Decentralized channel assignment schemes are proposed to obtain low system-wide spatial overlap regions in wireless local area networks (WLANs). The important point of channel assignment in WLANs is selecting channels with fewer contending stations rather than mitigating interference power due to its medium access control mechanism. This paper designs two potential game-based channel selection schemes, basically each access point (AP) selects a channel with smaller spatial overlaps with other APs. Owing to the property of potential games, each decentralized channel assignment is guaranteed to converge to a Nash equilibrium. In order that each AP selects a channel with smaller overlaps, two metrics are proposed: general overlap-based scheme yields the largest overlap reduction if a sufficient number of stations (STAs) to detect overlaps are available; whereas decomposed overlap-based scheme need not require such STAs, while the performance would be degraded due to the shadowing effect. In addition, the system-wide overlap area is analytically shown to be upper bounded by the negative potential functions, which derives the condition that local overlap reduction by each AP leads to system-wide overlap reduction. The simulation results confirm that the proposed schemes perform better reductions in the system-wide overlap area compared to the conventional interference power-based scheme under the spatially correlated shadowing effect. The experimental results demonstrate that the channel assignment dynamics converge to stable equilibria even in a real environment, particularly when uncontrollable APs exist.

In this paper, a novel fusion center controlled media access control (MAC) protocol for physical wireless parameter conversion sensor networks (PHY-C SN), and a transmission power design for each sensor node are proposed. In PHY-C SN, the sensing information is converted to corresponding subcarrier number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals, and all sensor nodes can send sensing information simultaneously. In most wireless sensor network standards, each sensor node detects the surrounding wireless signal through carrier sense. However, sensor nodes cannot send signals simultaneously if carrier sense is applied in PHY-C SN. Therefore, a protocol for PHY-C SN is devised. In the proposed protocol, the fusion center detects the surrounding wireless environment by carrier sense and requests sensing information transmission toward sensor nodes if no other wireless systems are detected. Once the sensor nodes receive the request signal, they transmit sensing information to the fusion center. Further, to avoid harmful interference with surrounding wireless systems, the transmission power of each sensor is designed to suit the considering communication range and avoid interference toward other wireless systems. The effectiveness of the proposed protocol is evaluated by computer simulation. The parameters for collection like the number of collecting sensor nodes and the radius of the collection area are also examined when determining the transmission power of sensor nodes. Results show that highly efficient information collection with reducing interference both from and towards surrounding wireless systems can be implemented with PHY-C SN.

In order to realize an Internet-of-Things (IoT) with tiny sensors integrated in our buildings, our clothing, and the public spaces, battery lifetime and battery size remain major challenges. Power reduction in IoT sensor nodes is determined by both sleep mode as well as active mode contributions. A power state machine, at the system level, is the key to achieve ultra-low average power consumption by alternating the system between active and sleep modes efficiently. While, power consumption in the active mode remains dominant, other power contributions like for timekeeping in standby and sleep conditions are becoming important as well. For example, non-conventional critical blocks, such as crystal oscillator (XO) and resistor-capacitor oscillator (RCO) become more crucial during the design phase. Apart from power reduction, low-voltage operation will further extend the battery life. A 2.4GHz multi-standard radio is presented, as a test case, with an average power consumption in the µW range, and state-of-the-art performance across a voltage supply range from 1.2V to 0.9V.

This paper addresses power saving for STAs (Wireless Stations) in WLANs (Wireless LANs). Mobile devices are increasingly used in situations in which they access WLANs. However, mobile devices consume large amounts of power when they communicate through a WLAN, and this shortens their battery lifetime. IEEE 802.11 specifies PSM (Power-Saving Mode) as the power-saving method for standard WLANs. However, the sleep conditions specified by PSM for STAs are not optimal in terms of power saving, except when the number of STAs is small, and this increases packet transfer delay. In this paper, we propose a power-saving method in which STAs reduce power consumption by sleeping for a period specified by the NAV (Network Allocation Vector) duration, which is set by an RTS/CTS handshake, and the duration of the NAV is extended by bidirectional burst transmission. To suppress the transfer delay caused by the bidirectional burst transmission, an AP (Access Point) manages the transmission deadline of each downlink packet on the basis of its acceptable value of delay and adapts the number of packets transferred in the bidirectional burst transmission. Although another existing method also uses the NAV duration to manage STA sleeping, the bidirectional burst transmission can only be initiated by the STAs themselves and the NAV is of an extremely limited duration. On the other hand, the proposed method specifies generalized bidirectional burst transmission without the limitations of the transmission initiator and the burst length within acceptable packet transfer delay. Moreover, we investigate the combination of the proposed method with PSM in order to improve the performance in situations in which the number of STAs is small by taking advantage of the combined properties of PSM and the proposed method. The evaluation results demonstrate that these proposed methods can reduce the power consumption of wireless stations and suppress packet transfer delay.

