arXiv subjects

Carlo Fischione

Publications and source records attributed to Carlo Fischione.

118 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

arXiv2013

Energy Efficient Spectrum Sensing and Handoff Strategies in Cognitive Radio Networks

The limited spectrum resources and dramatic growth of high data rate communications have motivated opportunistic spectrum access using the promising concept of cognitive radio networks. Although this concept has emerged primarily to enhance spectrum utilization, the importance of energy consumption poses new challenges, because energy efficiency and communication performance can be at odds. In this paper, the existing approaches to energy efficiency spectrum sensing and handoff are classified. The tradeoff between energy consumption and throughput is established as function of the numerous design parameters of cognitive radio networks, both in the case of local and of cooperative spectrum sensing. It is argued that a number of important aspects still needs to be researched, such as fairness, dynamic behavior, reactive and proactive schemes for energy efficiency.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2013

MAC-aware Routing Metrics for the Internet of Things

Wireless medium access control (MAC) and routing protocols are fundamental building blocks of the Internet of Things (IoT). As new IoT networking standards are being proposed and different existing solutions patched, evaluating the end-to-end performance of the network becomes challenging. Specific solutions designed to be beneficial, when stacked may have detrimental effects on the overall network performance. In this paper, an analysis of MAC and routing protocols for IoT is provided with focus on the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC and the IETF RPL standards. It is shown that existing routing metrics do not account for the complex interactions between MAC and routing, and thus novel metrics are proposed. This enables a protocol selection mechanism for selecting the routing option and adapting the MAC parameters, given specific performance constraints. Extensive analytical and experimental results show that the behavior of the MAC protocol can hurt the performance of the routing protocol and vice versa, unless these two are carefully optimized together by the proposed method.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2013

Teaching Wireless Sensor Networks: An Holistic Approach Bridging Theory and Practice at the Master Level

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are a new technology that has received a substantial attention from several academic research fields in the last years. There are many applications of WSNs, including environmental monitoring, industrial automation, intelligent transportation systems, healthcare and wellbeing, smart energy, to mention a few. Courses have been introduced both at the PhD and at the Master levels. However, these existing courses focus on particular aspects of WSNs (Networking, or Signal Processing, or Embedded Software), whereas WSNs encompass disciplines traditionally separated in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. This paper gives two original contributions: the essential knowledge that should be brought in a WSNs course is characterized, and a course structure with an harmonious holistic approach is proposed. A method based on both theory and experiments is illustrated for the design of this course, whereby the students have hands-on to implement, understand, and develop in practice the implications of theoretical concepts. Theory and applications are thus considered all together. Ultimately, the objective of this paper is to design a new course, to use innovative hands-on experiments to illustrate the theoretical concepts in the course, to show that theoretical aspects are essential for the solution of real-life engineering WSNs problems, and finally to create a fun and interesting teaching and learning environments for WSNs.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2013

Distributed Association Control and Relaying in MillimeterWave Wireless Access Networks

In millimeterWave wireless networks the rapidly varying wireless channels demand fast and dynamic resource allocation mechanisms. This challenge is hereby addressed by a distributed approach that optimally solves the fundamental resource allocation problem of joint client association and relaying. The problem is posed as a multi assignment optimization, for which a novel solution method is established by a series of transformations that lead to a tractable minimum cost flow problem. The method allows to design distributed auction solution algorithms where the clients and relays act asynchronously. The computational complexity of the new algorithms is much better than centralized general-purpose solvers. It is shown that the algorithms always converge to a solution that maximizes the total network throughput within a desired bound. Both theoretical and numerical results evince numerous useful properties in comparison to standard approaches and the potential applications to forthcoming millimeterWave wireless access networks.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2013

Modeling IEEE 802.15.4 Networks over Fading Channels

Although the performance of the medium access control (MAC) of the IEEE 802.15.4 has been investigated under the assumption of ideal wireless channel, the understanding of the cross-layer dynamics between MAC and physical layer is an open problem when the wireless channel exhibits path loss, multi-path fading, and shadowing. The analysis of MAC and wireless channel interaction is essential for consistent performance prediction, correct design and optimization of the protocols. In this paper, a novel approach to analytical modeling of these interactions is proposed. The analysis considers simultaneously a composite channel fading, interference generated by multiple terminals, the effects induced by hidden terminals, and the MAC reduced carrier sensing capabilities. Depending on the MAC parameters and physical layer thresholds, it is shown that the MAC performance indicators over fading channels can be far from those derived under ideal channel assumptions. As novel results, we show to what extent the presence of fading may be beneficial for the overall network performance by reducing the multiple access interference, and how this can be used to drive joint selection of MAC and physical layer parameters.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2013

