Doppler and Pathloss Characterization for Vehicle-to-Vehicle communications at 5.8 GHz

Due to significant increase in vehicular accident and traffic congestions, vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communication based on the intelligent transport system (ITS) was introduced. However, to carry out efficient design and implementation of a reliable vehicular communication systems,a deep knowledge of the propagation channel characteristics in different environments is crucial, in particular the Doppler and pathloss parameters. Therefore, this paper presents an empirical V2V channel characterization and measurement performed under realistic urban, suburban and highway driving conditions in Brisbane, Australia. Based on Lin Cheng statistical Doppler Model (LCDM), values for the RMS Doppler spread and coherence time due to time selective nature of V2V channels were presented. Also, based on Log-distance power law model, values for the mean pathloss exponent and the standard deviation of shadowing were reported for urban, suburban and highway environments. The V2V channel parameters can be useful to system designers for the purpose of evaluating, simulating and developing new protocols and systems.

Implementation and evaluation of open source unified communications for SMBs

Unified Communication (UC) is the integration of two or more real time communication systems into one platform. Integrating core communication systems into one overall enterprise level system delivers more than just cost saving. These real-time interactive communication services and applications over Internet Protocol (IP) have become critical in boosting employee accessibility and efficiency, improving customer support and fostering business agility. However, some small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are far from implementing this solution due to the high cost of initial deployment and ongoing support. In this paper, we will discuss and demonstrate an open source UC solution, viz. “Asterisk” for use by SMBs, and report on some performance tests using SIPp. The contribution from this research is the provision of technical advice to SMBs in deploying UC, which is manageable in terms of cost, ease of deployment and support.

Design and implementation of unified communications as a service based on the OpenStack cloud environment

Cloud Computing, based on early virtual computer concepts and technologies, is now itself a maturing technology in the marketplace and it has revolutionized the IT industry, being the powerful platform that many businesses are choosing to migrate their in-premises IT services onto. Cloud solution has the potential to reduce the capital and operational expenses associated with deploying IT services on their own. In this study, we have implemented our own private cloud solution, infrastructure as a service (IaaS), using the OpenStack platform with high availability and a dynamic resource allocation mechanism. Besides, we have hosted unified communication as a service (UCaaS) in the underlying IaaS and successfully tested voice over IP (VoIP), video conferencing, voice mail and instant messaging (IM) with clients located at the remote site. The proposed solution has been developed in order to give advice to bussinesses that want to build their own cloud environment, IaaS and host cloud services and applicatons in the cloud. This paper also aims at providing an alternate option for proprietary cloud solutions for service providers to consider.

Developments in court to court communications in International insolvency cases

As business increasingly operates on a global basis, courts are called upon more often to adjudicate insolvency cases with international connections. The financial collapse of Lehman Brothers Holding Inc (‘Lehman Holdings’) provides a recent example where courts across many jurisdictions were called upon to determine issues arising from a multistate insolvent enterprise. Lehman Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States on 15 September 2008. Lehman Brothers was the fourth largest investment bank in America and the largest company ever to file for bankruptcy in the United States. However the effects of its collapse were felt worldwide, including within Australia.

Integrated marketing communications

Organisations continually use integrated marketing communications to achieve a competitive advantage and meet their marketing objectives. This 4th edition of Integrated Marketing Communications emphasises digital and interactive marketing, the most dynamic and crucial components to a successful IMC campaign today. Incorporating the most up to date theories and practice, the text clearly explains and demonstrates how to best select and co-ordinate all of a brand’s marketing communications elements to effectively engage the target market. Chapters adopt an integrative approach to examine marketing communications from both a consumer’s and marketer’s perspective. A wide range of local and global examples include: Spotify, Pandora, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Woolworths, Nike, KFC, Victoria Bitter, Tigerair and Air New Zealand. Each new copy of the text also offers 12 month access to wealth of student on-line revision and learning tools: CourseMate Express + Search me! marketing. Unique to the text is a series of end of chapter local videos showing students how key objectives in IMC theory are applied by real businesses.

Phylogenetics of small horseshoe bats from east Asia based on mitochondrial DNA sequence variation

We undertook analyses of mitochondrial DNA gene sequences and echolocation calls to resolve phylogenetic relationships among the related bat taxa Rhinolophus pusillus (sampled across China), R. monoceros (Taiwan), R. cornutus (main islands of Japan), and R. c. pumilus (Okinawa, Japan), Phylogenetic trees and genetic divergence analyses were constructed by combining new complete mitochondrial cytochrome-b gene sequences and partial mitochondrial control region sequences with published sequences. Our work showed that these 4 taxa formed monophyletic groups in the phylogenetic tree. However, low levels of sequence divergence among the taxa, together with similarities in body size and overlapping echolocation call frequencies, point to a lack of taxonomic distinctiveness. We therefore suggest that these taxa are better considered as geographical subspecies rather than distinct species, although this should not diminish the conservation importance of these island populations, which are important evolutionarily significant units. Based on our findings, we suggest that the similarities in body size and echolocation call frequency in these rhinolophids result from their recent common ancestry, whereas similarities in body size and call frequency with R. hipposideros of Europe are the result of convergent evolution.

