Mobile Network Applications Research Articles

Hybrid renewable energy system for 5G mobile telecommunication applications in Akure, Southwestern Nigeria

Hybrid renewable green energy (solar and wind) configuration is mostly used in a specific situation where the power grid source is not efficient or costly. The ultimate rates associated with power grid source can be minimized through proper equipment sizing and load matching. This research aims to adopt precisely the efficient use of optimization of hybrid green energy system needed for powering base transceiver stations (BTS) for 5G mobile network applications in Akure, Nigeria. A dynamic simulation and optimization were carried out using Hybrid Optimization for Multiple Electric Renewable (HOMER 3.6 pro version) software to properly assess the appropriate level of the net present cost, operating cost per year and the energy cost/kWh. It was found precisely that hybrid renewable energy can be reasonably achieved in the study location. Renewable Hybrid-1 energy system is the optimized configuration in which photovoltaic, wind and conventional energy source| (diesel generator) typically contributed 60%, 30% and 10% of the total energy. These considerably percentages are equivalent to 5696 kWh/yr, 28976 kWh/yr and 9054 kWh/yr respectively. The renewable energy generated from all the hybrid sources can sufficiently satisfy the needed amount by the BTS with a total amount of 65700 kWhr/yr. The effective operation and maintenance cost, net present cost, and total cost of energy per kilowatt were typically₦3.06 million, ₦101 million and ₦118.80 kW/hr respectively. The overall result will produce economically the needed cost effectiveness power system that can positively enhance 5G operation and minimize the level greenhouse gas emissions within the study location. Hybrid-2 was undoubtedly found to be the possible configuration with lowest emission of CO2, but it is economically not cost effective.Keywords: Optimization, Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems (HOMER), Cost Effectiveness, Base transceiver station

Chinese parental involvement and class-based inequality in education: the role of social networking sites

ABSTRACTBased on an ethnographic study, this article presents the class-based disparities of Chinese parents’ usage of WeChat, the dominating social networking mobile application in China, in their educational involvement. We find that middle-class parents are the privileged ones who have exploited the use of WeChat not only as a medium for communication, but more as a mode of influence. Through WeChat, their various forms of capital are channelled to catalyse changes in their children's education. In contrast, working-class parents tend to act as absent participants in using WeChat for their educational involvement. We argue that WeChat has brought forth the consequence of widening the arena for winning or losing at the educational game for parents from different social classes. We call for corrective policies and guidelines on the usage of WeChat and other SNSs technologies in home–school dynamics.

Companding techniques for SC-FDMA and sensor network applications

ABSTRACT The large Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR) is a serious problem in wireless communication systems for mobile and sensor network applications. This paper presents efficient non-linear techniques to solve the large PAPR problem in Single-Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) system and Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) systems. The performance of the proposed techniques is investigated over a realistic channel model. Simulation results reveal PAPR reduction while preserving low Bit Error Rate (BER) levels.

Social Networks and Mobile Applications Use in Young Patients With Kidney Disease.

Objective: To evaluate the use and benefits of social networking sites (SNS) and mobile applications (MA) in young patients with kidney disease (KD).Background: Pediatric KD is prevalent. The Internet is increasingly being used to communicate rapid healthcare information to children about acute and chronic diseases with greater medical care satisfaction. There is a lack of data on social media (SM) utility in pediatric KD.Materials and Methods: A descriptive, observational, and cross-sectional study was conducted on a national level. Data were collected from 4 different centers through a reviewed questionnaire.Results: 83.9% of the 428 participants were Lebanese. The average age was 11.4 years (±7.1). 69.9% had chronic KD out of which 17.4% had undergone a kidney transplant while 9% were on dialysis. 69.6% of the participants affirmed the need of SM for the health of the sick child while only 9.8% are participating in a scientific forum and 4.7% used SM to find a potential organ donor. Some study variables were statistically associated with the participants' age, nationality, and stage of KD.Conclusions: SM is important for the support and management of pediatric KD. We believe that SNS and MA will play a leading role in the lives of our patients in the upcoming future and will push the physician to be an active participant in the evolution of communication networks. To identify the efficacy of SM in enhancing communication between patients and health professionals, further stratified studies are needed.

