An Efficient Scheme for Establishing Pairwise Keys for Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper addresses the problem of secure path key establishment in wireless sensor networks that uses the random key pre-distribution technique. Inspired by the recent proxy-based scheme in the work of Ling and Znati (2005) and Li et al. (2005), we introduce a friend-based scheme for establishing pairwise keys securely. We show that the chances of finding friends in a neighbourhood are considerably more than that of finding proxies, leading to lower communication overhead. Further, we prove that the friend-based scheme performs better than the proxy-based scheme both in terms of resilience against node capture as well as in energy consumption for pairwise key establishment, making our scheme more feasible.

Wireless Sensor Networks for Organizational Network Analysis

Since their emergence, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have become increasingly popular in the pervasive computing industry. This is particularly true within the past five years, which has seen sensor networks being adapted for wide variety of applications. Most of these applications are restricted to ambience monitoring and military use, however, very few commercial sensor applications have been explored till date. For WSNs to be truly ubiquitous, many more commercial sensor applications are yet to be investigated. As an effort to probe for such an application, we explore the potential of using WSNs in the field of Organizational Network Analysis (ONA). In this short paper, we propose a WSN based framework for analyzing organizational networks. We describe the role of WSNs in learning relationships among the people of an organization and investigate the research challenges involved in realizing the proposed framework.

Broadcast in Adhoc Wireless Networks with Selfish Nodes: A Bayesian Incentive Compatibility Approach

We consider the incentive compatible broadcast (ICB) problem in ad hoc wireless networks with selfish nodes. We design a Bayesian incentive compatible broadcast (BIC-B) protocol to address this problem. VCG mechanism based schemes have been popularly used in the literature to design dominant strategy incentive compatible (DSIC) protocols for ad hoc wireless networks. VCG based mechanisms have two critical limitations: (i) the network is required to be bi-connected, (ii) the resulting protocol is not budget balanced. Our proposed BIC-B protocol overcomes these difficulties. We also prove the optimality of the proposed scheme.

Algebraic Approaches to Space-Time Code Construction for Multiple-Antenna Communication

A major challenge in wireless communications is overcoming the deleterious effects of fading, a phenomenon largely responsible for the seemingly inevitable dropped call. Multiple-antennas communication systems, commonly referred to as MIMO systems, employ multiple antennas at both transmitter and receiver, thereby creating a multitude of signalling pathways between transmitter and receiver. These multiple pathways give the signal a diversity advantage with which to combat fading. Apart from helping overcome the effects of fading, MIMO systems can also be shown to provide a manyfold increase in the amount of information that can be transmitted from transmitter to receiver. Not surprisingly,MIMO has played, and continues to play, a key role in the advancement of wireless communication.Space-time codes are a reference to a signalling format in which information about the message is dispersed across both the spatial (or antenna) and time dimension. Algebraic techniques drawing from algebraic structures such as rings, fields and algebras, have been extensively employed in the construction of optimal space-time codes that enable the potential of MIMO communication to be realized, some of which have found their way into the IEEE wireless communication standards. In this tutorial article, reflecting the authors’interests in this area, we survey some of these techniques.

Smartconnect: a system for the design and deployment of wireless sensor networks

We have developed SmartConnect, a tool that addresses the growing need for the design and deployment of multihop wireless relay networks for connecting sensors to a control center. Given the locations of the sensors, the traffic that each sensor generates, the quality of service (QoS) requirements, and the potential locations at which relays can be placed, SmartConnect helps design and deploy a low-cost wireless multihop relay network. SmartConnect adopts a field interactive, iterative approach, with model based network design, field evaluation and relay augmentation performed iteratively until the desired QoS is met. The design process is based on approximate combinatorial optimization algorithms. In the paper, we provide the design choices made in SmartConnect and describe the experimental work that led to these choices. Finally, we provide results from some experimental deployments.

Priority-oriented reservation multiple access scheme for data communication through satellites

A multi-access scheme is proposed for handling priority-based messages in data communication systems through satellites. The different schemes by which time slots are alloted by the satellite are based on a ‘priority index’. The performance characteristics of the system using these schemes under different traffic conditions are discussed.

Sensor network deployment for agronomical data gathering in semi-arid regions

We share our experience in planning, designing and deploying a wireless sensor network of one square kilometre area. Environmental data such as soil moisture, temperature, barometric pressure, and relative humidity are collected in this area situated in the semi-arid region of Karnataka, India. It is a hope that information derived from this data will benefit the marginal farmer towards improving his farming practices. Soon after establishing the need for such a project, we begin by showing the big picture of such a data gathering network, the software architecture we have used, the range measurements needed for determining the sensor density, and the packaging issues that seem to play a crucial role in field deployments. Our field deployment experiences include designing with intermittent grid power, enhancing software tools to aid quicker and effective deployment, and flash memory corruption. The first results on data gathering look encouraging.

Optimal scheduling of a processor executing a communication protocol stack

We consider the problem of optimally scheduling a processor executing a multilayer protocol in an intelligent Network Interface Controller (NIC). In particular, we assume a typical LAN environment with class 4 transport service, a connectionless network service, and a class 1 link level protocol. We develop a queuing model for the problem. In the most general case this becomes a cyclic queuing network in which some queues have dedicated servers, and the others have a common schedulable server. We use sample path arguments and Markov decision theory to determine optimal service schedules. The optimal throughputs are compared with those obtained with simple policies. The optimal policy yields upto 25% improvement in some cases. In some other cases, the optimal policy does only slightly better than much simpler policies.