This letter introduces a new model for backscatter assisted wireless powered communication networks (BAWPCNs) that include a hybrid access point (HAP) and multiple backscatter communication (BackCom) and traditional wireless powered communication network (WPCN) users. To make full use of time to transmit information, both backscatter and harvest-then-transmit (HTT) modes are employed. In the proposed model, during the first time slot dedicated for energy transfer in traditional WPCNs, the traditional WPCN users harvest energy radiated by the HAP, and simultaneously the BackCom users reflect modulated signals to the HAP. The traditional WPCN users are scheduled during the remaining time slots via time division multiple access (TMDA). The optimal time allocation policies for the half-duplex (HD) and full-duplex (FD) BAWPCNs are obtained to maximize the system throughput. The tradeoff between backscatter and HTT modes is analyzed. Simulation results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed model.

In this paper, MWAN (Mobile Wireless Ad hoc Networks with internet connection) is considered, which is a solution for many tasks owing to its ease of use, and practicality. Recently, MWAN is required to support large data like multimedia data transfer and it is transferred through several relay nodes. There are 2 problems that cause difficulties for large data transfer through a mobile network. First one is rerouting delay by handoff and second one is network congestion caused by handoff. Also, faulty data transfer caused by handoff delay makes extra load and causes some problems for MWAN. To solve these problems and get network reliability, we propose a new multipath routing scheme that can provide solution for seamless connection while handoff. In the proposed scheme, our MWAN can support multiple paths for data transfer, maintain end-to-end connection while handoff and get new route quickly. The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated and compared with other multipath routing scheme to show the improvement.

Artificial lighting is responsible for a large portion of total energy consumption and has great potential for energy saving. This paper designs an LED light control algorithm based on users' localization using multiple battery-less binary human detection sensors. The proposed lighting control system focuses on reducing office lighting energy consumption and satisfying users' illumination requirement. Most current lighting control systems use infrared human detection sensors, but the poor detection probability, especially for a static user, makes it difficult to realize comfortable and effective lighting control. To improve the detection probability of each sensor, we proposed to locate sensors as close to each user as possible by using a battery-less wireless sensor network, in which all sensors can be placed freely in the space with high energy stability. We also proposed to use a multi-sensor-based user localization algorithm to capture user's position more accurately and realize fine lighting control which works even with static users. The system is actually implemented in an indoor office environment in a pilot project. A verification experiment is conducted by measuring the practical illumination and power consumption. The performance agrees with design expectations. It shows that the proposed LED lighting control system reduces the energy consumption significantly, 57% compared to the batch control scheme, and satisfies user's illumination requirement with 100% probability.

A new class of visible light communication (VLC) systems, namely image sensor (IS) based VLC systems, has emerged. An IS consists of a two-dimensional (2D) array of photodetectors (PDs), and then VLC systems with an IS receiver are capable of exploiting the spatial dimensions invoked for transmitting information. This paper aims for providing a brief survey of topics related to the IS-based VLC, and then provides a matrix representation of how to map a series of one dimensional (1D) symbols onto a set of 2D symbols for efficiently exploit the associate grade of freedom offered by 2D VLC systems. As an example, the matrix representation is applied to the symbol mapping of layered space-time coding (L-STC), which is presented to enlarge the coverage of IS-based VLC that is limited by pixel resolution of ISs.

Long-distance wireless local area networks (WLANs) are the key enablers of wide-area and low-cost access networks in rural areas. In a WLAN, the long propagation delay between an access point (AP) and stations (STAs) significantly degrades the throughput and creates a throughput imbalance because the delay causes unexpected frame collisions. This paper summarizes the problems caused in the medium access control (MAC) mechanism of the WLAN by a long propagation delay. We propose a MAC protocol for solving the delay-induced throughput degradation and the throughput imbalance between the uplink and the downlink in WLANs to address these problems. In the protocol, the AP extends NAV duration of CTS frame to protect an ACK frame and transmits its data frame to avoid delay induced frame collisions by piggybacking on the ACK frame transmission. We also provide a throughput model for the proposed protocol based on the Bianchi model. A numerical analysis using the proposed throughput model and simulation evaluation demonstrate that the proposed protocol increases the system throughput by 150% compared with that obtained using the conventional method, and the uplink throughput can be increased to the same level as the downlink throughput.