Dynamic spatial modulation for next generation networks

A major challenge for fifth generation (5G) wireless communication, which is expected to be deployed around 2020 is to provide 10 times higher spectral efficiency and energy efficiency than fourth generation (4G). Spatial modulation (SM) is a novel multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) technique, which provides an exceptional trade-off between spectral efficiency and energy efficiency. All the conventional SM variants do not perform well under spatially correlated channel conditions. Hence, they cannot be employed for indoor wireless local area network (WLAN) and compact wireless mobile applications, where the effect of spatial correlation is imminent. In this paper, a new SM variant, dynamic spatial modulation (DSM) is introduced for 4×4 and 8×8 MIMO configurations, which activates either one or two transmit antennas based on input bit pattern. DSM employs dynamic mapping, which maximizes the Euclidean distance between active spatial bits by choosing antenna subsets with maximum spatial separation to minimize the effect of spatial correlation. The average bit error rate (ABER) performance of DSM under uncorrelated and spatially correlated channel conditions is quantified in comparison with conventional redesigned spatial modulation (ReSM). Later, a low complexity, suboptimal, ordered weight minimum mean square error based conditional maximum likelihood search (OWMMSE-CML) detection scheme is proposed for the DSM system. Through extensive simulations under various channel conditions and complexity analysis, it is shown that proposed OWMMSE-CML detection scheme offers performance nearer to optimal ML and also outperforms suboptimal signal vector based minimum mean square error (SVMMSE) detection scheme with a significant reduction in computational complexity.

Prevalence and correlates of lifetime and recent HIV testing among men who have sex with men (MSM) who use mobile geo-social networking applications in Greater Tokyo.

Men who have sex with men (MSM) are disproportionately burdened by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), accounting for 78% of all Japanese male HIV cases in 2016. Over 30% of newly identified HIV infections in Japan are diagnosed as AIDS annually, suggesting a large proportion of people living with HIV were unaware of their own infection status. An estimated two-thirds of Japanese men who have sex with men (MSM) are not attached to the gay community, and previous studies have largely sampled gay venues, thus, previous studies have likely failed to reach many men in this population. This study therefore examined HIV testing prevalence and correlates among MSM in Greater Tokyo who use gay mobile geo-social networking applications (gay mobile apps), which have been found to increase access to MSM not traditionally accessible through venue-based surveys. Among a sample of 1657 MSM recruited through advertisements on gay mobile apps, the prevalence of lifetime and six-monthly HIV testing was 72.8% and 29.7% respectively. In multiple regression analysis, higher lifetime HIV testing was associated with older age, education, HIV knowledge, anal intercourse with regular and casual male partners, and gay venue attendance. Testing was negatively associated with regular male partner condom use, marriage, residing outside central Tokyo and having both male and female partners. These results indicated that MSM who use gay mobile apps in Greater Tokyo do not meet the CDC yearly testing recommendations for high risk populations. Considering limited HIV prevention funding in Japan for MSM, moderate lifetime and recent testing, and the large number of gay mobile app users, utilization of popular gay mobile apps to promote nearby HIV testing facilities may be an effective prevention policy to target non-community attached MSM, particularly at-risk youth and individuals at risk of sudden-onset AIDS.

Combating non-communicable diseases: potentials and challenges for community health workers in a digital age, a narrative review of the literature.

