Showing papers by "Nokia published in 2017"

Performance of a low-power wide-area network based on LoRa technology : Doppler robustness, scalability, and coverage

Abstract: The article provides an analysis and reports experimental validation of the various performance metrics of the LoRa low-power wide-area network technology. The LoRa modulation is based on chirp spr...

A Roadmap to the Programmable World: Software Challenges in the IoT Era

Abstract: The Internet of Things (IoT) represents the next significant step in the evolution of the Internet and software development. Although most IoT research focuses on data acquisition, analytics, and visualization, a subtler but equally important transition is underway. Hardware advances are making it possible to embed fully fledged virtual machines and dynamic language runtimes virtually everywhere, leading to a Programmable World in which all our everyday things are connected and programmable dynamically. The emergence of millions of remotely programmable devices in our surroundings will pose significant software development challenges. A roadmap from today's cloud-centric, data-centric IoT systems to the Programmable World highlights the technical challenges that deserve to be part of developer education and deserve deeper investigation beyond those IoT topics that receive the most attention today.

Graphene-based, mid-infrared, room-temperature pyroelectric bolometers with ultrahigh temperature coefficient of resistance

Abstract: There is a growing number of applications demanding highly sensitive photodetectors in the mid-infrared. Thermal photodetectors, such as bolometers, have emerged as the technology of choice, because they do not need cooling. The performance of a bolometer is linked to its temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR, ∼2–4% K−1 for state-of-the-art materials). Graphene is ideally suited for optoelectronic applications, with a variety of reported photodetectors ranging from visible to THz frequencies. For the mid-infrared, graphene-based detectors with TCRs ∼4–11% K−1 have been demonstrated. Here we present an uncooled, mid-infrared photodetector, where the pyroelectric response of a LiNbO3 crystal is transduced with high gain (up to 200) into resistivity modulation for graphene. This is achieved by fabricating a floating metallic structure that concentrates the pyroelectric charge on the top-gate capacitor of the graphene channel, leading to TCRs up to 900% K−1, and the ability to resolve temperature variations down to 15 μK. There is emerging interest in photodetectors in the mid-infrared driven by increasing need to monitor the environment for security and healthcare purposes. Sassiet al. show a thermal photodetector, based on the coupling between graphene and a pyroelectric crystal, which shows high temperature sensitivity.

Critical Insight into the Relentless Progression Toward Graphene and Graphene-Containing Materials for Lithium-Ion Battery Anodes

Abstract: Used as a bare active material or component in hybrids, graphene has been the subject of numerous studies in recent years. Indeed, from the first report that appeared in late July 2008, almost 1600 papers were published as of the end 2015 that investigated the properties of graphene as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries. Although an impressive amount of data has been collected, a real advance in the field still seems to be missing. In this framework, attention is focused on the most prominent research efforts in this field with the aim of identifying the causes of such relentless progression through an insightful and critical evaluation of the lithium-ion storage performances (i.e., 1st cycle irreversible capacity, specific gravimetric and volumetric capacities, average delithiation voltage profile, rate capability and stability upon cycling). The "graphene fever" has certainly provided a number of fundamental studies unveiling the electrochemical properties of this "wonder" material. However, analysis of the published literature also highlights a loss of focus from the final application. Hype-driven claims, not fully appropriate metrics, and negligence of key parameters are probably some of the factors still hindering the application of graphene in commercial batteries.

Blockchain network slice broker in 5G: Slice leasing in factory of the future use case

Abstract: 5G Network Slice Broker concept aims to enable mobile virtual network operators, over-the-top providers, and industry vertical market players to request and lease resources from infrastructure providers dynamically according to needs. In the future digital factory, the leasing of resources could also happen autonomously by manufacturing equipment. This paper presents Blockchain Slice Leasing Ledger Concept and analysis of its applicability in the Factory of the Future. The novel concept utilizes 5G Network Slice Broker in a Blockchain to reduce service creation time and enable manufacturing equipment autonomously and dynamically acquire the slice needed for more efficient operations.