In IEEE802.11 Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), frame collisions occur drastically when the number of wireless terminals connecting to the same Access Point (AP) increases. It causes the decrease of the total throughput of all terminals. To solve this issue, the authors have proposed a new media access control (MAC) method, Synchronized Phase MAC (SP-MAC), based on the synchronization phenomena of coupled oscillators. We have addressed the network environment in which only uplink flows from the wireless terminal to an AP exist. However, it is necessary to take into consideration of the real network environment in which uplink and downlink flows are generated simultaneously. If many bidirectional data flows exist in the WLAN, the AP receives many frames from both uplink and downlink by collision avoidance of SP-MAC. As a result, the total throughput decreases by buffer overflow in the AP. In this paper, we propose a priority control method based on SP-MAC for avoiding the buffer overflow in the AP under the bidirectional environment. Also, we show that the proposed method has an effect for improving buffer overflow in the AP and total throughput by the simulation.

In this paper, we investigate the channel characteristics of underwater optical wireless communications (UOWC) based on Monte Carlo simulation method. The impulse response and channel time dispersion of the link are discussed. Also we consider the channel parameters comprehensively like the water type, attenuation length, divergence angle, beam width, field-of-view (FOV), receiver aperture and position. Simulation results suggest that in clear water, the channel can effectively be considered as non inter-symbol interference (ISI) when working over distance of up to 40m. Therefore, in practice the receiver does not need to perform computationally complex signal processing operations. However, in harbor water, the channel time dispersion will enlarge with larger FOV or divergence angle, and reduce the data transmission efficiency. When the attenuation length is smaller than diffused length, larger receivers offer lower intensity than smaller ones. In contrast, the intensity enhances with larger receiver at the small FOV, however, they trend to similar regardless of the apertures at large FOV. Furthermore, we study the effect of misalignment of the transmitter and receiver on the received intensity. The results give us some insight in terms of what constitutes an accurate UOWC channel.

A high-image-rejection wireless receiver with an N-phase active RC complex filter is proposed and analyzed. Signal analysis shows that the double-conversion receiver with (N+N2) mixers corrects the gain and phase mismatches of the adjacent image. Monte Carlo simulations evaluate the relation between image-rejection performances and the dispersions of device parameters for the double-conversion wireless receiver. The Monte Carlo simulations show that the image rejection ratio of the adjacent image depends almost only on R and C mismatches in the complex filter.

Recently, mobile networks employing high-speed high-capacity communications have been investigated extensively to satisfy the demand for faster and higher-capacity data communications. In one approach, frequencies between 6 and 100GHz are candidates to utilize relatively wide frequency bandwidths. Accordingly, radio propagation loss in these frequency bands must be characterized. Ray-tracing (RT) is the most common modeling approach to predict propagation loss in site-specific scenarios. The accuracy of RT simulations has been investigated in urban street cell environments based on comparison to measurement results and we observed that the difference between RT simulation and measurement results tends to increase as the frequency increases. In this paper, we focus on the shape of building corners at an intersection because it is this shape that is a dominant contributing factor in the region away from the intersection. In order to correct the error in the conventional RT method, we propose an alternative model that considers the detailed shape of the building corner and surface roughness. The performance of the RT simulation using the proposed method is then investigated based on comparison of two different sets of measurement results. Finally, we extract the optimal size and roughness for the proposed modeling method. Consequently, we confirm that using the proposed method with optimized parameters significantly enhances the accuracy compared to the conventional method.

This letter proposes a Non-uniform Cell-based Index (NCI) to enable clients to quickly process window queries in the wireless spatial data broadcast environment. To improve the access time, NCI reduces the probe wait time by equalized spacing between indexes, using non-uniformly partitioned cells of data space. Through the performance evaluation, we show the proposed NCI outperforms the existing index schemes for window queries to spatial data in respect of access time.

