Dans le cadre de cette thèse, on se proposait de développer de nouveaux mécanismes de radiolocalisation, permettant de positionner les nœuds de réseaux corporels sans-fil (WBAN) mobiles, en exploitant de manière opportuniste des liens radio coopératifs bas débit à l'échelle d'un même corps (i.e. coopération intra-WBAN), entre réseaux distincts (i.e. coopération inter-WBAN), et/ou vis-à-vis de l'infrastructure environnante. Ces nouvelles fonctions coopératives présentent un intérêt pour des applications telles que la navigation de groupe ou la capture de mouvement à large échelle. Ce sujet d'étude, par essence multidisciplinaire, a permis d'aborder des questions de recherche variées, humine-biomécanique et de ayant trait à la modélisation physique (e.g. modélisation spatio-temporelle des métriques de radiolocalisation en situation de mobilité, modélisation de la mobilité groupe...), au développement d'algorithmes adaptés aux observables disponibles (e.g. algorithmes de positionnement coopératifs et distribués, sélection et ordonnancement des liens/mesures entre les nœuds...), aux mécanismes d'accès et de mise en réseau (i.e. en support aux mesures coopératives et au positionnement itératif). Les bénéfices et les limites de certaines de ces fonctions ont été en partie éprouvés expérimentalement, au moyen de plateformes radio réelles. Les différents développements réalisés tenaient compte, autant que possible, des contraintes liées aux standards de communication WBAN émergeants (e.g. Impulse Radio - Ultra Wideband (IR-UWB) IEEE 802.15.6), par exemple en termes de bande fréquentielle ou de taux d'erreur. / The PhD investigations aim at exploring new WBAN cooperative localization mechanisms, which could benefit jointly from on-body links, body-to-body links between distinct mobile users or off-body links with respect to the infrastructure. Following a multidisciplinary approach, we have thus addressed theoretical questions related to physical modeling or to algorithmic and cross-layer design. A few more practical aspects have also been dealt with. More specifically, based on WBAN channel measurements, single-link ranging error models are first discussed for more realistic performance assessment. Then a Constrained Distributed Weighted Multi-Dimensional Scaling (CDWMDS) positioning algorithm is put forward for relative MoCap purposes, coping with on-body nodes' asynchronism to reduce system latency and exploiting the presence of constant-length radio links for better accuracy. Subsequently we consider extending this algorithm for larger-scale asbolute MoCap applications within a 2-step localization approach that incorporates additional off-body links in a heterogeneous WBAN framework. Then, both individual and collective kinds of navigation are addressed. In both MoCap and navigation scenarios, low-complexity solutions exploiting on-body deployment diversity enable to combat error propagation and strong range biases due to body shadowing, relying on on-body nodes' dispersion or graph neighborhood to approximate the corrupted distances. Finally, experiments based on real IR-UWB radio platforms validate in part the previous proposals, while showing their practical limitations.

Body coupled communication (BCC) is a hot topic in personal networking domain. Many works arepublished suggesting different architectures for BCC since its inception in 1995 by Zimmerman. The number ofelectronic gadgets used by a single person increases as time pass by. Its a tedious job to transfer data betweenthen from a user point of view. Many of these gadgets can share their resources and save power and money.The existing wired or wireless networks does not meet the requirements for this network like scalable data rate,security etc. So here comes the novel idea of using human body as communication medium. The aim of thisthesis is to realize a hardware for BCC based on wide band signaling as part of a big project.The human body consists of 70% of water. This property makes the human body a fairly good conductor.By exploiting this basic property makes the BCC possible. A capacitance is formed if we place a metal platenear to the human body with the skin as a dielectric. This capacitance forms the interface between the humanbody and the analog front-end of the BCC transceiver. Any other metal structures near to the human body canattenuate the signal.A first-order communication link is established in software by the human body model and the transceiver inthe loop along with noise and interference. This communication link is used to verify the human body modeland the base band model done as part of the same big project. Based on the results a hardware prototype isimplemented. Measurements are taken in different scenarios using the hardware setup. The trade-off betweendesign parameters are discussed based on the results. At the end, it suggests a road map to take the projectfurther.