Performance Analysis of User Selected Subband Channel Quality Indicator Feedback Scheme of LTE

Frequency-domain scheduling and rate adaptation have helped next generation orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) based wireless cellular systems such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) achieve significantly higher spectral efficiencies. To overcome the severe uplink feedback bandwidth constraints, LTE uses several techniques to reduce the feedback required by a frequency-domain scheduler about the channel state information of all subcarriers of all users. In this paper, we analyze the throughput achieved by the User Selected Subband feedback scheme of LTE. In it, a user feeds back only the indices of the best M subbands and a single 4-bit estimate of the average rate achievable over all selected M subbands. In addition, we compare the performance with the subband-level feedback scheme of LTE, and highlight the role of the scheduler by comparing the performances of the unfair greedy scheduler and the proportional fair (PF) scheduler. Our analysis sheds several insights into the working of the feedback reduction techniques used in LTE.

Smart applications for energy harvested WSNs

A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) powered using harvested energies is limited in its operation by instantaneous power. Since energy availability can be different across nodes in the network, network setup and collaboration is a non trivial task. At the same time, in the event of excess energy, exciting node collaboration possibilities exist; often not feasible with battery driven sensor networks. Operations such as sensing, computation, storage and communication are required to achieve the common goal for any sensor network. In this paper, we design and implement a smart application that uses a Decision Engine, and morphs itself into an energy matched application. The results are based on measurements using IRIS motes running on solar energy. We have done away with batteries; instead used low leakage super capacitors to store harvested energy. The Decision Engine utilizes two pieces of data to provide its recommendations. Firstly, a history based energy prediction model assists the engine with information about in-coming energy. The second input is the energy cost database for operations. The energy driven Decision Engine calculates the energy budgets and recommends the best possible set of operations. Under excess energy condition, the Decision Engine, promiscuously sniffs the neighborhood looking for all possible data from neighbors. This data includes neighbor's energy level and sensor data. Equipped with this data, nodes establish detailed data correlation and thus enhance collaboration such as filling up data gaps on behalf of nodes hibernating under low energy conditions. The results are encouraging. Node and network life time of the sensor nodes running the smart application is found to be significantly higher compared to the base application.

Precoder Designs for MIMO Broadcast Channels with Imperfect CSI

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An Efficient and Optimized Bluetooth Scheduling Algorithm for Scatternets

Bluetooth is a short-range radio technology operating in the unlicensed industrial-scientific-medical (ISM) band at 2.45 GHz. A scatternet is established by linking several piconets together in ad hoc fashion to yield a global wireless ad hoc network. This paper proposes a polling policy that aims to achieve increased system throughput and reduced packet delays while providing reasonably good fairness among all traffic flows in a Bluetooth Scatternet. Experimental results from our proposed algorithm show performance improvements over a well known existing algorithm.

Information-theoretic and communication-theoretic optimal power allocation for fading channels

In this paper we review the most peculiar and interesting information-theoretic and communications features of fading channels. We first describe the statistical models of fading channels which are frequently used in the analysis and design of communication systems. Next, we focus on the information theory of fading channels, by emphasizing capacity as the most important performance measure. Both single-user and multiuser transmission are examined. Further, we describe how the structure of fading channels impacts code design, and finally overview equalization of fading multipath channels.

Performance analysis of subband-level channel quality indicator feedback scheme of LTE

Frequency-domain scheduling and rate adaptation enable next generation wireless cellular systems such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) to achieve significantly higher downlink throughput. LTE assigns subcarriers in chunks, called physical resource blocks (PRBs), to users to reduce control signaling overhead. To reduce the enormous feedback overhead, the channel quality indicator (CQI) report that is used to feed back channel state information is averaged over a subband, which, in turn, is a group of multiple PRBs. In this paper, we develop closed-form expressions for the throughput achieved by the subband-level CQI feedback mechanism of LTE. We show that the coarse frequency resolution of the CQI incurs a significant loss in throughput and limits the multi-user gains achievable by the system. We then show that the performance can be improved by means of an offset mechanism that effectively makes the users more conservative in reporting their CQI.

Editorial optical computing circuits, devices and systems

Information forms the basis of modern technology. To meet the ever-increasing demand for information, means have to be devised for a more efficient and better-equipped technology to intelligibly process data. Advances in photonics have made their impact on each of the four key applications in information processing, i.e., acquisition, transmission, storage and processing of information. The inherent advantages of ultrahigh bandwidth, high speed and low-loss transmission has already established fiber-optics as the backbone of communication technology. However, the optics to electronics inter-conversion at the transmitter and receiver ends severely limits both the speed and bit rate of lightwave communication systems. As the trend towards still faster and higher capacity systems continues, it has become increasingly necessary to perform more and more signal-processing operations in the optical domain itself, i.e., with all-optical components and devices that possess a high bandwidth and can perform parallel processing functions to eliminate the electronic bottleneck.