Pour supporter l’évolution constante des standards de communication numérique, du GSM vers la 5G, les équipements de communication doivent continuellement s’adapter. Face à l’utilisation croissante de l’internet, on assiste à une explosion du trafic de données, ce qui augmente la consommation d'énergie des appareils de communication sans fil et conduit donc à un impact significatif sur les émissions mondiales de CO2. De plus en plus de recherches se sont concentrées sur l'efficacité énergétique de la communication sans fil. La radio Intelligente, ou Cognitive Radio (CR), est considérée comme une technologie pertinente pour les communications radio vertes en raison de sa capacité à adapter son comportement à son environnement. Sur la base de métriques fournissant suffisamment d'informations sur l'état de fonctionnement du système, une décision optimale peut être effectuée en vue d'une action de reconfiguration, dans le but de réduire au minimum la dissipation d'énergie tout en ne compromettant pas les performances. Par conséquent, tout équipement intelligent doit disposer d’une architecture de gestion de la reconfiguration. Nous avons retenu l’architecture HDCRAM (Hierarchical and Distributed Cognitive Radio Architecture Management), développée dans notre équipe, et nous l’avons déployée sur des plates-formes hétérogènes. L'un des objectifs est d'améliorer l'efficacité énergétique par la mise en œuvre de l’architecture HDCRAM. Nous l’avons appliquée à un système OFDM simplifié pour illustrer comment HDCRAM permet de gérer efficacement le système et son adaptation à un environnement évolutif. / As the digital communication systems evolve from GSM and now toward 5G, the supported standards are also growing. The desired communication equipments are required to support different standards in a single device at the same time. And more and more wireless Internet services have been being provided resulting in the explosive growth in data traffic, which increase the energy consumption of the communication devices thus leads to significant impact on global CO2 emission. More and more researches have focused on the energy efficiency of wireless communication. Cognitive Radio (CR) has been considered as an enabling technology for green radio communications due to its ability to adapt its behavior to the changing environment. In order to efficiently manage the sensing information and the reconfiguration of a cognitive equipment, it is essential, first of all, to gather the necessary metrics so as to provide enough information about the operating condition thus helping decision making. Then, on the basis of the metrics obtained, an optimal decision can be made and is followed by a reconfiguration action, whose aim is to minimize the power dissipation while not compromising on performance. Therefore, a management architecture is necessary to be added into the cognitive equipment acting as a glue to realize the CR capabilities. We introduce a management architecture, namely Hierarchical and Distributed Cognitive Radio Architecture Management (HDCRAM), which has been proposed for CR management by our team. This work focuses on the implementation of HDCRAM on heterogeneous platforms. One of the objectives is to improve the energy efficiency by the management of HDCRAM. And an example of a simplified OFDM system is used to explain how HDCRAM works to efficiently manage the system to adapt to the changing environment.

Osciladores Controlados por Tensão (VCOs - Voltage-Controlled Oscillators) são circuitos de grande importância em sistemas de comunicação por radiofrequência atuais. Muitos trabalhos de pesquisa recentes têm focado no desenvolvimento de VCOs para aplicações em uma faixa muito grande de frequências (isto é, suportando amplo tunning range). O desenvolvimento de VCOs com uma ampla faixa de sintonia tem motivação na abertura de bandas de frequência, que até pouco tempo estavam licenciadas apenas para usos específicos, porém agora estão também abertas para a utilização de sistemas de rádios cognitivos. A ideia é que o rádio cognitivo tenha recursos para detectar se um canal (ou faixa de frequência) está sendo usado e, em caso de o canal não estar sendo usado, o rádio cognitivo deve se reconfigurar para operar nesse canal. Desse modo, os rádios cognitivos devem possuir um alto grau de reconfigurabilidade, de forma que possam operar em uma faixa muito ampla de frequências. Esse requisito exige o uso de de VCOs com um amplo tunning range. Este trabalho apresenta um projeto completo de um LC-VCO com uma larga faixa de frequência de operação (widedand). Um amplo tunning range foi obtido a partir do chaveamento (ou programação) do valor da capacitância total do tanque-LC do VCO, gerando assim várias sub-bandas de frequência. O ganho do VCO (KVCO) manteve-se com pequenas variações para todas as subbandas de frequência, com um valor médio de 88.6MHz, sendo 112MHz e 80MHz os valores máximo e mínimo, respectivamente. O ruído de fase variou de -118.4dBc/Hz a -107.4dBc/Hz para as portadores em 3.7GHz e 8.1GHz, respectivamente, enquanto que a potência dissipada do circuito LC-VCO