Orthogonal decision-feedback detector for asynchronous multiuserCDMA systems

This paper introduces an asynchronous orthogonal decision-feedback detector (AODFD) for asynchronous CDMA multiuser detection. The AODFD based on entire message-length detection is studied first. A realizable scheme, sliding-window AODFD, is then proposed and its performance is analyzed. In spite of its simple structure, the sliding-window AODFD can perform as desirably as ADDFD, which has a much higher complexity. The reduced complexity of the sliding-window AODFD is due to the use of orthogonal matched-filtering and a short window size. Different from ADDFD that requires computational intensive z-transformed matrix inversion and spectral factorization, AODFD uses the agile Gram-Schmidt procedure. It is possible for AODFD to adopt a simple updating algorithm and parameter updating is no longer always necessary when users leave the system. The comparisons are also made with other orthogonal-based detectors and the bit error probability results show that the AODFD is an attractive multiuser detector     

Hierarchy schedule-sensing protocol for CDMA wireless data-centric networks with multiple packet collision and capture effect

This paper focuses on performance analysis of a CDMA wireless data network based on hierarchy schedule-sensing (HSS) protocol, in which a common-code permission frame beacon is used to schedule request transmissions to avoid packet collisions. To further reduce scheduling delay, hierarchical group-based coding is adopted in the scheme. The performance of such a network is evaluated considering packet collisions with and without packet capture effect using a two-dimensional Markovian chain model. In particular, this paper will study the impact of multiple packet-collision effect on network performance with the help of the average packet-collision rate derived explicitly in the paper. The obtained results show that, despite its low implementation complexity, the HSS protocol is a fairly robust medium-access control protocol featuring uniformly high throughput and short delay even under very high traffic load, which especially suits data-centric wireless networks with relatively small coverage area and great node density.     

An effective key management scheme for heterogeneous sensor networks

Security is critical for sensor networks used in military, homeland security and other hostile environments. Previous research on sensor network security mainly considers homogeneous sensor networks. Research has shown that homogeneous ad hoc networks have poor performance and scalability. Furthermore, many security schemes designed for homogeneous sensor networks suffer from high communication overhead, computation overhead, and/or high storage requirement. Recently deployed sensor network systems are increasingly following heterogeneous designs. Key management is an essential cryptographic primitive to provide other security operations. In this paper, we present an effective key management scheme that takes advantage of the powerful high-end sensors in heterogeneous sensor networks. The performance evaluation and security analysis show that the key management scheme provides better security with low complexity and significant reduction on storage requirement, compared with existing key management schemes.     

Uncoordinated coexisting IEEE 802.15.4 networks for machine to machine communications

IEEE 802.15.4 standard has been proposed for low power wireless personal area networks. It can be used as an important component in machine to machine (M2M) networks for data collection, monitoring and controlling functions. With an increasing number of machine devices enabled by M2M technology and equipped with 802.15.4 radios, it is likely that multiple 802.15.4 networks may be deployed closely, for example, to collect data for smart metering at residential or enterprise areas. In such scenarios, supporting reliable communications for monitoring and controlling applications is a big challenge. The problem becomes more severe due to the potential hidden terminals when the operations of multiple 802.15.4 networks are uncoordinated. In this paper, we investigate this problem from three typical scenarios and propose an analytic model to reveal how performance of coexisting 802.15.4 networks may be affected by uncoordinated operations under these scenarios. Simulations will be used to validate the analytic model. It is observed that uncoordinated operations may lead to a significant degradation of system performance in M2M applications. With the proposed analytic model, we also investigate the performance limits of the 802.15.4 networks, and the conditions under which coordinated operations may be required to support M2M applications.     

Cross-layer-based modeling for quality of service guarantees in mobile wireless networks

In this article we propose a cross-layer approach to investigate the impact of the physical-layer infrastructure on the data-link-layer QoS performance in mobile wireless networks. At the physical layer, we take the MIMO diversity schemes as well its AMC into account. At the data-link layer, our focus is on how this physical-layer infrastructure influences the real-time multimedia QoS provisioning performance such as delay-bound violation and buffer-overflow probabilities. To achieve this goal, we first model the physical-layer service process as a finite state Markov chain. Based on this FSMC model, we then characterize the QoS performance at the data-link layer using the effective capacity approach, which turns out to be critically important for the statistical QoS guarantees in mobile wireless networks. The numerical and simulation results obtained demonstrate that the proposed cross-layer model can efficiently characterize the interaction between the physical layer infrastructure and upper layer protocols' QoS provisioning performance.     

Design of next-generation cdma using orthogonal complementary codes and offset stacked spreading

This article presents an innovative code-division multiple access system architecture that is based on orthogonal complementary spreading codes and time-frequency domain spreading. The architecture has several advantages compared to conventional CDMA systems. Specifically, it offers multiple-access-interference-free operation in AWGN channels, reduces co-channel interference significantly, and has the potential for higher capacity and spectral efficiency than conventional CDMA systems. This is accomplished by using an "offset stacked" spreading modulation technique followed by quadrature amplitude modulation, which optimizes performance in a fading environment. This new spreading modulation scheme also simplifies the rate matching algorithms relevant for multimedia services and IP-based applications.     

Evolution toward 4G wireless networking [Guest Editorial]

This special issue serves as a stimulus to promote and accelerate technological evolution toward 4G networking. The response to the call for papers for this issue is indicative of the great interest with which the community views this topic. Of the many high quality in depth and breadth papers received from both academia and industry around the world, we could only accommodate a selected few in this issue. The research on the next generation wireless networking involves many cutting-edge research topics, which are presented in some articles included in this special issue