The use of community health workers (CHWs) has been explored as a viable option to provide home health education, counselling and basic health care, notwithstanding their challenges in training and retention. In this manuscript, we review the evidence and discuss how the digitalization affects the CHWs programmes for tackling non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We conducted a review of literature covering two databases: PubMED and Embase. A total of 97 articles were abstracted for full text review of which 26 are included in the analysis. Existing theories were used to construct a conceptual framework for understanding how digitalization affects the prospects of CHW programmes for NCDs. The results are divided into two themes: (1) the benefits of digitalization and (2) the challenges to the prospects of digitalization. We also conducted supplemental search in non-peer reviewed literature to identify and map the digital platforms currently in use in CHW programmes. We identified three benefits and three challenges of digitalization. Firstly, it will help improve the access and quality of services, notwithstanding its higher establishment and maintenance costs. Secondly, it will add efficiency in training and personnel management. Thirdly, it will leverage the use of data generated across grass-roots platforms to further research and evaluation. The challenges posed are related to funding, health literacy of CHWs and systemic challenges related to motivating CHWs. Several dozens of digital platforms were mapped, including mobile-based networking devices (used for behavioural change communication), Web-applications (used for contact tracking, reminder system, adherence tracing, data collection and decision support), videoconference (used for decision support) and mobile applications (used for reminder system, supervision, patients' management, hearing screening and tele-consultation). The digitalization efforts of CHW programmes are afflicted by many challenges, yet the rapid technological penetration and acceptability coupled with the gradual fall in costs constitute encouraging signals for the LMICs. Both CHWs interventions and digital technologies are not inexpensive, but they may provide better value for the money when applied at the right place and time.

Modeling the Total Energy Consumption of Mobile Network Services and Applications

Reducing the energy consumption of Internet services requires knowledge about the specific traffic and energy consumption characteristics, as well as the associated end-to-end topology and the energy consumption of each network segment. Here, we propose a shift from segment-specific to service-specific end-to-end energy-efficiency modeling to align engineering with activity-based accounting principles. We use the model to assess a range of the most popular instant messaging and video play applications to emerging augmented reality and virtual reality applications. We demonstrate how measurements can be conducted and used in service-specific end-to-end energy consumption assessments. Since the energy consumption is dependent on user behavior, we then conduct a sensitivity analysis on different usage patterns and identify the root causes of service-specific energy consumption. Our main findings show that smartphones are the main energy consumers for web browsing and instant messaging applications, whereas the LTE wireless network is the main consumer for heavy data applications such as video play, video chat and virtual reality applications. By using small cell offloading and mobile edge caching, our results show that the energy consumption of popular and emerging applications could potentially be reduced by over 80%.

Lightweight RC4 Algorithm

As a significant number of applications in mobile transactions and wireless sensor networks are characterized by short duration sessions, security issues turn into a focal concern.
 RC4 algorithm is a standout amongst the most broadly utilized stream ciphers which locates its application in numerous security conventions, for example, Wired Equivalence Privacy (WEP) and Wi-Fi Protocol Access (WPA).
 In this paper, we suggest a lightweight variation of the well-known RC4 algorithm that is exceptionally appropriate for resources of computational compelled gadgets and energy in remote systems, when contrasted with RC4 and its variations like, HC128, Grain-128, and so on.,. We propose new PRGA which is replaced the PRGA keystream generation algorithm of RC4.
 The proposed LRC4 execution is surveyed in terms of randomness test and time under an arrangement of analyses. The trial comes about demonstrate that the resulting stream are random, and the suggested algorithm quicker compared to standard RC4, the results indicate the average of speed improvement is about 54% in both encryption/decryption sides.

T-SR: A Location Privacy Protection Algorithm Based on POI Query

With the popularity of location-based services in the field of mobile network applications, users enjoy the convenience on one side, they may face the risk of privacy disclosure on the other side. Attackers can easily dig out the user's home address, occupation, and other personal privacy from the data of location-based services. For the problem of user location privacy disclosure based on semantic query of point of interest (POI) in the road network environment, the previous research seldom paid attention to the temporal association relationship between the query semantic and the user's location, as well, seldom considered whether the constructed anonymity sets of fake-locations can fulfill the property of reciprocity. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a location privacy protection algorithm T-SR based on POI query. The algorithm can be divided into three steps. First, the whole road network is divided into multiple areas based on the Voronoi structure, so that the areas are independent and non-overlapping, and the road grid that contains user's real location will be located according to the level of privacy protection H. Second, the temporal association between the POI semantics are mined from the real check-in data based on Gaussian distribution σ rule, and the POIs which have weak association with the POI of user's location will be filtered to resist the temporal association attack. Third, the POI semantics within the grid will be split into several buckets according to query times record, anonymity degree k, and semantic degree l, then the dummy locations will be selected from various kinds of POIs of the bucket where the user's location is. The resulted anonymity set can defend against replay attack, inference attack, and temporal association attack. The theoretical analysis and experimental evaluation prove that the proposed solution can protect user's location privacy efficiently and effectively.