variou de 1.8mW a 5.6mW para todo o tunning range. Para a figura de mérito power-frequency-tunning-normalized (FOMPFTN), os valores obtidos foram na faixa 3.1dB e 11.2dB, comparáveis com a maioria dos trabalhos publicados na área. / Voltage-Controlled Oscillators (VCOs) are very important circuits in current radio frequency communication systems. Much research has been focused recently on developing wideband VCOs in CMOS. The motivation on wideband VCOs is based on the opening of frequency bands, which until recently were licensed for specific uses, for use by cognitive radio systems. The idea is that cognitive radio must have the ability to detect whether a channel (or frequency band) is being used and if the channel is not being used, the cognitive radio must reconfigure itself to operate on that channel. Thus, cognitive radios should possess a high degree of reconfigurability, so that they can operate in a very wide frequency range. This requires the use of VCOs with a wide tunning range. This work presents a complete design of a LC-VCO with a wide operating frequency range (widedand). A wide tunning range has been obtained from the switching (or programming) the value of the total capacitance of the LC-tank of the VCO, thereby generating multiple frequency sub-bands. The VCO gain (KVCO) was maintained with small variations for all frequency sub-bands, with an average value of 88.6MHz, with 80MHz and 112MHz for the minimum and maximum values, respectively. The phase noise ranged from -118.4dBc/Hz to -107.4dBc/Hz for carriers at 3.7GHz and 8.1GHz, respectively, while the power dissipated in the LC-VCO circuit ranged from 1.8mW to 5.6mW for all tunning range. For the figure of merit power-frequency-tuning-normalized (FOMPFTN), the results were in the 3.1dB to 11.2dB range, comparable to most recently published works.

Durant cette thèse l’objectif été d’améliorer la manière d'utiliser la précieuse bande passante, qui est gaspillée à cause de la sous-utilisation des réseaux sans fil. Nous étions particulièrement intéressés à toutes les ressources qui peuvent être utilisées de façon opportuniste en utilisant différentes technologies. Nous avons conçu de nouveaux modèles pour une utilisation meilleure et plus efficace des systèmes sans fil. Dans ce sens nous nous sommes focalisés sur les réseaux de communication cognitifs dans la première partie, où un fournisseur de service cellulaire peut louer une partie de ses ressources à des utilisateurs secondaires ou des fournisseurs virtuels. Dans la deuxième partie, nous nous sommes intéressés aux réseaux tolérants au délai comme étant une alternative à l’augmentation importante de la charge de trafic dans le réseau cellulaire. Dans les régions où l'implémentation d'infrastructures réseaux est géographiquement difficile, l'utilisation des réseaux ad-hoc semble une solution adéquate. En effet, nous avons développé dans la dernière partie, une nouvelle modélisation analytique du protocole IEEE 802.11e utilisé dans ce type de réseaux / The present dissertation deals with how to use the precious wireless resources that are usually wasted by under-utilization of networks. We have been particularly interested by all resources that can be used in an opportunistic fashion using different technologies. We have designed new schemes for better and more efficient use of wireless systems by providing mathematical frameworks. In the first part, We have been interested in cognitive radio networks, where a cellular service provider can lease a part of its resources to secondary users or virtual providers. In the second part, we have chosen delay-tolerant networks as a solution to reduce the pressure on the cell traffic, where mobile users come to use available resources effectively and with a cheaper cost. We have focused on optimal strategy for smartphones in hybrid wireless networks. In the last part, an alternative to delay-tolerant networks, specially in regions that are not covered by the cellular network, is to use Ad-hoc networks. Indeed, they can be used as an extension of the coverage area. We have developed a new analytical modeling of the IEEE 802.11e DCF/EDCF. We have investigated the intricate interactions among layers by building a general cross-layered framework to represent multi-hop ad hoc networks with asymmetric topology and traffic

Em 1997, o conceito de rádio cognitivo foi proposto pela primeira vez e evoluiu significativamente até os dias de hoje, como solução para o problema da escassez de espectro eletromagnético. Nessa proposta, usuários oportunistas, através de acesso dinâmico ao espectro, fazem uso das faixas de frequências atribuídas a usuários licenciados, quando eles não as estão utilizando. Para que isso seja possível, sem interferir ou degradar os sinais dos usuários licenciados, é necessário atender a quatro requisitos essenciais de rádios cognitivos: Sensoriamento espectral, Decisão do espectro, Compartilhamento do espectro e Mobilidade espectral. Neste trabalho, o sensoriamento espectral é investigado com base na detecção de energia. Um algoritmo é desenvolvido para se determinar o número de canais