Domain-specific integrated development environments can help capture specifications in the form of domain models. These tools support the design process by automating analysis and simulating essential system behavior. In addition, they can automatically generate, configure, and integrate target application components. The high cost of developing domain-specific, integrated modeling, analysis, and application-generation environments prevents their penetration into narrower engineering fields that have limited user bases. Model-integrated computing (MIC), an approach to model-based engineering that helps compose domain-specific design environments rapidly and cost effectively, is particularly relevant for specialized computer-based systems domains-perhaps even single projects. The authors describe how MIC provides a way to compose such environments cost effectively and rapidly by using a metalevel architecture to specify the domain-specific modeling language and integrity constraints. They also discuss the toolset that implements MIC and describe a practical application in which using the technology in a tool environment for the process industry led to significant reductions in development and maintenance costs.

Smart Dust: communicating with a cubic-millimeter computer

Solid-state lighting is a rapidly growing area of research and applications, due to the reliability and predicted high efficiency of these devices. The white LED sources that are typically used for general illumination can also be used for data transmission, and Visible Light Communications (VLC) is a rapidly growing area of research. One of the key challenges is the limited modulation bandwidth of sources, typically several MHz. However, as a room or coverage space would typically be illuminated by an array of LEDs there is the potential for parallel data transmission, and using optical MIMO techniques is potentially attractive for achieving high data rates. In this paper we investigate non-imaging and imaging MIMO approaches: a non-imaging optical MIMO system does not perform properly at all receiver positions due to symmetry, but an imaging based system can operate under all foreseeable circumstances. Simulations show such systems can operate at several hundred Mbit/s, and up to Gbit/s in many circumstances.

High data rate multiple input multiple output (MIMO) optical wireless communications using white led lighting

Visible Light Communication (VLC) is an emerging field in Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) which utilizes the superior modulation bandwidth of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) to transmit data. In modern day communication systems, the most popular frequency band is Radio Frequency (RF) mainly due to little interference and good coverage. However, the rapidly dwindling RF spectrum along with increasing wireless network traffic has substantiated the need for greater bandwidth and spectral relief. By combining illumination and communication, VLC provides ubiquitous communication while addressing the shortfalls and limitations of RF communication. This paper provides a comprehensive survey on VLC with an emphasis on challenges faced in indoor applications over the period 1979–2014. VLC is compared with infrared (IR) and RF systems and the necessity for using this beneficial technology in communication systems is justified. The advantages of LEDs compared to traditional lighting technologies are discussed and comparison is done between different types of LEDs currently available. Modulation schemes and dimming techniques for indoor VLC are discussed in detail. Methods needed to improve VLC system performance such as filtering, equalization, compensation, and beamforming are also presented. The recent progress made by various research groups in this field is discussed along with the possible applications of this technology. Finally, the limitations of VLC as well as the probable future directions are presented.

LED Based Indoor Visible Light Communications: State of the Art

1) The Myth: Sixty years of research following Shannon's pioneering paper has led to telecommunications solutions operating arbitrarily close to the channel capacity-“flawless telepresence” with zero error is available to anyone, anywhere, anytime across the globe. 2)The Reality: Once we leave home or the office, even top of the range iPhones and tablet computers fail to maintain "flawless telepresence" quality. They also fail to approach the theoretical performance predictions. The 1000-fold throughput increase of the best third- generation (3G) phones over second-generation (2G) GSM phones and the 1000-fold increased teletraffic predictions of the next decade require substantial further bandwidth expansion toward ever increasing carrier frequencies, expanding beyond the radiofrequency (RF) band to optical frequencies, where substantial bandwidths are available. 3) The Future: However, optical and quantum-domain wireless communications is less developed than RF wireless. It is also widely recognized that the pathloss of RF wireless systems monotonically increases with the carrier frequency and this additional challenge has to be tackled by appropriate countermeasures in future research. Hence, we set out to seek promising techniques of tackling the aforementioned challenges and for resolving the conflicting design constraints imposed on the flawless telepresence systems of the future. To disspell the myth, we evaluate both the operational 3G as well as the emerging fourth-generation (4G) wireless systems and demonstrate that there is a substantial difference between their theoretical and their practically attainable performance. The reality is that the teletraffic predictions indicate further thirst for bandwidth, which cannot be readily satisfied within the most popular 1-2-GHz carrier-frequency range, where the best propagation conditions prevail. We briefly consider the 10-300-GHz unlicensed band as a potential source of further spectrum, followed by a review of advances way beyond the upper edge of the RF range at 300 GHz, namely to the realms of optical wireless (OW) communications. As the carrier frequency is increased, the pathloss is also increased, which results in ever smaller cells. Furthermore, the high-frequency RF waves predominantly obey line-of-sight (LOS) propagation-like visible light. The future requires advances in both infrared and visible-light communications for circumventing the LOS nature of light. We hypothesize that light-emitting diode (LED) arrays acting as "massive" multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) components as well as transmitter/receiver cooperation might be conceived. The heterogeneous networks of the near future will rely on seamless, near-instantaneous handovers among OW hotspots, RF hotspots, and oversailing larger cells. These "massive" MIMOs might impose a high complexity, hence their reduced-complexity noncoherently detected counterparts might be favored. Finally, we conclude by touching upon the promising research area of quantum-domain communications, which might be expected to circumvent the aforementioned complexity problem of massive MIMOs with the aid of efficient quantum-domain search techniques-a truly exciting research era

Wireless Myths, Realities, and Futures: From 3G/4G to Optical and Quantum Wireless

This overview portrays the evolution of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) research. The amelioration of powerful multicarrier OFDM arrangements with multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems has numerous benefits, which are detailed in this treatise. We continue by highlighting the limitations of conventional detection and channel estimation techniques designed for multiuser MIMO OFDM systems in the so-called rank-deficient scenarios, where the number of users supported or the number of transmit antennas employed exceeds the number of receiver antennas. This is often encountered in practice, unless we limit the number of users granted access in the base station's or radio port's coverage area. Following a historical perspective on the associated design problems and their state-of-the-art solutions, the second half of this treatise details a range of classic multiuser detectors (MUDs) designed for MIMO-OFDM systems and characterizes their achievable performance. A further section aims for identifying novel cutting-edge genetic algorithm (GA)-aided detector solutions, which have found numerous applications in wireless communications in recent years. In an effort to stimulate the cross pollination of ideas across the machine learning, optimization, signal processing, and wireless communications research communities, we will review the broadly applicable principles of various GA-assisted optimization techniques, which were recently proposed also for employment in multiuser MIMO OFDM. In order to stimulate new research, we demonstrate that the family of GA-aided MUDs is capable of achieving a near-optimum performance at the cost of a significantly lower computational complexity than that imposed by their optimum maximum-likelihood (ML) MUD aided counterparts. The paper is concluded by outlining a range of future research options that may find their way into next-generation wireless systems.

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Multiuser MIMO-OFDM for Next-Generation Wireless Systems

We discuss two modifications to the design of wireless infrared links that can yield significant performance improvements, albeit at the price of increased complexity. In line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight links, replacement of a single-element receiver by one employing an imaging light concentrator and a segmented photodetector can reduce received ambient light noise and multipath distortion. For a fixed receiver entrance area, such an imaging receiver can reduce transmit power requirements by as much as about 14 dB, depending on the link design and the number of photodetector segments. Imaging receivers also reduce co-channel interference, and may therefore enable infrared wireless networks to employ space-division multiplexing, wherein several transmitters located in close proximity can transmit simultaneously at the same wavelength. In nondirected non-line-of-sight links, replacement of the diffuse transmitter by one that projects multiple narrow beams can reduce the path loss, further reducing the transmit power requirement by several decibels. We describe the design of an experimental 100 Mb/s infrared wireless link employing a multibeam transmitter and a 37-pixel imaging receiver.

Imaging diversity receivers for high-speed infrared wireless communication

We analyze the improvements obtained in wireless infrared (IR) communication links when one replaces traditional single-element receivers by imaging receivers and diffuse transmitters by multi-beam (quasi-diffuse) transmitters. This paper addresses both line-of-sight (LOS) and non-line-of-sight (non-LOS) IR links. We quantify link performance in terms of the transmitter power required to achieve a bit error rate (BER) not exceeding 10/sup -9/ with 95% probability. Our results indicate that in LOS links, imaging receivers can reduce the required transmitter power by up to 13 dB compared to single-element receivers. In non-LOS links, imaging receivers and multi-beam transmitters can reduce the required transmitter power by more than 20 dB.

/pdf/analysis-of-infrared-wireless-links-employing-multi-beam-1hv85bh27z.pdf

P. Djahani

Papers

Imaging diversity receivers for high-speed infrared wireless communication

Analysis of infrared wireless links employing multi-beam transmitters and imaging diversity receivers