The days where swarms of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will occupy our skies are fast approaching due to the introduction of cost-efficient and reliable small aerial vehicles and the increasing demand for use of such vehicles in a plethora of civil applications. Governments and industry alike have been heavily investing in the development of UAVs. As such it is important to understand the characteristics of networks with UAVs to enable the incorporation of multiple, coordinated aerial vehicles into the air traffic in a reliable and safe manner. To this end, this survey reports the characteristics and requirements of UAV networks for envisioned civil applications over the period 2000–2015 from a communications and networking viewpoint. We survey and quantify quality-of-service requirements, network-relevant mission parameters, data requirements, and the minimum data to be transmitted over the network. Furthermore, we elaborate on general networking related requirements such as connectivity, adaptability, safety, privacy, security, and scalability. We also report experimental results from many projects and investigate the suitability of existing communication technologies for supporting reliable aerial networking.

Survey on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Networks for Civil Applications: A Communications Viewpoint

This chapter contains sections titled: Product Definition for Broadband Wireless Systems Technology Drivers Evolving Wireless Broadband Market Segments Open Systems and Intelligence at the Edge Radio Network System Engineering References

Always Best Connected

Multiple Access Channels

Since the early 1990s, a large number of chaos-based communication systems have been proposed exploiting the properties of chaotic waveforms. The motivation lies in the significant advantages provided by this class of non-linear signals. For this aim, many communication schemes and applications have been specially designed for chaos-based communication systems where energy, data rate, and synchronization awareness are considered in most designs. Recently, the major focus, however, has been given to the non-coherent chaos-based systems to benefit from the advantages of chaotic signals and non-coherent detection and to avoid the use of chaotic synchronization, which suffers from weak performance in the presence of additive noise. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of the entire wireless radio frequency chaos-based communication systems. First, it outlines the challenges of chaos implementations and synchronization methods, followed by comprehensive literature review and analysis of chaos-based coherent techniques and their applications. In the second part of the survey, we offer a taxonomy of the current literature by focusing on non-coherent detection methods. For each modulation class, this paper categorizes different transmission techniques by elaborating on its modulation, receiver type, data rate, complexity, energy efficiency, multiple access scheme, and performance. In addition, this survey reports on the analysis of tradeoff between different chaos-based communication systems. Finally, several concluding remarks are discussed.

Wireless Chaos-Based Communication Systems: A Comprehensive Survey

In an attempt to utilize spectrum resources more efficiently, protocols sharing licensed spectrum with unlicensed users are receiving increased attention. From the perspective of cellular networks, spectrum underutilization makes spatial reuse a feasible complement to existing standards. Interference management is a major component in designing these schemes as it is critical that licensed users maintain their expected quality of service. We develop a distributed dynamic spectrum protocol in which ad-hoc device-to-device users opportunistically access the spectrum actively in use by cellular users. First, channel gain estimates are used to set feasible transmit powers for device-to-device users that keeps the interference they cause within the allowed interference temperature. Then network information is distributed by route discovery packets in a random access manner to help establish either a single-hop or multi-hop route between two device-to-device users. We show that network information in the discovery packet can decrease the failure rate of the route discovery and reduce the number of necessary transmissions to find a route. Using the found route, we show that two device-to-device users can communicate with a low probability of outage while only minimally affecting the cellular network, and can achieve significant power savings when communicating directly with each other instead of utilizing the cellular base station.

Spectrum Sharing Scheme Between Cellular Users and Ad-hoc Device-to-Device Users

Long-TermEvolution (LTE) is the new standard recently specified by the 3GPP on the way towards fourth-generation mobile. This paper presents the main technical features of this standard as well as its performance in terms of peak bit rate and average cell throughput, among others. LTE entails a big technological improvement as compared with the previous 3G standard. However, this paper also demonstrates that LTE performance does not fulfil the technical requirements established by ITU-R to classify one radio access technology as a member of the IMT-Advanced family of standards. Thus, this paper describes the procedure followed by the 3GPP to address these challenging requirements. Through the design and optimization of new radio access techniques and a further evolution of the system, the 3GPP is laying down the foundations of the future LTE-Advanced standard, the 3GPP candidate for 4G. This paper offers a brief insight into these technological trends.