ocupados e o número de amostras necessárias na detecção para se atingir probabilidades de detecção e falso alarme pré-estabelecidas. Resultados de simulações são apresentadas mostrando que a incerteza do ruído degrada o desempenho do sistema quando a relação sinal-ruído é baixa. O algoritmo desenvolvido permite também determinar o limite inferior para a relação sinal-ruído, quando há incerteza do ruído. O comportamento da probabilidade de detecção em função da probabilidade de falso alarme parametrizado para número de amostras e relação sinal-ruído é apresentado. As curvas resultantes são muitas vezes referidas como curvas ROC - Receiver Operation Characteristics na literatura. Em função do grande interesse sócio-político pela banda de TV, que o cenário das telecomunicações atualmente apresenta, a mesma foi escolhida para alguns exemplos deste estudo. / In 1997, the concept of cognitive radio was proposed for the first time and evolved significantly to the present days, as a solution to the problem of electromagnetic spectrum scarcity. In the proposed approach, opportunistic users utilize frequency bands originally assigned to licensed users through dynamic spectrum access when the licensed users are not using them. To make this possible, without interfering or degrading the signals from the licensed users, it is necessary to fulfill four essential requirements of cognitive radios: spectrum sensing, spectrum decision, spectrum sharing, and spectrum mobility. In this work, spectrum sensing based on energy detection was investigated. An algorithm was developed for the determination of channel occupation and the number of samples needed for the detection process to achieve pre-established probabilities of detection and false-alarm. Simulations results are presented showing that noise uncertainty degrade the performance of the system when the signal-to-noise ratio is low. The developed algorithm allows determining a lower threshold for the signal-to-noise ratio, when noise uncertainty exists. The detection probability behavior as a function of the false alarm probability having the number of samples and the signal-to noise ratio as parameters is presented. The resulting curves are often denominated ROC - Receiver Operation Characteristics in the literature. Due to the high social and political interest in the TV broadcasting band, that telecommunications scenario currently presents, this band was chosen for same examples in this study.

A melhora na eficiência do uso do espectro de radiofrequência é fundamental para permitir um desempenho adequado dos diversos sistemas sem fio cuja complexidade e requerimentos aumentam a cada dia. O panorama atual de atribuição de canais é estático, tolerando assim, que o espectro de radiofrequência seja usado de forma desequilibrada, gerando com isso, problemas de coexistência em algumas faixas e subutilização de recursos em outras. Para contornar esse problema, tem sido proposta a ideia de introduzir algoritmos de cognição nos dispositivos sem fio, a fim de permitir um modelo de alocação dinâmico adicional. Neste, os usuários secundários equipados com rádios cognitivos podem utilizar de forma dinâmica os canais subutilizados de usuários primários. Um usuário primário tem prioridade de uso do canal como consequência da atribuição estática, porém, o uso do canal por um usuário secundário qualquer é oportunista e limitando ao tempo de inatividade do usuário primário em um determinado local. As redes de sensores sem fio trabalham em uma banda concorrida e são sistemas que podem melhorar seu desempenho utilizando um mecanismo de acesso dinâmico aos canais, possibilitando o aproveitamento dos períodos de inatividade de usuários primários ou aumentando sua capacidade de coexistência na banda de operação atual. Segundo a literatura pesquisada são vários os desafios existentes para conseguir um método distribuído de acesso dinâmico aos canais que considere as restrições de trocas de sinalizações, consumo de energia e complexidade dos dispositivos de uma rede de sensores sem fio. Neste contexto, propõe-se uma metodologia de sensoriamento e acesso dinâmico aos canais para uma rede de sensores sem fio considerando a simplicidade dos dispositivos. Como fatores de inovação, optou-se pela definição de uma política de sensoriamento por clusters que permite realizar uma aprendizagem cooperativa por reforço da situação dos canais de operação. Além disso, a definição de um mecanismo de acesso dinâmico aos canais fundamentado no padrão IEEE 802.15.4 permite comunicação e coordenação distribuída de forma assíncrona. O funcionamento da metodologia proposta é avaliado e comparado usando simulações e experimentos mediante um estudo de caso específico. As comparações são realizadas com métodos de seleção de canal: fixa, cega ou baseada em recompensas por acesso. Os resultados mostram a eficiência no acesso dinâmico aos canais com aumentos na taxa de entrega de mensagens e na capacidade de coexistir com as redes primárias. / The efficiency improvement of the use of radiofrequency spectrum is fundamental to allow more complex and more optimal wireless