Routing for disruption tolerant networks: taxonomy and design

Communication networks, whether they are wired or wireless, have traditionally been assumed to be connected at least most of the time. However, emerging applications such as emergency response, special operations, smart environments, VANETs, etc. coupled with node heterogeneity and volatile links (e.g. due to wireless propagation phenomena and node mobility) will likely change the typical conditions under which networks operate. In fact, in such scenarios, networks may be mostly disconnected, i.e., most of the time, end-to-end paths connecting every node pair do not exist. To cope with frequent, long-lived disconnections, opportunistic routing techniques have been proposed in which, at every hop, a node decides whether it should forward or store-and-carry a message. Despite a growing number of such proposals, there still exists little consensus on the most suitable routing algorithm(s) in this context. One of the reasons is the large diversity of emerging wireless applications and networks exhibiting such “episodic” connectivity. These networks often have very different characteristics and requirements, making it very difficult, if not impossible, to design a routing solution that fits all. In this paper, we first break up existing routing strategies into a small number of common and tunable routing modules (e.g. message replication, coding, etc.), and then show how and when a given routing module should be used, depending on the set of network characteristics exhibited by the wireless application. We further attempt to create a taxonomy for intermittently connected networks. We try to identify generic network characteristics that are relevant to the routing process (e.g., network density, node heterogeneity, mobility patterns) and dissect different “challenged” wireless networks or applications based on these characteristics. Our goal is to identify a set of useful design guidelines that will enable one to choose an appropriate routing protocol for the application or network in hand. Finally, to demonstrate the utility of our approach, we take up some case studies of challenged wireless networks, and validate some of our routing design principles using simulations.     

A MULTI-RESOLUTION SPECTRUM SENSING （MRSS） SCHEME UNDER MEASUREMENT-BASED CHANNEL MODELS IN COGNITIVE RADIO

Spectrum sensing is one of the key technologies in Cognitive Radios (CRs). Previous works are accomplished under simple channel models, which may lead to unreliable results when it applied to the over-the-air systems. In this paper, we investigate the performance of a Multi-Resolution Spectrum Sensing (MRSS) algorithm under measurement-based channel models in China. MRSS is a wavelet based algorithm which is suitable for non-stationary, wideband signal analysis. Using statistical modeling, measurement-based channel models are presented under typical urban and suburban scenarios in Shanghai, China. Then, the performance of the MRSS algorithm is evaluated under the measurement-based channel models. Simulation results show that, using MRSS, the performance is always better in the scenarios where Line-Of-Sight (LOS) path exist; also, in LOS scenarios, rich scattering effect helps to increase the performance.     

Cyclostationarity-Based Modulation Classification of Linear Digital Modulations in Flat Fading Channels

Modulation classification is an intermediate step between signal detection and demodulation, and plays a key role in various civilian and military applications. In this correspondence, higher-order cyclic cumulants (CCs) are explored to discriminate linear digital modulations in flat fading channels. Single- and multi-antenna CC-based classifiers are investigated. These benefit from the robustness of the CC-based features to unknown phase and timing offset. Furthermore, the latter provides significant performance improvement due to spatial diversity used to combat the fading effect. Classifier performances are investigated under a variety of channel conditions. In addition, analytical closed-form expressions for the cyclic cumulant polyspectra of linearly digitally modulated signals affected by fading, carrier frequency and timing offsets, and additive Gaussian noise are derived, along with a condition for the oversampling factor to avoid aliasing in the cycle and spectral frequency domains.     

A power-adaptable A/D converter with integrated data compression

A novel adaptable analog/digital converter (ADC) that combines analog/digital conversion and entropy-coding for integrated data compression and low-power operation is reported. The converter has high flexibility of operation in terms of adaptable resolution, conversion rate and input signal statistics. This feature allows to adaptively react to changes of the situation and to put the device in each case into the optimum configuration. The ADC has been realized in a 0.6 μm CMOS technology with a peak resolution of 12 bit and 200 kS/s maximum sampling rate. A comprehensive power model of the converter is presented that reflects precisely the power consumption determined from experiments. The model is very useful for optimizing the converter configuration in the node of a wireless sensor network for specific situations. A feasible real-life application is demonstrated.     

