Since its introduction in the early 1980??s, the Global Positioning System (GPS) has become an important worldwide resource. Although the primary use of GPS is for position location, the inherent timing accuracy built into the system has allowed it become an important synchronisation resource for other systems. In most cases the GPS end user only requires a position estimate without awareness of the timing and synchronisation aspects of the system. A low accuracy position (at the several-metre level) with a low update rate of about 1Hz is often acceptable. However, obtaining more accurate position estimates (at the sub-metre level) at higher update rates requires the use of differential correction signals (DGPS) and greater processing power in the receiver. Furthermore, some extra challenges arise when simultaneously gathering information from a group of independently moving remote GPS receivers (rovers) at increased sampling rates (10Hz). This creates the need for a high bandwidth telemetry system and techniques to synchronise the position measurements for tracking each rover. This thesis investigates and develops an overall solution to these problems using GPS for both position location and synchronisation. A system is designed to generate relative position information from 30 or more rovers in real-time. The important contributions of this research are as follows: a) A GPS synchronised telemetry system is developed to transport GPS data from each rover. Proof of concept experiments show why a conventional RF Local Area Network (LAN) is not suitable for this application. The new telemetry system is developed using Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices to embed both the synchronising logic and the central processor. b) A new system architecture is developed to reduce the processing load of the GPS receiver. Furthermore, the need to transfer the DGPS correction data to the rover is eliminated. Instead, the receiver raw data is processed in a centralised Kalman filter to produce multiple position estimates in real-time. c) Steps are taken to optimise the telemetry data stream by using only the bare essential data from each rover. A custom protocol is developed to deliver the GPS receiver raw data to the central point with minimal latency. The central software is designed to extract and manage common elements such as satellite ephemeris data from the central reference receiver only. d) Methods are developed to make the overall system more robust by identifying and understanding the points of failure, providing fallback options to allow recovery with minimal impact. Based on the above a system is designed and integrated using a mixture of custom hardware, custom software and off-the-shelf hardware. Overall tests show that efforts to minimise latency, minimise power requirements and improve reliability have delivered good results.

A Tactical Data Link (TDL) system has been deployed in many military missions as a winning strategy. The performance of a TDL system is governed by the MAC protocol. The MAC protocol that is able to provide more flexibility and high quality of services is more desirable. However, most MAC protocols implemented in current TDL systems are based on a preprogramming TDMA protocol, in which a time slot schedule is fixed. This thesis presents the new self-organized TDMA protocol based on the existing self-organized slot assignment algorithms and the practical military scenarios as the alternative solution to the current preprogramming TDMA protocol. The self-organized TDMA protocol presented in this thesis is based on the Node Activation Polling Access (NAPA), Virtual Slot (VSLOT), and message based slot assignment algorithms. To evaluate the performance of the designed self-organized TDMA protocol over the preprogramming TDMA protocol, the simulation models for both protocols were implemented and simulated with NS-2 under the specific study scenarios. The results show that the self-organized TDMA protocol offers more flexibility and higher performance than the preprogramming TDMA protocol. In addition, the aspects of stability and security for the self-organized TDMA protocol were discussed. The overall conclusion is that the self-organized TDMA protocol could be a viable alternative for a future TDL system.

Ad hoc wireless networks are quite convenient local area networks. Because ad hoc wireless networks have a property what its topology is changed as hosts move. In order to efficiently and quickly broadcasting data, it is very important to have efficacious protocols in MAC (Medium Access Control) layer. In this paper, we propose a new broadcast protocol, Contention-based Broadcast Protocol (CBP). CBP is a TDMA-based protocol. There are three characteristics which make CBP an efficient protocol. They are (1) CBP utilize a backoff algorithm and some mini slot in contention request phase to avoid collisions. Most protocols do not implement a backoff algorithm. (2) A host only reserves a data slot each time instead of many slots in most TDMA-based protocol. It has the advantage of reducing the influence of host mobility because the time between a data slot is reserved and the time the data slot is utilized has greatly decreased, and (3) CBP differentiates unicast data and broadcast data and allows a host to reuse by channel for a unicast if it is impossible for a broadcast.

