Aggelos Bletsas

Cooperative Communications with Outage-Optimal Opportunistic Relaying

In this paper, we present simple opportunistic relaying with decode-and-forward (DaF) and amplify-and-forward (AaF) strategies under an aggregate power constraint. In particular, we consider distributed relay-selection algorithms requiring only local channel knowledge. We show that opportunistic DaF relaying is outage-optimal, that is, it is equivalent in outage behavior to the optimal DaF strategy that employs all potential relays. We further show that opportunistic AaF relaying is outage-optimal among single-relay selection methods and significantly outperforms an AaF strategy based on equal-power multiple-relay transmissions with local channel knowledge. These findings reveal that cooperation offers diversity benefits even when cooperative relays choose not to transmit but rather choose to cooperatively listen; they act as passive relays and give priority to the transmission of a single opportunistic relay. Numerical and simulation results are presented to verify our analysis.

Outage optimality of opportunistic amplify-and-forward relaying

In this paper, we show that optimal selection and transmission of a single relay among a set of multiple amplify-and-forward (AF) candidates minimize the outage probability (i.e., outage-optimal) and outperform any other strategy that involves simultaneous transmissions from more than one AF relay under an aggregate power constraint. This outage optimality demonstrates that cooperation benefits are maximized with intelligent scheduling among AF relays.

Opportunistic cooperative diversity with feedback and cheap radios

Practical cooperative diversity protocols often rely on low-cost radios that treat multiple in-band signals as noise and thus require strictly orthogonal transmissions. We analyze the performance of a class of opportunistic relaying protocols that employ simple packet level feedback and strictly orthogonal transmissions. It is shown that the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff of the proposed protocols either matches or outperforms the multi-input-single-output (MISO), zero-feedback performance. These gains indicate that low complexity radios and feedback could be an appealing architecture for future user cooperation protocols.

Increased Range Bistatic Scatter Radio

Scatter radio achieves communication by reflection and requires low-cost and low-power RF front-ends. However, its use in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is limited, since commercial scatter radio (e.g. RFID) offers short ranges of a few tens of meters. This work redesigns scatter radio systems and maximizes range through non-classic bistatic architectures: the carrier emitter is detached from the reader. It is shown that conventional radio receivers may show a potential 3dB performance loss, since they do not exploit the correct signal model for scatter radio links. Receivers for on-off-keying (OOK) and frequency-shift keying (FSK) that overcome the frequency offset between the carrier emitter and the reader are presented. Additionally, non-coherent designs are also offered. This work emphasizes that sensor tag design should accompany receiver design. Impact of important parameters such as the antenna structural mode are presented through bit error rate (BER) results. Experimental measurements corroborate the long-range ability of bistatic radio; ranges of up to 130 meters with 20 milliwatts of carrier power are experimentally demonstrated, with commodity software radio and no directional antennas. Therefore, bistatic scatter radio may be viewed as a key enabling technology for large-scale, low-cost and low-power WSNs.

Cooperative diversity with opportunistic relaying

In this paper, we present single-selection-opportunistic-relaying with decode-and-forward (DaF) and amplify-and-forward (AaF) protocols under an aggregate power constraint. We show that opportunistic DaF relaying is equivalent to the outage bound of the optimal DaF strategy using all potential relays. We further show that opportunistic AaF relaying is outage-optimal with single-relay selection and significantly outperforms an AaF strategy with multiple-relay (MR) transmissions, in the presence of limited channel knowledge. These findings reveal that cooperative diversity benefits (under an aggregate power constraint) are useful even when cooperative relays choose not to transmit but rather choose to cooperatively listen; they act as passive relays and give priority to the transmission of a single opportunistic relay

Improving Backscatter Radio Tag Efficiency

This paper studies tag properties for optimized tag-to-reader backscatter communication. The latter is exploited in RF identification (RFID) systems and utilizes binary reflection coefficient change of the tag antenna-load circuit. It is shown that amplitude maximization of complex reflection coefficient difference between the two states is not sufficient for optimized tag-to-reader backscatter communication, contrary to what is commonly believed in the field. We provide a general tag load selection methodology that applies to any tag antenna, including minimum scattering antennas as a special case. The method is based on tag antenna structural mode closed-form calculation (given three values of tag radar cross section), employs simple antenna/communication theory, and applies to both passive, as well as semipassive RFID tags.

Outage-Optimal Cooperative Communications with Regenerative Relays

In this paper, we put forth simple opportunistic relaying with decode-and-forward (DaF) or regenerative processing strategy, under an aggregate power constraint. In particular, we consider distributed relay-selection algorithms requiring only local channel knowledge. We prove that opportunistic single relay selection with DaF strategy is outage-optimal, that is, it is equivalent in outage behavior to the optimal DaF strategy that employs all potential relays.

Implementing cooperative diversity antenna arrays with commodity hardware

Cooperation among single-antenna transceivers and formation of distributed antenna arrays has recently attracted considerable interest. Such distributed antenna arrays are envisioned to provide resistance to slow wireless fading and improve performance of point-to-point wireless communication across various dimensions. Despite the plethora of recently proposed theoretical approaches that promise gains due to diversity at the physical layer though cooperation (cooperative diversity), there is not much work in the implementation of cooperative antenna arrays with existing wireless transceivers. In this article we summarize the main challenges in implementation of cooperative diversity antenna arrays for realistic wireless networks. We then present the basic building blocks of a cooperative diversity demonstration realized in the lab, utilizing commodity radio hardware. Our work sheds light onto the synergies needed between the physical, link, and routing layers that significantly simplify the overall network operation and decrease the transceiver complexity in cooperative diversity antenna arrays, making feasible the utilization of (existing) commodity radio hardware

A Software-Defined Radio System for Backscatter Sensor Networks

Backscatter radio is proposed for sensor networks. In that way, the transmitter for each sensor is simplified to a transistor connected to an antenna and therefore, the cost for each sensors communicator becomes negligible, while energy used for wireless communication per sensor is minimized. A software-defined transceiver is built to transmit a carrier, receive the reflections from various sensors and extract their transmitted messages. This work presents a thorough model of the backscatter radio link, the system architecture and a set of data extraction techniques for each sensors information, testing in practice a sensor communicating through backscatter at a range of approximately 15 meters indoors, with 5 milliwatt transmission power at 10 bits per second. This work highlights the idiosyncrasies of the backscatter channel and provides a new communication perspective in the fertile area of scalable sensor networks, especially when low bit-rate, ultra-low cost sensors are required.

Wireless Environmental Sensor Networking With Analog Scatter Radio and Timer Principles

Environmental variables monitoring with wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is invaluable for precision agriculture applications. However, the effectiveness of existing low-power, conventional (e.g., ZigBee-type) radios in large-scale deployments is limited by power consumption, cost, and complexity constraints, while the existing WSN solutions employing nonconventional, scatter-radio principles have been restricted to communication ranges of up to a few meters. In this paper, the development of a novel analog scatter-radio WSN is presented, that employs semipassive sensor/tags in bistatic topology (i.e., carrier emitter placed in a different location from the reader), consuming <;1 mW of power, with communication range exceeding 100 m. The experimental results indicate that the multipoint surface fitting calibration, in conjunction with the employed two-phase filtering process, both provide a mean absolute error of 1.9% environmental relative humidity for a temperature range of 10 °C-50 °C. In addition, the energy consumption per measurement of the proposed environmental monitoring approach can be lower than that of conventional radio WSNs. Finally, the proposed approach operational characteristics are presented through a real-world network deployment in a tomato greenhouse.