Research

34 pages, 1711 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Analysis of the Mixed IEEE 802.11ax Wireless Networks in the 5 GHz Band

by Marek Natkaniec and Natalia Bieryt

Sensors 2023, 23(10), 4964; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23104964 - 22 May 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2353

This paper presents an analysis of the IEEE 802.11ax networks’ coexistence with legacy stations, namely IEEE 802.11ac, IEEE 802.11n, and IEEE 802.11a. The IEEE 802.11ax standard introduces several new features that can enhance network performance and capacity. The legacy devices that do not [...] Read more.

This paper presents an analysis of the IEEE 802.11ax networks’ coexistence with legacy stations, namely IEEE 802.11ac, IEEE 802.11n, and IEEE 802.11a. The IEEE 802.11ax standard introduces several new features that can enhance network performance and capacity. The legacy devices that do not support these features will continue to coexist with newer devices, creating a mixed network environment. This usually leads to a deterioration in the overall performance of such networks; therefore, in the paper, we want to show how we can reduce the negative impact of legacy devices. In this study, we investigate the performance of mixed networks by applying various parameters to both the MAC and PHY layers. We focus on evaluating the impact of the BSS coloring mechanism introduced to the IEEE 802.11ax standard on network performance. We also examine the impact of A-MPDU and A-MSDU aggregations on network efficiency. Through simulations, we analyze the typical performance metrics such as throughput, mean packet delay, and packet loss of mixed networks with different topologies and configurations. Our findings indicate that implementing the BSS coloring mechanism in dense networks can increase throughput by up to 43%. We also show that the presence of legacy devices in the network disrupts the functioning of this mechanism. To address this, we recommend using an aggregation technique, which can improve throughput by up to 79%. The presented research revealed that it is possible to optimize the performance of mixed IEEE 802.11ax networks. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Mobile and Wireless Communication Networks)

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25 pages, 12315 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Seamless 5G Multi-Hop Connectivity Architecture and Trials for Maritime Applications

by Artürs Lindenbergs, Maciej Muehleisen, Miquel Payaró, Kati Kõrbe Kaare, Helmut W. Zaglauer, Johan Scholliers, Arvi Sadam, Kristjan Kuhi and Lasse Nykanen

Sensors 2023, 23(9), 4203; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23094203 - 22 Apr 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1886

Abstract

This paper provides a study of the different alternatives that are being considered in the 5G-ROUTES project to establish seamless 5G connectivity in a maritime environment both from an architectural point of view and also from the definition of field trials to evaluate [...] Read more.

This paper provides a study of the different alternatives that are being considered in the 5G-ROUTES project to establish seamless 5G connectivity in a maritime environment both from an architectural point of view and also from the definition of field trials to evaluate the performance and dependability of the proposed solution. As expected, the main challenge in providing 5G connectivity on the sea is to provide coverage over large areas of open water. Thus, as a starting point, this paper presents a measurement campaign that was conducted to assess the current coverage in the Baltic Sea, which concluded that the current terrestrial networks cannot guarantee sufficient coverage. Next, the solution architecture and trials proposed by 5G-ROUTES are described, which are based on the integration of satellite and leading-edge multi-hop connectivity in 5G networks. Utilizing satellite backhaul can potentially overcome the connectivity challenge from the terrestrial domain to the maritime domain, while multi-hop connectivity ensures that coverage is extended among the different ships that are navigating the sea. Furthermore, this paper describes how the project will evaluate, in field trials tailored to this maritime environment, common connectivity key performance indicators (KPIs) such as latency, throughput, availability and reliability. This paper concludes by providing a vision for applying the obtained results and insights to maritime transportation and other remote areas where the deployment of a suitable 5G infrastructure may be challenging or costly. The findings will be used to guide the design of future 5G networks for marine applications and to identify the most effective methods for providing secure and dependable communication in a maritime setting. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Mobile and Wireless Communication Networks)

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12 pages, 5524 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

Temporal Neural Network Framework Adaptation in Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface-Assisted Wireless Communication

by Mohammad Abrar Shakil Sejan, Md Habibur Rahman, Md Abdul Aziz, Young-Hwan You and Hyoung-Kyu Song

Sensors 2023, 23(5), 2777; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23052777 - 03 Mar 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1180

Abstract

A reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) has potential for enhancing the performance of wireless communication. A RIS includes cheap passive elements, and the reflecting of signals can be controlled to a specific location of users. In addition, machine learning (ML) techniques are efficient in [...] Read more.

A reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) has potential for enhancing the performance of wireless communication. A RIS includes cheap passive elements, and the reflecting of signals can be controlled to a specific location of users. In addition, machine learning (ML) techniques are efficient in solving complex problems without explicit programming. Data-driven approaches are efficient in predicting the nature of any problem and can provide a desirable solution. In this paper, we propose a temporal convolutional network (TCN)-based model for RIS-based wireless communication. The proposed model consists of four TCN layers, one fully connected layer, one ReLU layer, and lastly a classification layer. In the input, we provide data in the form of complex numbers to map a specified label under QPSK and BPSK modulation. We consider

2 \times 2

and

4 \times 4

MIMO communication using one base station and two single-antenna users. We have considered three types of optimizers to evaluate the TCN model. For benchmarking, long short-term memory (LSTM) and without ML are compared. The simulation results are conducted in terms of the bit error rate and symbol error rate which show the effectiveness of the proposed TCN model. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Mobile and Wireless Communication Networks)

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24 pages, 10568 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Genetic Algorithm-Based Grouping Strategy for IEEE 802.11ah Networks

by Eduard Garcia-Villegas, Alejandro Lopez-Garcia and Elena Lopez-Aguilera

Sensors 2023, 23(2), 862; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23020862 - 12 Jan 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1475

Abstract

The IEEE 802.11ah standard is intended to adapt the specifications of IEEE 802.11 to the Internet of Things (IoT) scenario. One of the main features of IEEE 802.11ah consists of the Restricted Access Window (RAW) mechanism, designed for scheduling transmissions of groups of [...] Read more.

The IEEE 802.11ah standard is intended to adapt the specifications of IEEE 802.11 to the Internet of Things (IoT) scenario. One of the main features of IEEE 802.11ah consists of the Restricted Access Window (RAW) mechanism, designed for scheduling transmissions of groups of stations within certain periods of time or windows. With an appropriate configuration, the RAW feature reduces contention and improves energy efficiency. However, the standard specification does not provide mechanisms for the optimal setting of RAW parameters. In this way, this paper presents a grouping strategy based on a genetic algorithm (GA) for IEEE 802.11ah networks operating under the RAW mechanism and considering heterogeneous stations, that is, stations using different modulation and coding schemes (MCS). We define a fitness function from the combination of the predicted system throughput and fairness, and provide the tuning of the GA parameters to obtain the best result in a short time. The paper also includes a comparison of different alternatives with regard to the stages of the GA, i.e., parent selection, crossover, and mutation methods. As a proof of concept, the proposed GA-based RAW grouping is tested on a more constrained device, a Raspberry Pi 3B⁺, where the grouping method converges in around 5 s. The evaluation concludes with a comparison of the GA-based grouping strategy with other grouping approaches, thus showing that the proposed mechanism provides a good trade-off between throughput and fairness performance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Mobile and Wireless Communication Networks)

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16 pages, 943 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Packet Loss Characterization Using Cross Layer Information and HMM for Wi-Fi Networks

by Carlos Alexandre Gouvea da Silva and Carlos Marcelo Pedroso

Sensors 2022, 22(22), 8592; https://doi.org/10.3390/s22228592 - 08 Nov 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1154

Abstract

Packet loss is a major problem for wireless networks and has significant effects on the perceived quality of many internet services. Packet loss models are used to understand the behavior of packet losses caused by several reasons, e.g., interferences, coexistence, fading, collisions, and [...] Read more.

Packet loss is a major problem for wireless networks and has significant effects on the perceived quality of many internet services. Packet loss models are used to understand the behavior of packet losses caused by several reasons, e.g., interferences, coexistence, fading, collisions, and insufficient/excessive memory buffers. Among these, the Gilbert-Elliot (GE) model, based on a two-state Markov chain, is the most used model in communication networks. However, research has proven that the GE model is inadequate to represent the real behavior of packet losses in Wi-Fi networks. In this last category, variables of a single network layer are used, usually the physical one. In this article, we propose a new packet loss model for Wi-Fi that simultaneously considers the temporal behavior of losses and the variables that describe the state of the network. In addition, the model uses two important variables, the signal-to-noise ratio and the network occupation, which none of the packet loss models available for Wi-Fi networks simultaneously take into account. The proposed model uses the well-known Hidden Markov Model (HMM), which facilitates training and forecasting. At each state of HMM, the burst-length of losses is characterized using probability distributions. The model was evaluated by comparing computer simulation and real data samples for validation, and using the log-log complementary distribution of burst-length. We compared the proposed model with competing models through the analysis of mean square error (MSE) using a validation sample collected from a real network. Results demonstrated that the proposed model outperforms the currently available models for packet loss in Wi-Fi networks. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Mobile and Wireless Communication Networks)

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23 pages, 570 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Threshold-Based User-Assisted Cooperative Relaying in Beamspace Massive MIMO NOMA Systems

by David Alimo, Masanori Hamamura and Saifur Rahman Sabuj

Sensors 2022, 22(19), 7445; https://doi.org/10.3390/s22197445 - 30 Sep 2022

Viewed by 1363

Abstract

The incorporation of user-assisted cooperative relaying into beamspace massive multiple-input multiple-output (mMIMO) non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) system can extend the coverage area and improve the spectral and energy efficiency for millimeter wave (mmWave) communications when a dynamic cluster of mobile user terminals (MUTs) [...] Read more.

