB-T service degradation. Furthermore, a measurement trial complements the simulation analysis through the evaluation of the influence of active antenna usage by the DVB-T receivers. The simulation and measurement results in this particular case confirm that the alignment of the active DVB-T receiving antenna towards the LTE-800 base station can substantially increase the degradation whereas aligning of the active DVB-T receiving antenna towards the DVB-T transmitter maintains the efficient TV reception. Finally, this paper proposes a simple algorithm for optimal LTE frequency arrangement, resulting in significant reduction of the LTE interference towards the DVB-T system.     

Dynamic Virtual Resource Allocation in Virtualized multi-RAT Cellular Networks

The legacy wireless systems are designed to exploit static configuration and deployment, and cannot handle the discrepancies of the spatio-temporal traffic demand. Cloud RAN (C-RAN) is a novel flexible radio technology that utilizes the virtualization concepts and can efficiently address the static deployment of conventional wireless systems. The C-RAN also leverages high radio network flexibility by introducing the network function virtualization approach to wireless networks. This paper presents a novel C-RAN platform that virtualizes and operates with full GSM and LTE systems. The presented platform is solely based on open-source and off the shelf solutions, providing easy implementation, low cost and high scalability. The paper also introduces a novel dynamic resource allocation algorithm that facilitates the C-RAN’s optimal performance in dynamic scenarios. The proposed algorithm is analyzed and validated on the presented C-RAN platform. The results of the performance analysis clearly show the advantages of the proposed dynamic resource allocation algorithm. Moreover, they prove the applicability of the C-RAN platform for variety of different scenarios.     

Improving Energy Efficiency and Reliability in WuR-Based IoT Systems: An Error Correction Approach

Wireless Personal Communications - One of the most suitable option for millimeter-wave integrated circuits and systems implementation is Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) Technology....     

Spectrum Sensing Framework for Cognitive Radio Networks

Spectrum sensing feature of cognitive radio devices represents a cornerstone characteristic facilitating real-time and accurate spectrum occupancy measurements in cognitive radio networks. It practically enables the cognitive radio devices to detect vacant spectrum holes and use them for their communication purposes. There are numerous spectrum sensing methods proposed in the literature ranging from local based ones to cooperative strategies among several devices increasing the confidence level of the detected spectrum. This paper gives a general spectrum sensing framework for cognitive radio networks, classifies and explores different spectrum sensing techniques and approaches and shows practical examples, from authors’ own experience, of realized spectrum sensing engines and strategies along with some obtained results.