Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:31:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 George Moraes De Luiz.pdf: 5186035 bytes, checksum: 3b435105f641786fe4bc92c797215ff4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-11-16 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / This research looks into the co-inhabitance of the population native to the Pantanal region in the center-west region of Brazil, state of Mato Grosso, with the cycle of full tide of the swamps surrounding the rural areas of three cities. We have selected the water cycle as our subject because they dictate the course all forms of life in the Pantanal. The basis of our discussion is formed by an interdisciplinary perspective, which allows for theoretical and methodological approximations with different areas of the social sciences and human sciences, notably the theoretical and epistemological notions of the Actor-Network theory. This has provided us with the understanding of the swamps as heterogeneous networks, establishing a debate with authors of the field of Environmental Education. We have assigned ourselves the task of writing a thesis in which both style and content question the "canons" of the academy, thus opening ourselves to reflections upon new manners of doing social research. In this challenge, we have given a poetic note to the text, valuing the traditional knowledge of the Pantanal region without losing sight of scientific knowledge. This thesis is the result of experiences lived by the researcher as an inhabitant of the Pantanal region, as wells as a result of formal and informal conversations with 42 people who are directly associated with the activities conducted in the swamps, among whom those who live on the river banks. Anchored in the notions of Everyday Conversation, with semi-structured script and field annotations, we have systematized the information by the means of fluctuating readings, generating themes which comprise the corpus of the thesis in the form descriptive narratives. The focus of our analysis is on the manner in which traditional populations predict, prepare themselves for, and live with the cycle of full tide, prioritizing the association between humans and non-humans as a possibility for survival in a flooded territory. The co-inhabitance of people with the full tides is described here in three different themes: birth-giving, housing, and means of transportation. This way of life, intertwined with nature, is commonly described in classic literature as the culture and tradition of the Pantanal populations. However, what we indicate here is that new actors, such as the construction of river dams, park roads and industrial plants, interfere in the Pantanal, altering the cycle of full tide. Due to this interference, it becomes unviable to understand the ways of life of the local populations as crystallized, which makes us argue in favor of the processuality of relations between people and nature, while rethinking the very notion of what the swamps come to be after constant socio-environmental interventions / O foco desta pesquisa é a convivência da população pantaneira com o ciclo de cheia nos pantanais mato-grossenses da região rural dos municípios de Barão de Melgaço, Poconé e Nossa Senhora do Livramento. Elegemos o ciclo das águas como fio condutor deste trabalho por ele ditar o ritmo de todas as formas de vida no Pantanal. Para sustentar nossa discussão, adotamos uma postura interdisciplinar, o que permite aproximações teórico-metodológicas com diferentes áreas das ciências sociais e humanas, notadamente os pressupostos teórico-epistemológicos da teoria ator-rede, o que permitiu compreender os pantanais como redes heterogêneas, em diálogo com autores da educação ambiental. Demo-nos a tarefa de escrever uma tese cujo estilo e conteúdo questionam os cânones da academia, abrindo-nos, assim, para reflexões sobre novas formas de fazer pesquisa social. Nesse desafio, demos tons poéticos ao texto, valorizando o saber tradicional pantaneiro sem abrir mão do conhecimento científico. Esta tese resulta das experiências vivenciadas pelo pesquisador enquanto morador da região pantaneira de Poconé, assim como da convivência e de conversas formais e informais com 42 pessoas ligadas diretamente às atividades nos pantanais, com destaque para os(as) pantaneiros(as) e ribeirinhos(as). Ancorados nas noções de conversas no cotidiano, com roteiro semiestruturado e anotações de diário de campo, sistematizamos as informações por meio de leituras flutuantes, gerando temas que compuseram o corpus da tese em forma de narrativas descritivas. O enfoque de nossa análise está na maneira como os povos tradicionais preveem, se preparam e convivem com o ciclo de cheias, privilegiando a associação entre humanos e não humanos como possibilidade de sobrevivência em um território de