The incorporation of user-assisted cooperative relaying into beamspace massive multiple-input multiple-output (mMIMO) non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) system can extend the coverage area and improve the spectral and energy efficiency for millimeter wave (mmWave) communications when a dynamic cluster of mobile user terminals (MUTs) is formed within a beam. We propose threshold-based user-assisted cooperative relaying into a beamspace mMIMO NOMA system in a downlink scenario. Specifically, the intermediate MUTs between the next-generation base station (gNB) and the cell-edge MUT become relaying MUTs after the successful decoding of the signal of the cell-edge MUT only when they meet the predetermined signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR) threshold. A zero forcing (ZF) precoder and iterative power allocation are used to minimize both inter- and intra-beam interferences to maximize the system sum rate. We then evaluate the performance of this system in a delay-intolerant cell-edge MUT scenario. Moreover, the outage probability of the cell-edge MUT of the proposed scheme is investigated and an analytic expression is derived. Simulation results confirm that the proposed threshold-based user-assisted cooperative relaying beamspace mMIMO NOMA system outperforms the user-assisted cooperative relaying in beamspace mMIMO NOMA, beamspace MIMO-NOMA, and beamspace MIMO orthogonal multiple access (OMA) systems in terms of spectrum efficiency, energy efficiency, and outage probability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Mobile and Wireless Communication Networks)

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16 pages, 868 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Preparing Wi-Fi 7 for Healthcare Internet-of-Things

by Yazdan Ahmad Qadri, Zulqarnain, Ali Nauman, Arslan Musaddiq, Eduard Garcia-Villegas and Sung Won Kim

Sensors 2022, 22(16), 6209; https://doi.org/10.3390/s22166209 - 18 Aug 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1939

Abstract

The healthcare Internet of Things (H-IoT) is an interconnection of devices capable of sensing and transmitting information that conveys the status of an individual’s health. The continuous monitoring of an individual’s health for disease diagnosis and early detection is an important application of [...] Read more.

The healthcare Internet of Things (H-IoT) is an interconnection of devices capable of sensing and transmitting information that conveys the status of an individual’s health. The continuous monitoring of an individual’s health for disease diagnosis and early detection is an important application of H-IoT. Ambient assisted living (AAL) entails monitoring a patient’s health to ensure their well-being. However, ensuring a limit on transmission delays is an essential requirement of such monitoring systems. The uplink (UL) transmission during the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) in the wireless local area networks (WLANs) can incur a delay which may not be acceptable for delay-sensitive applications such as H-IoT due to their random nature. Therefore, we propose a UL OFDMA scheduler for the next Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) standard, the IEEE 802.11be, that is compliant with the latency requirements for healthcare applications. The scheduler allocates the channel resources for UL transmission taking into consideration the traffic class or access category. The results demonstrate that the proposed scheduler can achieve the required latency for H-IoT applications. Additionally, the performance in terms of fairness and throughput is also superior to state-of-the-art schedulers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Mobile and Wireless Communication Networks)

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19 pages, 597 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Interference-Aware Two-Level Differentiated Transmission for Improving Downlink Spatial Reuse in Dense WLANs

by Lam Kwon and Eun-Chan Park

Sensors 2022, 22(12), 4429; https://doi.org/10.3390/s22124429 - 11 Jun 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1306

Abstract

In this study, we address the problem of downlink throughput degradation in dense wireless local area networks (WLANs) based on the IEEE 802.11ax standard. We demonstrate that this problem essentially results from the asymmetric characteristic of carrier sense multiple access between downlink and [...] Read more.

In this study, we address the problem of downlink throughput degradation in dense wireless local area networks (WLANs) based on the IEEE 802.11ax standard. We demonstrate that this problem essentially results from the asymmetric characteristic of carrier sense multiple access between downlink and uplink transmissions in infrastructure WLANs, and it is exacerbated by a dynamic sensitivity control algorithm that aims to improve spatial reuse (SR) in IEEE 802.11ax. To solve this problem, we propose the interference-aware two-level differentiation mechanism consisting of the dual channel access (DCA) and supplemental power control (SPC) schemes. The proposed mechanism introduces a new measure called a spatial reusability indicator, which roughly estimates the signal-to-interference ratio from the received signal strength of beacon frames. Based on this measure, stations (STAs) are classified into the following two categories: spatial reusable STAs (SR-STAs) and non-spatial reusable STAs (NSR-STAs). Because SR-STAs are more robust to interference than NSR-STAs, the DCA scheme prioritizes transmissions to SR-STAs over those to NSR-STAs by using differentiated carrier sensing thresholds. Moreover, the SPC scheme selectively increases the transmission power to NSR-STAs to compensate for transmission failure due to interference. By combining the SPC and DCA schemes, the proposed mechanism effectively differentiates the downlink transmissions to SR-STAs and NSR-STAs in terms of channel access and transmission power, and it can boost the possibility of successful SR. The proposed mechanism can be easily implemented in IEEE 802.11ax without any complex calculation or significant signaling overhead. Moreover, we provide a practical guideline to determine appropriate parameter values for use in the proposed mechanism. The extensive simulation results obtained in this study confirm that the proposed mechanism increases the downlink throughput by more than several times without decreasing the overall throughput, compared to the existing mechanisms, and it maintains fairness between SR-STAs and NSR-STAs in terms of the ratio of successful transmission. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Mobile and Wireless Communication Networks)

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