Design & performance of a networked ad-hoc acoustic communications system using inexpensive commercial CDMA modems

We present a new approach for creating and implementing an ad-hoc underwater acoustic sensor network based on connecting a small processor to the serial port of a commercial CDMA acoustic modem. The processor acts as a "node controller" providing the networking layer that the modems lack. The ad-hoc networking protocol is based on a modified dynamic source routing (DSR) approach and can be configured for maximising information throughput or minimising energy expenditure. The system was developed in simulation and then evaluated during field trials using a 10 node deployment. Experimental results show reliable multi-hop networking under a variety of network configurations, with the added ability to determine internode ranges to within 1.5 m for localisation.

WIL-power: Developing journalism students' intercultural communications and international reporting skills on field trips to Vietnam

This article examines journalism students' learning experience that is intercultural, immersive and intensive. Accounts of 'intercultural' experience date back to Herodotus of Halicarnassus; 'immersion' is integral to contemporary practice in language learning; and 'intensive' delivery has been refined to an art by postgraduate business education. Together they can be grouped under the broader pedagogical concept of work-integrated learning (WIL). This article examines two WIL projects that involved field trips by journalism students to Vietnam in 2012 and 2014, and their implications for future WIL initiatives.

Brief report regarding past fatigue incidents that have occurred at various BM Alliance Coal Operations mines in Queensland. Report to BM Alliance Coal Operation

This document has arisen from a request from BM Alliance Coal Operations Pty Ltd, to undertake and report on the key findings and statistics, key learning’s and recommendations for fatigue related incidents that have occurred at various BM Alliance coal operation mines in Queensland.

Brief report regarding past vehicle rollover and loss of traction incidents that have occurred at various BM Alliance Coal Operation mines in Queensland. Report to BM Alliance Coal Operation

This document has arisen from a request from BM Alliance Coal Operations Pty Ltd, to undertake and report on the key findings and statistics, key learning’s and recommendations for vehicle rollover and loss of traction (skid) incidents that have occurred at various BM Alliance coal operation mines in Queensland.

Analysis of distributed beamforming in cooperative communications network with phase shifter based smart antenna nodes

This research study investigates the application of phase shifter-based smart antenna system in distributed beamforming. It examines the way to optimise the transmit power by jointly maximising the directivity of the array antennas and the weight vector for distributed beamforming. This research study concludes that maximising directivity can lead to better transmit power minimisation compared to maximising field intensity. This study also concludes that signal to noise power ratio maximisation subject to a power constraint and power minimisation subject to a signal to noise power ratio constraint yield the same results.

Experimental evaluation of the performance of 2×2 MIMO-OFDM for vehicle-to-infrastructure communications

In this paper, a novel 2×2 multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) testbed based on an Analog Devices AD9361 highly integrated radio frequency (RF) agile transceiver was specifically implemented for the purpose of estimating and analyzing MIMO-OFDM channel capacity in vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) environments using the 920 MHz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band. We implemented two-dimensional discrete cosine transform-based filtering to reduce the channel estimation errors and show its effectiveness on our measurement results. We have also analyzed the effects of channel estimation error on the MIMO channel capacity by simulation. Three different scenarios of subcarrier spacing were investigated which correspond to IEEE 802.11p, Long-Term Evolution (LTE), and Digital Video Broadcasting Terrestrial (DVB-T)(2k) standards. An extensive MIMO-OFDM V2I channel measurement campaign was performed in a suburban environment. Analysis of the measured MIMO channel capacity results as a function of the transmitter-to-receiver (TX-RX) separation distance up to 250 m shows that the variance of the MIMO channel capacity is larger for the near-range line-of-sight (LOS) scenarios than for the long-range non-LOS cases, using a fixed receiver signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) criterion. We observed that the largest capacity values were achieved at LOS propagation despite the common assumption of a degenerated MIMO channel in LOS. We consider that this is due to the large angular spacing between MIMO subchannels which occurs when the receiver vehicle rooftop antennas pass by the fixed transmitter antennas at close range, causing MIMO subchannels to be orthogonal. In addition, analysis on the effects of different subcarrier spacings on MIMO-OFDM channel capacity showed negligible differences in mean channel capacity for the subcarrier spacing range investigated. Measured channels described in this paper are available on request.