La demande accrue de services en temps rel, comme la vidéo streaming, justifie le besoin d'études qui visent à optimiser le délai de transmission de données. En plus du délai de transmission au niveau physique, les délais nécessaires à l'accès à la ressource et à la récupération de données venant des couches basses peuvent avoir un impact important sur les performances et ne doivent pas être négligés. Aussi, des études cross-layer doivent être menées pour minimiser le délai de transmission de l'information. Comprendre l'impact des mécanismes des couches basses sur les performances de bout-en-bout permet un meilleur dimensionnement du réseau, une adaptation du trafic transmis, ou l'introduction de service à faible priorité. Dans cette thèse, nous avons mesuré l'impact des mécanismes des couches liaison et réseau sur les performances de divers protocols de congestion de la couche transport.Dans le contexte des liens 4G par satellite, nous proposons un ensemble d'outils, Trace Manager Tool (TMT) et Cross Layer InFormation Tool (CLIFT), pour simuler de manière réaliste l'ensemble de la couche OSI dans le simulateur de réseau NS-2. Nous avons montré que, pour l'ensemble des variantes de TCP considérées, quand le débit au niveau transport est proche de la capacité de canal, utiliser ARQ au niveau liaison est optimal. Dans le cas où le taux d'erreur au niveau de la couche physique est plus élevé, H-ARQ permet d'obtenir un meilleur débit au niveau transport.Les dernières spécifications concernant l'accès au lien satellite DVB-RCS2 présentent deux méthodes d'accès (aléatoire et dédié) qui peuvent être implémentées pour permettre aux utilisateurs des services proposés par DVB d'aller sur Internet ou de transmettre des données. Nous avons développé un module pour NS-2, Physical Channel Access (PCA), qui modèle l'accès au canal pour chacune de ces méthodes afin de comparer leur impact sur les performances de bout-en-bout. Nous avons mesuré que les méthodes d'accès dédié permettent un débit plus important et les méthodes d'accès aléatoire une transmission rapide des flots courts. Nous avons donc proposé de mixer ces méthodes d'accès, en fonction de l'évolution dynamique de la charge du réseau et de la taille du flot de données transmis.Finalement, nous avons étudié s'il était possible d'exploiter les données de la gateway du satellite pour introduire un trafic à priorité basse. Nous avons montré qu'il était possible avec Low Ewtra Delay Background Transport (LEDBAT) comme protocole de la couche transport d'introduire un trafic en tâche de fond. Cependant, en fonction de la variation de la charge du réseau, paramétrer correctement des paramètres internes à ce protocole sont nécessaires. / Network providers offer services in line with users’ requests, even though the challengesintroduced by their mobility and the download of large content are crucial. Mobile videostreaming applications are delay sensitive and the increasing demand for this service legitimateextensive studies evaluating transmission delays. On top of physical transmissiondelays, accessing a resource or recovering data from lower layers should not be neglected.Indeed, recovery schemes or channel access strategies variously introduce end-to-end delays.This document argues that those cross-layer effects should be explored to minimizethe transmission delays and optimize the use of network resources. Also, understandingthe impacts of low layers protocols on the end-to-end transmission will enable betterdimensioning of the network and adapt the traffic carried on.In the context of satellite 4G links, we measure the impact of link layer retransmissionschemes on the performance of various transport layer protocols. We develop Trace ManagerTool (TMT) and Cross Layer InFormation Tool (CLIFT) to lead realistic cross layersimulations in NS-2. We show that, for all target TCP variants, when the throughput ofthe transport protocol is close to the channel capacity, using the ARQ mechanism is mostbeneficial for TCP performance improvement. In conditions where the physical channelerror rate is high, Hybrid-ARQ results in better performance.In the last specifications for DVB-RCS2, two access schemes (random and dedicated)are presented and can be implemented to manage the way home users access to the satellitelink for Web browsing or data transmission. We developed Physical Channel Access (PCA)that models in NS-2 the behaviour of those link layer level access methods. We measurethat, even though dedicated access methods can transmit more information data, randomaccess methods enable a faster transmission of short flows. Based on these results, wepropose to mix random and dedicated access methods depending on the dynamic load ofthe network and the sequence number of the TCP segments.As a potential exploitation of cross layer information, we explore the feasibility to introducelow priority traffic on long delay path. The rationale is to grab the unused 4G satellitelinks’ capacity to carry non-commercial traffic. We show that this is achievable with LEDBAT.However, depending on the fluctuation of the load, performance improvements couldbe obtained by properly setting the target value.