inundação. A convivência das pessoas com as cheias está descrita a partir de três temas: os partos, as moradias e os meios de transportes. Comumente, esse modo de vida que se atrela aos elementos da natureza é descrito pela literatura clássica como cultura e tradição pantaneira. Entretanto, sinalizamos aqui que novos atores, como a construção de diques, estradas-parque, aterros e usinas, interferem nos pantanais, alterando o ciclo de cheias. Considerando esse pressuposto, apontamos a inviabilidade de compreender os modos de vida pantaneiros de forma cristalizada, argumentando a favor da processualidade das relações entre os povos pantaneiros com a natureza, e repensando a própria noção do que vêm a ser os pantanais após constantes intervenções socioambientais

Cette thèse porte sur le paradigme « Mobile Edge cloud» qui rapproche le cloud des utilisateurs mobiles et qui déploie une architecture de clouds locaux dans les terminaisons du réseau. Les utilisateurs mobiles peuvent désormais décharger leurs tâches de calcul pour qu’elles soient exécutées par les femto-cellules (FCs) dotées de capacités de calcul et de stockage. Nous proposons ainsi un concept de regroupement de FCs dans des clusters de calculs qui participeront aux calculs des tâches déchargées. A cet effet, nous proposons, dans un premier temps, un algorithme de décision de déportation de tâches vers le cloud, nommé SM-POD. Cet algorithme prend en compte les caractéristiques des tâches de calculs, des ressources de l’équipement mobile, et de la qualité des liens de transmission. SM-POD consiste en une série de classifications successives aboutissant à une décision de calcul local, ou de déportation de l’exécution dans le cloud.Dans un deuxième temps, nous abordons le problème de formation de clusters de calcul à mono-utilisateur et à utilisateurs multiples. Nous formulons le problème d’optimisation relatif qui considère l’allocation conjointe des ressources de calculs et de communication, et la distribution de la charge de calcul sur les FCs participant au cluster. Nous proposons également une stratégie d’éparpillement, dans laquelle l’efficacité énergétique du système est améliorée au prix de la latence de calcul. Dans le cas d’utilisateurs multiples, le problème d’optimisation d’allocation conjointe de ressources n’est pas convexe. Afin de le résoudre, nous proposons une reformulation convexe du problème équivalente à la première puis nous proposons deux algorithmes heuristiques dans le but d’avoir un algorithme de formation de cluster à complexité réduite. L’idée principale du premier est l’ordonnancement des tâches de calculs sur les FCs qui les reçoivent. Les ressources de calculs sont ainsi allouées localement au niveau de la FC. Les tâches ne pouvant pas être exécutées sont, quant à elles, envoyées à une unité de contrôle (SCM) responsable de la formation des clusters de calculs et de leur exécution. Le second algorithme proposé est itératif et consiste en une formation de cluster au niveau des FCs ne tenant pas compte de la présence d’autres demandes de calculs dans le réseau. Les propositions de cluster sont envoyées au SCM qui évalue la distribution des charges sur les différentes FCs. Le SCM signale tout abus de charges pour que les FCs redistribuent leur excès dans des cellules moins chargées.Dans la dernière partie de la thèse, nous proposons un nouveau concept de mise en cache des calculs dans l’Edge cloud. Afin de réduire la latence et la consommation énergétique des clusters de calculs, nous proposons la mise en cache de calculs populaires pour empêcher leur réexécution. Ici, notre contribution est double : d’abord, nous proposons un algorithme de mise en cache basé, non seulement sur la popularité des tâches de calculs, mais aussi sur les tailles et les capacités de calculs demandés, et la connectivité des FCs dans le réseau. L’algorithme proposé identifie les tâches aboutissant à des économies d’énergie et de temps plus importantes lorsqu’elles sont téléchargées d’un cache au lieu d’être recalculées. Nous proposons ensuite d’exploiter la relation entre la popularité des tâches et la probabilité de leur mise en cache, pour localiser les emplacements potentiels de leurs copies. La méthode proposée est basée sur ces emplacements, et permet de former des clusters de recherche de taille réduite tout en garantissant de retrouver une copie en cache. / Mobile Edge Cloud brings the cloud closer to mobile users by moving the cloud computational efforts from the internet to the mobile edge. We adopt a local mobile edge cloud computing architecture, where small cells are empowered with computational and storage capacities. Mobile users’ offloaded computational tasks are executed at the cloud-enabled small cells. We propose the concept of small cells clustering for mobile edge computing, where small cells cooperate in order