First 100-nm Continuous-Band WDM Transmission System with 115Tb/s Transport over 100km Using Novel Ultra-Wideband Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers

Abstract: We demonstrate the first 115Tb/s lumped amplified transmission system based on novel ultrawideband semiconductor optical amplifiers. We show the successful transmission of 250 channels carrying >400Gb/s each over a 100-km transmission link.

Engineering and Characterization of Bacterial Nanocellulose Films as Low Cost and Flexible Sensor Material

Abstract: Some bacterial strains such as Komagataeibacter xylinus are able to produce cellulose as an extracellular matrix In comparison to wood-based cellulose, bacterial cellulose (BC) holds interesting properties such as biodegradability, high purity, water-holding capacity, and superior mechanical and structural properties Aiming toward improvement in BC production titer and tailored alterations to the BC film, we engineered K xylinus to overexpress partial and complete bacterial cellulose synthase operon that encodes activities for BC production The changes in cell growth, end metabolite, and BC production titers from the engineered strains were compared with the wild-type K xylinus Although there were no significant differences between the growth of wild-type and engineered strains, the engineered K xylinus strains demonstrated faster BC production, generating 2–4-fold higher production titer (the highest observed titer was obtained with K xylinus-bcsABCD strain producing 43 ± 046 g/L BC in 4 days)

5G-Crosshaul: An SDN/NFV Integrated Fronthaul/Backhaul Transport Network Architecture

Abstract: This article proposes an innovative architecture design for a 5G transport solution (dubbed 5G-Crosshaul) targeting the integration of existing and new fronthaul and backhaul technologies and interfaces. At the heart of the proposed design lie an SDN/NFV-based management and orchestration entity (XCI), and an Ethernet-based packet forwarding entity (XFE) supporting various fronthaul and backhaul traffic QoS profiles. The XCI leverages widespread architectural frameworks for NFV (ETSI NFV) and SDN (Open Daylight and ONOS). It opens the 5G transport network as a service for innovative network applications on top (e.g., multi-tenancy, resource management), provisioning the required network and IT resources in a flexible, cost-effective, and abstract manner. The proposed design supports the concept of network slicing pushed by the industry for realizing a truly flexible, sharable, and cost-effective future 5G system.

Micro operators to boost local service delivery in 5G

Abstract: Future digital society depends heavily on timely availability of high quality wireless connectivity the offering of which today is dominated by mobile network operators (MNOs). Future 5G systems aim at connecting billions of devices to serve versatile location and case specific needs of vertical sectors in parallel with the provisioning of traditional mobile broadband services. As the majority of mobile traffic originates from indoors, cost-efficient and fast deployment of new indoor small cell networks is fundamental, which calls for new developments in regulation and technology to enable new business. This paper proposes the concept of micro operators (uO) for local service delivery in 5G to build indoor small cell communication infrastructure and offer context related services and content. Key elements of the new micro operator concept are introduced including regulation-related factors of local spectrum access rights, and technology-related factors of flexible network implementation. Several business opportunities are identified for the uO concept including the provisioning of hosted local connectivity to all MNOs in specific locations, operation of secure networks for vertical sector specific use, and offering of locally tailored content and services.

Trans-Atlantic field trial using probabilistically shaped 64-QAM at high spectral efficiencies and single-carrier real-time 250-Gb/s 16-QAM

Abstract: We transmitted probabilistically shaped 64-QAM at 7.46 b/s/Hz over a 5,523-km inservice EDFA-only amplified trans-Atlantic cable (5.68 b/s/Hz over a looped-back 11,046 km). Using real-time processing we achieve single-carrier 250-Gb/s 16-QAM at 4 b/s/Hz.

Pilot Study: Comparison of Sourdough Wheat Bread and Yeast-Fermented Wheat Bread in Individuals with Wheat Sensitivity and Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Abstract: Many patients suspect wheat as being a major trigger of their irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) symptoms. Our aim was to evaluate whether sourdough wheat bread baked without baking improvers and using a long dough fermentation time (>12 h), would result in lower quantities of alpha-amylase/trypsin inhibitors (ATIs) and Fermentable, Oligo-, Di-, Mono-saccharides and Polyols (FODMAPs), and would be better tolerated than yeast-fermented wheat bread for subjects with IBS who have a poor subjective tolerance to wheat. The study was conducted as a randomised double-blind controlled 7-day study (n = 26). Tetrameric ATI structures were unravelled in both breads vs. baking flour, but the overall reduction in ATIs to their monomeric form was higher in the sourdough bread group. Sourdough bread was also lower in FODMAPs. However, no significant differences in gastrointestinal symptoms and markers of low-grade inflammation were found between the study breads. There were significantly more feelings of tiredness, joint symptoms, and decreased alertness when the participants ate the sourdough bread (p ≤ 0.03), but these results should be interpreted with caution. Our novel finding was that sourdough baking reduces the quantities of both ATIs and FODMAPs found in wheat. Nonetheless, the sourdough bread was not tolerated better than the yeast-fermented bread.

SONATA: Service programming and orchestration for virtualized software networks

Abstract: In conventional large-scale networks, creation and management of network services are costly and complex tasks that often consume a lot of resources, including time and manpower. Network softwarization and network function virtualization have been introduced to tackle these problems, aiming at decreasing costs and complexity of implementing new services, maintaining the implemented services, and managing available resources in service provisioning platforms and underlying infrastructures. To experience the full potential of these approaches, innovative development support tools and service provisioning environments are needed. To answer these needs, we introduce the architecture of the open-source SONATA system, a service programming, orchestration, and management framework. We present a development toolchain for virtualized network services, fully integrated with a service platform and orchestration system. We introduce the modular and flexible architecture of our system and discuss its main components and features, such as function- and service-specific managers that allow fine-grained service management, slicing support to facilitate multi-tenancy, recursiveness for improved scalability, and full-featured DevOps support.

A Systematic Approach for Cross-Source Point Cloud Registration by Preserving Macro and Micro Structures

Abstract: We propose a systematic approach for registering cross-source point clouds that come from different kinds of sensors. This task is especially challenging due to the presence of significant missing data, large variations in point density, scale difference, large proportion of noise, and outliers. The robustness of the method is attributed to the extraction of macro and micro structures. Macro structure is the overall structure that maintains similar geometric layout in cross-source point clouds. Micro structure is the element (e.g., local segment) being used to build the macro structure. We use graph to organize these structures and convert the registration into graph matching. With a novel proposed descriptor, we conduct the graph matching in a discriminative feature space. The graph matching problem is solved by an improved graph matching solution, which considers global geometrical constraints. Robust cross source registration results are obtained by incorporating graph matching outcome with RANSAC and ICP refinements. Compared with eight state-of-the-art registration algorithms, the proposed method invariably outperforms on Pisa Cathedral and other challenging cases. In order to compare quantitatively, we propose two challenging cross-source data sets and conduct comparative experiments on more than 27 cases, and the results show we obtain much better performance than other methods. The proposed method also shows high accuracy in same-source data sets.

Handheld free space quantum key distribution with dynamic motion compensation.

Abstract: Mobile devices have become an inseparable part of our everyday life. They are used to transmit an ever-increasing amount of sensitive health, financial and personal information. This exposes us to the growing scale and sophistication of cyber-attacks. Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) can provide unconditional and future-proof data security but implementing it for handheld mobile devices comes with specific challenges. To establish security, secret keys of sufficient length need to be transmitted during the time of a handheld transaction (~1s) despite device misalignment, ambient light and user's inevitable hand movements. Transmitters and receivers should ideally be compact and low-cost, while avoiding security loopholes. Here we demonstrate the first QKD transmission from a handheld transmitter with a key-rate large enough to overcome finite key effects. Using dynamic beam-steering, reference-frame-independent encoding and fast indistinguishable pulse generation, we obtain a secret key rate above 30kb/s over a distance of 0.5m.

Method and an apparatus and a computer program for encoding media content

Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer readable medium are provided for facilitating encoding of media content. In the context of a method, information is included in a manifest of available media content. The method also indicates in the manifest one of the following: a viewport or a spatial region. The method further indicates in the manifest at least one value indicative of a respective quality of the viewport or the spatial region.

