Massive multiple-input multiple-output is a promising technique for the next generation of wireless communication systems which addresses most of the critical challenges associated with concurrent relaying systems, such as digital signal processing complexity, long processing delay, and low latency wireless communications. However, the deployment of conventional fully digital beamforming methods, dedicates one radio frequency (RF) chain to each antenna, is not viable enough due to the high fabrication/implementation cost and power consumption. In this thesis, we envision to address this critical issue by reducing the number of RF chains in a viable analog/digital configuration paradigm which is usually referred to hybrid structure. From another viewpoint, the development of fifth generation enabling technologies brings new challenges to the design of power amplifiers (PAs). In particular, there is a strong demand for low-cost, nonlinear PAs which, however, introduce nonlinear distortions. On the other hand, contemporary expensive PAs show great power efficiency in their nonlinear region. Inspired by this trade-off between nonlinearity distortions and efficiency, finding an optimal operating point is highly desirable, and this is the second key contribution of this thesis.

abstract: Distributed estimation uses many inexpensive sensors to compose an accurate estimate of a given parameter. It is frequently implemented using wireless sensor networks. There have been several studies on optimizing power allocation in wireless sensor networks used for distributed estimation, the vast majority of which assume linear radio-frequency amplifiers. Linear amplifiers are inherently inefficient, so in this dissertation nonlinear amplifiers are examined to gain efficiency while operating distributed sensor networks. This research presents a method to boost efficiency by operating the amplifiers in the nonlinear region of operation. Operating amplifiers nonlinearly presents new challenges. First, nonlinear amplifier characteristics change across manufacturing process variation, temperature, operating voltage, and aging. Secondly, the equations conventionally used for estimators and performance expectations in linear amplify-and-forward systems fail. To compensate for the first challenge, predistortion is utilized not to linearize amplifiers but rather to force them to fit a common nonlinear limiting amplifier model close to the inherent amplifier performance. This minimizes the power impact and the training requirements for predistortion. Second, new estimators are required that account for transmitter nonlinearity. This research derives analytically and confirms via simulation new estimators and performance expectation equations for use in nonlinear distributed estimation. An additional complication when operating nonlinear amplifiers in a wireless environment is the influence of varied and potentially unknown channel gains. The impact of these varied gains and both measurement and channel noise sources on estimation performance are analyzed in this paper. Techniques for minimizing the estimate variance are developed. It is shown that optimizing transmitter power allocation to minimize estimate variance for the most-compressed parameter measurement is equivalent to the problem for linear sensors. Finally, a method for operating distributed estimation in a multipath environment is presented that is capable of developing robust estimates for a wide range of Rician K-factors. This dissertation demonstrates that implementing distributed estimation using nonlinear sensors can boost system efficiency and is compatible with existing techniques from the literature for boosting efficiency at the system level via sensor power allocation. Nonlinear transmitters work best when channel gains are known and channel noise and receiver noise levels are low. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Electrical Engineering 2013