to execute offloaded computational tasks. A first contribution of this thesis is the design of a multi-parameter computation offloading decision algorithm, SM-POD. The proposed algorithm consists of a series of low complexity successive and nested classifications of computational tasks at the mobile side, leading to local computation, or offloading to the cloud. To reach the offloading decision, SM-POD jointly considers computational tasks, handsets, and communication channel parameters. In the second part of this thesis, we tackle the problem of small cell clusters set up for mobile edge cloud computing for both single-user and multi-user cases. The clustering problem is formulated as an optimization that jointly optimizes the computational and communication resource allocation, and the computational load distribution on the small cells participating in the computation cluster. We propose a cluster sparsification strategy, where we trade cluster latency for higher system energy efficiency. In the multi-user case, the optimization problem is not convex. In order to compute a clustering solution, we propose a convex reformulation of the problem, and we prove that both problems are equivalent. With the goal of finding a lower complexity clustering solution, we propose two heuristic small cells clustering algorithms. The first algorithm is based on resource allocation on the serving small cells where tasks are received, as a first step. Then, in a second step, unserved tasks are sent to a small cell managing unit (SCM) that sets up computational clusters for the execution of these tasks. The main idea of this algorithm is task scheduling at both serving small cells, and SCM sides for higher resource allocation efficiency. The second proposed heuristic is an iterative approach in which serving small cells compute their desired clusters, without considering the presence of other users, and send their cluster parameters to the SCM. SCM then checks for excess of resource allocation at any of the network small cells. SCM reports any load excess to serving small cells that re-distribute this load on less loaded small cells. In the final part of this thesis, we propose the concept of computation caching for edge cloud computing. With the aim of reducing the edge cloud computing latency and energy consumption, we propose caching popular computational tasks for preventing their re-execution. Our contribution here is two-fold: first, we propose a caching algorithm that is based on requests popularity, computation size, required computational capacity, and small cells connectivity. This algorithm identifies requests that, if cached and downloaded instead of being re-computed, will increase the computation caching energy and latency savings. Second, we propose a method for setting up a search small cells cluster for finding a cached copy of the requests computation. The clustering policy exploits the relationship between tasks popularity and their probability of being cached, in order to identify possible locations of the cached copy. The proposed method reduces the search cluster size while guaranteeing a minimum cache hit probability.

Fifth Generation (5G) cellular networks will experience a thousand-fold increase in data traffic with over 100 billion connected devices by 2020. In order to support this skyrocketing traffic demand, smaller base stations (BSs) are deployed to increase capacity. However, more BSs increase energy consumption which contributes to operational expenditure (OPEX) and CO2 emissions. Also, an introduction of a plethora of 5G applications running in the mobile devices cause a significant amount of energy consumption in the mobile devices. This thesis presents a novel framework for energy efficiency in 5G cloud radio access networks (C-RAN) by leveraging cloud computing technology. Energy efficiency is achieved in three ways; (i) at the radio side of H-C-RAN (Heterogeneous C-RAN), a dynamic BS switching off algorithm is proposed to minimise energy consumption while maintaining Quality of Service (QoS), (ii) in the BS cloud, baseband workload consolidation schemes are proposed based on simulated annealing and genetic algorithms to minimise energy consumption in the cloud, where also advanced fuzzy based admission control with pre-emption is implemented to improve QoS and resource utilisation (iii) at the mobile device side, Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) is used where computer intensive tasks from the mobile device are executed in the MEC server in the cloud. The simulation results show that the proposed framework effectively reduced energy consumption by up to 48% within RAN and 57% in the mobile devices, and improved network energy efficiency by a factor of 10, network throughput by a factor of 2.7 and resource utilisation by 54% while maintaining QoS.