systems. The current channel allocation is static. It tolerates unbalanced use of the radiofrequency spectrum generating coexistence problems in some bands and underutilization of resources in other bands. The introduction of cognitive algorithms into wireless devices has been proposed to overcome that problem, in order to allow an additional dynamic allocation model. In this, the secondary users equipped with cognitive radios will be able to use dynamically the underutilized channels of primary users. A primary user has channel usage priority related to the static allocation, on the other hand, the use of the channel by any secondary user is opportunistic and limited to the inactivity time of the primary user in a specific place. Wireless sensor networks work in a competitive band. These systems can improve their performance using a dynamic access to the channels and consequently to enable the utilization of inactivity periods of primary users or to increase the coexistence capability at their current operation band. According to the researched literature, several challenges exist to find a distributed method for dynamic access to the channels considering the restrictions on control signaling, energy consumption and computational complexity of wireless sensor network devices. In this context, a methodology of sensing and dynamic access to the channels in a wireless sensor network considering the restrictions of the devices is proposed. As innovation, we opted for the definition of a sensing policy by clusters that allows the cooperative reinforcement learning of the situation of channels. In addition, a mechanism for dynamic access to the channels based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard is defined to allow asynchronous and distributed coordination. The behavior of the proposed methodology is evaluated and compared using simulations and experiments through a specific case study. The comparisons are performed with channel selection methods: fixed, blind and access based. The results show good efficiency in the dynamic allocation of the channels, increasing the message delivery rate and the coexistence capability.

Thesis ( M.Sc. ( Computer Science)) -- University of Limpopo, 2018 / Dynamic spectrum access enabled by cognitive radio networks is envisioned to address the problems of the ever-increasing wireless technology. This innovative technology increases spectrum utility by allowing unlicensed devices to utilise the unused spectrum band of licenced devices opportunistically. The unlicensed devices referred to as secondary users (SUs) constantly sense the spectrum band to avoid interfering with the transmission of the licenced devices known as primary users (PUs).Due to some environmental challenges that can interfere with effective spectrum sensing, the SUs have to cooperate in sensing the spectrum band. However, cooperative spectrum sensing is susceptible to the spectrum sensing data falsification (SSDF) attack where selfish radios falsify the spectrum reports. Hence, there is a need to design a defence scheme that will defend the SSDF attack and guaranty correct final transmission decision. In this study, we proposed the integration of the reputation based system and the qout-of-m rule scheme to defend against the SSDF attack. The reputation-based system was used to determine the trustworthiness of the SUs. The q-out-of-m rule scheme where m sensing reports were selected from the ones with good reputation and q was the final decision, which was used to isolate the entire malicious nodes and make the correct final transmission decision. The proposed scheme was implemented in a Cognitive Radio Ad Hoc Network (CRAHN) where the services of a data fusion centre (FC) were not required. The SUs conducted their own data fusion and made their own final transmission decision based on their sensing reports and the sensing reports of their neighbouring nodes. Matlab was used to implement and simulate the proposed scheme. We compared our proposed scheme with the multifusion based distributed spectrum sensing and density based system schemes. Metrics used were the success probability, missed detection probability and false alarm probability. The proposed scheme performed better compared to the other schemes in all the metrics. / CSIR, NRF and, University of Limpopo research office

Thesis (MSc.) -- University of Limpopo, 2018 / A Major concern in the past years was the traditional static spectrum allocation which gave rise to spectrum underutilization and scarcity in wireless networks. In an attempt to solve this problem, cognitive radios technology was proposed and this allows a spectrum to be accessed dynamically by Cognitive radio users or secondary users (SUs). Dynamic access can efficiently be achieved by making necessary adjustment to some MAC layer functionalities such as sensing and channel allocation. MAC protocols play a central role in scheduling sensing periods and channel allocation which ensure that the interference is reduced to a tolerable level. In order to improve the accuracy of sensing algorithm, necessary adjustments should be made