Dans le cadre de cette thèse, on se proposait de développer de nouveaux mécanismes de radiolocalisation, permettant de positionner les nœuds de réseaux corporels sans-fil (WBAN) mobiles, en exploitant de manière opportuniste des liens radio coopératifs bas débit à l'échelle d'un même corps (i.e. coopération intra-WBAN), entre réseaux distincts (i.e. coopération inter-WBAN), et/ou vis-à-vis de l'infrastructure environnante. Ces nouvelles fonctions coopératives présentent un intérêt pour des applications telles que la navigation de groupe ou la capture de mouvement à large échelle. Ce sujet d'étude, par essence multidisciplinaire, a permis d'aborder des questions de recherche variées, humine-biomécanique et de ayant trait à la modélisation physique (e.g. modélisation spatio-temporelle des métriques de radiolocalisation en situation de mobilité, modélisation de la mobilité groupe...), au développement d'algorithmes adaptés aux observables disponibles (e.g. algorithmes de positionnement coopératifs et distribués, sélection et ordonnancement des liens/mesures entre les nœuds...), aux mécanismes d'accès et de mise en réseau (i.e. en support aux mesures coopératives et au positionnement itératif). Les bénéfices et les limites de certaines de ces fonctions ont été en partie éprouvés expérimentalement, au moyen de plateformes radio réelles. Les différents développements réalisés tenaient compte, autant que possible, des contraintes liées aux standards de communication WBAN émergeants (e.g. Impulse Radio - Ultra Wideband (IR-UWB) IEEE 802.15.6), par exemple en termes de bande fréquentielle ou de taux d'erreur.

Abstract The value of wearable market is booming, especially in the healthcare application segment. This segment is driven by an increasing need for regular monitoring and early diagnosis of patients with growing prevalence of chronic diseases. Wireless communications worn in the close proximity of the body, the variety of applications, and their requirements set design considerations and challenges. In addition to the technical requirements, coexistence with adjacent wireless body area networks (WBANs) and other wireless systems need to be taken into account. A WBAN system needs to be highly reliable, low power, fast, and interference-immune. This thesis studies the performance of two different PHY layer implementations in interfered fading channels. The systems are the frequency modulated ultra wideband (FM-UWB), defined in the IEEE 802.15.6 standard, and narrowband SmartBAN physical layer. The performance of the systems was analyzed by using software simulators developed in Matlab. The author developed the SmartBAN simulator for the ETSI Technical Committee (TC) SmartBAN to study the performance of the new SmartBAN system. This is the first physical layer performance study of the SmartBAN system. In addition, the open literature does not offer similar results on the FM-UWB as presented in this thesis. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the FM-UWB is performing well in situations where high reliability and high interference tolerance is needed. In addition, the simplicity of the FM-UWB transceiver makes it more suitable than the direct sequence UWB (DS-UWB) for applications with data rates of hundreds of kbps. SmartBAN has the best performance in cases where more relaxed requirements for reliability and interference tolerance can be applied. Nevertheless, it became obvious that both systems need proper coexistence and interference mitigation mechanisms to ensure reliability in all