Array-OL with delays,a domain specific specification language for multidimensional intensive signal processing

Intensive signal processing applications appear in many application domains such as video processing or detection systems. These applications handle multidimensional data structures (mainly arrays) to deal with the various dimensions of the data (space, time, frequency). A specification language allowing the direct manipulation of these different dimensions with a high level of abstraction is a key to handling the complexity of these applications and to benefit from their massive potential parallelism. The Array-OL specification language is designed to do just that. We introduce here an extension of Array-OL to deal with states or delays by the way of uniform inter-repetition dependences. We show that this specification language is able to express the main patterns of computation of the intensive signal processing domain.     

Structural Characterization of Doped GaSb Single Crystals by X-ray Topography

We characterized GaSb single crystals containing different dopants (Al, Cd, and Te), grown by the Czochralski method, using x-ray topography and high-angular-resolution x-ray diffraction. Lang topography revealed dislocations parallel and perpendicular to the crystal surface. Double-crystal GaSb 333 x-ray topography showed dislocations and vertical stripes that could be associated with circular growth bands. We compared our high-angular- resolution x-ray diffraction measurements (rocking curves) with findings predicted by the dynamical theory of x-ray diffraction. These measurements show that our GaSb single crystals have a relative variation in the lattice parameter (Δd/d) on the order of 10⁻⁵. This means that they can be used as electronic devices (e.g., detectors) and as x-ray monochromators.     

Channel Modeling and Inter-Carrier Interference Analysis for V2V Communication Systems in Frequency-Dispersive Channels

Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication has attracted much attention recently. In V2V communications mobility plays a major role in yielding frequency dispersion of the channels, and thus accurately modeling of Doppler effect becomes a challenging issue as the two fundamental assumptions of the Jack’s model may not be valid due to time-varying channel characteristics in V2V communication systems. In this paper, we present a practical model to characterize V2V communication channel and its corresponding Doppler spread spectrum is derived. In addition, we will study the impact of inter-carrier interference (ICI) generated in an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) based V2V communication system. Compared with the classical Jake’s channel model, our proposed new channel model is more accurate and fits in particular well for the performance assessment of vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems.     

Simple and Accurate Design of Low-Density Parity-Check Codes for Multi-Input Multi-Output Systems

In this paper we design an irregular low-density parity-check (LDPC) code for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, using a simple extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) chart method. The MIMO systems considered are the optimal maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) detector and the suboptimal minimum mean square error soft-interference cancellation (MMSE-SIC) detector. The MIMO detector and the LDPC decoder exchange soft information and form a turbo iterative receiver. The EXIT charts are used to obtain the edge degree distribution of the irregular LDPC code which is optimized for the MIMO detector. It is shown that the performance of the designed LDPC code is better than that of conventional LDPC code which was optimized for either the Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel or the MIMO channel without an explicit consideration of the given detector structure.     

A novel ±0.5 V,high current drive,and rail to rail current operational amplifier

A current operational amplifier (COA) with very high current drive capability is presented in this paper. The principle of operation of this unique structure is discussed, its most important formulas are derived and its outstanding performance is verified by HSPICE simulation in TSMC 0.18 μm CMOS, BSIM3, and Level49 technology. Owing to the elaborately arranged components, the proposed circuit demonstrates very high frequency bandwidth, extremely high CMRR, high output impedance, and true rail to rail output voltage swing range while operating at very low power supply of ±0.5 V. The interesting results such as current drive capability of ±1 mA, high output impedance of 5 GΩ, wide gain bandwidth of 220 MHz, extremely high output voltage swing of ±0.45 V, which interestingly provides the highest yet reported output voltage compliance for current mode building blocks implemented by regular CMOS technology, low static power consumption of 159 μW, and very high CMRR of 155 dB is achieved utilizing standard CMOS technology. Full process, voltage, and temperature variation analysis of the circuit is also investigated in order to approve the well robustness of the structure. The transient stepwise and sinusoidal response analysis is also done to verify the proposed COA stability.     

Performance Analysis of SEIGA in WCDMA Systems Over Weibull Fading Channels

In this letter, the performance of a Wideband CDMA (W-CDMA) system modeled by a Simplified Expression for Improved Gaussian Approximation (SEIGA), is studied in the presence of a Weibull fading channel. The simulated Bit Error Rate (BER) for W-CDMA systems over Weibull fading channels is computed for the transmission of 10⁶ input bits, and is compared with the corresponding theoretical upper and lower bounds provided by the Q-function. The performance measures are compared for different channel memories.