at MAC layer. Sensing delays and errors are major challenges in the design of a more accurate spectrum sensing algorithm or MAC protocol. Proposed in this study, is a scheme (EXGPCSA) which incorporate sensing at the MAC layer and physical layer. Energy detector was used to detect the presence of primary users (SU). A choice of how long and how often to sense the spectrum was addressed at the MAC layer. The focal point of this study was on minimizing delays in finding available channels for transmission. EXGPCSA used channel grouping technique to reduce delays. Channels were divided into two groups and arranged in descending order of their idling probabilities. Channels with higher probabilities were selected for sensing. Three network scenarios were considered wherein a group of SUs participated in sensing and sharing their spectral observations. EXGPCSA was designed such that only SUs with higher SNR were allowed to share their observations with other neighbouring SUs. This rule greatly minimized errors in sensing. The efficiency of EXGPCSA was evaluated by comparing it to another scheme called generalized predictive CSA. A statistical t-test was used to test if there is significant difference between EXGPCSA and generalized predictive CSA in terms of average throughput. A test has shown that EXGPCSA significantly performed better than generalized predictive CSA. Both schemes were simulated using MATLAB R2015a in three different network scenarios.

Les objectifs essentiels des opérateurs ferroviaires sont d'augmenter la sécurité, de réduire les coûts d'exploitation et de maintenance, d'accroître l'attrait et le profit en offrant de nouveaux services aux passagers. Ces objectifs seront atteintsgrâce à une énorme augmentation des échanges de flux de données entre les infrastructures existantes et les technologies présentes utilisées au bord du train. L'efficacité spectrale, l'optimisation des ressources radioélectriques ainsi que l'interopérabilité mais aussi la fiabilité des communications sont des éléments majeurs pour les applications ferroviaires. Ces contraintes ainsi que l'utilisation sporadique des bandes fréquentielles à disposition ont donné le jour à la radio intelligente. Cette dernière se présente comme une technologie émergente qui améliore les performances des systèmes radio existants en intégrant l'intelligence artificielle avec la radio logicielle. Un système radio intelligent est défini par sa capacité à être conscient de son environnement radioélectrique. En effet, afin d'optimiser au maximum les opportunités spectrales qui lui sont offerts, le dispositif radio intelligent doit être capable de transmettresur des bandes laissées libres tout en réalisant un sondage spectral afin de ne pas interférer avec les utilisateurs ayant la priorité sur la bande mais aussi pour détecter d'autres fréquences vacantes. Dans le cadre de cette thèse, nous proposons de nous concentrer sur la problématique de détection de spectre dans un environnement à très forte mobilité. Certaines contraintes sont à prendre en compte, telles que la vitesse. À cela s'ajoute les contraintes de réglementation concernant les critères de détection, telles que la norme IEEE 802.22 WRAN qui stipule que la détection d'un utilisateur prioritaire doit être réalisée à -21dB dans un laps de temps de 2 secondes. L'objectif est donc de concevoir un terminal radio intelligent dans les conditions physiques et réglementaires de transmission dans un environnent ferroviaire. / The main objectives of railway operators are to increase safety, reduce operating and maintenance costs, increase attractiveness and profit by offering new services to customers. These objectives will be achieved through a huge increase of data fluxes between existing infrastructure and the technologies currently used on the train. Spectral efficiency, optimization of radio resources, interoperability and reliability of communications are major elements for railway applications. These constraints and the sporadic use of available frequency bands have gave rise to cognitive radio. Cognitive radio is an emerging technology that improves the performance of existing radio systems by integrating artificial intelligence with software radio. A cognitive radio system is defined by its ability to be aware of its radio environment. Indeed, to optimize as much as possible the available spectral opportunities, the cognitive radio device must be able to transmit on free bands while performing a spectrum sensing to not interfere with users having priority on the band and to detect other vacant frequencies. As part of this thesis, we propose to focus on the problem of spectrum detection in a highly mobile environment. Some constraints should be considered, such as speed. Added to this, there are regulatory constraints on detection criteria, such as the IEEE 802.22 WRAN standard, which stipulates that detection of a priority user must be performed at -21 dB within a period of 2 seconds. The objective is therefore to design an intelligent radio terminal in the physical and regulatory conditions of transmission in a railway environment.

