Cost-effective Wireless Research Articles

Design Principles of Batteryless Transponder for Vehicular DSRC at 5.8 GHz

This article presents design principles for a totally batteryless and cost-effective wireless transponder, based on commercially-of-the-shelf (COTS) components. The transponder architecture is compliant with the physical layers of most common vehicular dedicated short range communications (DSRC) applications operating at 5.8 GHz. The paper is organized in two parts. We discuss firstly the design principles and system architecture, which includes both the energy harvesting and the back-scattering modes. The second part introduces a batteryless transponder prototype for vehicular DSRC, as result of the discussed design principles. In this part of the article reports a full set of experimental results, illustrating the consistency with the design principles, as well as the effective performance in terms of power consumption, energy efficiency and radio communication capabilities. In particular we report that at the distance of 1.05 m, a legacy road-side unit can establish both the down-link and up-link, with the latter requiring 37 s of charging time to enable 68 ms of data link at 8 Mbps.

Implementation of on-demand low rate wireless parameter monitoring system for industrial machineries.

Systematic and rigorous monitoring of critical equipment is the cornerstone of any successful preventive management system in the industrial environment. Recent developments in cost-effective wireless sensor network (WSN) technologies promising a wider and more sustainable deployment of distributed sensing and processing infrastructure. In this research work, it is mainly focused on the electrical monitoring parameter and enable remote switching devices for optimal power management systems using ZigBee. This paper proposes a digital system for electrical system parameters such as voltage and current using ZigBee-based wireless sensor networks (WSNs). The main feature of ZigBee protocol, to act as a communicable medium between transmitter and receiver modules, which is suitable for the industrial environment.

Delay-Minimized Edge Caching in Heterogeneous Vehicular Networks: A Matching-Based Approach

To enable ever-increasing vehicular applications, heterogeneous vehicular networks (HetVNets) are recently emerged to provide enhanced and cost-effective wireless network access. Meanwhile, edge caching is imperative to future vehicular content delivery to reduce the delivery delay and alleviate the unprecedented backhaul pressure. This work investigates content caching in HetVNets where Wi-Fi roadside units (RSUs), TV white space (TVWS) stations, and cellular base stations are considered to cache contents and provide content delivery. Particularly, to characterize the intermittent network connection provided by Wi-Fi RSUs and TVWS stations, we establish an on-off model with service interruptions to describe the content delivery process. Content coding then is leveraged to resist the impact of unstable network connections with optimized coding parameters. By jointly considering file characteristics and network conditions, we minimize the average delivery delay by optimizing the content placement, which is formulated as an integer linear programming (ILP) problem. Adopting the idea of student admission model, the ILP problem is then transformed into a many-to-one matching problem and solved by our proposed stable-matching-based caching scheme. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can achieve near-optimal performances in terms of delivery delay and offloading ratio with low complexity.

Wireless Corrosion Monitoring Sensors Based on Electromagnetic Interference Shielding of RFID Transponders

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding is a common technology used to protect electronic devices from the interference of environmental noise or to prevent the radiation of electromagnetic waves from electronic devices to the environment. In this research, the EMI shielding principle was utilized to develop a simple and cost-effective wireless corrosion-monitoring sensor. A thin metal sheet (e.g., a steel foil) similar to the material to be monitored was attached onto the surface of a radio frequency identification (RFID) transponder and served as an RF shielding layer to block the communication between the RFID transponder and the transceiver. The shielded transponder (the sensor) was then subjected to corrosion exposure, which caused the corrosion of the shielding metal sheet and led to the degradation of the shielding effectiveness. By chronically recording the change of the RF signal strength and the amount of corrosion that occurred, a correlation could be established between the signal strength and the corrosion rate. In this way, a simple wireless corrosion-monitoring sensor was developed. Steel sheets with various thicknesses (50 μm to 250 μm) were used as shielding layers on ultra-high-frequency RFID transponders, and the sensors covered by these various sheets behaved differently during corrosion exposure. The microstructure change of the shielding material was characterized by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy, which revealed the uneven thinning and final damage of the shielding layer, leading to the (partial) restoration of the RF signal.

