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Showing papers presented at "International Conference on Mobile Networks and Management in 2014"


Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: The results suggest that the proposed verification framework automatically classifies the state of the network in the presence of CM changes, indicating the root cause for anomalous conditions.
Abstract: The concept known as Self-Organizing Networks (SON) has been developed for modern radio networks that deliver mobile broadband capabilities. In such highly complex and dynamic networks, changes to the configuration management (CM) parameters for network elements could have unintended effects on network performance and stability. To minimize unintended effects, the coordination of configuration changes before they are carried out and the verification of their effects in a timely manner are crucial. This paper focuses on the verification problem, proposing a novel framework that uses anomaly detection and diagnosis techniques that operate within a specified spatial scope. The aim is to detect any anomaly, which may indicate actual degradations due to any external or system-internal condition and also to characterize the state of the network and thereby determine whether the CM changes negatively impacted the network state. The results, generated using real cellular network data, suggest that the proposed verification framework automatically classifies the state of the network in the presence of CM changes, indicating the root cause for anomalous conditions.

33 citations


Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: The impact of mobility on the social-oriented offloading is considered, by allowing partitionable resources to be executed according to the social interactions and the associated mobility of each user during the offloading process.
Abstract: This paper addresses the issue of resource offloading for energy usage optimization in the cloud, using the centrality principle of social networks. Mobile users take advantage of the mobile opportunistic cloud, in order to increase their reliability in service provision by guaranteeing sufficient resources for the execution of mobile applications. This work elaborates on the improvement of the energy consumption for each mobile device, by using a social collaboration model that allows for a cooperative partial process offloading scheme. The proposed scheme uses social centrality as the underlying mobility and connectivity model for process offloading within the connected devices to maximize the energy usage efficiency, node availability and process execution reliability. Furthermore, this work considers the impact of mobility on the social-oriented offloading, by allowing partitionable resources to be executed according to the social interactions and the associated mobility of each user during the offloading process. The proposed framework is thoroughly evaluated through event driven simulations, towards defining the validity and offered efficiency of the proposed offloading policy in conjunction to the energy consumption of the wireless devices.

27 citations


Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: This paper model and analyze a realization of the mobile core network as virtualized software instances running in datacenters (DC) and SDN transport network elements (NE), with respect to time-varying traffic demands.
Abstract: The introduction of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) to mobile networks enables operators to control and dimension their network resources with higher granularity and on a more fine-grained time scale. This dynamic operation allows operators to cope with the rapid growth of traffic and user demands, in addition to reducing costs. In this paper, we model and analyze a realization of the mobile core network as virtualized software instances running in datacenters (DC) and SDN transport network elements (NE), with respect to time-varying traffic demands. It is our objective to determine the datacenters placement that achieves the minimum transport network load considering time-varying traffic and under a data-plane delay budget. A second objective is to achieve power savings, considering the variation of traffic over time, by using the available datacenter resources or by acquiring additional resources.

25 citations


Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: This work elaborates on the evaluation of a framework, which utilizes a cooperative partial process execution offloading scheme, aiming at offering energy conservation, and proposes a partial scheduling offloading algorithm for failure-aware resource allocation in an energy-efficient manner, associating temporal execution-oriented metrics.
Abstract: Mobile Cloud computing paradigm includes plenty of critical challenges that have to be addressed for allowing application execution on remote terminals/servers An integral part of mobile cloud computing reliable service provision is the establishment of a methodology that will guarantee the efficient execution of applications in an energy-efficient way This work elaborates on the evaluation of a framework, which utilizes a cooperative partial process execution offloading scheme, aiming at offering energy conservation The scheme uses a dynamic scheduling methodology in order to guarantee that no intermittent execution will occur on mobile devices In addition, this work proposes a partial scheduling offloading algorithm for failure-aware resource allocation in an energy-efficient manner, associating temporal execution-oriented metrics The proposed framework is thoroughly evaluated through event driven simulation experiments, towards defining the efficiency of the proposed offloading policy in contrast to the energy consumption of wireless devices, as well as for the reliability degree offered

15 citations


Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: The aim of this paper is to present an idea of the platform for enhanced living environment that will allow flexible and reliable use of cloud computing and sensor networks for highly customized services and applications.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to present an idea of the platform for enhanced living environment that will allow flexible and reliable use of cloud computing and sensor networks for highly customized services and applications. The architecture is based on sensors using IEEE 802.15.4 and zigbee protocols. Furthermore, the access to the cloud could be done by any available wired or wireless technology. We propose an application layer service using peer port for reliable and scalable data transmission. The presented solution is dynamic, flexible and conforms to the health and home automation standards.

13 citations


Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that incorporating silent modes into the anti-jamming transmission protocol, where the primary user does not transmit signals for the purpose of helping an intrusion detection system identify the source of a jamming attack, can improve communication reliability.
Abstract: Due to their shared and open-access design, wireless networks are very vulnerable to many malicious attacks, ranging from passive eavesdropping to active interfering. In this paper, using stochastic game modeling we study anti-jamming strategies and their effectiveness against two types of interference attacks: (i) a random jammer, where the malicious user combines jamming modes with sleep modes; and (ii) a sophisticated jammer, where the malicious user uses the network for a two-fold purpose: law-obedient communication with other users and non-obedient jamming against a specific (primary) user. We focus our research on constructing the optimal maxmin anti-jamming transmission strategy and an optimal strategy against a selfish malicious user. Further, employing the suggested models we demonstrate that incorporating silent modes into the anti-jamming transmission protocol, where the primary user does not transmit signals for the purpose of helping an intrusion detection system identify the source of a jamming attack, can improve communication reliability. Further, since the equilibrium strategies are obtained explicitly, we identify several interesting properties that can guide designing such anti-jamming transmission protocols.

12 citations


Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: An analysis of the feasibility of such a model to support the sharing and dissemination of localized information, using realistic mobility traces in two different cities, reveals that the feasibility in urban environments is influenced by several factors.
Abstract: Floating Content is an attractive model for deploying and sharing information between mobile devices in a completely decentralized manner. For vehicular city-scale applications, the model has many applications. In this paper we conduct an analysis of the feasibility of such a model to support the sharing and dissemination of localized information, using realistic mobility traces in two different cities. As our experimental results reveal, the feasibility in urban environments is influenced by several factors. A high density inside the anchor location sustain the life of the information regardless the radius size. Having a big radius may cluster more vehicles and thus, increases the probability of floating. The radio range can also affect information sharing. A small radio range compared to the information availability range may prevent the application to spread content in the entire zone and rely on vehicle density. For all these, we provide experimental evidence.

12 citations


Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: The SON verification function is developed which is triggered when CM change requests get acknowledged by a SON coordinator and it analyses the resulting Performance Management data and in the case it detects an undesired network behavior it sends a request to the coordinator to revert the changes responsible for that to happen.
Abstract: In a mobile Self-Organizing Network (SON) a SON coordinator is required to prevent the execution of conflicting SON function instances Usually, such a coordinator is responsible for conflict prevention and resolution and does not consider the fact that the activity of SON function instances may induce an undesired network behavior, like a performance degradation In this paper, we propose an approach for the verification of Configuration Management (CM) changes induced by the activity of function instances We have developed the SON verification function which is triggered when CM change requests get acknowledged by a SON coordinator It analyses the resulting Performance Management (PM) data and in the case it detects an undesired network behavior it sends a request to the coordinator to revert the changes responsible for that to happen Furthermore, our function takes the impact area of a SON function instance into account to determine the scope of verification It also takes the impact time of function instances that have been active into consideration as it tries to identify the CM changes that have possibly caused an undesired network behavior Simulations have shown that the tight integration of our function with a SON coordinator provides a solution for overcoming such problems and improving the overall network performance

11 citations


Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: A general architecture of system for assisted living that supports most of the use cases for such system is presented.
Abstract: Novel information and communication technologies create possibilities to change the future of health care and support. Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is seen as a promising alternative to the current care models so a number of researchers have developed AAL systems with promising results. The main goal of AAL solutions is to apply ambient intelligence technologies to enable people with specific needs to continue to live in their preferred environments. In this paper, we are presenting a general architecture of system for assisted living that supports most of the use cases for such system.

10 citations


Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: Different and multimodal user-system interfaces proposed in the framework of a smart home designed to support the independent living of elderly and frail users are discussed.
Abstract: This paper discusses different and multimodal user-system interfaces proposed in the framework of a smart home designed to support the independent living of elderly and frail users. It is shown how different technologies and solutions may be complemented and integrated to provide effective interaction both for routine activities of daily living and anomalous situations.

9 citations


Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: This paper proposes OpenMobs, a mean to reduce the costs associated with mobile broadband access to Internet, by sharing under-utilized networking resources among co-located users through free wireless connections, and presents studies on the feasibility of such a system to minimize the costs users pay monthly to their mobile providers.
Abstract: We witness an explosion in the number of applications being developed for mobile devices. Many such applications are in need or generate a lot of Internet traffic, and as such mobile devices are today equipped with more networking capabilities, from mobile broadband (3G/4G) to WiFi, Bluetooth, and others. However, when it comes to mobile broadband Internet access, for economic reasons, today mobile providers tend to switch from unlimited mobile data plans to tiered data pricing models, putting pressure on mobile data subscribers to be more careful how they consume their subscribed traffic. In this paper, we propose OpenMobs, a mean to reduce the costs associated with mobile broadband access to Internet, by sharing under-utilized networking resources among co-located users through free wireless connections. When two or more handsets are in the vicinity of each other, OpenMobs forms an ad hoc mesh network to redirect traffic between mobile data plan subscribers, in the most economic and viable way. We present studies on the feasibility of such a system to minimize the costs users pay monthly to their mobile providers, and even financially compensates users’ willingness to participate in the collaboration.

Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: This work proposes to implement an application-oriented resource management on a home gateway that estimates the YouTube video buffers and prioritizes the video clip before the playback buffer depletes, and shows the feasibility by the implementation of an application monitor for YouTube on a standard home gateway.
Abstract: Today’s Internet does not offer any quality level beyond best effort for the majority of applications used by private customers. If multiple customers with heterogeneous applications share a bottleneck link to the Internet, this often leads to quality deterioration for the customers. This particularly holds for home networks with small band Internet access and for home networks with resource limitation like a bad channel quality within a wireless network. For such cases, the best effort allocation of resources between heterogeneous applications leads to an unfair distribution of the application quality among the users. To provide a similar application quality for all users, we propose to implement an application-oriented resource management on a home gateway. Therefore, allocation mechanisms need to be implemented such as the prioritization of network flows. Furthermore, a component monitoring the application quality and dynamically triggering these mechanisms is required. We show the feasibility of this concept by the implementation of an application monitor for YouTube on a standard home gateway. The gateway estimates the YouTube video buffers and prioritizes the video clip before the playback buffer depletes.

Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: This work proposes a system able to provide an automatic evaluation of the correctness in the performance of activities involving motion, and more specifically, diagnosis exercises in physical therapy in monitored environments using depth sensors.
Abstract: Human activity recognition has been widely studied since the last decade in ambient intelligence scenarios Remarkable progresses have been made in this domain, especially in research lines such as ambient assisted living, gesture recognition, behaviour detection and classification, etc Most of the works in the literature focus on activity classification or recognition, prediction of future events, or anomaly detection and prevention However, it is hard to find approaches that do not only recognize an activity, but also provide an evaluation of its performance according to an optimality criterion This problem is of special interest in applications such as sports performance evaluation, physical therapy, etc In this work, we address the problem of the evaluation of such human activities in monitored environments using depth sensors In particular, we propose a system able to provide an automatic evaluation of the correctness in the performance of activities involving motion, and more specifically, diagnosis exercises in physical therapy

Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: A human action recognition method based on a bag-of-key-poses model and sequence alignment is extended to support continuous humanaction recognition and an evaluation scheme particularly designed for ambient assisted living scenarios is introduced.
Abstract: Ambient assisted living technologies and services make it possible to help elderly and impaired people and increase their personal autonomy. Specifically, vision-based approaches enable the recognition of human behaviour, which in turn allows to build valuable services upon. However, a main constraint is that these have to be able to work online and in real time. In this work, a human action recognition method based on a bag-of-key-poses model and sequence alignment is extended to support continuous human action recognition. The detection of action zones is proposed to locate the most discriminative segments of an action. For the recognition, a method based on a sliding and growing window approach is presented. Furthermore, an evaluation scheme particularly designed for ambient assisted living scenarios is introduced. Experimental results on two publicly available datasets are provided. These show that the proposed action zones lead to a significant improvement and allow real-time processing.

Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: In this work, a CCS algorithm depending on the pathloss and the slow fading of the radio signals is developed and a Channel and QoS Aware uplink scheduler is designed, which is time and frequency domain decoupled.
Abstract: The LTE (Long Term Evolution) provides mobile users high throughput and low latency. In order to meet the requirements of future mobile data traffic, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has introduced advanced features to the LTE system, including Carrier Aggregation (CA), enhanced MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output), and coordinated multipoint (CoMP). The enhanced system is called LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) system. This paper investigates Component Carrier Selection (CCS) and radio resource scheduling for uplink in LTE-A. In this work, a CCS algorithm depending on the pathloss and the slow fading of the radio signals is developed. Based on the channel conditions and the Quality of Service (QoS) requirements of the users, a Channel and QoS Aware (CQA) uplink scheduler is also designed, which is time and frequency domain decoupled. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed schemes provide a good QoS and throughput performance as compared to other reference schemes.

Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: This paper focuses on one aspect of network management, namely configuration, in light of the ongoing work in the FP7 ALIEN project to augment a variety of devices with an OpenFlow control plane and presents how software- defined control can be complemented with software-defined configuration.
Abstract: Software-defined networking (SDN) and in particular networks based on an OpenFlow control plane are expected to take significant share in upcoming deployments. Network programmability has emerged as a particularly desirable property for such new deployments, in which logically centralized software will be able to both control and manage operation. This paper focuses on one aspect of network management, namely configuration, in light of the ongoing work in the FP7 ALIEN project to augment a variety of devices with an OpenFlow control plane. In particular, we review management for programmable networks and present how software-defined control can be complemented with software-defined configuration.

Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: A cloud based architecture for processing data and providing services for smart living environments and support for assistive technologies based on scalable cloud technologies and optimized software architectures is described.
Abstract: This paper describes a cloud based architecture for processing data and providing services for smart living environments and support for assistive technologies. Based on scalable cloud technologies and optimized software architectures, it provides infrastructure for an extendible set of various functionalities. The paper describes the core processing module along with several related proof-of-concept services. Several use case scenarios are presented including a mobile app voice navigation tool for the blind, text to hand sign speech video sequencing tool for the deaf, image processing tool for a smart home, etc. Details are presented about the software development tools used and their integration in a functional multiplatform application. Guides for future works and extension of the system are discussed.

Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: Key stakeholders and their roles in the service provisioning value chain are identified and major markets and optimization potentials are outlined and two scenarios are developed: the end user focused scenario aming at increased QoE for end users, and the operator focused scenario targeting at the highest operating efficiency.
Abstract: Today’s overlay-based mobile cloud applications determine a challenge to operators and cloud providers in terms of increasing traffic demands and energy costs. The social-aware management of overlay traffic is a promising optimization approach, which shows potential for improvements by exploiting social information. This paper identifies key stakeholders and their roles in the service provisioning value chain and outlines major markets and optimization potentials. Accordingly, two scenarios are developed: the end user focused scenario aming at increased QoE for end users, and the operator focused scenario targeting at the highest operating efficiency in terms of low cost and high revenue for the operator. The energy efficiency plays a major role as a key performance metric in both scenarios. SmartenIT’s socially-aware management approach is illustrated based on two example mechanisms for traffic optimization: the home router sharing mechanism (HORST) on the end user side, as well as the dynamic traffic management mechanism (DTM) on the operator side. The paper is concluded by a first sketch of SmartenIT’s architecture and its mapping to the two scenarios.

Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: A novel cross-layer approach for reducing the electromagnetic exposure in LTE network by combining techniques belonging to the link and transport layers, while ensuring an acceptable Quality of Experience of a video application is proposed.
Abstract: Most existing work on electromagnetic exposure reduction has focused on developing physical layer techniques and solutions to lower the power received and emitted by the user terminals In this paper, we propose a novel cross-layer approach for reducing the electromagnetic exposure in LTE network by combining techniques belonging to the link and transport layers, while ensuring an acceptable Quality of Experience of a video application We propose to categorize the RLC frames into critical and non-critical ones and to decrease the number of retransmissions for non-critical ones In turn, this will reduce the radiated power, ie exposure We also propose an enhanced 3GPP compliant architecture for accommodating our reduced exposure approach

Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: This paper describes techniques to handle the video traffic load in the last hop, of the communication network, i.e., the wireless access, to benefit from a cross-layer architecture for efficient video transport.
Abstract: The current evolution of the global Internet data traffic shows an increasing demand of video transmissions, which potentially leads to the saturation of mobile networks. To cope with this issue, this paper describes techniques to handle the video traffic load in the last hop, of the communication network, i.e., the wireless access. The general idea is to benefit from a cross-layer architecture for efficient video transport, where multiple wireless access technologies, represented by Wi-Fi and next generation cellular technologies (4G and beyond), interact with the upper layers through an abstract interface. This architecture enables the introduction of enhancements in the LTE-A wireless access: evolved Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Services (eMBMS) extended with dynamic groupcast communications, video relay at the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) level and a smart video frame dropping mechanism to provide mobile users with a satisfactory level of Quality of Experience (QoE). These video-aware mechanisms leverage the abstract interface and allow mobile operators to fine-tune their networks while coping with the upcoming mobile video traffic increase.

Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: An approach for analyzing the Electronic Health Records (EHRs) with the goal of automatically identifying morphologic negation such that swapping the truth values of concepts introduced by negation does not interfere with understanding the medical discourse is presented.
Abstract: The current paper presents an approach for analyzing the Electronic Health Records (EHRs) with the goal of automatically identifying morphologic negation such that swapping the truth values of concepts introduced by negation does not interfere with understanding the medical discourse. To identify morphologic negation we propose the RoPreNex strategy that represents the adaptation of our PreNex approach to the Romanian language [1]. We evaluate our proposed solution on the MTsamples [2] dataset. The results we obtained are promising and ensure a reliable negation identification approach in medical documents. We report precision of 92.62 % and recall of 93.60 % in case of the morphologic negation identification for the source language and an overall performance in the morphologic negation identification of 77.78 % precision and 80.77 % recall in case of the target language.

Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: This paper proposes a learning automata-based algorithm to organize the directional sensors into several cover sets in such a way that each cover set could satisfy coverage requirements of all the targets.
Abstract: One of the main operations in directional sensor networks (DSNs) is the surveillance of a set of events (targets) that occur in a given area and, at the same time, maximization of the network lifetime; this is due to limitation in sensing angle and battery power of the directional sensors This problem gets more complicated by the possibility that targets may have different coverage requirements In the present study, this problem is referred to as priority-based target coverage (PTC) As sensors are often densely deployed, organizing the sensors into several cover sets and then activating these cover sets successively is a promising solution to this problem In this paper, we propose a learning automata-based algorithm to organize the directional sensors into several cover sets in such a way that each cover set could satisfy coverage requirements of all the targets Several experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm The results demonstrated that the algorithms were able to contribute to solving the problem

Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: A novel entity known as the VS-Hypervisor, which is responsible for virtualizing the WiMAX spectrum is fully described theoretically and metrics such as time delay, request rejection probability was used in expressing its basic behaviour.
Abstract: Network virtualization is an emerging and trending subject and it is currently defining research ideas in areas such as the future internet and wireless communication systems. The notion of combining the concept of network virtualization together with network federation which basically involves the interconnection of independent network domains, possess the potential to provide a far more enriching environment where network resources like spectrum will be better harnessed and utilized. This paper focuses on spectrum virtualization implemented on the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) network where virtualized WiMAX networks exist in a federated arrangement for the purpose of sharing spectrum resources. A novel entity known as the VS-Hypervisor, which is responsible for virtualizing the WiMAX spectrum is fully described theoretically and metrics such as time delay, request rejection probability was used in expressing its basic behaviour.

Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: By assessing the performance of the used DNS backend, results highlighted that the evaluated DNSaaS solution was able to support to \({\approx }36500\) DNS queries per second.
Abstract: The existence of the Domain Name Service (DNS) is a vital service for the Internet, being much more than a simple translation mechanism, allowing more high-profiled functionalities such as load-balancing or enhanced content distribution. With the current trend towards Cloud Computing, employing DNS as a Service (DNSaaS) in this paradigm contributes to the decentralisation of this service, improving its robustness and overall flexibility. In order to consider it multiple tenants must be supported among other advanced features, authentication of operations and support multiple DNS backends, providing an adequate interface as well (e.g., a RESTfull interface). While such characteristics seem promising, to the best of our knowledge this is the first paper to assess the performance of DNSaaS. The performed evaluation comprise a thorough set of experiments, demonstrating how the configuration of several simultaneous tenants can be supported, performing several operations, within acceptable response time. Moreover, by assessing the performance of the used DNS backend, results highlighted that the evaluated DNSaaS solution was able to support to \({\approx }36500\) DNS queries per second.

Book ChapterDOI
Wolfgang Hahn1
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: This paper analyses how the SGW/PGWs of the EPC can be decomposed in different ways and suggests a reduction of mobile specific network elements and a separation into network independent administrative domains may help to reduce the cost for network operation in future.
Abstract: This paper discusses long term architectural evolution options of the 3GPP Evolved Packet Core (EPC) It is focused to the question which functions of the existing EPC are addressed or impacted when introducing Software Defined Networking (SDN) Several aspects are discussed showing the benefits of a strict separation of mobile specific gateway functions from SDN functions In that aspect the suggestions made in this paper differs from existing SDN based concepts This paper analyses how the SGW/PGWs of the EPC can be decomposed in different ways A reduction of mobile specific network elements and a separation into network independent administrative domains may help to reduce the cost for network operation in future

Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: Simulations show that the tight integration of the SONOT function with SON coordination provides means to automatically overcome the problems and improve overall network performance.
Abstract: A Self-Organizing Network (SON) performs automated network management through the coordinated execution of autonomous functions, each aiming to achieve a specific objective like the optimization of a network Key Performance Indicator (KPI) value. However, there are situations in which a SON function cannot achieve its objective which can lead to disturbed SON operation and inferior performance. We present a SON Operational Troubleshooting (SONOT) SON function that is able to detect such problematic situations and trigger respective countermeasures. Thereby, it can exploit regular SON functions as probes in order to improve problem detection. Simulations show that the tight integration of the SONOT function with SON coordination provides means to automatically overcome the problems and improve overall network performance.

Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: The creating of custom made medical accessories and assistive devices that can help people that have a certain types of traumatic physical injury, fine motoric or hearing disabilities are presented.
Abstract: A revolution brought about by invention of 3D printing technology is emerging on the horizon. The 3D printer has potential to become a primary tool for building almost everything we need in the future. This paper presents the creating of custom made medical accessories and assistive devices that can help people that have a certain types of traumatic physical injury, fine motoric or hearing disabilities. Having in mind that fractures and other physical or motoric injuries are likely to occur in 2 % of the population every year, our efforts are in creating 3D printed immobilizers and assistive devices. These are more comfortable than standard casts and devices, far more accessible and affordable than off the shelf products. With the use of 3D scanners, accurate and detailed virtual model of both the traumatized or disabled region is easily created. Henceforth, the accompanying 3D model is custom-fit and can be easily printed. The 3D printed devices are often custom printed in structure that ensures easy appliance and removal, multiple use and skin respiration. Other benefits include a robust material that is water resistant and lighter, thinner and better looking than standard devices. The immobilizers and devices that were made in cooperation with the Traumatology clinic, Non-profit organizations focused on working with handicapped are presented in detail. Other types of medical accessories including hearing aid and printing assistive devices are covered in this paper.

Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: This paper proposes two novel solutions that alleviate the interference of femto-cells on macro-cell user equipment (MUEs) that do not rely on any additional information exchange or signaling, nor do they rely on the backhaul and it’s delay.
Abstract: Cellular networks are reaching their physical limits providing capacity that is almost near the Shannon theory. However, cellular usage is still increasing exponentially with hungry applications demanding higher data rates. As a result, designers are facing significant challenge in meeting the required demands. One promising solutions, being fostered by the 3GPP, is to increase the spectral efficiency through higher frequency reuse using smaller and denser network cells such as femto, pico and nano cells. One of the main challenges behind using smaller cells is managing interference. In this paper, we propose two novel solutions that alleviate the interference of femto-cells on macro-cell user equipment (MUEs). The solutions do not rely on any additional information exchange or signaling, nor do they rely on the backhaul and it’s delay. The first proposal is Femto-cell Power Control Scheme (FPCS) that utilizes an analytical approach to adapt the femto base station’s transmit power based on Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) reports from affected MUEs. The second method is Random Physical Resource Block Selection Scheme (RPSS) that allocates the femto-cell’s resources from a random subset of Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs) so that the MUEs benefit from a reduced interference level. Our evaluations have shown that the two proposals do alleviate the femto-cell interference significantly, increasing the SINR and enhancing the end performance. To the best of our knowledge, no similar work exist in literature that addresses the femto-cell’s interference without information exchange.

Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: An algorithm is proposed to establish the feasibility of applying Network Coding over random topologies, by identifying a set of nodes that might be able to act as coding entities, and the appropriateness of such selection, by comparing the lengths of the corresponding paths.
Abstract: The attention that the scientific community has paid to the use of Network Coding techniques over Wireless Mesh Networks has remarkably increased in the last years. A large group of the existing proposals are based on the combination of packets belonging to different flows, so as to reduce the number of real transmissions over the wireless channels. This would eventually lead to better performances, together with an energy-aware operation. However, there are certain aspects that might prevent their use. In this paper we empirically study one of these deterrents; we propose an algorithm to establish the feasibility of applying Network Coding over random topologies, by identifying a set of nodes that might be able to act as coding entities. Besides, we discuss the appropriateness of such selection, by comparing the lengths of the corresponding paths. The results show that the probability of promoting these techniques is rather low.

Book ChapterDOI
22 Sep 2014
TL;DR: This work introduces the context proximity query language (CPQL) for querying context related entities on distributed across collections of remote endpoints and shows that it offers improvements over existing approaches while scaling well.
Abstract: The creation of applications and services realising massive immersive participation require the provisioning of current, relevant and accurate context information. These applications benefit from access to this highly dynamic information in real time. Existing approaches to provisioning context information are limited by their interpretation of context relationships as address book solutions thus limiting the discovering of related entities. We introduce the context proximity query language (CPQL) for querying context related entities on distributed across collections of remote endpoints. As a declarative query language (CPQL) is similar in structure to SQL and describes the relationships between entities as distance functions between their associated context information. We simulate CPQL and show that it offers improvements over existing approaches while scaling well.