Evolution of wireless services enabled the development of the advanced applications and shifted the paradigms of research in this field from voice to data centric. Such services are spreading like wildfire between users and hence, increasing the demand for large bandwidth. However, the frequency spectrum that is suitable for wireless mobile communications is already assigned to particular services from 400 MHz to several GHz. Also, allocating a large chunk of band continuously from the same part of the spectrum may not be possible due to spectral crowd. Therefore, meeting the demand for high data rate requiring wireless services within the accessible spectrum range becomes a challenging problem. The spectrum allocation policies are discussed by regulatory authorities and academia, and the idea of spectrum sharing systems are addressed as a solution. For instance, heterogeneous networks (HetNets) increase the number of available resources and improve the spectrum accessing capabilities of the wireless communication systems. To achieve this, HetNet nodes are deployed within the coverage of the macrocell regions. Thus, spectral efficiency is boosted via spatial reuse of the same spectral resources. On the contrary, HetNets preclude to fully exploit the resources because of serious interference problems between macrocell and HetNet nodes. Thus, wireless networks of the future will observe interference from even a larger number of sources. Due to co-channel HetNet deployment and denser frequency reuse, interference cancellation is expected to have significant importance for future wireless communication systems. The occupied resources can also be reused as a solution by conducting advanced signal processing algorithms at the receiver to increase the spectral efficiency. While doing so, the proposed approaches are expected to be easily integrated with the existing complementary approaches to improve the capacity further. Besides, new deployment strategies that allow spectrum access for non-licensed users to achieve larger bandwidth become important to increase the spectral efficiency of the HetNets. Within the scope of the dissertation, new solutions are developed for the aforementioned problems of the next-generation wireless communication systems. First, an interference cancellation receiver that exploits the unique characteristics of current waveforms is developed in Chapter 2. Also the unknown model of interference is converted to a known model and new algorithms are proposed to recover the desired signal. Then, another perspective is brought into the subject by transforming the interference problem to an interference advantage in Chapter 3. The idea of co-existence of different types of signals are analyzed to bring another degree of freedom as a solution. The proposed approaches are integrated to the existing complementary approaches, such as interference coordination and power control, to improve the capacity further. Finally, a cooperation mechanism is suggested to facilitate the transmission of signal which has a large bandwidth by integrating the idle bands in Chapter 4. By this way, geo-spatially idle bands within the coverage area are utilized and spectral efficiency is increased.

Le concept de Radio Logicielle propose d'intégrer en un seul circuit un émetteur / récepteur RF capable d'émettre et de recevoir n'importe quel signal RF. Cependant, ce concept doit affronter des contraintes technologiques dans le cas des terminaux mobiles. La contrainte principale est la consommation de puissance du terminal. En effet, la conversion analogique numérique qui est la clé de ce système en est aussi le principal verrou technique. Cette thèse présente une architecture de récepteur en rupture avec les architectures classiques afin de surmonter le problème de la conversion analogique numérique. Il s'agit d'un processeur analogique de traitement du signal dédié à la Radio Logicielle intégrale dans la gamme de fréquence 0 à 5GHz. Sa conception et les mesures d'un prototype sont présentées.