Abstract Substantially growing data traffic over wireless networks poses increased challenges for mobile network operators in deploying sufficient network resources and managing user mobility. This dissertation considers these challenges to providing satisfactory Quality of Service (QoS) for end-users and studies solutions for better utilization of the heterogeneous network environment. First, the dissertation examines what solutions mobile devices and network management entities can use to dynamically collect valid cross-layer information from different network entities. Cross-layer information allows monitoring of the condition of the network in multiple layers on a user and application basis. The second research topic considers the techniques the network management entities can use to improve resource usage in wireless networks based on the collected cross-layer information. The IEEE 802.21 standard, specified to facilitate handovers between heterogeneous networks, is used as the basis for cross-layer information delivery. This dissertation also focuses on utilization of the standard beyond the inter-access technology handovers. In order to improve resource usage in wireless networks dynamically, event delivery enhancements are proposed for the standard so that it better applies to the requirements of different techniques. Such techniques are traffic priority adjustment, traffic adaptation, packet aggregation, and network protocol header compression. The results show that when a handover is not feasible, these techniques effectively allow sharing of the limited radio resources for the user data according to applications’ importance and type. Mobility management is studied in terms of network information service, one of the main services of IEEE 802.21. The thesis proposes enhancing the information service with a base station cell coverage area database. The database provides significant improvements for the selection of a handover target in a dense base station environment. With all the results taken together, the dissertation provides mobile network operators various means to improve the usage of wireless networks on the basis of applications’ varying QoS requirements. / Tiivistelmä Voimakkaasti kasvava langattomien tietoverkkojen dataliikenne aiheuttaa verkko-operaattoreille haasteita tarjota riittävät verkkoresurssit ja hallita käyttäjien liikkuvuutta. Väitöskirja huomioi nämä haasteet tarjota loppukäyttäjille tyydyttävä palvelunlaatu (QoS) ja tutkii ratkaisuja, joilla heterogeenistä verkkoympäristöä voidaan hyödyntää tehokkaammin. Aluksi väitöskirja tutkii, mitä ratkaisuja päätelaitteet ja verkkohallintatoimijat voivat käyttää keräämään protokollakerrosten välistä (cross-layer) tietoa eri verkkotoimijoilta. Protokollakerrosten välinen tieto mahdollistaa verkon tilan seuraamisen usealla eri kerroksella käyttäjä- ja sovelluskohtaisesti. Toinen tutkimusaihe tarkastelee protokollakerrosten välistä tietoa hyödyntäviä tekniikoita, joita verkonhallintatoimijat voivat käyttää tehostamaan resurssien käyttöä langattomissa verkoissa. IEEE 802.21-standardia, joka on määritetty helpottamaan verkonvaihtoja heterogeenisten verkkojen välillä, käytetään pohjana protokollakerrosten välisen tiedon jakelulle. Väitöskirjassa keskitytään standardin hyödyntämiseen myös muussa kuin verkkoteknologioiden välisen verkonvaihdon yhteydessä. Väitöskirja ehdottaa parannuksia standardin tapahtumatietovälitykseen, jotta se täyttäisi paremmin eri tekniikoiden asettamat vaatimukset dynaamisesti toteutettavista toimista langattomien verkkojen resurssikäytön tehostamiseksi. Nämä tekniikat ovat liikenteen prioriteetin muutokset, liikenteen adaptointi, pakettien yhdistäminen ja verkkoprotokollaotsikoiden pakkaus. Tulokset osoittavat, että kun tukiasema- tai verkonvaihto ei ole mahdollinen, nämä tekniikat mahdollistavat rajattujen verkkoresurssien jakamisen tehokkaasti sovellusten tärkeyden ja tyypin mukaan. Liikkuvuudenhallintaa tutkitaan verkkoinformaatiopalvelun, joka on myös yksi IEEE 802.21-standardin pääpalveluista, kautta. Väitöskirja ehdottaa, että informaatiopalvelua tehostetaan liittämällä siihen tietokanta tukiasemasolujen peittoalueista. Tietokanta tehostaa huomattavasti verkonvaihdon kohteen valintaa tiheissä tukiasemaympäristöissä. Kun väitöskirjan tulokset huomioidaan kokonaisuutena, väitöskirja tarjoaa verkko-operaattoreille useita tapoja tehostaa langattomien verkkojen käyttöä sovellusten vaihtelevien palvelunlaatuvaatimusten perusteella.