Cost-Effective Wireless Sensors for Detection of Package Opening and Tampering

There is a need to develop a simple cost-effective approach for wireless detection of whether package is or was open en route during transportation. Existing approaches rely on electronic devices that need sensors with on-board and continuous power source for sensing and data logging. This paper presents three different battery-free, cost-effective, Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID)-based solutions for the detection of tampering or package opening. The first solution is for real-time opening detection. Opening or closing the package leads to unfolding or folding of the flexible -based antenna, which activates or deactivates the RFID tag. The second solution is for recording and memorizing package opening using a printed switch that shunts the antenna of the RFID tag. Opening causes a permanent disconnection of this switch activating the RFID. This change is irreversible; thus, the sensor memorizes the specific opening event without any additional electronic memory device. The third solution is for all-around package security using an RFID-based thread. Opening the package from any side allows changes in the radiation profile so the package condition can be wirelessly sensed. The approaches have been simulated and validated experimentally.

5G Mobile Broadband: Spectrum Challenges for Rural Regions

Wireless technologies offer potential advantages for extending broadband to rural regions because they do not require costly extension of optical fiber that requires trenching through difficult terrain that could include mountains, deserts, roadless expanses, and/or permafrost in the far North. Also usage is shifting from fixed to mobile, even in rural areas, as smart phones and other “smart” devices are becoming increasingly popular, and operators strive to provide additional bandwidth to cope with demand. Wireless 5G (fifth generation) is currently considered the most promising technology to address the explosive growth in demand not only for consumer services but for public safety, remote monitoring, logistics, and other applications. Mobile 5G technology promises greatly increased bandwidth for mobile devices and potentially for other broadband services. Yet 5G presents challenges that may not only make it difficult to offer in rural areas, but may hinder the availability of other more cost-effective wireless solutions. This paper examines the challenges of extending broadband to rural and remote regions, particularly as posed by 5G technology in terms of installation cost, availability of spectrum, and other factors that may influence availability and affordability of broadband in rural regions. It reviews proposals to transfer spectrum currently used for fixed terrestrial and satellite broadband to 5G, and implications for service availability, quality, and pricing. It also examines implications for existing community and rural WISPs (wireless internet service providers) and other entrepreneurs and organizations that may want to offer broadband in rural areas. These issues are addressed through analysis of policy drivers to expedite investment in 5G (e.g. to keep up with other countries implementing 5G and to take advantage of purported economic benefits of 5G) and the resulting rush to reallocate spectrum for 5G. It includes a case study of current Canadian government efforts to reallocate spectrum for 5G from fixed satellite services, still critical for provision of communication services in the far North, as an example of how 5G spectrum policies may affect rural communities and small service providers. The paper proposes criteria for reallocating rural spectrum that would not endanger current broadband delivery to rural and remote regions. It concludes with lessons from the case study and recommendations for policy makers facing the challenges of formulating policies for 5G within a context of commitments to provide universal access to broadband, including in rural unserved and underserved regions.

Big Data Acquisition Under Failures in FiWi Enhanced Smart Grid

With the increasing of monitoring devices and advanced measurement infrastructures, smart grids (SGs) collect large amounts of data every moment, which gives rise to the SG big data. In order to fulfill diverse communication requirements of various energy-related data in SG, it is obviously impractical to rely on a single communication technology, and a hybrid communication architecture of low-latency fiber optic and cost-effective wireless technologies could be a promising solution. Note that, low-latency data acquisition under failures is of particular importance to SG reliability, considering that SGs are vulnerable to various failures. Toward this end, we provide in this paper a hybrid SG communication architecture integrating fiber optic and WiFi-based mesh networks, i.e., fiber-wireless (FiWi) enhanced SG, and study the problem of data acquisition under failures in FiWi enhanced SG. The problem is first formulated as a constrained optimization problem, and then three algorithms are proposed as our solutions, i.e., an optimal enumeration routing algorithm (OERA), a greedy approximation routing algorithm (GARA), and a heuristic greedy routing algorithm (HGRA). Numerical results reveal that both GARA and HGRA can achieve near-optimal solutions to the problem of data acquisition under failures, and have higher computational efficiency compared to our benchmark, i.e., OERA.