5G Mobile Systems for Healthcare

Abstract: This paper focuses on 5G Mobile Systems for ultra-reliable low latency communications applied to the healthcare use cases, specifically: Wireless Tele Surgery (WTS) - using a mobile console and robotic platforms with video, audio and haptic feed-back; and Wireless Service Robots (WSR) - companion robots or service robots performing tasks of social caretakers, professional personnel or family members. Cyber-sickness and latency between robotic platforms and reasoning servers are the new technical problems the 5G mobile systems are expected to solve, e.g. in hospices, hospitals, homes and campus areas. We firstly describe the 5G functional architecture and key enabling technologies to meet the associated performance requirements. This is followed by a comprehensive analysis of costs and revenues operators and healthcare providers would meet to deliver the corresponding services, if 5G systems were deployed. Business case calculations for the two players show an immediate Return on Investment (RoI) for carriers, whereas the breakeven point for healthcare providers is highly sensitive to the robotic platform price.

Method, an apparatus and a computer program product for coding a 360-degree panoramic video

Abstract: There are disclosed various methods, apparatuses and computer program products for video encoding In some embodiments the method comprises reconstructing a 360-degree panoramic source picture for inter-layer prediction; deriving an inter- layer reference picture from the 360-degree panoramic source picture, wherein the deriving comprises one or both of: upsampling at leasta part of the 360-degree panoramic source picture, wherein said upsampling comprises filtering samples of a border region of the 360-degree panoramic source picture using at least partly one or more sample values of an opposite side border region and/or one or more variable values associated with one or more blocks of the opposite side border region; determining a reference region that crosses a picture boundary of the 360-degree panoramic source picture, and including in the reference region one or both of the following: one or more sample values of an opposite side border region; one or more variable values associated with one or more blocks of the opposite side border region

Urban 3D segmentation and modelling from street view images and LiDAR point clouds

Abstract: 3D urban maps with semantic labels and metric information are not only essential for the next generation robots such autonomous vehicles and city drones, but also help to visualize and augment local environment in mobile user applications The machine vision challenge is to generate accurate urban maps from existing data with minimal manual annotation In this work, we propose a novel methodology that takes GPS registered LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) point clouds and street view images as inputs and creates semantic labels for the 3D points clouds using a hybrid of rule-based parsing and learning-based labelling that combine point cloud and photometric features The rule-based parsing boosts segmentation of simple and large structures such as street surfaces and building facades that span almost 75% of the point cloud data For more complex structures, such as cars, trees and pedestrians, we adopt boosted decision trees that exploit both structure (LiDAR) and photometric (street view) features We provide qualitative examples of our methodology in 3D visualization where we construct parametric graphical models from labelled data and in 2D image segmentation where 3D labels are back projected to the street view images In quantitative evaluation we report classification accuracy and computing times and compare results to competing methods with three popular databases: NAVTEQ True, Paris-Rue-Madame and TLS (terrestrial laser scanned) Velodyne

Long-term safety and efficacy of perinatal probiotic intervention: evidence from a follow-up study of four randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials

Abstract: Background Societies worldwide are faced with a progressive increase in immune-mediated health problems such as allergic, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, as well as obesity. Perinatal administration of specific probiotic bacteria is an attractive approach in reducing the risk of these conditions, but long-term efficacy and safety data are lacking. The aim here was to evaluate the clinical benefit and long-term safety of specific probiotics administered during the perinatal period. Methods The probiotic strains used were Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, Bifidobacterium lactis Bb-12, Lactobacillus paracasei ST11 and Bifidobacterium longum BL999. The children involved have subsequently undergone prospective long-term follow-up. In addition to physical examination, data were collected by structured questionnaires on non-communicable diseases and continued probiotic use, and growth data from welfare clinics and school nurses. Results Altogether 303 mother-infant pairs were included in the analysis. Seventy-six out of 163 (47%) children receiving perinatal probiotics had developed allergic disease compared with 79 out of 140 (56%) receiving placebo (OR 0.67, 95% CI 0.43-1.06, p=0.09). Fifty-nine out of 133 (44%) children receiving Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG perinatally had developed allergic disease, OR 0.62, 95% CI 0.38-0.99, p=0.047, as compared to placebo. We found no differences in growth or non-communicable disease prevalence between children receiving perinatally probiotics or placebo. Conclusions Perinatal probiotic administration is safe in long-term follow-up. Children receiving Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG perinatally tended to have decreased allergy prevalence. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

