An information-theoretic, optimal framework is developed for tracking the residents in a Context-aware Heterogenous Smart Environment. The resident-tracking problem is formulated in terms of weighted entropy. The framework provides an optimal, online learning and prediction of users movement, location as well as most probable path segments from the symbolic domain. Successful prediction helps in on-demand operations of automated indoor devices along the users future paths and locations, thus providing the necessary comfort at a near-optimal cost. Simulation results corroborate the high prediction success, thereby providing resident-comfort while reducing energy consumption and manual operations.

A novel RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication) refinement algorithm is proposed to enhance the resolution for indoor and outdoor real-time location tracking system. The proposed refinement algorithm is implemented in two separate phases. During the first phase, called the pre-processing step, RSSI values at different static locations are collected and processed to build a calibrated model for each reference node. Different measurement campaigns pertinent to each parameter in the model are implemented to analyze the sensitivity of RSSI. The propagation models constructed for each reference nodes are needed by the second phase. During the next phase, called the runtime process, real-time tracking is performed. Smoothing algorithm is proposed to minimize the dynamic fluctuation of radio signal received from each reference node when the mobile target is moving. Filtered RSSI values are converted to distances using formula calibrated in the first phase. Finally, an iterative trilateration algorithm is used for position estimation. Experiments relevant to the optimization algorithm are carried out in both indoor and outdoor environments and the results validated the feasibility of proposed algorithm in reducing the dynamic fluctuation for more accurate position estimation.

Use of directional antenna in the context of ad hoc wireless networks can largely reduce radio interference, thereby improving the utilization of wireless medium. Our major contribution in this paper is to devise a MAC protocol that exploits the advantages of directional antenna in ad hoc networks for improved system performance. In this paper, we have illustrated a MAC protocol for ad hoc networks using directional antenna with the objective of effective utilization of the shared wireless medium. In order to implement effective MAC protocol in this context, a node should know how to set its transmission direction to transmit a packet to its neighbors and to avoid transmission in other directions where data communications are already in progress. In this paper, we are proposing a receiver-centric approach for location tracking and MAC protocol, so that, nodes become aware of its neighborhood and also the direction of the nodes for communicating directionally. A node develops its location-awareness from these neighborhood-awareness and direction-awareness. In this context, researchers usually assume that the gain of directional antennas is equal to the gain of corresponding omni-directional antenna. However, for a given amount of input power, the range R with directional antenna will be much larger than that using omni-directional antenna. In this paper, we also propose a two level transmit power control mechanism in order to approximately equalize the transmission range R of an antenna operating at omni-directional and directional mode. This will not only improve medium utilization but also help to conserve the power of the transmitting node during directional transmission. Our proposed directional MAC protocol can be effective in both ITS (Intelligent Transportation System), which we simulate in String and Parallel Topology, and in any community network, which we simulate in Random Topology. The performance evaluation on QualNet network simulator clearly indicates the efficiency of our protocol.

Location management is crucial for mobile systems. A mobile must be located whenever a connection is established. Thus, mobile systems must cope with frequent location updates and queries. In addition to the HLR/VLR scheme in IS-41 and GSM, the feasibility of reducing the network load caused by locating mobile users has received considerable attention. One user location algorithm called "Pointer Forwarding with Single HLR," was proposed to reduce location update cost. Thereafter, the distributed HLR scheme was proposed to prevent HLR from becoming a signal bottleneck in the signaling network. This approach eliminates the cost of updating multiple HLRs, vastly reducing the database access delay, but also introduces long pointer chain traverse that may cause large location tracking costs and long call delivery times/costs. This study proposes a efficient location tracking strategy, named, "Fast Pointer Forwarding Strategy with Distributed HLR. " This strategy ensures that the pointer chain length never exceeds one. In fact, this strategy provides an upper bound on location tracking time. Its performance is numerically analyzed. Results in this study demonstrate that our strategy can considerably reduce the complexity of implementation and the call delivery time/cost.

In this paper, we propose a call arrival history-based location tracking strategy for a variable call arrival rate over time. The basis of the proposed strategy is a time-based location tracking strategy. A mobile terminal obtains the up-to-date information about changes in the call arrival rate by maintaining its call arrival history, from which it can calculate an appropriate timeout interval for a variable call arrival rate. We present a simple analytical model and numerical results to investigate its performance for both a fixed and a variable call arrival rate which is modeled by a Markov-modulated Poisson process.