Wireless communications has gone through tremendous growth in the past decades. There has been a shift in wireless network research from spectral efficiency and quality of service (QoS) constraints to energy efficiency and green communications to reduce power consumption. Green energy resources such as solar, wind, thermal and mechan- ical vibrations can be employed to increase the energy efficiency of energy-constrained networks such as wireless sensor networks. Converting the available energy in the sur- rounding area into electricity, energy harvesting (EH), has been the subject of recent research. EH from radio frequency (RF) signals can be utilized to prolong the lifetime of devices in energy-constrained systems. Wireless power transmission (WPT) for EH is a promising solution to provide a reliable source of energy for devices which are di cult to service due to mobility and/or hard to reach locations. The integration of relaying into conventional wireless networks is promising to increase the coverage area and reduce power consumption. However, the extra power consumed to relay signals may be a problem that can be mitigated by WPT. WPT has made it possible for relays to power themselves by capturing ambient energy wirelessly. The received signal at the relay can be utilized to both forward information and harvest energy. This dissertation focuses on practical energy harvesting schemes in wireless com- munication networks. Further, the broadcast nature of wireless systems makes wire- less transmissions more vulnerable to eavesdropping compared to wired signals. The goal of this work is to develop EH schemes that are capable of supplying sustainable energy to the relays and overcoming the secrecy hazards from potential eavesdroppers. Power splitting (PS) and time switching (TS) are studied in communication networks to prolong the lifetime of an energy-constrained relay. First, a dual hop system with an amplify and forward (AF) relay employing wireless information and power transfer (WIPT) via power splitting is studied. Optimal transmit antenna selection that max- imizes the end-to-end signal to noise ratio (SNR) at the destination is considered and the outage probability is derived. It is shown that the outage probability increases with the number of transmit antennas but this also increases the system complexity. Since the spectral efficiency with two-way relaying is higher than with one-way relaying, a two-way EH-based relay network with an eavesdropper is investigated. The secrecy capacity at the users is derived for two diversity combining cases at the eavesdropper, selection combining (SC) and maximal ratio combining (MRC). A friendly jammer is introduced to increase the secrecy capacity of the users by reducing the received signal to noise ratio at the eavesdropper since the signal of the jammer is considered as noise at the eavesdropper. The corresponding optimization problem is reformulated using the single condensation method (SCM) and geometric programming (GP) into a convex optimization problem. Then, GP is used to jointly optimize the power splitting factor of the relay and transmit powers of the two users and jammer to maximize the secrecy capacity of the system. Imperfect cancellation of the jamming signal at the relay is assumed. It is shown that increasing the power allocated to the jammer decreases the secrecy capacity at the users. However, when perfect jamming signal cancellation is assumed, increasing the power allocated to the jammer increases the secrecy capacity at the users. The secrecy capacity is also shown to be greater with a jammer than without a jammer. Channel state information uncertainty at the eavesdropper is also considered as an extra noise source. TS at the relay of a two-way EH-based relay network was also considered. GP is used to jointly optimize the time switching ratio of the relay and transmit powers of the two users and jammer to maximize the secrecy capacity of the system. It is shown that PS two-way relaying achieves a better secrecy capacity than TS two-way relaying. / Graduate

Wireless communications have become an essential part of our daily life. Despite the fact that wireless networks are simple to set up and deploy, the channel conditionsin wireless networks are susceptible to fading and attenuation, thereby reducing the transmission efficiency and reliability. The influence of unstable wireless channels, fading and attenuation is a significant limitation of wireless networks. The persistent and exponential increase in the usage of wireless communication services demands for enhanced reliability, transmission range and efficiency. This can be achieved byexploring and proposing different propagation techniques and models. This thesis evaluates a network model which makes use of an adaptive modulation coding scheme in the presence of an Amplify-and-Forward relaying environment. We deploy adaptive modulation technique in combination with Amplify-and-Forward relaying transmission mechanism to select the best suitable transmission path and obtain better transmission efficiency for a wireless communication system. The network model thus designed comprises of two links, one considering the relay transmission path that travels from the source-to-relay-to-destination, and the other link considering the direct transmission path traveling from the source to the destination, while both the links undergo Nakagami-m fading. In addition, the system ensures better performance in different conditions by making use of adaptive modulation and coding scheme and deploying distinct modulation and coding schemes based on the condition of the communication channel. The performance of this system model is analysed through mathematical analysis and the results are validated and depicted through simulation in MATLAB under different conditions. We have thereby derived the closed-form expressions for the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR), Outage Probability, and the Packet Error Rate (PER) for the considered network model in the Nakagami-m fading environment. Different fading parameters that affect the system performance are considered and varied while obtaining the required results through MATLAB simulations. The system model proposed significantly reduces the outage probability and packet error rate and aids in achieving better system performance and reliability.

Thesis advisor: Rebecca Lowenhaupt / School districts throughout the Commonwealth have engaged in initiatives to increase educators of color. Ingersoll et al. (2019) argue that while “many believe that the small number of minority teachers is caused by a lack of recruitment or intake” they concur with Pearson and Fuglei (2019) that recruitment is not the only problem. The issue is retention. Recent studies like these shed new light on the need for additional research on factors that increase the retention of educators of color. I posit that supporting the development of critical consciousness in Educators of Color can also support their retention in school districts. The purpose of this individual study is to identify the practices that Educators of Color (EOCs) report to be supportive, increase their critical consciousness, and/ or impact their retention in the district. This study centers the experiences of Educators of Color (EOCs), and amplify their voices in order to learn about the impact of school-based and district-sponsored practices. This individual study is part of a group qualitative case study that examines the practices of district leaders, school leaders, educators, and students to foster and advance the development of critical consciousness. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

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Cooperative communications by pooling available resources—for example, power and bandwidth—across the network, is a distributed solution for providing robust wireless transmission. Motivated by contemporary applications in multi-hop transmission and ad hoc networks, the classical three-node relay channel (RC) consisting of a source–destination pair and a relay node has received a renewed attention. One of the crucial aspects of the communication over relay networks (RNs) is the design of proper relaying protocols; that is, how the relay should take part in the transmission to meet a certain quality of service. In this dissertation, we address the design of reliable transmission strategies and quantification of the associated transmission rates over RNs. We consider three canonical examples of RNs: the classical RC, the multiple-access RC (MARC) and the two-way RC.We also investigate the three-node RC and MARC with state. The capacity of the aforementioned RNs is an open problem in general except for some special cases. In the thesis, we derive various capacity bounds, through which we also identify the capacity of some new classes of RNs. In particular, we introduce the class of state-decoupled RNs and prove that the noisy network coding is capacity achieving under certain conditions. In the thesis, we also study the effect of the memory length on the capacity of RNs. The investigated relaying protocols in the thesis can be categorized into two groups: protocols with a finite relay memory and those with infinite relay memory requirement. In particular, we consider the design of instantaneous relaying (also referred to as memoryless relaying) in which the output of the relay depends solely on the presently received signal at the relay. For optimizing the relay function, we present several algorithms constructed based on grid search and variational methods. Among other things, we surprisingly identify some classes of semi-deterministic RNs for which a properly constructed instantaneous relaying strategy achieves the capacity. We also show that the capacity of RNs can be increased by allowing the output of the relay to depend on the past received signals as well the current received signal at the relay. As an example, we propose a hybrid digital–analog scheme that outperforms the cutset upper bound for strictly causal relaying. / <p>QC 20110909</p>

Orientador: Prof. Dr. Murilo Bellezoni Loiola / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia da Informação, 2015.

abstract: Full-duplex communication has attracted significant attention as it promises to increase the spectral efficiency compared to half-duplex. Multi-hop full-duplex networks add new dimensions and capabilities to cooperative networks by facilitating simultaneous transmission and reception and improving data rates. When a relay in a multi-hop full-duplex system amplifies and forwards its received signals, due to the presence of self-interference, the input-output relationship is determined by recursive equations. This thesis introduces a signal flow graph approach to solve the problem of finding the input-output relationship of a multi-hop amplify-and-forward full-duplex relaying system using Mason's gain formula. Even when all links have flat fading channels, the residual self-interference component due to imperfect self-interference cancellation at the relays results in an end-to-end effective channel that is an all-pole frequency-selective channel. Also, by assuming the relay channels undergo frequency-selective fading, the outage probability analysis is performed and the performance is compared with the case when the relay channels undergo frequency-flat fading. The outage performance of this system is performed assuming that the destination employs an equalizer or a matched filter. For the case of a two-hop (single relay) full-duplex amplify-and-forward relaying system, the bounds on the outage probability are derived by assuming that the destination employs a matched filter or a minimum mean squared error decision feedback equalizer. For the case of a three-hop (two-relay) system with frequency-flat relay channels, the outage probability analysis is performed by considering the output SNR of different types of equalizers and matched filter at the destination. Also, the closed-form upper bounds on the output SNR are derived when the destination employs a minimum mean squared error decision feedback equalizer which is used in outage probability analysis. It is seen that for sufficiently high target rates, full-duplex relaying with equalizers is always better than half-duplex relaying in terms of achieving lower outage probability, despite the higher RSI. In contrast, since full-duplex relaying with MF is sensitive to RSI, it is outperformed by half-duplex relaying under strong RSI. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Electrical Engineering 2016