LTE-M Evolution Towards 5G Massive MTC

Abstract: Massive machine type communication (mMTC) has been identified as an important use case for 5G New Radio wireless technology In 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE), 3GPP has previously introduced LTE-M for low-power, wide-area networks supporting the Internet of Things Rel-13 specifications for LTE-M were completed in 2016 Rel-14 enhancements were completed in 2017 while Rel-15 enhancements are ongoing and expected to be completed in 2018 In this paper, we provide an overview of LTE-M and describe its evolution in subsequent releases The features of the technology that have specifically been designed for mMTC are discussed In addition, we present evaluations of LTE-M against 5G performance targets and show that mMTC requirements can be satisfied by LTE-M To meet the 5G mMTC requirements, 3-dB power spectral density boosting is used in the downlink In addition, for some requirements, 4 receive antennas at the eNB are required instead of the more typical 2 receive antennas Thus, LTE-M will comprise an important component of 5G New Radio technology

Achieving CMMI Level 2 with Enhanced Extreme Programming Approach

Abstract: The relationship between agile methods and Software Engineering Institute's CMM approach is often debated. Some authors argue that the approaches are compatible, while others have criticized the application of agile methods from the CMM perspective. Only few CMM based assessments have been performed on projects using agile approaches. This paper explores an empirical case where a project using Extreme Programming (XP) based approach was assessed using the CMMI framework. The results provide empirical evidence pointing out that it is possible to achieve maturity level 2 with approach based on XP. Yet, the results confirm that XP, as it is defined, is not sufficient. This study demonstrates that it is possible to use the CMMI for assessing and improving agile processes. However, the analysis reveals that assessing an agile organization requires more interpretations than normally would be the case. It is further concluded that the CMMI model does not always support interpretations in an agile context.

Do Ethical Social Media Communities Pay Off? An Exploratory Study of the Ability of Facebook Ethical Communities to Strengthen Consumers’ Ethical Consumption Behavior

Abstract: It has been proposed that the social networking site Facebook is suitable for building communities and strengthening customer relationships, and also many organizations that promote ethical consumption have established online communities there. However, because of the newness of ethical online communities, little is known about the extent to which consumer participation in them produces positive outcomes. The present study aims at exploring such outcomes: first, we identify consumer-perceived benefits from ethical community participation, and second, we explore whether these benefits influence the activity promoted (in this case, ethical consumption), as well as consumer loyalty toward the ethical Facebook community. The results of an online survey of ethical community participants reveal that informational benefits reinforce consumers’ ethical consumption behavior. Social and entertainment benefits, in turn, have a positive influence on loyalty to the community. The present study further reveals that the consumers’ prior commitment to ethical consumption influences the perceived benefits: the affective commitment to ethical consumption has a positive, and the continuance commitment a negative influence on the benefits. Thus, the more consumers feel they engage in ethical consumption because of an emotional attachment, the higher the perceived benefits from online community participation are. The more consumers perceive that their ethical consumption is driven by lack of choice, the fewer the benefits. Overall, the perceived benefits were at a relatively low level, which is somewhat alarming and highlights the need to manage the communities more efficiently.

Deep convolutional neural networks for estimating porous material parameters with ultrasound tomography

Abstract: We study the feasibility of data based machine learning applied to ultrasound tomography to estimate water-saturated porous material parameters. In this work, the data to train the neural networks is simulated by solving wave propagation in coupled poroviscoelastic-viscoelastic-acoustic media. As the forward model, we consider a high-order discontinuous Galerkin method while deep convolutional neural networks are used to solve the parameter estimation problem. In the numerical experiment, we estimate the material porosity and tortuosity while the remaining parameters which are of less interest are successfully marginalized in the neural networks-based inversion. Computational examples confirms the feasibility and accuracy of this approach.