/pdf/on-the-way-towards-fourth-generation-mobile-3gpp-lte-and-lte-6q5e96bhvg.pdf

On the way towards fourth-generation mobile: 3GPP LTE and LTE-advanced

The provision of very high capacity is one of the big challenges of the 5G cellular technology. This challenge will not be met using traditional approaches like increasing spectral efficiency and bandwidth, as witnessed in previous technology generations. Cell densification will play a major role thanks to its ability to increase the spatial reuse of the available resources. However, this solution is accompanied by some additional management challenges. In this article, we analyze and present the most promising solutions identified in the METIS project for the most relevant network layer challenges of cell densification: resource, interference and mobility management.

/pdf/resource-and-mobility-management-in-the-network-layer-of-5g-1ykmilgfd1.pdf

Resource and Mobility Management in the Network Layer of 5G Cellular Ultra-Dense Networks

In this paper HSDPA link adaptation (LA) based on Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) reports is optimised. A pre-processing of the last received CQI reports is done before the execution of the LA algorithm in the Node-B in order to obtain more profitable channel quality estimations and hence improve the LA performance. Different types of processing techniques are presented and assessed, considering from the simplest sample averaging to some more elaborated predictive algorithms. Results demonstrate that a non negligible enhancement in the LA performance can be obtained if medium and high speed users are considered.

HSDPA Link Adaptation Improvement Based on Node-B CQI Processing

This paper proposes a dynamic resource-allocation (DRA) algorithm for packet data services in wireless communication systems based on Hopfleld neural networks (HNNs). The resource-allocation algorithm assumes a delay-centric approach in that it maximizes resource utilization of the overall system while minimizing the packet delay. The real-time (RT) working capability of HNN hardware implementation means that a very powerful scheduling DRA algorithm can be obtained. A generic formulation of the algorithm is presented to establish the optimal bit rate allocation. In addition, some illustrative examples of this formulation are given, considering specific wireless communication systems, such as general packet radio service (GPRS) or universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS). To be more precise, the performance of the proposed DRA algorithm is evaluated in a realistic UMTS scenario, considering both RT and nonreal-time (NRT) services. To obtain the best resource distribution and fulfill the different quality-of-service (QoS) levels required by RT and NRT services, the new HNN-based delay-centric DRA algorithm is performed twice. Initially, only the RT services are considered, and following this, all the NRT services are taken into account. The results reveal that the proposed DRA algorithm outperforms other reference algorithms in terms of not only average packet delay but the allocated total bit rate as well.

A Delay-Centric Dynamic Resource Allocation Algorithm for Wireless Communication Systems Based on HNN

The Cognitive Radio (CR) paradigm provides mechanisms and methodologies for an utmost and efficient use of scarce spectrum resources. Among its implementations, Opportunistic Spectrum Access (OSA) enables the use of otherwise-unutilized licensed spectrum provided no interference is caused to the licensee. This paper focuses on the application of this concept for indoor femtocell deployments where, in addition to own licensed spectrum resources, opportunistic spectrum resources can be aggregated. Provided certain interference among femtocells, coordination mechanisms are required. In this framework, this paper studies the use of Media Independent Handover (MIH) signaling to report interference measurements that allow a central controller to make femtocells share white spaces. Moreover, whenever an excessive femto-to-femto interference would require coordination, the proposed opportunistic spectrum access scheme enhances spectrum efficiency and reduces interferences. Results indicate that the proposed opportunistic system significantly improves capacity without requiring additional intelligence in the femtocell.

http://dacaso.webs.upv.es/publications/2012_ICC_Ottawa.pdf

Daniel Calabuig

Papers

On the way towards fourth-generation mobile: 3GPP LTE and LTE-advanced

Resource and Mobility Management in the Network Layer of 5G Cellular Ultra-Dense Networks

HSDPA Link Adaptation Improvement Based on Node-B CQI Processing

A Delay-Centric Dynamic Resource Allocation Algorithm for Wireless Communication Systems Based on HNN

Cognitive Radio enabling opportunistic spectrum access in LTE-Advanced femtocells