University of Western Macedonia

About: University of Western Macedonia is a education organization based out in Kozani, Greece. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Computer science & Catalysis. The organization has 823 authors who have published 2044 publications receiving 37934 citations. The organization is also known as: West Macedonia University & Western Macedonia University.

Body Area Networks: A Survey

Abstract: Advances in wireless communication technologies, such as wearable and implantable biosensors, along with recent developments in the embedded computing area are enabling the design, development, and implementation of body area networks. This class of networks is paving the way for the deployment of innovative healthcare monitoring applications. In the past few years, much of the research in the area of body area networks has focused on issues related to wireless sensor designs, sensor miniaturization, low-power sensor circuitry, signal processing, and communications protocols. In this paper, we present an overview of body area networks, and a discussion of BAN communications types and their related issues. We provide a detailed investigation of sensor devices, physical layer, data link layer, and radio technology aspects of BAN research. We also present a taxonomy of BAN projects that have been introduced/proposed to date. Finally, we highlight some of the design challenges and open issues that still need to be addressed to make BANs truly ubiquitous for a wide range of applications.

Full duplex techniques for 5G networks: self-interference cancellation, protocol design, and relay selection

Abstract: The wireless research community aspires to conceive full duplex operation by supporting concurrent transmission and reception in a single time/frequency channel for the sake of improving the attainable spectral efficiency by a factor of two as compared to the family of conventional half duplex wireless systems. The main challenge encountered in implementing FD wireless devices is that of finding techniques for mitigating the performance degradation imposed by self-interference. In this article, we investigate the potential FD techniques, including passive suppression, active analog cancellation, and active digital cancellation, and highlight their pros and cons. Furthermore, the troubles of FD medium access control protocol design are discussed for addressing the problems such as the resultant end-to-end delay and network congestion. Additionally, an opportunistic decode-andforward- based relay selection scheme is analyzed in underlay cognitive networks communicating over independent and identically distributed Rayleigh and Nakagami-m fading channels in the context of FD relaying. We demonstrate that the outage probability of multi-relay cooperative communication links can be substantially reduced. Finally, we discuss the challenges imposed by the aforementioned techniques and a range of critical issues associated with practical FD implementations. It is shown that numerous open challenges, such as efficient SI suppression, high-performance FD MAC-layer protocol design, low power consumption, and hybrid FD/HD designs, have to be tackled before successfully implementing FD-based systems.

Molecular Communication and Networking: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract: The ability of engineered biological nanomachines to communicate with biological systems at the molecular level is anticipated to enable future applications such as monitoring the condition of a human body, regenerating biological tissues and organs, and interfacing artificial devices with neural systems From the viewpoint of communication theory and engineering, molecular communication is proposed as a new paradigm for engineered biological nanomachines to communicate with the natural biological nanomachines which form a biological system Distinct from the current telecommunication paradigm, molecular communication uses molecules as the carriers of information; sender biological nanomachines encode information on molecules and release the molecules in the environment, the molecules then propagate in the environment to receiver biological nanomachines, and the receiver biological nanomachines biochemically react with the molecules to decode information Current molecular communication research is limited to small-scale networks of several biological nanomachines Key challenges to bridge the gap between current research and practical applications include developing robust and scalable techniques to create a functional network from a large number of biological nanomachines Developing networking mechanisms and communication protocols is anticipated to introduce new avenues into integrating engineered and natural biological nanomachines into a single networked system In this paper, we present the state-of-the-art in the area of molecular communication by discussing its architecture, features, applications, design, engineering, and physical modeling We then discuss challenges and opportunities in developing networking mechanisms and communication protocols to create a network from a large number of bio-nanomachines for future applications

A Survey on Ambient Intelligence in Healthcare

Abstract: Ambient Intelligence (AmI) is a new paradigm in information technology aimed at empowering people's capabilities by means of digital environments that are sensitive, adaptive, and responsive to human needs, habits, gestures, and emotions. This futuristic vision of daily environment will enable innovative human-machine interactions characterized by pervasive, unobtrusive, and anticipatory communications. Such innovative interaction paradigms make AmI technology a suitable candidate for developing various real life solutions, including in the healthcare domain. This survey will discuss the emergence of AmI techniques in the healthcare domain, in order to provide the research community with the necessary background. We will examine the infrastructure and technology required for achieving the vision of AmI, such as smart environments and wearable medical devices. We will summarize the state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI) methodologies used for developing AmI system in the healthcare domain, including various learning techniques (for learning from user interaction), reasoning techniques (for reasoning about users' goals and intensions), and planning techniques (for planning activities and interactions). We will also discuss how AmI technology might support people affected by various physical or mental disabilities or chronic disease. Finally, we will point to some of the successful case studies in the area and we will look at the current and future challenges to draw upon the possible future research paths.