ITC/USA 2013 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Ninth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 21-24, 2013 / Bally's Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV / Telemetry Network System (TmNS) contains a centralized link manager which allows efficient use of the frequency spectrum by dynamically allocating capacity to transmit based on need and priority. To verify the accurate operation of the telemetry system link management algorithm prior to system demonstration, a combination of novel techniques were leveraged in the areas of modeling and simulation, and test bed verification. This paper will cover the process of verifying the link management algorithm from the use of the OPNET iNET simulation to test bed radio simulators along with the developed test bed tools used to capture the results.

ITC/USA 2012 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Eighth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 22-25, 2012 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / In the Telemetry Network System (TmNS) the prioritization of mission traffic is performed by internal radio queuing disciplines and the Link Manager performing adjustments to each radio transmit window in the TDMA network. These processes combine to provide the QoS traffic handling across the range. The radios provide the transmit packet prioritization using queuing disciplines which can be assigned to mission traffic flows. The Link Manager on the ground receives periodic reports of queue levels from each radio and performs transmit capacity adjustments based on internal radio and network wide conditions. Presented in this paper is the design of this TmNS RF Link Management QoS process with OPNET modeling and simulation results.

ITC/USA 2012 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Eighth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 22-25, 2012 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / Radio transmission channel influences greatly the quality of transmitted voice and data signal in terms of data rate and robustness. This degradation is as a result of many factors, notable amongst them are having multiple replica of the transmitted signal at the receiver (multipath), changes of frequency as a result of the movement of the aircraft (Doppler shift) and noise. This paper characterizes the scattered components of the aeronautical channel in terms of delay spread. Geometric representation is used to derive expressions for the maximum delay spread using the 2-ray model and the three dimensional model of the scattered path. Furthermore, the delay and Doppler frequencies are described as a function of the horizontal distance to the specular reflection point between a ground station and a test article. The simulated results are compared to measured data of related articles and the value of the maximum delay spread is compared with the proposed intersymbol guard band for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) in the Integrated Network Enhanced Telemetry (iNET) program to see if this proposition can be adapted to the aeronautical channel.

Since its introduction in the early 1980??s, the Global Positioning System (GPS) has become an important worldwide resource. Although the primary use of GPS is for position location, the inherent timing accuracy built into the system has allowed it become an important synchronisation resource for other systems. In most cases the GPS end user only requires a position estimate without awareness of the timing and synchronisation aspects of the system. A low accuracy position (at the several-metre level) with a low update rate of about 1Hz is often acceptable. However, obtaining more accurate position estimates (at the sub-metre level) at higher update rates requires the use of differential correction signals (DGPS) and greater processing power in the receiver. Furthermore, some extra challenges arise when simultaneously gathering information from a group of independently moving remote GPS receivers (rovers) at increased sampling rates (10Hz). This creates the need for a high bandwidth telemetry system and techniques to synchronise the position measurements for tracking each rover. This thesis investigates and develops an overall solution to these problems using GPS for both position location and synchronisation. A system is designed to generate relative position information from 30 or more rovers in real-time. The important contributions of this research are as follows: a) A GPS synchronised telemetry system is developed to transport GPS data from each rover. Proof of concept experiments show why a conventional RF Local Area Network (LAN) is not suitable for this application. The new telemetry system is developed using Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices to embed both the synchronising logic and the central processor. b) A new system architecture is developed to reduce the processing load of the GPS receiver. Furthermore, the need to transfer the DGPS correction data to the rover is eliminated. Instead, the receiver raw data is processed in a centralised Kalman filter to produce multiple position estimates in real-time. c) Steps are taken to optimise the telemetry data stream by using only the bare essential data from each rover. A custom protocol is developed to deliver the GPS receiver raw data to the central point with minimal latency. The central software is designed to extract and manage common elements such as satellite ephemeris data from the central reference receiver only. d) Methods are developed to make the overall system more robust by identifying and understanding the points of failure, providing fallback options to allow recovery with minimal impact. Based on the above a system is designed and integrated using a mixture of custom hardware, custom software and off-the-shelf hardware. Overall tests show that efforts to minimise latency, minimise power requirements and improve reliability have delivered good results.