We proposed to apply compressed sensing to realize information sharing of link quality for wireless mesh networks (WMNs) with grid topology. In this paper, we extend the link quality sharing method to be applied for WMNs with arbitrary topology. For arbitrary topology WMNs, we introduce a link quality matrix and a matrix formula for compressed sensing. By employing a diffusion wavelets basis, the link quality matrix is converted to its sparse equivalent. Based on the sparse matrix, information sharing is achieved by compressed sensing. In addition, we propose compressed transmission for arbitrary topology WMNs, in which only the compressed link quality information is transmitted. Experiments and simulations clarify that the proposed methods can reduce the amount of data transmitted for information sharing and maintain the quality of the shared information.

Wireless LAN (WLAN) roaming systems, such as eduroam, enable the mutual use of WLAN facilities among multiple organizations. As a consequence of the strong demand for WLAN roaming, it is utilized not only at universities and schools but also at the venues of large events such as concerts, conferences, and sports events. Moreover, it has also been reported that WLAN roaming is useful in areas afflicted by natural disasters. This paper presents a novel WLAN roaming system over Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) that is useful for the use cases shown above. The proposed system is based on two methods as follows: 1) Automatic authentication path generation method decreases the WLAN roaming system deployment costs including the wiring cost and configuration cost. Although the wiring cost can be reduced by using WMN technologies, some additional configurations are still required if we want to deploy a secure user authentication mechanism (e.g. IEEE 802.1X) on WLAN systems. In the proposed system, the Access Points (APs) can act as authenticators automatically using RadSec instead of RADIUS. Therefore, the network administrators can deploy 802.1X-based authentication systems over WMNs without additional configurations on-site. 2) Local authentication method makes the system deployable in times of natural disasters, in particular when the upper network is unavailable or some authentication servers or proxies are down. In the local authentication method, users and APs can be authenticated at the WMN by locally verifying the digital certificates as the authentication credentials.

Wireless sensor networks are being used in many disaster-related applications. Certain types of disasters are studied and modeled with different and dynamic risk estimations in different areas, hence requiring different levels of monitoring. Such nonuniform and dynamic coverage requirements pose a challenge to a sensor coverage problem. This work proposes the Mobile sensor Relocation using Delaunay triangulation And Shifting on Hill climbing (MR-DASH) approach, which calculates an appropriate location for each mobile sensor as an attempt to maximize coverage ratio. Based on a probabilistic sensing model, it constructs a Delaunay triangulation from static sensors' locations and vertices of interesting regions. The resulting triangles are then prioritized based on their sizes and corresponding levels of requirement so that mobile sensors can be relocated accordingly. The proposed method was both compared with an existing previous work and demonstrated with real-world disaster scenarios by simulation. The result showed that MR-DASH gives appropriate target locations that significantly improve the coverage ratio with relatively low total sensors' moving distance, while properly adapting to variations in coverage requirements.

In this paper, we present a low and variable computation complexity decoder based on K-Best for uncoded detection in spatially multiplexed MIMO systems. In the variable complexity K-Best (VKB), the detection of each symbol is carried out using only a symbol constellation of variable size. This symbol constellation is obtained by considering the channel properties and a given target SNR. Simulations show that the proposed technique almost matches the performance of the original K-Best decoder. Moreover, it is able to reduce the average computation complexity by at least 75% in terms of the number of visited nodes.

A miniaturized and bandwidth-enhanced implantable antenna is designed for wireless biotelemetry in the medical implantable communications service (MICS) frequency band of 402-405MHz. To reduce the antenna size and enhance the available bandwidth with regard to the reflection coefficients, a meandered planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) structure is adopted on a dielectric/ferrite substrate which is an artificial magneto-dielectric material. The potential of the proposed antenna for the intended applications is verified through prototype fabrication and measurement with a 2/3 human muscle phantom. Good agreement is observed between the simulation and measurement in terms of resonant characteristics and gain radiation patterns; the bandwidth is enhanced in comparison with that of the ferrite-removed antenna, and antenna gain of -27.7dB is obtained in the measurement. Allowances are made for probable fabrication inaccuracies and practical operating environments. An analysis of 1-g SAR distribution is conducted to confirm compliance with the specific absorption rate limitation (1.6W/kg) of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

Frequencies around 300GHz offer extremely broad atmospheric transmission window with relatively low losses of up to 10dB/km and can be regarded as the ultimate platform for ultrahigh-speed wireless communications with near-fiber-optic data rates. This paper reviews technical challenges and recent advances in integrated circuits targeted at communications using these and nearby “terahertz (THz)” frequencies. Possible new applications of THz wireless links that are hard to realize by other means are also discussed.