Abstract The use of multiple antennas is a fundamental requirement in future wireless networks as it helps to increase the reliability and spectral efficiency of mobile radio links. In this thesis, we study convex optimization based radio resource allocation methods for the downlink of multi-antenna systems. First, the problem of admission control in the downlink of a multicell multiple-input single-output (MISO) system has been considered. The objective is to maximize the number of admitted users subject to a signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) constraint at each admitted user and a transmit power constraint at each base station (BS). We have cast the admission control problem as an ℓ0 minimization problem; it is known to be combinatorial, NP-hard. Centralized and distributed algorithms to solve this problem have been proposed. To develop the centralized algorithm, we have used sequential convex programming (SCP). The distributed algorithm has been derived by using the consensus-based alternating direction method of multipliers in conjunction with SCP. We have shown numerically that the proposed admission control algorithms achieve a near-to-optimal performance. Next, we have extended the admission control problem to provide fairness, where long-term fairness among the users has been guaranteed. We have focused on proportional and max-min fairness, and proposed dynamic control algorithms via Lyapunov optimization. Results show that these proposed algorithms guarantee fairness. Then, the problem of admission control for the downlink of a MISO heterogeneous networks (hetnet) has been considered, and the proposed centralized and distributed algorithms have been adapted to find a solution. Numerically, we have illustrated that the centralized algorithm achieves a near-to-optimal performance, and the distributed algorithm’s performance is closer to the optimal value. Finally, an algorithm to obtain the set of all achievable power-rate tuples for a multiple-input multiple-output hetnet has been provided. The setup consists of a single macrocell and a set of femtocells. The interference power to the macro users from the femto BSs has been kept below a threshold. To find the set of all achievable power-rate tuples, a two-dimensional vector optimization problem is formulated, where we have considered maximizing the sum-rate while minimizing the sum-power, subject to maximum power and interference threshold constraints. This problem is known to be NP-hard. A solution method is provided by using the relationship between the weighted sum-rate maximization and weighted-sum-mean-squared-error minimization problems. The proposed algorithm was used to evaluate the impact of imposing interference threshold constraints and the co-channel deployments in a hetnet. / Tiivistelmä Monen antennin käyttö on perusvaatimus tulevissa langattomissa verkoissa, koska se auttaa lisäämään matkaviestinyhteyksien luotettavuutta ja spektritehokkuutta. Tässä väitöskirjassa tutkitaan konveksiin optimointiin perustuvia radioresurssien allokointimenetelmiä moniantennijärjestelmien alalinkin suunnassa. Ensiksi on käsitelty pääsynvalvonnan ongelmaa alalinkin suuntaan monen solun moni-tulo yksi-lähtö (MISO) -verkoissa. Tavoitteena on maksimoida hyväksyttyjen käyttäjien määrä, kun hyväksytyille käyttäjille on asetettu signaali-häiriö-kohinasuhteen (SINR) rajoitus, ja tukiasemille lähetystehon rajoitus. Pääsynvalvonnan ongelma on muotoiltu ℓ0-minimointiongelmana, jonka tiedetään olevan kombinatorinen, NP-vaikea ongelma. Ongelman ratkaisemiseksi on ehdotettu keskitettyjä ja hajautettuja algoritmeja. Keskitetty optimointialgoritmi perustuu sekventiaaliseen konveksiin optimointiin. Hajautettu algoritmi pohjautuu konsensusoptimointimenetelmään ja sekventiaaliseen konveksiin optimointiin. Ehdotettujen pääsynvalvonta-algoritmien on numeerisesti osoitettu saavuttavan lähes optimaalinen suorituskyky. Lisäksi pääsynvalvontaongelma on laajennettu takaamaan pitkän aikavälin oikeudenmukaisuus käyttäjien välillä. Työssä käytetään erilaisia määritelmiä oikeudenmukaisuuden takaamiseen, ja ehdotetaan dynaamisia algoritmeja pohjautuen Lyapunov-optimointiin. Tulokset osoittavat, että ehdotetuilla algoritmeilla taataan käyttäjien välinen oikeudenmukaisuus. Tämän jälkeen käsitellään heterogeenisen langattoman MISO-verkon pääsynvalvonnan ongelmaa. Edellä ehdotettuja keskitettyjä ja hajautettuja algoritmeja on muokattu tämän ongelman ratkaisemiseksi. Työssä osoitetaan numeerisesti, että sekä keskitetyllä että hajautetulla algoritmilla saavutetaan lähes optimaalinen suorituskyky. Lopuksi on laadittu algoritmi, jolla löydetään kaikki saavutettavissa olevat teho-datanopeusparit heterogeenisessä langattomassa moni-tulo moni-lähtö (MIMO) -verkossa. Verkko koostuu yhdestä makrosolusta ja useasta piensolusta. Piensolutukiasemista makrokäyttäjiin kohdistuvan häiriön teho on pidetty tietyn rajan alapuolella. Kaikkien saavutettavien teho-datanopeusparien löytämiseksi on laadittu kaksiulotteinen vektorioptimointiongelma, jossa maksimoidaan summadatanopeus pyrkien minimoimaan kokonaisteho, kun enimmäisteholle ja häiriökynnykselle on asetettu rajoitukset. Tämän ongelman tiedetään olevan NP-vaikea. Ongelman ratkaisemiseksi käytetään painotetun summadatanopeuden maksimointiongelman, ja painotetun keskineliövirheen minimointiongelman välistä suhdetta. Ehdotettua algoritmia käytettiin arvioimaan häiriörajoitusten ja saman kanavan käyttöönoton vaikutusta heterogeenisessä langattomassa verkossa.