scenarios. / Tiivistelmä Puettavien laitteiden markkina-arvo on voimakkaassa kasvussa erityisesti terveydenhuollon sovellusalueella. Tämän sovellusalueen kiihdyttimenä toimii yhä suurempi tarve potilaiden kunnon jatkuvalle tarkkailulle sekä kroonisille taudeille alttiimpien potilaiden varhaiselle diagnosoinnille. Langattoman kehoverkon (WBAN) suunnittelun suurimpia haasteita ovat langaton tiedonsiirto kehon läheisyydessä, erilaiset sovellustyypit sekä niiden vaatimukset. Teknisten vaatimusten lisäksi on myös huomioitava rinnakkaiset kehoverkot sekä muut langattomat järjestelmät. Kehoverkkojärjestelmän on oltava todella luotettava, matalatehoinen, nopea ja häiriösietoinen. Väitöskirjassa tutkitaan kahta kehoverkon fyysisen kerroksen toteutusta häipyvissä ja häirityissä kanavissa. Nämä toteutukset ovat IEEE 802.15.6 -standardissa määritelty taajuusmoduloitu ultralaajakaista (FM-UWB) sekä kapeakaistainen SmartBAN. Järjestelmien suorituskykyä analysoitiin Matlab-ohjelmistosimulaattoreiden avulla. Työssä kehitettiin SmartBAN-simulaattori ETSI Technical Committee (TC) SmartBAN -työryhmälle järjestelmän suorityskykytutkimukseen. Tässä työssä esitetään SmartBAN-järjestelmän fyysisen kerroksen suorituskykytulokset, jotka ovat ensimmäiset laatuaan. Lisäksi kirjallisuudesta ei löydy vastaavia tuloksia FM-UWB:n osalta, kuten tässä työssä on esitetty. Tuloksien pohjalta voidaan päätellä, että FM-UWB suoriutuu hyvin tilanteissa, joissa vaaditaan suurta luotettavuutta sekä suurta häiriönsietokykyä. Lisäksi yksinkertainen lähetin-vastaanotinrakenne tekee siitä kiinnostavamman vaihtoehdon kuin suorahajotettu UWB (DS-UWB) sovelluksille, jotka vaativat satojen kbps:n tiedonsiirtonopeutta. SmartBAN toimii hyvin tilanteissa, joissa näistä vaatimuksista voidaan hieman joustaa. Kuitenkin on selvää, että molemmat järjestelmät tarvitsevat sopivan rinnakkais- ja häiriönvaimennustekniikan taatakseen luotettavuuden kaikissa tapauksissa.

Dans le cadre de cette thèse, on se proposait de développer de nouveaux mécanismes de radiolocalisation, permettant de positionner les nœuds de réseaux corporels sans-fil (WBAN) mobiles, en exploitant de manière opportuniste des liens radio coopératifs bas débit à l'échelle d'un même corps (i.e. coopération intra-WBAN), entre réseaux distincts (i.e. coopération inter-WBAN), et/ou vis-à-vis de l'infrastructure environnante. Ces nouvelles fonctions coopératives présentent un intérêt pour des applications telles que la navigation de groupe ou la capture de mouvement à large échelle. Ce sujet d'étude, par essence multidisciplinaire, a permis d'aborder des questions de recherche variées, humine-biomécanique et de ayant trait à la modélisation physique (e.g. modélisation spatio-temporelle des métriques de radiolocalisation en situation de mobilité, modélisation de la mobilité groupe...), au développement d'algorithmes adaptés aux observables disponibles (e.g. algorithmes de positionnement coopératifs et distribués, sélection et ordonnancement des liens/mesures entre les nœuds...), aux mécanismes d'accès et de mise en réseau (i.e. en support aux mesures coopératives et au positionnement itératif). Les bénéfices et les limites de certaines de ces fonctions ont été en partie éprouvés expérimentalement, au moyen de plateformes radio réelles. Les différents développements réalisés tenaient compte, autant que possible, des contraintes liées aux standards de communication WBAN émergeants (e.g. Impulse Radio - Ultra Wideband (IR-UWB) IEEE 802.15.6), par exemple en termes de bande fréquentielle ou de taux d'erreur.