abstract: The inexorable upsurge in world’s energy demand has steered the search for newer renewable energy sources and photovoltaics seemed to be one of the best alternatives for energy production. Among the various photovoltaic technologies that emerged, organic/polymer photovoltaics based on solution processed bulk-heterojunctions (BHJ) of semiconducting polymers has gained serious attention owing to the use of inexpensive light-weight materials, exhibiting high mechanical flexibility and compatibility with low temperature roll-to-roll manufacturing techniques on flexible substrates. The most widely studied material to date is the blend of regioregular P3HT and PC61BM used as donor and acceptor materials. The object of this study was to investigate and improve the performance/stability of the organic solar cells by use of inexpensive materials. In an attempt to enhance the efficiency of organic solar cells, we have demonstrated the use of hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) modified indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode in bulk heterojunction solar cell structure The device studies showed a significant enhancement in the short-circuit current as well as in the shunt resistance on use of the hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) layer. In another approach a p-type CuI hole-transport layer was utilized that could possibly replace the acidic PEDOT:PSS layer in the fabrication of high-efficiency solar cells. The device optimization was done by varying the concentration of CuI in the precursor solution which played an important role in the efficiency of the solar cell devices. Recently a substantial amount of research has been focused on identifying suitable interfacial layers in organic solar cells which has efficient charge transport properties. It was illustrated that a thin layer of silver oxide interfacial layer showed a 28% increase in power conversion efficiency in comparison to that of the control cell. The optoelectronic properties and morphological features of indium-free ZnO/Ag/MoOx electrodes was also studied. Organic solar cells on these composite electrodes revealed good optical and electrical properties, making them a promising alternative indium free and PEDOT:PSS-free organic solar cells. Lastly, inverted solar cells utilizing zinc oxide and yttrium doped zinc oxide electron transport was also created and their device properties revealed that optimum annealing conditions and yttrium doping was essential to obtain high efficiency solar cells. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Chemistry 2015

This thesis concerns the security of tomorrow’s peer-to-peer real-time communication in heterogeneous networks. Because of the additional delay caused by inband handshake and the poor compatibilities of some transport protocols, it was determined that existing security protocols such as transport layer security (TLS) and datagram transport layer security (DTLS) are not suitable in such a user scenario and a new security protocol should be designed. This new security protocol is called transport encapsulation security payload (TESP). TESP not only has the advantage of low initialization delay, but also fully supports transport protocols including TCP, UDP, stream control transmission protocol (SCTP), and datagram congestion control protocol (DCCP). Also a security analysis of TESP was carried out and no security flaws were found. / Denna uppsats behandlar säkerheten för morgondagens "peer-to-peer" (P2P) realtidskommunikation i heterogena nät. På grund av den adderade fördröjning som orsakas av inbandssignalering och dålig kompabilitet hos många transportprotokoll, så kan man fastställa att existerande säkerhetsprotokoll, såsom "(Datagram) Transport Layer Security" (TLS och DTLS), inte är lämpade för denna typ av kommunikation och att ett nytt säkerhetsprotokoll bör tas fram. "Transport Encapsulation Security Payload" (TESP) är ett sådant protokoll. TESP har inte bara fördelar såsom låg uppstartsfördröjning, utan har också stöd för många transportprotokoll, t.ex. "Transport Control Protocol" (TCP), "User Datagram Protocol" (UDP), "Stream Control Transmission Protocol" (SCTP) och "Datagram Congestion Control Protocol" (DCCP). Även en säkerhetsanalys av TESP har gjorts, där inga säkerhetsproblem har kunnat påvisas.

The Internet of today is very different from how it used to be. Modern networked applications are becoming increasingly diverse. Consequently, a variety of requirements must be met by the network. Efforts to make the underlying mechanisms of the Internet more flexible have therefore been made to adapt to this diversification. In this thesis, we explore how information about application requirements can be leveraged to optimize the network protocol stack of end-hosts during run-time. In addition, we improve the visibility of the network to the end-host in order to enable additional flexibility in the usage of the network's resources. We conduct tests in real-world testbeds and examine how services might be developed to optimize latency, throughput, and availability for various network traffic scenarios, including 360-degree video streaming, drone autopilots, and connected vehicles. We show how multi-connectivity, where the end-host is connected via multiple network paths simultaneously, may be used to significantly reduce latency and increase availability, while minimizing the overhead imposed on the network by carefully considering the network selection process. Furthermore, we describe an architecture that allows the user equipment and network functionality inside the 5G core network to cooperatively optimize the resource usage of the network. / The Internet of today is very different from how it used to be. Modern networked applications are becoming increasingly diverse. Consequently, a variety of requirements must be met by the network. This presents a massive challenge, since the Internet was originally designed on best-effort principle.  To address this challenge, we explore how Internet end-hosts can flexibly adapt to the needs of individual applications, by dynamically configuring the network protocol stack during run-time. In addition, we improve the visibility of the network, allowing end-hosts to better utilize the resources of the network.  We conduct tests in real-world testbeds and examine how services might be developed to optimize latency, throughput, and availability for various network traffic scenarios. We also show how multiple network paths can be used simultaneously to significantly reduce latency and increase availability, while minimizing the overhead imposed on the network. Furthermore, we describe an architecture that allows the user equipment and network functionality inside the 5G core network to cooperatively optimize the resource usage of the network. / <p>Paper II was published as a manuscript in the thesis. It is an extended version of the paper, which adds additional material that had to be cut from the original paper due to page limit restrictions.</p>

It is well known that the transport layer protocol TCP has low throughput and is unfair in wireless mesh networks. Transport layer solutions for mesh networks have been primarily validated using simulations with simplified assumptions about the wireless network. The WiFu Transport framework complements simulator results by allowing developers to easily create and experiment with transport layer protocols on live networks. We provide a user-space solution that is flexible and promotes code reuse while maintaining high performance and scalability. To validate WiFu Transport we use it to build WiFu TCP, a decomposed Tahoe solution that preserves TCP semantics. Furthermore, we share other WiFu developers' experiences building several TCP variants as well as a hybrid protocol to demonstrate flexibility and code reuse. We demonstrate that WiFu Transport performs as well as the Linux kernel on 10 and 100 Mbps Ethernet connections and over a one-hop wireless connection. We also show that our WiFu TCP implementation is fair and that the framework also scales to support multiple threads.

With the increasing need for larger and morepowerful distributed embedded systems comes the need formore tools to manage them. One area where such a tool isneeded is the internal communication for a distributed embeddedsystem. This project focuses on the development of such atool, namely the development of a communication middlewarewhose network configuration is automatically generated by apredefined network model. The middleware is responsible forrouting information on the network and relieves the applicationdeveloper of this responsibility. By using a multi-layer approach,additional functions can be easily implemented.The middleware demonstrated reasonable results for simplenetworks. However, it does not take into account the timingcharacteristics of the platform. A fact that currently preventsits use in most large networks. / I takt med att behovet av större och kraftfullaredistribuerade inbyggda system ökar, ökar även behovetav verktyg för att hantera dessa system. Ett område där ettsådant verktyg behövs är den interna kommunikationen i ettdistribuerade inbyggt system. Det här projektet fokuserar på att utveckla ett sådant verktyg, genom att utveckla en modellbaseratprogramvara som automatiskt konfigureras med kodgenereringutifrån en fördefinierad modell över nätverket. Eftersom programvaranhanterar datatransmissionen i nätverket, avlastasdetta ansvar från applikationens utvecklare. Genom att användaen modellbaserat metod kan framtida funktioner enkelt implementeras.Programvaran visade ett rimligt resultat för enklare nätverk.Men programvaran tar inte hänsyn till plattformens egenskaper.Något som förhindrar programvaran från att tillämpas på storskaliga nätverk. / Kandidatexjobb i elektroteknik 2021, KTH, Stockholm

Ces dernières années, les réseaux multi-sauts sans fil (MHWNs) ont connu une explosion de déploiement en raison de la demande croissante de connectivité continue indépendamment de l'emplacement physique. Les protocoles de transport Internet prédominantes, c.-à-Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), se trouvent face à la dégradation des performances dans MHWNs en raison de les taux élevés de pertes et de défaillance du lien. Plusieurs solutions ont été proposées qui sont basées sur l'estimation de l'état du réseau ou sur l'utilisation de renseignements de la couche MAC (dénommée métriques) dans une manière d’inter-couche pour mieux comprendre l'état du réseau. La première partie de cette thèse fournit une enquête et la définition complète de métriques communs des couches physique, MAC, réseau et transport et fournit ainsi un multi-critères et la classification hiérarchique. Après cela, l'efficacité dans la réflexion des informations de réseau des métriques de la couche MAC est également étudiée dans une façon systématique en simulant des situations différents de réseau et de mesurer les métriques de la couche MAC. Ainsi, le bonne MAC métrique pour le contrôle de congestion qui est couplé avec le niveau de contention de réseau et les pertes provoquées moyen sera découvert. D'après les résultats de l'étude sur l'efficacité, deux nouveaux systèmes de contrôle de débit pour les protocoles de transport sont proposés qui s'adaptent efficacement le débit de source en fonction de l'état du réseau fournie par certains métriques MAC. Grâce à un vaste ensemble de simulations, les performances des systèmes proposées de contrôle de débit dans MHWNs sont examinées approfondie avec des situations de réseau. / In recent years, Multi-hop Wireless Networks (MHWNs) have experienced an explosion of deployment due to the increasing demand for continuous connectivity regardless of the physical location. Internet predominant transport protocols, i.e. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), face performance degradation in MHWNs because of the high loss and link failure rates. Several solutions have been proposed which are based on network state estimation or use information from MAC layer (called metrics) in a cross-layer manner to better comprehend the network state. The first part of this thesis provides a survey and comprehensive definition of common metrics from Physical, MAC, Network and Transport layers and thus provides a multi-criteria and hierarchical classification. After that, the effectiveness in reflecting network information of MAC metrics is also investigated in a systematic way by simulating various network situations and measuring the MAC metrics. Thus, the good MAC metric for congestion control which is coupled with the network contention level and the medium induced losses will be found out. From the results of the effectiveness study, new rate control schemes for transport protocols are proposed which adapt efficiently the source bit rate depending on the network condition provided by some MAC metrics. Through an extensive set of simulations, the performance of the proposed rate control schemes in MHWNs is investigated thoroughly with several network situations.