Text to Quit China: An mHealth Smoking Cessation Trial:

Abstract: Purpose. To assess the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of a text message–based smoking cessation intervention in China. Design. Study design was a randomized control trial with a 6-month follow-up assessment of smoking status. Setting. Zhejiang, Heilongjiang, and Shaanxi provinces in China provided the study setting. Subjects. A total of 8000 adult smokers in China who used Nokia Life Tools and participated in phase 2 (smoking education via text message) of the study were included. Intervention. The high-frequency text contact (HFTC) group received one to three messages daily containing smoking cessation advice, encouragement, and health education information. The low-frequency text contact (LFTC) group received one weekly message with smoking health effects information. Measures. Our primary outcome was smoking status at 0, 1, 3, and 6 months after intervention. Secondary outcomes include participant perceptions of the HFTC intervention, and factors associated with smoking cessation amo...

Graphene-Flakes Printed Wideband Elliptical Dipole Antenna for Low-Cost Wireless Communications Applications

Abstract: This letter presents the design, manufacturing, and operational performance of a graphene-flakes-based screen-printed wideband elliptical dipole antenna operating from 2 up to 5 GHz for low-cost wireless communications applications. To investigate radio frequency (RF) conductivity of the printed graphene, a coplanar waveguide (CPW) test structure was designed, fabricated, and tested in the frequency range from 1 to 20 GHz. Antenna and CPW were screen-printed on Kapton substrates using a graphene paste formulated with a graphene-to-binder ratio of 1:2. A combination of thermal treatment and subsequent compression rolling is utilized to further decrease the sheet resistance for printed graphene structures, ultimately reaching 4 Ω/□ at 10- μ m thicknesses. For the graphene-flakes printed antenna, an antenna efficiency of 60% is obtained. The measured maximum antenna gain is 2.3 dBi at 4.8 GHz. Thus, the graphene-flakes printed antenna adds a total loss of only 3.1 dB to an RF link when compared to the same structure screen-printed for reference with a commercial silver ink. This shows that the electrical performance of screen-printed graphene flakes, which also does not degrade after repeated bending, is suitable for realizing low-cost wearable RF wireless communication devices.

Scenario modules and ray-tracing simulations of millimeter wave and terahertz channels for smart rail mobility

Abstract: Nowadays, rail traffic is expected to evolve into a new era of “smart rail mobility”, which requires a seamless high-data rate wireless connectivity with up to dozens of GHz bandwidth Such a huge bandwidth requirement motivates the exploration of the underutilized millimeter (mm) wave and Terahertz (THz) bands In this paper, six scenario modules for mm wave and THz train-to-infrastructure channels are defined and constructed for the first time All the main objects, such as tracks, stations, crossing bridges, tunnels, cuttings, barriers, pylons, buildings, vegetation, traffic signs, billboards, trains, etc, are modeled according to the typical geometries and materials in reality Preliminary ray-tracing simulations in the 60 GHz band with 8 GHz bandwidth show that these objects that might not be so impacting on lower frequency channels indeed influence mm wave channel properties, and therefore, they can even play a more important role in the channels at higher frequency bands — THz The modules presented in this paper are constructed through abstracting commonness of typical rail traffic scenarios They can be independently used for site-specific verification of new communication regimes Or, they can be combined in various ways for getting statistics of smart rail mobility in comprehensive rail traffic scenarios The three-dimensional (3D) models of these six modules are publicly available and freely downloadable for link and system level simulations

Interaction with WebVR 360° video player: Comparing three interaction paradigms

Abstract: Immersive 360° video needs new ways of interaction. We compared three different interaction methods to find out which one of them is the most applicable for controlling 360° video playback. The compared methods were: remote control, pointing with head orientation, and hand gestures. A WebVR-based 360° video player was built for the experiment.