Increasing number of ageing population and people who need continuous health monitoring and rising the costs of health care have triggered the concept of the novel wireless technology-driven human body monitoring. Human body monitoring can be performed using a network of small and intelligent wireless medical sensors which may be attached to the body surface or implanted into the tissues. It enables carers to predict, diagnose, and react to adverse events earlier than ever. The concept of Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) was introduced to fully exploit the benefits of wireless technologies in telemedicine and m-health. The main focus of this research is the design and performance evaluation of strategies and architectures that would allow seamless and efficient interconnection of patient’s body area network and the stationary (e.g., hospital room or ward) wireless networks. I first introduce the architecture of a healthcare system which bridges WBANs and Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs). I adopt IEEE 802.15.6 standard for the patient’s body network because it is specifically designed for WBANs. Since IEEE 802.15.6 has strict Quality of Service (QoS) and priorities to transfer the medical data to the medical server a QoS-enabled WLAN for the next hop is needed to preserve the end-to-end QoS. IEEE 802.11e standard is selected for the WLAN in the hospital room or ward because it provides prioritization for the stations in the network. I investigate in detail the requirements posed by different healthcare parameters and to analyze the performance of various alternative interconnection strategies, using the rigorous mathematical apparatus of Queuing Theory and Probabilistic Analysis; these results are independently validated through discrete event simulation models. This thesis has three main parts; performance evaluation and MAC parameters settings of IEEE 802.11e Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA), performance evaluation and tuning the MAC parameters of IEEE 802.15.6, and designing a seamless and efficient interconnection strategy which bridges IEEE 802.11e EDCA and IEEE 802.15.6 standards for a healthcare system.

Increasing number of ageing population and people who need continuous health monitoring and rising the costs of health care have triggered the concept of the novel wireless technology-driven human body monitoring. Human body monitoring can be performed using a network of small and intelligent wireless medical sensors which may be attached to the body surface or implanted into the tissues. It enables carers to predict, diagnose, and react to adverse events earlier than ever. The concept of Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) was introduced to fully exploit the benefits of wireless technologies in telemedicine and m-health. The main focus of this research is the design and performance evaluation of strategies and architectures that would allow seamless and efficient interconnection of patient’s body area network and the stationary (e.g., hospital room or ward) wireless networks. I first introduce the architecture of a healthcare system which bridges WBANs and Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs). I adopt IEEE 802.15.6 standard for the patient’s body network because it is specifically designed for WBANs. Since IEEE 802.15.6 has strict Quality of Service (QoS) and priorities to transfer the medical data to the medical server a QoS-enabled WLAN for the next hop is needed to preserve the end-to-end QoS. IEEE 802.11e standard is selected for the WLAN in the hospital room or ward because it provides prioritization for the stations in the network. I investigate in detail the requirements posed by different healthcare parameters and to analyze the performance of various alternative interconnection strategies, using the rigorous mathematical apparatus of Queuing Theory and Probabilistic Analysis; these results are independently validated through discrete event simulation models. This thesis has three main parts; performance evaluation and MAC parameters settings of IEEE 802.11e Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA), performance evaluation and tuning the MAC parameters of IEEE 802.15.6, and designing a seamless and efficient interconnection strategy which bridges IEEE 802.11e EDCA and IEEE 802.15.6 standards for a healthcare system.