Effective Water Management Framework Based on Internet of Things (IOT) Technology

The low cost effective wireless sensor network that The low cost effective wireless sensor network that allows for embedded system to monitor and control virtually any space and environment and to form the so called Internet of Things or Internet of Everything. The research work is intended to address a general problem associated with effective water utilization management, among others is the issue of water leakages, there is the need to effectively detect cases of leakages and address them appropriately. However, the sensitivity of the flow rate sensors used poses a number of challenges, hence the need to setup an appropriate calibration scheme that will allows for the flow rate sensor, effective adoption and usage ,isolating false alarm due to deficiencies associated with operation of the flow rate sensor as well as detecting leakages . A frame work build around a flow rate sensor, solenoid valve, a microcontroller equipped with internet connectivity and a log in service monitoring and control platform on the cloud is used. Several simulated tests were carried out to explore a number of leakage scenarios. Based on the analysed data obtained overtime, appropriate algorithms were developed to allow for quick detection, remote monitoring and control of deduced cases of leakages. The work has significantly addressed the challenges poses to the effect leakages with the adopted framework.

An Effective Water Management Framework Based on Internet of Things (IOT) Technology

The low cost effective wireless sensor network that The low cost effective wireless sensor network that allows for embedded system to monitor and control virtually any space and environment and to form the so called Internet of Things or Internet of Everything. The research work is intended to address a general problem associated with effective water utilization management, among others is the issue of water leakages, there is the need to effectively detect cases of leakages and address them appropriately. However, the sensitivity of the flow rate sensors used poses a number of challenges, hence the need to setup an appropriate calibration scheme that will allows for the flow rate sensor, effective adoption and usage ,isolating false alarm due to deficiencies associated with operation of the flow rate sensor as well as detecting leakages . A frame work build around a flow rate sensor, solenoid valve, a microcontroller equipped with internet connectivity and a log in service monitoring and control platform on the cloud is used. Several simulated tests were carried out to explore a number of leakage scenarios. Based on the analysed data obtained overtime, appropriate algorithms were developed to allow for quick detection, remote monitoring and control of deduced cases of leakages. The work has significantly addressed the challenges poses to the effect leakages with the adopted framework.

Design and Implementation of Remote RFI Monitoring System for Ghana Radio Telescope Observatory-Nkutunse

Radio telescope receivers are sensitive instruments designed to detect very weak signals radiating from astronomical sources. These signals travel several light years and are sometimes drain by the interference of man-made and terrestrials RFI’s. This work aims at the design of a cost-effective Radio Frequency Interference Monitoring System (RFIMS) for the Ghana Radio Astronomy Observatory at Nkutunse. The design of automated RFIMS was constructed with a log-periodic antenna for receiving the electric field being radiated, Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) to amplify the weak signals for detectability, an attenuator to control the high power interfering signals, a filter to pass frequency of interest and a spectrum analyzer as backend. Ideally, telescopes are supposed to be sited at a radio quiet environment. The implementation is to continually monitor the radio space for potential interference at the telescope site for remedial actions since it has become a global candidate site by location and necessitation.