Auction-based Resource Allocation in MillimeterWave Wireless Access Networks

The resource allocation problem of optimal assignment of the clients to the available access points in 60 GHz millimeterWave wireless access networks is investigated. The problem is posed as a multiassignment optimisation problem. The proposed solution method converts the initial problem to a minimum cost flow problem and allows to design an efficient algorithm by a combination of auction algorithms. The solution algorithm exploits the network optimization structure of the problem, and thus is much more powerful than computationally intensive general-purpose solvers. Theoretical and numerical results evince numerous properties, such as optimality, convergence, and scalability in comparison to existing approaches.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2013

Optimizing Client Association in 60 GHz Wireless Access Networks

MillimeterWave communications in the 60 GHz band are considered one of the key technologies for enabling multi-gigabit wireless access. However, the high propagation loss in such a band poses major obstacles to the optimal utilization of the wireless resources, where the problem of efficient client association to access points (APs) is of vital importance. In this paper, the client association in 60 GHz wireless access networks is investigated. The AP utilization and the quality of the rapidly vanishing communication links are the control parameters. Because of the tricky non-convex and combinatorial nature of the client association optimization problem, a novel solution method is developed to guarantee balanced and fair resource allocation. A new distributed, lightweight and easy to implement association algorithm, based on Lagrangian duality theory and subgradient methods, was proposed. It is shown that the algorithm is asymptotically optimal, that is, the relative duality gap diminishes to zero as the number of clients increases. Both theoretical and numerical results evince numerous useful properties of the algorithm, such as fast convergence, scalability, time efficiency, and fair execution in comparison to existing approaches. It is concluded that the proposed solution can be applied in the forthcoming 60 GHz wireless access networks.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2013

Decentralized Minimum-Cost Repair for Distributed Storage Systems

There have been emerging lots of applications for distributed storage systems e.g., those in wireless sensor networks or cloud storage. Since storage nodes in wireless sensor networks have limited battery, it is valuable to find a repair scheme with optimal transmission costs (e.g., energy). The optimal-cost repair has been recently investigated in a centralized way. However a centralized control mechanism may not be available or is very expensive. For the scenarios, it is interesting to study optimal-cost repair in a decentralized setup. We formulate the optimal-cost repair as convex optimization problems for the network with convex transmission costs. Then we use primal and dual decomposition approaches to decouple the problem into subproblems to be solved locally. Thus, each surviving node, collaborating with other nodes, can minimize its transmission cost such that the global cost is minimized. We further study the optimality and convergence of the algorithms. Finally, we discuss the code construction and determine the field size for finding feasible network codes in our approaches.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2012

Dynamic Optimization of Generalized Least Squares Handover Algorithms

Efficient handover algorithms are essential for highly performing mobile wireless communications. These algorithms depend on numerous parameters, whose settings must be appropriately optimized to offer a seamless connectivity. Nevertheless, such an optimization is difficult in a time varying context, unless adaptive strategies are used. In this paper, a new approach for the handover optimization is proposed. First, a new modeling of the handover process by a hybrid system that takes as input the handover parameters is established. Then, this hybrid system is used to pose some dynamical optimization approaches where the probability of outage and the probability of handover are considered. Since it is shown that these probabilities are difficult to compute, simple approximations of adequate accuracy are developed. Based on these approximations, a new approach to the solution of the handover optimizations is proposed by the use of a trellis diagram. A distributed optimization algorithm is then developed to maximize handover performance. From an extensive set of results obtained by numerical computations and simulations, it is shown that the proposed algorithm allows to improve performance of the handover considerably when compared to more traditional approaches.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2008

Distributed Estimation over Wireless Sensor Networks with Packet Losses

A distributed adaptive algorithm to estimate a time-varying signal, measured by a wireless sensor network, is designed and analyzed. One of the major features of the algorithm is that no central coordination among the nodes needs to be assumed. The measurements taken by the nodes of the network are affected by noise, and the communication among the nodes is subject to packet losses. Nodes exchange local estimates and measurements with neighboring nodes. Each node of the network locally computes adaptive weights that minimize the estimation error variance. Decentralized conditions on the weights, needed for the convergence of the estimation error throughout the overall network, are presented. A Lipschitz optimization problem is posed to guarantee stability and the minimization of the variance. An efficient strategy to distribute the computation of the optimal solution is investigated. A theoretical performance analysis of the distributed algorithm is carried out both in the presence of perfect and lossy links. Numerical simulations illustrate performance for various network topologies and packet loss probabilities.

cs.DC↗