Abstract Impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) technology, due to its baseband signaling, potentially offers a low cost, low complexity and low power consumption option for different short range sensor network applications. These sensor networks can be applied to many kinds of future implementations, including the Internet of Things (IoT) applications. In the medical and healthcare context, the term wireless body area network (WBAN) is often used, but, as mentioned, the wireless technology itself can be applied to any kind of body, e.g., to car or robot body networks. This thesis studies IR-UWB receivers’ performances in different hospital environment channel models by means of computer simulation. The main focus is on receivers that are capable of detecting the signals specified either in the IEEE 802.15.4-2015 or in the IEEE 802.15.6-2012 standards. The used channel models from two independent research groups include both on-body to on-body and on-body to off-body scenarios in different hospital environments. The evaluations and comparisons of various receivers include energy detector (ED) and rake receivers, the latter with both selective- and partial-rake structures. One of the studied receiver structures is further analyzed as it was noticed that the simulation results did not correspond to the assumed theoretical bit error probability (BEP) curves. Along the standards based studies, some modifications are also suggested for the two existing IR-UWB standards for increased compatibility and improved performance. One of the propositions resulted a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) patent application. Additionally, an extensive survey is provided offering a compilation which includes presentations of IR-UWB research by other researchers, existing standards’ IR-UWB physical layer (PHY) specifications and the main global regulations concerning UWB. / Tiivistelmä Erittäin laajakaistainen impulssiradioteknologia (IR-UWB) tarjoaa potentiaalisen vaihtoehdon yksinkertaisille, edullisille ja matalan tehonkulutuksen omaaville lähetin-vastaanotin-ratkaisuille, jotka soveltuvat lyhyen kantaman sensoriverkkoihin. Nämä sensoriverkot ovat monikäyttöisiä soveltuen esimerkiksi tulevaisuuden esineiden internetin (IoT) tiedonsiirtoratkaisuiksi. Esimerkiksi sairaanhoidon ja terveydenhuollon asiayhteyksissä käytetään monesti termiä langaton kehoverkko (WBAN), joka voidaan asentaa monenlaisiin eri sovelluskohteisiin kuten autoon tai vaikkapa robotin "keholle". Tässä väitöskirjassa on tutkittu tietokonesimulaatioiden avulla erilaisten IR-UWB vastaanotinrakenteiden suorituskykyä sairaalaympäristöä mallintavissa radiokanavissa. Tutkimuksen painopiste on vastaanottimissa, jotka kykenevät vastaanottamaan joko IEEE 802.15.4-2015- tai IEEE 802.15.6-2012-standardeissa määritellyn signaalin. Sairaalaympäristöä mallintavat radiokanavat perustuvat kahden toisistaan riippumattoman tutkijaryhmän mallinnuksiin, jotka sisältävät sekä keholta-keholle että keholta-kehon ulkopuolelle -radiokanavamallit. Energiailmaisin (ED) ja erilaiset harava-vastaanottimet ovat niitä vastaanotinrakenteita, joita tähän väitöskirjaan kuuluvissa artikkeleissa on arvioitu ja vertailtu. Yhtä vastaanotinrakennetta on myös analysoitu tarkemmin, kun havaittiin, etteivät kyseistä rakennetta koskevat simulaatiotulokset vastanneet oletettuja teoreettisia bittivirhetodennäköisyyksiä. Tutkimuksessa kehitettiin lisäksi olemassa olevien standardien ratkaisuihin liittyviä parannusehdotuksia, joita esitettiin muutamissa tähän väitöskirjaan sisällytetyissä artikkeleissa. Yhdestä ehdotuksesta tehtiin myös PCT-sopimuksen alainen patentointihakemus. Lisäksi yhdessä tähän väitöskirjaan sisällytetyssä artikkelissa on paitsi laaja kirjallisuuskatsaus sisältäen katsauksen muiden tekemiin IR-UWB- tutkimuksiin, myös olemassa olevien standardien fyysisten kerroksien määritykset koskien IR-UWB-teknologiaa ja tärkeimmät maailmanlaajuiset UWB-tekniikkaa koskevat signaalin tehotiheysmääräykset.

