Random Access Procedures in 5G IoT via NTN: System level performances

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a critical pillar in the digital transformation because it enables interaction with the physical world through remote sensing and actuation. Owing to the advancements in wireless technology, we now have the opportunity of using their features to the best of our abilities and improve over the current situation. Indeed, the Internet of Things market is expanding at an exponential rate, with devices such as alarms and detectors, smart metres, trackers, and wearables being used on a global scale for automotive and agriculture, environment monitoring, infrastructure surveillance and management, healthcare, energy and utilities, logistics, good tracking, and so on. The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) acknowledged the importance of IoT by introducing new features to support it. In particular, in Rel.13, the 3GPP introduced the so-called IoT to support Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN).As these devices will be distributed in areas where terrestrial networks are not feasible or commercially viable, satellite networks will play a complementary role due to their ability to provide global connectivity via their large footprint size and short service deployment time. In this context, the goal of this thesis is to investigate the viability of integrating IoT technology with satellite communication (SatCom) systems, with a focus on the Random Access(RA) Procedure. Indeed, the RA is the most critical procedure because it allows the UE to achieve uplink synchronisation, obtain the permanent ID, and obtain uplink transmission resources. The goal of this thesis is to evaluate preamble detection in the SatCom environment.

Integrating mobile devices into a scalable Grid Computing architecture designed to perform distributed computations

The idea of Grid Computing originated in the nineties and found its concrete applications in contexts like the SETI@home project where a lot of computers (offered by volunteers) cooperated, performing distributed computations, inside the Grid environment analyzing radio signals trying to find extraterrestrial life. The Grid was composed of traditional personal computers but, with the emergence of the first mobile devices like Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), researchers started theorizing the inclusion of mobile devices into Grid Computing; although impressive theoretical work was done, the idea was discarded due to the limitations (mainly technological) of mobile devices available at the time. Decades have passed, and now mobile devices are extremely more performant and numerous than before, leaving a great amount of resources available on mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, untapped. Here we propose a solution for performing distributed computations over a Grid Computing environment that utilizes both desktop and mobile devices, exploiting the resources from day-to-day mobile users that alternatively would end up unused. The work starts with an introduction on what Grid Computing is, the evolution of mobile devices, the idea of integrating such devices into the Grid and how to convince device owners to participate in the Grid. Then, the tone becomes more technical, starting with an explanation on how Grid Computing actually works, followed by the technical challenges of integrating mobile devices into the Grid. Next, the model, which constitutes the solution offered by this study, is explained, followed by a chapter regarding the realization of a prototype that proves the feasibility of distributed computations over a Grid composed by both mobile and desktop devices. To conclude future developments and ideas to improve this project are presented.