Currently organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells (PSCs) is one kind of promising photovoltaic technology due to low production cost, easy fabrication method and high power conversion efficiency. Charge transport layers are found to be critical for device performance and stability. A traditional electron transport layer (ETL), such as TiO2 (Titanium dioxide), is not very efficient for charge extraction at the interface. Compared with TiO2, SnO2 (Tin (IV) Oxide) possesses several advantages such as higher mobility and better energy level alignment. In addition, PSCs with planar structure can be processed at lower temperature compared to PSCs with other structures. In this thesis, planar-structure perovskite solar cells with SnO2 as the electron transport layer are fabricated. The one-step spin-coating method is employed for the fabrication. Several issues are studied such as annealing the samples in ambient air or glovebox, different concentration of solution used for the samples, the impact of using filter for solutions on samples. Finally, a reproducible fabrication procedure for planer-structure perovskite solar cells with an average power conversion efficiency of 16.8%, and a maximum power conversion efficiency of 18.1% is provided.

Wireless Sensor and Actor Networks (WSANs) are composed of heterogeneous nodes referred to as sensors and actors. Sensors are low-cost, low-power, multi-functional devices that communicate untethered in short distances. Actors collect and process sensor data and perform appropriate actions on the environment. Hence, actors are resource-rich devices equipped with higher processing and transmission capabilities, and longer battery life. In WSANs, the collaborative operation of the sensors enables the distributed sensing of a physical phenomenon. After sensors detect an event in the deployment field, the event data is distributively processed and transmitted to the actors, which gather, process, and eventually reconstruct the event data. WSANs can be considered a distributed control system designed to react to sensor information with an effective and timely action. For this reason, in WSANs it is important to provide real-time coordination and communication to guarantee timely execution of the right actions. The energy efficiency of the networking protocols is also a major concern, since sensors are resource-constrained devices. Hence, the unique characteristics and challenges coupled with the limitations of wireless environments call for novel networking protocols for WSANs. The objective of this research is to develop new communication protocols to support real-time and reliable event data delivery with minimum energy consumption in WSANs. The proposed solutions dynamically adjust their protocol configurations to adapt to the heterogeneous characteristics of WSANs. Specifically, the interactions between contention resolution and congestion control mechanisms as well as the physical layer effects in WSANs are investigated. Next, a real-time and reliable transport protocol is proposed to achieve reliable and timely event detection with congestion avoidance in WSANs. In addition, a resource-aware and link-quality-based routing protocol is presented to address energy limitations and link quality variations in WSANs. Finally, the electric utility automation applications of WSANs are presented and the propagation characteristics of wireless channel in different utility environments are investigated.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Peer-to-peer networks provide an efficient way for sharing computer resources. The transport layer underlies these networks. On the Internet, TCP and UDP are the mostly used protocols in this layer. SCTP is another transport layer protocol: related to TCP and UDP, SCTP offers additional functionalities that makes it more suitable to certain kinds of applications. This work aims to show the viability of the use of SCTP as the transport layer protocol for peer-to-peer file sharing applications, using the peculiar functionalities of this protocol to satisfy the needs of these applications in a more efficient way. / As redes peer-to-peer oferecem uma forma eficaz para o compartilhamento de recursos dos computadores. Sob essas redes está a camada de transporte. Na Internet, os protocolos mais utilizados nessa camada são o TCP e o UDP. Outro protocolo da camada de transporte e o SCTP, que oferece funcionalidades adicionais em relação ao TCP e ao UDP que o tornam mais apropriado a determinados tipos de aplicações. Este trabalho tem como objetivo mostrar a viabilidade da utiliza¸são do SCTP como protocolo da camada de transporte em aplicativos peer-to-peer de compartilhamento de arquivos, fazendo uso das funcionalidades peculiares a esse protocolo para satisfazer de forma mais eficaz as necessidades destes aplicativos. / Mestre em Ciência da Computação