Abstract The Internet of Things (IoT) is already providing solutions to various tasks related to monitoring the environment and controlling devices over wired and wireless networks. It is estimated by several well-known research facilities that the number of IoT devices will be in the order of tens of billions by 2020. This inevitably brings challenges and costs in deployment, management, and maintenance of networks. The focus of this thesis is to provide solutions that mainly help in the deployment and maintenance of various wireless IoT networks. Different applications have different requirements for a wireless link coverage. It is important to utilize suitable radio technology for a particular application in order, e.g., to maximize the lifetime of a device. A wireless body area network (WBAN) typically consists of devices that are within couple of meters from each other. The WBAN is suitable for, e.g., measuring muscle activity and transferring data to a storage for processing. The wireless link can use air as a medium, or alternatively, an induced electric field to a body can be used. In this thesis, it is shown that a location of the electrodes in the body have impact to the attenuation. Home automation IoT applications are typically implemented with mid-range wireless technologies, known as wireless personal area networks (WPAN). In order to minimize and get rid of battery change operations, a wake-up receiver could be utilized in order to improve the device’s energy efficiency. The concept is introduced and performance of the current state-of-the-art works are presented. In addition, a control loop enabling a passive device to have control over an energy source is proposed. Applications that have low bandwidth requirements can be implemented with low-power wide area networks (LPWAN). One technology – LoRaWAN – is evaluated, and it is recommended as based on the results to use it in non-critical applications. / Tiivistelmä Esineiden internet (Internet of Things, IoT) mahdollistaa jo laajan kirjon erilaisia ratkaisuja ympäristön monitorointiin ja laitteiden hallintaan hyödyntäen sekä langattomia että langallisia verkkoja. Usea hyvin tunnettu tutkimusorganisaatio on arvioinut, että vuonna 2020 IoT laitteiden määrä tulee olemaan kymmenissä miljardeissa. Se luo väistämättä haasteita laitteiden sijoittamisessa, hallinnassa ja kunnossapidossa. Tämä väitöskirja keskittyy tarjoamaan ratkaisuja, jotka voivat helpottaa langattomien IoT laitteiden sijoittamisessa ja kunnossapidossa. IoT sovellusten laaja kirjo vaatii erilaisia langattomia radioteknologioita, jotta sovellukset voitaisiin toteuttaa, muun muassa, mahdollisimman energiatehokkaasti. Langattomassa kehoverkossa (wireless body area network, WBAN) käytetään usein hyvin lyhyitä langattomia linkkejä. WBAN on soveltuva esimerkiksi lihasten aktiivisuus mittauksessa ja mittaustiedon siirtämisessä talteen varastointia ja prosessointia varten. Linkki voidaan toteuttaa käyttäen ilmaa rajapintana, tai vaihtoehtoisesti, kehoa. Tässä työssä on näytetty, että käytettäessä kehoa siirtotienä, elektrodien sijainnilla on merkitystä signaalin vaimennuksen kannalta. Kotiautomaatio IoT sovellukset ovat tyypillisesti toteutettu käyttäen langatonta likiverkkoa, jossa linkin pituus sisätiloissa on alle 30 metriä. Jotta päästäisiin eroon pariston vaihto-operaatiosta tai ainakin vähennettyä niiden määrää, herätevastaanotinta käyttämällä olisi mahdollista parantaa laitteiden energiatehokkuutta. Herätevastaanotin konsepti ja tämänhetkistä huipputasoa edustavien vastaanottimien suorituskyky ovat esitetty. Lisäksi, on ehdotettu menetelmä joka takaa energian saannin passiiviselle IoT laitteelle. IoT sovellukset jotka tyytyvät vähäiseen kaistanleveyteen voidaan toteuttaa matalatehoisella laajan alueen verkolla (low-power wide area network, LPWAN). Yhden LPWAN teknologian, nimeltään LoRaWAN, suorituskykyä on evaluoitu. Tulosten perusteella suositus on hyödyntää kyseistä teknologiaa ei-kriittisissä sovelluksissa.

Cooperative wireless communication is an attractive technique to explore the spatial channel resources by coordination across multiple links, which can greatly improve the communication performance over single links. In this dissertation, we study the cooperative multi-link channel properties by geometric approaches in body area networks (BANs) and cellular networks respectively.<p><p>In the part of BANs, the dynamic narrowband on-body channels under body motions are modeled statistically on their temporal and spatial fading based on anechoic and indoor measurements. Common body scattering is observed to form inter-link correlation between links closely distributed and between links having synchronized movements of communication nodes. An analytical model is developed to explain the physical mechanisms of the dynamic body scattering. The on-body channel impacts to simple cooperation protocols are evaluated based on realistic measurements. <p><p>In the part of cellular networks, the cluster-level multi-link COST 2100 MIMO channel model is developed with concrete modeling concepts, complete parameterization and implementation methods, and a compatible structure for both single-link and multi-link scenarios. The cluster link-commonness is introduced to the model to describe the multi-link properties. The multi-link impacts by the model are also evaluated in a distributed MIMO system by comparing its sum-rate capacity at different ratios of cluster link-commonness. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished