Vitaly Petrov

Efficient small data access for machine-type communications in LTE

In this paper, we address the emerging concept of Machine-Type Communications (MTC), where unattended wireless devices send their data over the Long Term Evolution (LTE) cellular network. In particular, we emphasize that future MTC deployments are expected to feature a very large number of devices, whereas the data from a particular device may be infrequent and small. Currently, LTE is not optimized for such traffic and its data transmission schemes are not MTC-specific. To improve the efficiency of small data access, we propose a novel contention-based LTE transmission (COBALT) mechanism and evaluate its performance with both analysis and protocol-level simulations. When compared against existing alternatives, our data access scheme is demonstrated to improve network resource consumption, device energy efficiency, and mean data access delay. We conclude that COBALT has the potential for supporting massive MTC deployments based on the future releases of the LTE technology.

Impact of machine‐type communications on energy and delay performance of random access channel in LTE‐advanced

Machine-type communications (MTC) are a rapidly growing technology, which is expected to generate significant revenues to mobile network operators. In particular, smart grid is predicted to become one of the key MTC use cases that involves unattended meters autonomously reporting information to a grid infrastructure. With this research, we consider a typical smart metering MTC application scenario in the context of 3GPP LTE-advanced wireless cellular system featuring a large number of devices connecting to the network near-simultaneously. The resulting overload of the random access channel requires a novel evaluation methodology based on comprehensive analysis and simulations. In this paper, we target to complement a validated evaluation framework fully compatible with the 3GPP test cases with a thorough analysis of random access channel performance in overloaded MTC scenarios. We also look at the regular MTC operation, when the devices are sending their data after initial network entry has been performed. By including energy consumption into our methodology together with the conventional performance metrics, we aim at providing a complete and unified insight into MTC device operation, including its energy efficiency. Copyright

Energy and delay analysis of LTE-Advanced RACH performance under MTC overload

Machine-Type Communications (MTC) is a rapidly growing technology, which is expected to generate significant revenues to mobile network operators. In particular, smart grid is predicted to become one of the key MTC use cases that involves meters autonomously reporting information to a grid infrastructure. With this research, we consider a typical smart metering MTC application scenario in the context of 3GPP LTE-Advanced wireless cellular system featuring a large number of devices connecting to the network near-simultaneously. The resulting overload of the random access channel (RACH) requires a novel evaluation methodology based on comprehensive analysis and simulations. In this paper, we target to complement a validated evaluation methodology fully compatible with the 3GPP test cases with a thorough analysis of RACH performance in overloaded MTC scenarios. By including energy consumption into our framework together with the conventional performance metrics, we aim at providing a complete and unified insight into MTC device operation.

Forward and Reverse Coding for Chromosome Transfer in Bacterial Nanonetworks

Abstract Bacteria has been proposed in recent years as one approach to achieve molecular communication. Bacterial cells can harbour DNA encoded information and can deliver this information from one nanomachine to another by swimming (motility). One aspect of bacterial communication that could further enhance the performance of information delivery in bacterial nanonetworks is conjugation . Conjugation involves forming a physical connection between the bacteria in order to transfer DNA molecules (i.e., plasmids or chromosomes). However, the fragile physical connection between the bacteria is prone to breakage, in particular under mechanical stress. In this paper, a simple Forward and Reverse coding process is proposed to enhance the performance of information delivery in bacterial nanonetworks. The coding process involves segmenting messages into blocks and integrating this into the bacterial chromosome. Simulation work have been conducted to validate the efficiency of the coding process, where the results have shown positive performance compared to approaches that do not utilize coding or pure conjugation.

Towards the era of wireless keys: How the IoT can change authentication paradigm

In this paper, a new paradigm of user authentication called “wireless key” is described. Following this concept, a novel many-to-many authentication scheme based on passive NFC tags is proposed. In contradiction to existing solutions that assume a wireless key to be a battery-powered device with considerable computational power, we suggest to use a passive NFC tag in order to minimise the key size and significantly reduce the costs. The security of all the information on the tag is guaranteed by a specific data encryption scheme constructed on top of strong cryptographic primitives. In our approach, all the computations are performed by the service user is authenticating in, and thus no computational power and no battery on the key side is needed. This comes to an user-friendly, secure and cost-efficient solution. Moreover, the system core - proposed encryption scheme - could be easily applied to any other carrier technologies, as, for example, to Bluetooth Low Energy or Wireless USB. Having generalised our solution to hold an integrity property, it can also be used for another emerging application - secure documents storage.