Programmable metasurface‐based RF chain‐free 8PSK wireless transmitter

In this letter, a wireless transmitter using the new architecture of programmable metasurface is presented. The proposed transmitter does not require any filter, nor wideband mixer or wideband power amplifier, thereby making it a promising hardware architecture for cost-effective wireless communications systems in the future. Using experimental results, we demonstrate that a programmable metasurface-based 8-phase shift-keying (8PSK) transmitter with 8*32 phase adjustable unit cells can achieve 6.144 Mbps data rate over the air at 4.25 GHz with a comparable bit error rate (BER) performance as the conventional approach without channel coding, but with less hardware complexity.

Glucose biosensor based on open-source wireless microfluidic potentiostat

Wireless potentiostats capable of cyclic voltammetry and amperometry that connect to the Internet are emerging as key attributes of future point-of-care devices. This work presents an “integrated microfluidic electrochemical detector” (iMED) three-electrode multi-potentiostat designed around operational amplifiers connected to a powerful WiFi-based microcontroller as a promising alternative to more expensive and complex strategies reported in the literature. The iMED is integrated with a microfluidic system developed to be controlled by the same microcontroller. The iMED is programmed wirelessly over a standard WiFi network and all electrochemical data is uploaded to an open-source cloud-based server. A wired desktop computer is not necessary for operation or program uploading. This method of integrated microfluidic automation is simple, uses common and inexpensive materials, and is compatible with commercial sample injectors. An integrated biosensor platform contains four screen-printed carbon arrays inside 4 separate microfluidic detection chambers with Pt counter and pseudo Ag/AgCl reference electrodes in situ. The iMED is benchmarked with K3[Fe(CN)6] against a commercial potentiostat and then as a glucose biosensor using glucose-oxidising films of [Os(2,2′-bipyridine)2(poly-vinylimidazole)10Cl] prepared on screen-printed electrodes with multi walled carbon nanotubes, poly(ethylene glycol) diglycidyl ether and flavin adenine dinucleotide-dependent glucose dehydrogenase. Potential application of this cost-effective wireless potentiostat approach to modern bioelectronics and point-of-care diagnosis is demonstrated by production of glucose oxidation currents, under pseudo-physiological conditions, using mediating films with lower redox potentials.

Hybrid Geo-Location Routing Protocol for Indoor and Outdoor Positioning Applications

Internet of Things (IoT) essentially demands smart connectivity and contextual awareness of current networks with low power and cost effective wireless solutions. Routing is the backbone of the system controlling the flow of transmission. This work demonstrates a collation between performance investigations of a location-based routing protocol Geocast Adaptive Mesh Environment for Routing with contextual information collected from Global Positioning System (GPS) and Framework for Internal Navigation and Discovery (FIND) respectively. The systems are evaluated based on various metrics i.e. Accuracy, Packet Delivery Ratio and Packet Overhead by means of Network Simulator (NS-2). FIND shows enhanced performance in most cases as compared to GPS for indoor and outdoor environments. The results of this research can be deployed in different areas such as in-building navigation, hospital patient tracking, Smart City context aware service provisioning and Industry 4.0 deployments.

A Survey on 5G Millimeter Wave Communications for UAV-Assisted Wireless Networks

In recent years, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have received considerable attention from regulators, industry and research community, due to rapid growth in a broad range of applications. Particularly, UAVs are being used to provide a promising solution to reliable and cost-effective wireless communications from the sky. The deployment of UAVs has been regarded as an alternative complement of existing cellular systems, to achieve higher transmission efficiency with enhanced coverage and capacity. However, heavily utilized microwave spectrum bands below 6 GHz utilized by legacy wireless systems are insufficient to attain remarkable data rate enhancement for numerous emerging applications. To resolve the spectrum crunch crisis and satisfy the requirements of 5G and beyond mobile communications, one potential solution is to use the abundance of unoccupied bandwidth available at millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies. Inspired by the technique potentials, mmWave communications have also paved the way into the widespread use of UAVs to assist wireless networks for future 5G and beyond wireless applications. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey on current achievements in the integration of 5G mmWave communications into UAV-assisted wireless networks. More precisely, a taxonomy to classify the existing research issues is presented, by considering seven cutting-edge solutions. Subsequently, we provide a brief overview of 5G mmWave communications for UAV-assisted wireless networks from two aspects, i.e., key technical advantages and challenges as well as potential applications. Based on the proposed taxonomy, we further discuss in detail the state-of-the-art issues, solutions, and open challenges for this newly emerging area. Lastly, we complete this survey by pointing out open issues and shedding new light on future directions for further research on this area.

Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer for Cost-Effective Wireless Sensor Networks Using Frequency-Scanned Beaming

A simple adaptive 1-D frequency-scanning method is proposed for radiative wireless power transfer (WPT) systems in low-power wireless sensor networks (WSNs). As a proof of concept, a directive leaky-wave antenna that scans 1-W output RF power in the angular range from ±10° at 2.4 GHz to ±37° at 2.5 GHz, is used to power a WSN covering an area of 1.2 m $\times1.2$ m. It is shown that, using a frequency-scanned antenna, a wider area than using a non-scanned directive antenna can be powered without additional expensive equipment. The WPT protocol is described, showing that any sensor in the WSN can select the optimum transmission channel in the 2.4-GHz band, based on the received signal strength indicator measurements, as the coordinator performs a scheduled frequency hopping phase. This maximizes the WPT beaming efficiency and the transferred dc power. The optimum channel selection can be performed periodically, which makes the system robust against channel state changes.

Game-Theoretic Approaches for Wireless Communications with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Wireless communications with UAVs offer a promising solution to provide cost-effective wireless connectivity and extend coverage. In recent years, the area of wireless communications for UAV system design and optimization has been receiving enormous attention from the research community. However, there are still existing challenges that are far from solved. To cope with those challenges, researchers have been exploring the applicability of game-theoretic approaches. This article surveys the existing game-theoretic solutions and presents a number of novel solutions that are designed to optimize energy consumption, enhance network coverage, and improve connectivity in wireless communications with UAVs. We first present main game components and the elements they represent in wireless communications with UAVs, and then we present a classification of the current used game-theoretic approaches. We identify the main problems in wireless communications with UAVs in which game theory has been used to find solutions. We provide a case study to show the merits of applying game theory in wireless communication with UAVs. Finally, we discuss the shortcomings of the traditional game-theoretic approaches and propose MFG as an appropriate method for solving novel technical problems in massive UAVs networks.

Implementation of cost-effective wireless photovoltaic monitoring module at panel level

Implementation of cost-effective wireless photovoltaic monitoring module at panel level

Cost Effective Wireless Network Based Automated Energy Meter Monitoring System for Sri Lanka Perspective

Cost Effective Wireless Network Based Automated Energy Meter Monitoring System for Sri Lanka Perspective

Suspended Silicon Microphotodiodes for Electrochemical and Biological Applications.

Local electric stimulation of tissues and cells has gained importance as therapeutic alternative in the treatment of many diseases. These alternatives aim to deliver a less invasively stimuli in liquid media, making imperative the development of versatile micro- and nanoscale solutions for wireless actuation. Here, a simple microfabrication process to produce suspended silicon microphotodiodes that can be activated by visible light to generate local photocurrents in their surrounding medium is presented. Electrical characterization using electrical probes confirms their diode behavior. To demonstrate their electrochemical performance, an indirect test is implemented in solution through photoelectrochemical reactions controlled by a white-LED lamp. Furthermore, their effects on biological systems are observed in vitro using mouse primary neurons in which the suspended microphotodiodes are activated periodically with white-LED lamp, bringing out observable morphological changes in neuronal processes. The results demonstrate a simplified and cost-effective wireless tool for photovoltaic current generation in liquid media at the microscale.

An Improved and Cost Effective Radio Frequency based Object Detection System

An Improved and Cost Effective Radio Frequency based Object Detection System