Cognitive radio (CR) networks and heterogeneous cellular networks are promising approaches to satisfy the demand for higher data rates and better connectivity. A CR network increases the utilization of the radio spectrum by opportunistically using it. Heterogeneous networks provide high data rates and improved connectivity by spatially reusing the spectrum and by bringing the network closer to the user. Interference presents a critical challenge for reliable communication in these networks. Accurately modeling it is essential in ensuring a successful design and deployment of these networks. We first propose modeling the aggregate interference power at a primary receiver (PU-Rx) caused from transmissions by randomly located cognitive users (CUs) in a CR network as a shifted lognormal random process. Its parameters are determined using a moment matching method. Extensive benchmarking shows that the proposed model is more accurate than the lognormal and Gaussian process models considered in the literature, even for a relatively dense deployment of CUs. It also compares favorably with the asymptotically exact stable and symmetric truncated stable distribution models, except at high CU densities. Our model accounts for the effect of imperfect spectrum sensing, interweave and underlay modes of CR operation, and path-loss, time-correlated shad-owing and fading of the various links in the network. It leads to new expressions for the probability distribution function, level crossing rate (LCR), and average exceedance duration (AED). The impact of cooperative spectrum sensing is also characterized. We also apply and validate the proposed model by using it to redesign the primary exclusive zone to account for the time-varying nature of interference. Next we model the uplink inter-cell aggregate interference power in homogeneous and heterogeneous cellular systems as a simpler lognormal random variable. We develop a new moment generating function (MGF) matching method to determine the lognormal’s parameters. Our model accounts for the transmit power control, peak transmit power constraint, small scale fading and large scale shadowing, and randomness in the number of interfering mobile stations and their locations. In heterogeneous net-works, the random nature of the number and locations of low power base stations is also accounted for. The accuracy of the proposed model is verified for both small and large values of interference. While not perfect, it is more accurate than the conventional Gaussian and moment-matching-based lognormal and Gamma distribution models. It is also performs better than the symmetric-truncated stable and stable distribution models, except at higher user density.

Disertační práce se zabývá kryptografickými protokoly poskytující ochranu soukromí, které jsou určeny pro zabezpečení komunikačních a informačních systémů tvořících heterogenní sítě. Práce se zaměřuje především na možnosti využití nekonvenčních kryptografických prostředků, které poskytují rozšířené bezpečnostní požadavky, jako je například ochrana soukromí uživatelů komunikačního systému. V práci je stanovena výpočetní náročnost kryptografických a matematických primitiv na různých zařízeních, které se podílí na zabezpečení heterogenní sítě. Hlavní cíle práce se zaměřují na návrh pokročilých kryptografických protokolů poskytujících ochranu soukromí. V práci jsou navrženy celkově tři protokoly, které využívají skupinových podpisů založených na bilineárním párování pro zajištění ochrany soukromí uživatelů. Tyto navržené protokoly zajišťují ochranu soukromí a nepopiratelnost po celou dobu datové komunikace spolu s autentizací a integritou přenášených zpráv. Pro navýšení výkonnosti navržených protokolů je využito optimalizačních technik, např. dávkového ověřování, tak aby protokoly byly praktické i pro heterogenní sítě.

Globally, the number of mobile broadband subscriptions is growing and the amount of mobile data traffic is expected to continue to grow rapidly. In the next five years the number of smartphone subscriptions is expected to more than double, while the amount of mobile traffic per active subscription per month of these subscribers is expected to nearly quadruple. As a consequence, mobile network operators (MNOs) aim to increase radio network capacity and coverage through heterogeneous deployments. In such heterogeneous networks, wireless local area networks (WLANs) are integrated with wireless wide area networks (WWANs), and there exist a tight interaction between them. The almost-ubiquitous support for IEEE802.11 WLANs (usually referred to as Wi-Fi®) makes this radio access technology a potential