Zugl.: Darmstadt, Techn. Univ., Diss., 2008

Universiẗat, Diss., 2001--Kaiserslautern.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2017-06-07T11:55:49Z No. of bitstreams: 1 robertomussideoliveira.pdf: 1293292 bytes, checksum: 78c6c9fd9415c0b3990a1aaf55b842a2 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2017-06-07T13:31:58Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 robertomussideoliveira.pdf: 1293292 bytes, checksum: 78c6c9fd9415c0b3990a1aaf55b842a2 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-07T13:31:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 robertomussideoliveira.pdf: 1293292 bytes, checksum: 78c6c9fd9415c0b3990a1aaf55b842a2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-11 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Nesse trabalho, discutimos o uso de protocolos de cooperação na subcamada de controle de acesso ao meio (CMAC) para reduzir a taxa de perda de pacote e aumentar o goodput em um sistema de comunicação banda larga via rede elétrica (PLC) de ambientes residenciais. Para apoiar essa discussão, nós, pela primeira vez, apresentamos uma análise estatística da taxa de erro de pacote (PER) de canais PLC residenciais a partir de dados medidos em um modelo com um único relay. Adicionalmente, nós esboçamos um simples protocolo CMAC capaz de explorar a diversidade oferecida por uma rede elétrica doméstica. Usando esse protocolo, nosso objetivo é mostrar o impacto da variação da largura de banda, da variação da PER e da posição relativa do relay no desempenho do sistema. Sendo assim, nós mostramos que a taxa de perda de pacote e o goodput melhoram quando a largura de banda de frequência aumenta. Além disso, resultados mostram que a cooperação na camada de enlace não oferece vantagens caso os valores de PER do enlace direto e do enlace intermediado pelo relay sejam muito altos ou muito baixos. Nós também notamos que as melhorias estudadas dependem da posição do nó relay em relação ao nó fonte e ao nó destino (i.e., notamos melhoras na rede nos casos em que o relay estava situado próximo à fonte e no meio do caminho entre a fonte e o destino). Finalmente, uma comparação entre os esquemas de acesso múltiplo por divisão de frequências ortogonais - acesso múltiplo por divisão de tempo (OFDMA-TDMA) e acesso múltiplo por divisão de tempo - multiplexação por divisão ortogonal de frequência (TDMA-OFDM) mostra que o simples protocolo CMAC é mais eficaz quando usado juntamente com o primeiro esquema do que com o último. Em suma, a nossa contribuição é dividida em duas etapas: primeiramente, desenvolvemos um simples protocolo MAC de cooperação que traz melhorias de desempenho na rede quando comparado com um sistema sem a cooperação; em segundo lugar, nós realizamos uma análise sistemática de diferentes cenários, mostrando os benefícios e limitações da cooperação na camada de enlace de redes PLC. / In this work, we discuss the use of cooperative medium access control (CMAC) protocols to reduce packet loss rate and to improve goodput of in-home broadband power line communication (PLC) systems. To support this discussion, we, for the first time, present a statistical packet error rate (PER) analysis of measured in-home PLC channels by adopting a single relay model. Additionally, we outline a simple CMAC protocol that is capable of exploiting the diversity offered by in-home electric power grids. Using this protocol, we aim to show the impact of bandwidth variation, PER variation and of relative relay location on system performance. Thus, we show that packet loss rate and goodput improve when frequency bandwidth increases. Also, results show that cooperation at the link layer does not offer advantages if the PER values of direct and relayed links are very high or very low. Furthermore, we note that the improvements depend on the location of the node relay in relation to the nodes source and the destination (i.e., network improves if the relay is located near the source or in the midway between the source and the destination). Finally, a comparison between orthogonal frequency division multiple access - time division multiple access (OFDMA-TDMA) and time division multiple access - orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (TDMA-OFDM) schemes show that the simple CMAC protocol is more effective when it is used together with the former scheme than the latter.