Prevalence and Factors Associated with Inconsistent Condom Use among Men who Have Sex with Men (MSM) who use Mobile Geo-Social Networking Applications in Greater Tokyo.

This study examined the prevalence and factors associated with inconsistent condom use among men who have sex with men (MSM) who use gay mobile geo-social networking applications (gay mobile apps) in Greater Tokyo. Among a sample of 1657 MSM recruited through advertisements on gay mobile apps, inconsistent condom use was reported by over one-third (37%) of participants with regular male partners, 18% with casual male partners, and 20% with female partners. In multiple regression analysis, inconsistent condom use with both regular and casual male partners was more commonly reported among participants without a university education, and among participants reporting lower self-efficacy for safer sex. Inconsistent condom use with casual male partners was more commonly reported among participants living in the central 23 wards of Tokyo. Inconsistent condom use with regular male partners was more commonly reported among participants who identified as a member of the gay community, and who only had male partners. These results indicate that a substantial proportion of Greater Tokyo gay mobile app users use condoms inconsistently, particularly with regular partners, and may be at risk for HIV. This paper provides useful information to help design tailored strategies to reduce inconsistent condom use.

Analog Radio-over-Fiber Fronthaul by a WDM-PON employing Double RSOA Self-Seeding and Carrier-Reuse Techniques

WDM-PON has been considered a promising solution for future fronthaul links concerning new mobile networks applications. However, in order to avoid inventory problems and reduce operation costs, there is a need for colorless sources, where the same basic optical source can be used regardless of the desired wavelength. Also, the digital RoF scheme, which has been employed so far, might require a bandwidth that is prohibitive even for optical fiber links. In this paper, we propose and numerically investigate a bidirectional colorless WDM-PON fronthaul transporting analog RoF signals as an alternative to meet these demands. All simulations were performed using a framework calibrated with experimental data. For the downstream, we employ a double-cavity self-seeding technique, while the upstream is performed by a cascaded-RSOAs carrier-reuse approach. BER and EVM simulation analysis are presented for various data rates, modulations formats and RF bands ranging from 1 to 5 GHz, demonstrating the feasibility of our proposed topology as a novel fronthaul approach.

EVOLUTIONARY CENTRALITY AND MAXIMAL CLIQUES IN MOBILE SOCIAL NETWORKS

This paper introduces an evolutionary approach to enhance the process of finding central nodes in mobile networks. This can provide essential information and important applications in mobile and social networks. This evolutionary approach considers the dynamics of the network and takes into consideration the central nodes from previous time slots. We also study the applicability of maximal cliques algorithms in mobile social networks and how it can be used to find the central nodes based on the discovered maximal cliques. The experimental results are promising and show a significant enhancement in finding the central nodes.

Key Escrow with Elliptic Curve Cryptography – Conceptual Framework for Distributed Mobile Networks

In the large scale distributive environment involving mobile network, metadata server and storage applications, the data access and the security measures are of paramount importance. In parallel application processing, data is distributed across multiple servers and storage location. Ensuring confidentiality and availability of the data to the authorised users at the appropriate time involves high level of encryption algorithms, key management schemes and security algorithms. In this paper, key escrow scheme is implemented with the light weighted symmetric algorithm, elliptic curve cryptography in the distributed environment. Key escrow centre is established along with the metadata server and the encryption keys are segmented and shared among the multiple sub agents using Shamir threshold sharing scheme. The implementation of Key Escrow mechanism with Elliptical Curve Cryptography provides wide range of flexibility and confidentiality in the distributed environment. It also eliminates private secret sub key problem and thereby ensuring better security.

Evolutionary Centrality and Maximal Cliques in Mobile Social Networks

This paper introduces an evolutionary approach to enhance the process of finding central nodes in mobile networks. This can provide essential information and important applications in mobile and social networks. This evolutionary approach considers the dynamics of the network and takes into consideration the central nodes from previous time slots. We also study the applicability of maximal cliques algorithms in mobile social networks and how it can be used to find the central nodes based on the discovered maximal cliques. The experimental results are promising and show a significant enhancement in finding the central nodes.

Crowdsourcing to expand HIV testing among men who have sex with men in China: A closed cohort stepped wedge cluster randomized controlled trial.

BackgroundHIV testing rates are suboptimal among at-risk men. Crowdsourcing may be a useful tool for designing innovative, community-based HIV testing strategies to increase HIV testing. The purpose of this study was to use a stepped wedge cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the effect of a crowdsourced HIV intervention on HIV testing uptake among men who have sex with men (MSM) in eight Chinese cities.Methods and findingsAn HIV testing intervention was developed through a national image contest, a regional strategy designathon, and local message contests. The final intervention included a multimedia HIV testing campaign, an online HIV testing service, and local testing promotion campaigns tailored for MSM. This intervention was evaluated using a closed cohort stepped wedge cluster RCT in eight Chinese cities (Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, and Jiangmen in Guangdong province; Jinan, Qingdao, Yantai, and Jining in Shandong province) from August 2016 to August 2017. MSM were recruited through Blued, a social networking mobile application for MSM, from July 29 to August 21 of 2016. The primary outcome was self-reported HIV testing in the past 3 months. Secondary outcomes included HIV self-testing, facility-based HIV testing, condom use, and syphilis testing. Generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) were used to analyze primary and secondary outcomes. We enrolled a total of 1,381 MSM. Most were ≤30 years old (82%), unmarried (86%), and had a college degree or higher (65%). The proportion of individuals receiving an HIV test during the intervention periods within a city was 8.9% (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.2–15.5) greater than during the control periods. In addition, the intention-to-treat analysis showed a higher probability of receiving an HIV test during the intervention periods as compared to the control periods (estimated risk ratio [RR] = 1.43, 95% CI 1.19–1.73). The intervention also increased HIV self-testing (RR = 1.89, 95% CI 1.50–2.38). There was no effect on facility-based HIV testing (RR = 1.00, 95% CI 0.79–1.26), condom use (RR = 1.00, 95% CI 0.86–1.17), or syphilis testing (RR = 0.92, 95% CI 0.70–1.21). A total of 48.6% (593/1,219) of participants reported that they received HIV self-testing. Among men who received two HIV tests, 32 individuals seroconverted during the 1-year study period. Study limitations include the use of self-reported HIV testing data among a subset of men and non-completion of the final survey by 23% of participants. Our study population was a young online group in urban China and the relevance of our findings to other populations will require further investigation.ConclusionsIn this setting, crowdsourcing was effective for developing and strengthening community-based HIV testing services for MSM. Crowdsourced interventions may be an important tool for the scale-up of HIV testing services among MSM in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT02796963

Mobile device application for monitoring cyanobacteria harmful algal blooms using Sentinel-3 satellite Ocean and Land Colour Instruments

Cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cyanoHAB) cause human and ecological health problems in lakes worldwide. The timely distribution of satellite-derived cyanoHAB data is necessary for adaptive water quality management and for targeted deployment of water quality monitoring resources. Software platforms that permit timely, useful, and cost-effective delivery of information from satellites are required to help managers respond to cyanoHABs. The Cyanobacteria Assessment Network (CyAN) mobile device application (app) uses data from the European Space Agency Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellite Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI) in near real-time to make initial water quality assessments and quickly alert managers to potential problems and emerging threats related to cyanobacteria. App functionality and satellite data were validated with 25 state health advisories issued in 2017. The CyAN app provides water quality managers with a user-friendly platform that reduces the complexities associated with accessing satellite data to allow fast, efficient, initial assessments across lakes.

Optimizing distributed data stream processing by tracing

Heterogeneous mobile, sensor, IoT, smart environment, and social networking applications have recently started to produce unbounded, fast, and massive-scale streams of data that have to be processed “on the fly”. Systems that process such data have to be enhanced with detection for operational exceptions and with triggers for both automated and manual operator actions. In this paper, we illustrate how tracing in distributed data processing systems can be applied to detecting changes in data and operational environment to maintain the efficiency of heterogeneous data stream processing systems under potentially changing data quality and distribution. By the tracing of individual input records, we can (1) identify outliers in a web crawling and document processing system and use the insights to define URL filtering rules; (2) identify heavy keys, such as NULL, that should be filtered before processing; (3) give hints to improve the key-based partitioning mechanisms; and (4) measure the limits of overpartitioning if heavy thread-unsafe libraries are imported.By using Apache Spark as illustration, we show how various data stream processing efficiency issues can be mitigated or optimized by our distributed tracing engine. We describe and qualitatively compare two different designs, one based on reporting to a distributed database and another based on trace piggybacking. Our prototype implementation consists of wrappers suitable for JVM environments in general, with minimal impact on the source code of the core system. Our tracing framework is the first to solve tracing in multiple systems across boundaries and to provide detailed performance measurements suitable for automated optimization, not just debugging.

Robust Mechanism of Trap Coverage and Target Tracking in Mobile Sensor Networks

In this paper, we propose an adaptive mechanism of trap coverage with a robust area coverage model, which employs mobile sensors for applications in mobile sensor networks (MSNs) and in the Internet of Things (IoT). Many promising applications including the target tracking and mobile sensing can be reasonably realized and improved after incorporating the characteristics of trap coverage mechanism on the basis of adaptively adjusting the trap size and sensor mobility. The trap evidently exists throughout the deployment of sensors in wireless sensor networks, in which the target has predictably vanished or application service remains undetected. The properties of the trap in the trap coverage mechanism are contrary to the purpose of target tracking and services detection. This creates a serious problem for target tracking and services detection in MSNs. This paper proposes a robust mechanism of trap coverage involving the use of mobile sensors in target tracking and services detection for applications in MSNs. The experimental results revealed that the proposed method efficiently reduces the target-missing time and the total number of unavailable sensors, and also enhances the maintenance of trap coverage through the movement of mobile sensors in MSNs based on the simulation results and analysis. Performance comparison is conducted by adjusting the total amount of sensors in an adaptively trap coverage. The novel mechanism makes MSNs a much more flexible and provides a cost-effective solution in IoT than static sensor networks.

A Reliability Improved Routing as a Qos Measure for Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks

In the recent time, the huge expansion in the application of the real-time applications for smartphones resulted in new difficulties when it is time to develop new protocols for mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETS). Most important within these difficulties is to activate real-time applications for mobile ad-hoc networks which includes quality of service (QoS) support, like bandwidth constraints and stability issues. Adding to this of course the reliability of the nodes as an important factor that has a direct effect on the network performance and data integrity.In this paper we will discussed the QoS main issue that affect several factors in the mobile ad hoc networks, which is the reliability. Because of the fact that the reliability and the availability of the nodes can be interacted made me use both the terms throughout the paper. we will suggest the efficient multi-path Quality of service routing (EMQR), (EMQR) as a QoS guarantee for the stability and reliability issues in the network. Next, we will discuss the availability issues as a QoS guarantee and for this we will suggest the best suitable protocol which is “an efficient warning energy aware Cluster head” WEAC as a solution to the availability issue.The two protocols will guarantee the availability and the reliability in MANETs as it is the new direction for routing algorithms design and it is a way to enhance the availability by controlling the Cluster head based on its power level as a metric for availability as in WEAC protocol and the reliability by increasing the reserved bandwidth for the route as mentioned in EMQR protocol.