integrated component of near-future mobile broadband. With Wi-Fi completely integrated into mobile access, MNOs would optimize user experience and use of resources by controlling device’s choice of connectivity. In addition to guaranteeing the best user experience, optimal use of access networks should care about energy-efficiency in order to extend device’s battery life. However, the performance of Wi-Fi is far from meet neither energy-efficiency nor quality of service (QoS) user’s requirements. This radio access technology employs an energy-consuming medium access control (MAC) protocol that wastes both bandwidth and device’s energy resources. Therefore, enhanced MAC protocols, cleverly combined with standardized power saving mechanisms such as automatic power save delivery (APSD), would improve both energy-efficiency and QoS in order to enhance WLANs performance and meet user’s expectations. In addition, current WLAN discovery mechanisms neither meet requirements of the integrated scenario. Handover operations must be improved in terms of energy efficiency and latency. Consequently, enhanced handover schemes should reduce overall device’s energy consumption during the process, and enable seamless handover between Wi-Fi APs and between cellular/Wi-Fi networks. During this thesis project, the main challenges of Wi-Fi towards its integration into mobile access broadband have been analyzed. Consequently, a solution has been designed in order to address the identified challenges, which have been introduced in the previous paragraphs. The solution consists of enhancements for IEEE 802.11 WLANs based on current standards that achieve energy-efficiency and QoS, and facilitate Wi-Fi/cellular networks interworking. Finally, a custom-designed simulator has been used to evaluate the proposed solution. / Globalt sett är antalet mobila bredbandsabonnemang ökar och mängden av mobil datatrafik förväntas fortsätta att växa snabbt. Under de kommande fem åren kommer antalet smartphone-abonnemang väntas mer än fördubblas, medan mängden av mobiltrafiken per aktiv prenumeration per månad för dessa abonnenter väntas nästan fyrdubbla. Som en följd av mobiloperatörer som mål att öka sin radio nätkapacitet och täckning genom heterogena distributioner. I sådana heterogena nätverk, är trådlösa lokala nätverk (WLAN) integrerad med trådlösa WAN-nätverk (WWAN), och det finns en tät interaktion mellan dem. För att möta denna efterfrågan ämnar operatörer av mobila nätverk att öka kapacitet och täckning genom att bygga ut heterogena nätverk. I sådana heterogena nätverk integreras trådlösa lokala nätverk (WLAN) med nätverk med större yttäckning (cellulära nät) med täta interaktioner mellan de olika näten. Det mycket utbredda stödet för IEEE 802.11-standarden (ofta kallad för Wi-Fi®) för WLAN gör denna radioaccessteknik till en potentiell integrerad komponent för mobilt bredband i den nära framtiden. Med Wi-Fi som en integrerad i det mobila accessnätet kan mobilnätsoperatörer optimera användarupplevelsen och resursanvädningen genom att styra de mobila enheternas val av uppkoppling. Förutom att garantera den bästa användarupplevelsen så bör valet av accessnät ta hänsyn till energieffektiviteten för att förlänga batteridrifttiden för den mobila enheten. Wi-Fi är dock långt ifrån att uppfylla användarnas krav på energieffektivitet och tjänstekvalitet, eftersom denna radioaccessteknik använder ett mediumaccessprotokoll (MAC) som varken använder bandbredd eller batterienergi effektivt. Därför kan förbättrade MAC-protokoll kombinerade med standardiserade energibesparingslösningar såsom automatic power save delivery (APSD) ge bättre energieffektivitet och tjänstekvalitet, och därmed förbättra WLANs möjligheter att möta användarnas förväntningar. Dessutom har nuvarande nätverksidentifieringsmekanismer i WLAN svårt att uppfylla kraven i ett scenario med integrerade nätverk, eftersom den nuvarande sökmetoden är långsam och använder mycket energi. En förbättrad lösning bör minska energikonsumtionen under hela processen, och möjliggöra avbrottsfri övergång mellan Wi-Fi accessnoder och mellan cellulära och Wi-Fi-nätverk. Under detta examensarbete har de största utmaningarna för Wi-Fi under integrationen med mobil bredbandsaccess analyserats. En lösning har utvecklats för att lösa de identifierade problemen som beskrivits ovan. Lösningen består av förbättringar av IEEE 802.11 accessnät, som bygger vidare på existerande standardens energieffektivitets- och tjänstekvalitetslösningar och underlättar samverkan mellan Wi-Fi och cellulära nätverk. Slutligen har en egenutvecklad simulator använts för att utvärdera den föreslagna lösningen.

Dans cette thèse, nous étudions les algorithmes d’alignement d’interférence dans les réseaux hétérogènes basés sur la sélection des flux. Tout d’abord, nous considérons différents scénarios de déploiement des pico-cellules dans un contexte de connaissance parfaite des canaux de transmission au niveau des émetteurs. Deux algorithmes sont proposés respectivement pour les réseaux totalement et partiellement connectés. Afin d’assurer une équité entre les liens, les algorithmes garantissent qu’au moins un flux de chaque lien émetteur/récepteur soit sélectionné. La séquence des flux est choisie parmi un ensemble qui contient les séquences les plus souvent sélectionnées en effectuant une recherche exhaustive. Ces algorithmes sont significativement moins complexes que la recherche exhaustive tout en ayant une performance proche de celle-ci. Après la sélection d’un flux, les interférences entre ce flux et les flux qui n’ont pas encore été sélectionnées sont alignées par projections orthogonales. Dans une deuxième partie de la thèse, l’impact de la connaissance partielle des canaux de transmission sur les algorithmes proposés est analysé. Il est montré que les interférences entre flux causent alors une forte dégradation des performances en raison des erreurs de quantification. Pour réduire cette dégradation, un nouvel algorithme est développé pour ce contexte. Finalement, des schémas d’allocation adaptative des bits pour les voies de retour sont proposés afin d’augmenter les performances des algorithmes précédents. Les performances de ces schémas et de ces algorithmes sont évaluées en considérant différents scénarios avec différentes topologies des pico-cellules. Nous avons montré que les algorithmes proposés pour le cas des transmissions avec voie de retour sont significativement plus robustes et plus performants que les algorithmes d’alignement d’interférence classiques. / In this thesis, we study the stream selection based interference alignment (IA) algorithms, which can provide large multiplexing gain, to deal with the interference in the heterogeneous networks. Firstly, different deployment scenarios for the pico cells are investigated assuming perfect channel state information (CSI) at the transmitters.Two different stream selection IA algorithms are proposed for fully and partially connected interference networks and selecting at least one stream is guaranteed for each user. A stream sequence is selected among a predetermined set of sequences that mostly contribute to the sum-rate while performing an exhaustive search. In the proposed algorithms, the complexity of the exhaustive search is significantly decreased while keeping the performance relatively close. After selecting a stream, the interference generated between the selected and the unselected streams is aligned by orthogonal projections. Then, the influence of the imperfect CSI on the proposed algorithms is analyzed and it is observed that the intra-stream interference causes a significant degradation in the performance due to the quantization error. Therefore, we propose an algorithm for the limited feedback scheme. Finally, adaptive bit allocation schemes are presented to maximize the overall capacity for all the proposed algorithms. The performance evaluations are carried out considering different scenarios with different number and placements of pico cells. It is shown that the proposed algorithm for the limited feedback is more robust to channel imperfections compared to the existing IA algorithms.

[pt] Os sistemas de comunicações móveis atuais vêm enfrentando novos desafios, marcados pelo aumento do uso de novos dispositivos e pela mudança nos padrões de consumo de banda causada pelas aplicações emergentes. É por isso que a indústria de comunicações e a comunidade acadêmica vêm trabalhando tanto nas dificuldades apresentadas nas redes móveis atuais quanto nos desafios técnicos para o desenvolvimento dos esperados sistemas de quinta geração (5G). O grande aumento dos elementos da rede de acesso rádio e a implementação de cenários heterogêneos (macro e pico eNBs, Relay Nodes, etc.) são duas das principais abordagens utilizadas para melhorar a capacidade da rede. No entanto, esse acréscimo de elementos ou, densificação, traz consigo um aumento nos custos e na complexidade nas tarefas de operação e gerenciamento do sistema, já que os novos elementos de rede precisam ser adaptados, configurados e gerenciados continuamente para garantir e aumentar a eficiência da rede, melhorando a qualidade nos serviços oferecidos aos usuários. Este trabalho de pesquisa propõe a inclusão de mecanismos cognitivos, incluindo técnicas de adaptação, nas arquiteturas das redes de acesso móvel. O trabalho propõe igualmente novos mecanismos de auto-organização (Self Organizing Networks, SON) para o balanceamento de carga, empregando modelos dinâmicos capazes de tomar decisões inteligentes e aprender a partir de experiências para atingir os objetivos de desempenho desejados. / [en] Today s mobile communications systems are facing new challenges, triggered by the increased use of new devices and the growth of bandwidth hungry applications. This is why over the last years, the telecommunication industry and academic communities have been focused on research and development of technologies for the upcoming 5th generation mobile systems (5G). Among the potential candidates, network densification has attracted growing attention as a key mechanism to fulfill the objective proposed in 5G, by increasing the number of radio-base stations (on the coverage area) and introducing an additional layer of low-power access nodes (e.g., Femto, picocells, relay nodes). However, this approach has also posed new challenges in network configuration, management, and optimization tasks to ensure and increase the mobile network efficiency. This research proposes the inclusion of cognitive mechanisms and adaptive techniques in the architectures of mobile radio access networks. This work also proposes new self-organizing (SON) functions for load balancing, enhanced with capabilities of learning from previous experiences to achieve future desired performance goals.