Interference and SINR in Millimeter Wave and Terahertz Communication Systems With Blocking and Directional Antennas

The fifth generation wireless systems are expected to rely on a large number of small cells to massively offload traffic from the cellular and even from the wireless local area networks. To enable this functionality, mm-wave (EHF) and Terahertz (THF) bands are being actively explored. These bands are characterized by unique propagation properties compared with microwave systems. As a result, the interference structure in these systems could be principally different to what we observed so far at lower frequencies. In this paper, using the tools of stochastic geometry, we study the systems operating in the EHF/THF bands by explicitly capturing three phenomena inherent for these frequencies: 1) high directivity of the transmit and receive antennas; 2) molecular absorption; and 3) blocking of high-frequency radiation. We also define and compare two different antenna radiation pattern models. The metrics of interest are the mean interference and the signal-to-interference-plus-noise (SINR) ratio at the receiver. Our results reveal that: 1) for the same total emitted energy by a Poisson field of interferers, both the interference and SINR significantly increase when simultaneously both transmit and receive antennas are directive and 2) blocking has a profound impact on the interference and SINR creating much more favorable conditions for communications compared with no blocking case.

Interference and SINR in Dense Terahertz Networks

Over the last decade short-range communications in the terahertz band have been extensively studied as a technology-enabler for dense and ultra-dense wireless networks. Recent advances in miniaturized terahertz transceivers design promise wireless connectivity and simultaneous interaction between thousands of devices. However, the feasibility of network-wide communications is still an open issue due to specific features of the terahertz band and inherent properties of dense deployments. We address this issue developing an analytical model for interference and SINR assessment in dense terahertz networks obtaining the first two moments and density functions for both metrics. Our results demonstrate that the presence of molecular noise does not qualitatively affect the behavior of SINR, while its quantitative effect is of secondary importance compared to interference. The presented approach provides the so-far missing building block for performance analysis of prospective dense terahertz networks.

Vehicle-Based Relay Assistance for Opportunistic Crowdsensing over Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT)

The Internet of Things (IoT) undergoes a fundamental transformation by augmenting its conventional sensor network deployments with more advanced and mobile devices, such as connected and self-driving cars. This fusion of embedded and automotive domains promises to deliver unprecedented mutual benefits, where vehicles will receive timely updates from their proximate sensors while assisting them in delivering their sensory data to the remote network infrastructure. In this paper, we put forward the vision of opportunistic crowdsensing applications, in which the ubiquitous deployments of low-cost and battery-constrained IoT sensors take advantage of more capable and energy-abundant vehicle-mounted mobile relays. In particular, we consider the use of the emerging narrowband IoT radio technology recently ratified by 3GPP and offering efficient means for underlying wireless connectivity. Our rigorous mathematical analysis supported with comprehensive system-level evaluations reveals the effects of vehicle-based relays on the important metrics of interest, such as connection reliability, transmission latency, and communication energy efficiency. These systematic findings advocate for an extensive utilization of vehicular relays as part of the next-generation IoT ecosystem.

On the Efficiency of Spatial Channel Reuse in Ultra-Dense THz Networks

Wireless communications in the terahertz (THz) frequency band, 0.1-10THz, promises a rapid increase of channel capacity in next- generation networks. However, the advantages of this technology depend not only on the single link performance, but also on the possibility of several THz links to coexist in the same area. Thus, the efficiency of spatial channel reuse has to be studied. Due to the presence of specific effects in the THz band, such as molecular absorption and molecular noise, existing performance evaluation techniques are not straightforwardly applicable. In this paper, the approach for network-level analysis of THz wireless communications is proposed. This approach is based on the tools of stochastic geometry and takes into account the specific signal propagation features of the THz frequency band. The presented technique is used to derive the distribution of SINR and spectral efficiency as well as to estimate the optimal distance between receiving nodes and maximize the area capacity.

An applicability assessment of IEEE 802.11 technology for machine-type communications

The concept of the Internet-of-Things suggests huge growth in the number of connected human-unattended objects over the following years. Consequently, this surge in machine-type devices is expected to impact conventional human-to-human communication and thus may potentially hurt network efficiency. Therefore, we target performance assessment of existing WLAN deployments with respect to machine-type communications. This paper addresses an example network topology, where IEEE 802.11 router is used to pass through traffic from multiple wireless devices to the Internet. We propose an evaluation methodology to investigate the adaptability of a conventional WLAN system for machine-type traffic. Some related improvements, such as introducing different techniques of packet aggregation, are considered. Finally, we conclude on the applicability of IEEE 802.11 technology for machine-type communications.